Maine Home Garden News – October 2024

In This Issue:

• October Is the Month to . . .
• To Rake or Not to Rake
• Plants for the Winter Landscape
• Sacred Seeds
• Backyard Bird of the Month: Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Maine Weather and Climate Overview (October 2024)

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October Is the Month to . . .

By Kate Garland, Horticulture Professional, UMaine Cooperative Extension

• Plant garlic and ornamental bulbs. Be sure to wait until the soil has cooled – typically mid to late October for northern Maine gardens and early to mid November for those planting in southern Maine. Step-by-step instructions can be found in our bulletin Growing Garlic in Maine and Planting Bulbs, Tubers and Rhizomes from the University of Minnesota.
• Drain hoses and shut off external water sources. Take a moment to secure the hoses with some twine or duct tape and don’t wait until a hard freeze to take care of this task. Store coiled hoses horizontally to avoid cracking due to pooling of water. Your future self will be grateful for the tidy and relatively lightweight hoses that you’ll encounter next spring.
• Prepare to transition container gardens to a cheerful winter theme you’ll enjoy for months to come. Frozen potting soil expands and can damage pots, so we recommend removing substrate from pots that are exposed to the elements. Instead, use materials such as bunched up chicken wire, hardware cloth of empty nursery pots to support the fun foliage and festive features you’ll be adding.

  

• Tidy up the garden shed. Make sure sees and freeze-prone supplies are stored appropriately and your winter pruning supplies are easy to access. If you haven’t already, remove soil and debris from all tools and oil metal items thoroughly to prevent rust. Sand and refinish worn garden handles and sharpen metal blades.
• Consider all the pros and cons of managing leaf litter and garden debris. Our article below eloquently explains all sides of the very complex matter and may leave you with a little more time for other tasks and adventures instead of some of your traditional fall chores.
• Find a spot to plant trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials that you haven’t gotten in the ground yet. You’re in good company if your summertime hopes and dreams have resulted in a mini backyard nursery. Don’t feel guilty and don’t worry if you’re not planting items in their forever home; just find a spot and pop them in! They’ll have a much greater chance for success if their roots are below ground than to leave them in pots where they’ll be more exposed to damaging freeze/thaw cycles.
• Cover cold-tolerant crops to extend the season. Simple, low cost materials such as row cover draped over wire hoops can keep fall crops such as carrots, cabbage, beets, Swiss chard, and spinach productive for weeks to come.
• Dig, cure and store tender perennials such as tuberous begonias, dahlias, gladiolas and canna lilies. Learn more about the proper timing, curing process and storage conditions for various types of bulbs and bulblike structures in this resource from Iowa State University.

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To Rake or Not to Rake

By Rebecca Long, Coordinator of Horticulture Training Programs, UMaine Cooperative Extension

While raking up the leaves from around my door last fall, I found numerous woolly bear caterpillars that had been happily sheltering in the leaves and preparing to ride out winter before they were so inconsiderately disturbed by me. I had spent all summer working to transform my yard into a pollinator- and wildlife-friendly habitat and I had just evicted the fruits (caterpillars) of my labor. Feeling very guilty, I returned them to the nearest undisturbed area of leaves I could find. It made me think about the number of insects that get raked up each fall and sent to the local transfer station in bags – insects that could have been next season’s pollinators, food for our native birds, and part of our local ecosystem.

Consider a natural forest ecosystem: leaves fall, decay where they land, and return organic matter and nutrients to the soil, benefiting the trees they fell from. Lots of other things benefit as well; leaves provide nesting materials for birds and squirrels, hiding places for mice and salamanders, and protection for seeds until they can germinate. Fallen leaves also provide food and shelter for essential microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, and tiny invertebrates who drive the cycle of breakdown and decay, returning nutrients to the soil.

Interested in creating a pollinator-friendly habitat? Many bees and wasps build their nests in the ground, and our solitary native bees rely on leaf litter for insulation to hibernate over the winter. Leaving the leaves can also build the climate resilience of your yard. Leaf litter protects your soil, helping it retain moisture during dry times and providing protection during torrential storms, allowing that rain to gently soak in without eroding topsoil.

