I’M PRETTY SURE I CAN pack enough summer into jars to get me through the dark days, or at least I’m trying. What’s your tactic for pretending the days aren’t getting shorter fast? (Thanks to dear Andre Jordan for his wealth of garden doodles.)
WHEN I TALKED to Doug Tallamy in February around the publication date of his latest book, “Nature’s Best Hope,” I didn’t want to go on and on about the advice in it regarding smart fall cleanup, which is one of the ways I know I’ve dramatically shifted the way I manage my own garden compared to 10 or even five years ago. But we were looking ahead to spring then, not fall.
I’m grateful that Doug returned to the podcast in autumn to do just that. Want to plan your most ecologically minded garden cleanup ever, and understand the consequences of each potential action you can take—including next spring?
The subtitle of University of Delaware professor Doug Tallamy’s recent book, “Nature’s Best Hope,” is “A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard.” Meaning: The choices we make all year-round, including the very important one of how we clean up, can help counteract an overdeveloped, fragmented landscape that puts the food web to the test. You and I are nature’s best hope, and I’m glad Doug joined me again to help us learn to support it.
(Stream it below, read the illustrated transcript or subscribe free.)
A lovely doodle…can he do one of me pushing away the heat of summer? ;)
I prepare beds for spring planting now including doing a seed inventory. This way winter is perceived as a long weekend. :-)
Here in the deep south we look forward to the cooler weather. But with the shorter days – especially when daylight savings time comes around – we get cheated. By the time one gets home from work it’s too dark to play in the garden!
On weekends, I’ll start cleaning out the greenhouse and making room for cuttings and seedlings to be ready for spring planting.
I made some pear butter with the small crop of pears my tree produced this year; it tastes great on toast with peanut butter. I also put in some orange mums in planters by my door. I know the mums won’t last, but they help me accept the changing of the seasons. I have yet to try pickles, maybe next year!