On the other side of the figurative (and potentially literal) fence are some pro-raking arguments.

A layer of leaves, so thick you can’t see your lawn, can potentially smother grass. And removing leaves dropped by trees experiencing significant foliar fungal disease issues is important to remove the spores that could inoculate and infect next year’s leaves. The aesthetic preference for a clean lawn, either your own or your neighbors’ (especially if you live in an HOA community), may also dictate your fall cleanup.

The last potential motivation for fall cleanup, a four-letter word in Maine: tick. It’s a challenging conundrum: the practices that benefit insects we’ve deemed “good” also benefit other arthropods that can impact human health, like ticks. Studies have found that areas rich with fallen leaves can create good habitat for the survival of immature ticks. The study found this to be particularly true on properties where people simply moved leaves to the edges of the property, letting them accumulate in the area where lawn and forest meet.

With all those conflicting factors in mind, what are your options this fall?

If ticks are an ongoing issue for you, and your top concern, complete removal of leaves (sending them to the local transfer station) could be the best option. But an all-or-nothing approach isn’t your only option. To decrease the chance of tick encounters, and assuage neighborly guilt, you can remove leaves from high-traffic areas but leave them in perennial beds and under trees and shrubs. If you need to collect all of them, rather than sending them away, consider corralling them into piles to break down, or running over them with a lawnmower and adding them to your compost pile to retain some of the soil benefits.

Another option for your lawn: mulch leaves by mowing over them and then leave them in place to speed their breakdown. This will reduce the suitable habitat for ticks (and pollinators) but will retain the benefit of building up your soil’s organic matter. This is also a great motivation to start strategically decreasing the amount of lawn to just the areas you use for enjoyment and recreation. To learn more, check out the UMaine Cooperative Extension Tick Lab’s list of recommended landscape practices.

Concerned about what neighbors will think of your new, laid-back approach to fall cleanup? One way to approach this is through education. Signs can be a great way to signal that you are doing something intentionally. In my yard I have opted for a compromise of gathering up leaves in areas most visible to my next-door neighbors, since those leaves are also the most likely to blow onto their immaculately raked lawns. Anything out of sight, or contained by fencing, gets a more laid-back approach that prioritizes returning carbon to the soil and preserving pollinator and wildlife habitat.

Bottom line: a more laid-back approach to fall cleanup can benefit your soil, build climate resilience, and create habitat for pollinators and wildlife. But this might not be the right choice for every person or every situation. It is up to each individual to decide, based on their specific circumstances and priorities.

Want to explore the leaf litter ecosystem this fall? Two fun resources for kids and adults:

• Life in the Leaf Litter Pamphlet
• Life in the Leaf Litter ID Card

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Plants for the Winter Landscape

By Dixie Turner, PhD, Penobscot County Master Gardener Volunteer

When I think about winter in Maine, I think of sparkling white snow across the landscape  and fresh evergreens lit up with lights during the holiday season. Although this sight is still a common one in Maine, over the last few years we have also had longer periods without snow, leaving our yards looking dry and barren. When planning your landscape, it is important to remember that there are many options beyond evergreens to brighten our homes and gardens during the “off season”. Here are some options that look beautiful with or without snow.

Groundcovers

Groundcovers are a valuable part of the landscape in any season. They can help reduce the need for lawn care, reduce erosion, and help retain moisture in the ground. There are several varieties of groundcovers that can add interest during the winter months including:  sedum (Sedum spp.), bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), and bunchberry (Chamaepericlymenum canadense). One example is white stonecrop (Sedum album), a beautiful creeping groundcover that remains deep from October through May. The foliage turns green and is topped with white flowers during the warmer months. It thrives in rock gardens with no foot traffic.

Sturdy Grasses

There are many grasses that, while dormant, can also provide interest in winter by adding color and sound, and attract winter songbirds. Maiden grass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gracillimus’) and feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Forester’) wave beautifully in the wind and can also be used for mulch the following season.

Vibrant Stems

When we think of color we often think of flowers and leaves, but color can also come from stems. Some varieties of willows and dogwoods can add color through their stems when they are cut back properly, which allows colorful new growth to come through. Red-osier dogwood (Cornus sericea) is a wonderful addition that grows in the 3-9 foot range. It has clusters of white flowers, but is best known for its red stems that will grab attention from November through April.

Stunning Silhouettes

Choosing to leave stems and seed heads in winter has become more popular because of its ecological and aesthetic value. Plants like bee balm and sunflowers can provide food for winter birds and also natural structure. The elegance of a distinctly branched woody plant such as a pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) or a well-pruned fruit tree is a treat, while uniquely shaped evergreens can add humor and whimsy.

Beautiful Berries (winterberry, certain crabapples, bayberry)

In addition to adding bright color that pops in the snow, winter berries – such as certain crabapples, bayberry (Morella caroliniensis), and winterberry (Ilex verticillata) – also provide food for birds in colder temperatures. A popular choice, winterberry, is a deciduous shrub that can grow 3-15 feet tall. It has clusters of small white flowers in

early to mid-summer and fruit that is yellow, orange, or red in autumn and early winter. Note that it can be poisonous to human and pets.

Very Late or Very Early Blooming Plants

Plants that bloom very late or very early (e.g. witch hazel and willow) have the important purpose of serving  pollinators during the shoulder seasons. In addition to have excellent golden fall color, American witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) has a very unique flower that blooms into late October and early November and also has a spicy scent.

Interesting Seed Heads

Many species of flowers provide interesting seed heads that can add shape to your garden while also attracting and feeding birds during the winter. Examples include Rudbeckia and Eryngium giganteum. Rudbeckia, better known as a black-eyed Susan, are biennial and reseed themselves effectively.

These are just a few examples of plants that can add color to a winter garden. There are undoubtedly many more great options.

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Sacred Seeds

By Lynne Holland, Horticulture Professional, UMaine Cooperative Extension

Ahh, it is fall and a gardener’s thoughts turn to, well, a lot of things, but this gardener is thinking a lot about seeds. In my former life, I coordinated seed sales for a large grocery chain and arranged for the placement of seed racks and seeds throughout northern New England. I remember being told at the time that I wasn’t selling packets of seeds, I was selling packets of dreams, and the seeds themselves were incidental. I often aspired to seed saving (ask my family about the mystery bags and tins in the back of the refrigerator) and thought I knew a lot about seeds until I looked into this topic through an indigenous lens.

We are very lucky to have seed companies that are based here in Maine and it is easy to take that for granted. In most of the rest of the country, the seeds that gardeners have to choose from are either from big box stores or catalogs that are from somewhere else.  Some gardeners are savvy seed savers who carefully consider plant characteristics and select seeds they expect to have certain desirable traits. This is where modern practices intersect with indigenous practices. The indigenous peoples of the Americas are seed sages and we could learn a lot from them.

In indigenous traditions seeds are sacred. Seed saving is a responsibility for the community, not just an individual garden. Seeds don’t just represent life, they are viewed as containing life. Seeds are essential for survival as their crops feed their people. Seed choice and use are not arbitrary, crops are grown for specific purposes.

Many people have heard of the “Three Sisters”, but “interpretations” of this practice from many sources frequently use non-native seeds and hybrid varieties. In its purest form, this planting system is a valuable intercropping method that has been used for thousands of years. There are cultural, scientific, as well as practical aspects to this method. According to the National Agricultural Library:

“The great majority of this research (on the three sisters) has been created by scholars who were not members of the Indigenous communities which originally developed and maintained this tradition. Thus, this short review will strive to elevate Indigenous authors and practitioners whenever possible, while acknowledging the bulk of the available publications originate from work that did not center their voices.”

In some traditions, there are Seven Sisters, an expansion and interpretation of intercropping and a cultural foodway.  A 2015 article from the Vermont Garden Network, describes the seven sisters as:

• Sister corn (skamon) is likely a flint corn or popcorn
• Sister bean (adebakwal) represents dry beans
• Sister squash (wassawa) is likely Hubbard squash or a variant
• Sister sunflower (gizos kogan), especially the one with white seeds
• Sister (jerusalem artichoke) (Hathipich) or helianthus sunchoke
• Sister ground cherry (kiiadebimen), a sweet, husked relative of the tomato
• Sister tobacco (odamo), a variety native to the Northeast Kingdom used for ceremonial purposes.

Indigenous seeds are also the focus of a blog post from the Indigenous Studies program at the University of New Hampshire. In that blog, they write that access (or lack of) to indigenous plants by Indigenous peoples has affected the overall health of the community. This suggests that not only are indigenous lands now in the hands of other people, but their traditional foods are also less accessible than they used to be.

In the 1600’s Western Europeans came to a land that had a fully formed, relatively nutritious, ancient food system based on the plants of the region. The Western Europeans may have recognized this but did not value it except that it saved them from starvation. In the end, they did not value it at all and actively sought to change it. We speak of “discovering” heirloom plants and saving seeds like it is a new idea when in fact it is an ancient idea that was never really lost. Seed saving has always been integral to sustainability which continues to this day with various seed saving programs.

If knowing more about the indigenous food system interests you, consider taking a walk into the past by visiting an area where the land has been conserved and restored to better resemble what it was like four centuries ago. A list of places that might reflect some of that time can be found at the Royal River Conservation Trust.  The land for the most part has been irreparably changed but the spirit of what was there first can be glimpsed.  And if you want some of this spirit even closer to home this recipe for “Three Sisters Soup” is perfect for a fall supper.

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Backyard Bird of the Month: Yellow-rumped Warbler

 By Maine Audubon Field Naturalist Andy Kapinos

Let’s get the laugh out of the way first: yes, they are called Yellow-rumped Warblers, they do have yellow rumps, and sometimes we even call them “butter-butts.” This unique feature, present in all sexes and plumages, makes this species one of the easiest warblers to identify. Even in the fall, when most warblers are relatively drab and difficult to distinguish, their yellow rump stands out. They are also one of the most abundant and latest warblers to migrate through Maine, and are most frequently seen during October. They nest throughout the state during the summer, concentrated in coniferous forest, especially in the White Mountains and North Woods, where they feast on the abundance of insects. In the fall, as they migrate, they begin to eat more fruit. They are one of the few birds that can digest the waxy fruits of bayberries and juniper, and even relish the fruits of poison ivy! Conveniently, fall is also the best time to plant these native fruit-bearing shrubs if they aren’t already in your backyard, or to free them from the grasp of invasive species like Asiatic Bittersweet and Multiflora Rose, so they can continue to provide these benefits to birds and other wildlife.

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Maine Weather and Climate Overview (October 2024)

Dr. Sean Birkel, Assistant Extension Professor, Maine State Climatologist, Climate Change Institute, Cooperative Extension University of Maine

NOAA statewide temperature and precipitation summaries for Maine rank August 2024 as 25th warmest (top 1/3) and 34th wettest (top 1/3) for records beginning 1895.  The June–August (JJA) climatological summer rankings are 1st warmest and 20th wettest (top 1/3).  NOAA statewide summaries for September are not yet available, but average temperature ranks for the period September 1–25 from daily observations are 10th warmest (Bangor), 5th warmest (Caribou), and 11th warmest (Portland).  Cumulative precipitation ranks for the same period are 1st driest for all three observation sites – however, rainfall statewide on September 26 could have considerable impact on rankings for the full month of September.  The warm, dry weather this past month was associated with weather patterns that repeatedly brought high pressure across Maine and the broader Northeast.  As a result, the Northeast Drought Early Warning System Dashboard shows large precipitation deficits for the past 30 days, soil moisture deficits, and the U.S. Drought Monitor registers abnormal dryness across a broad area of counties inland, and moderate drought along the coast.  Seven-day streamflows are trending below or much below normal across the affected areas, whereas some gauges continue to register normal range.  Groundwater responds more slowly to recent precipitation deficits, and most measurement sites continue to show near normal.  The rainfall on September 26 should prove beneficial to soil moisture and streamflows.

The latest 10-day weather forecast (starting September 26th) and shows above normal temperatures and some potential for rainfall, which is consistent with the 6–10 day outlook from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center shown below.  The October-November-December outlook shows above normal temperature and above normal precipitation.  The latest weather forecast for your area is available from weather.gov. For questions about climate and weather, please contact the Maine Climate Office.