Leonard Moorehead, the Urban Gardener: Stormy Horizons
Sunday, November 15, 2015
All the signature events of autumn are poised on the horizon. I need no weather vane, low toned wind chimes are my guide. Gardeners never lack for chores and all of us scuttle to put the garden to bed for winter. The chimes are basso profundo only for northern winds, my winter bell buoys. They toll the unmentionable, their message hopeful for rain and its cousins, the fog, sleet, and snow of winter.
Brown bags full of leaves line our city sidewalks, most to be composted in municipal leaf compost facilities. How are leaves “disposed” of in your neighborhood? Does your town collect leaves? Are they processed into compost? Or are you familiar with heaps of leaves in vacant lots or hillsides? Leaves are abundant in my region. Full of vital nutrients and structurally compact, leaves are often overlooked as a chore rather than a resource. Urban gardeners can interrupt the mis-directed leaf flow to and from processing centers for little effort and big rewards. Transform bags of leaves into rich humus over the winter months with a little guidance.
Happily we have allies. Many citizens are benign towards our efforts. Neighbors fill brown paper bags, empty bags return most of the time for refill after each fresh gust of northerly gales. Shredded leaves become a lovely golden brown mulch perfect for winter garden plots. Leaves naturally shed rainwater, broken apart their surfaces loose much of their resistance to moisture and absorb rather than shed moisture. Wet leaves are very effective mulches. Remove them from sun loving turf into growing plots. In a hurry to accomplish all during shorter days? Relax, breath deep, be patient. We have help.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTLeaves are prime fodder for the lowly earthworm. Their populations explode in direct ratio to the amount of food present for consumption. Not particularly fussy, earthworms are tireless. Yes they are slower in cold weather yet like so many of us, they endure through thick and thin without complaint. Be a friend to earthworms. They request only enough water to pave the way to dinner. Dig a trench in the garden, placing a spade’s depth of soil to one side in a row. Fill in with leaves, cover with soil, repeat through the garden, now a bit higher, softer underfoot, mulch again. Never leave soil exposed to wind and erosion. Rainfall will provide enough water and the soil’s native worms will feast throughout the winter on the buried leaves. A bit too much labor?
Select a back corner for a long term “heap”. Pile leaves and shovel enough soil to cover and soak with the hose. The trick here is keep the leaves moist. Fresh soil washed into the leaves carries not only earthworm eggs and microbes but also slows down evaporation. Dry leaves persist for months, wet leaves break down much faster. Leaves in brown paper bags remain intact throughout the winter and can be useful wind barriers for cold hardy kale, beets, parsley, leeks, and many other crops. Piled, soaked, and covered leaves are ideal habitats for earthworms. Small but mighty prevails.
Once leaves are on the ground much is revealed. Bare branches and vines offer another perspective to appreciate. When asked the best time to prune my professor answered, “When the pruning shears are sharp”. Boldly approach the grape arbor. Grapes compliment any garden. With minimal guidance and as tough as the city streets, they are vigorous. Prune out dead wood and cut back to 2 or 3 buds at a height best for you, here’s a chance to customize your garden for the most ergonomic tending. Grapes are tolerant of pruning and respond in spades with new growth next season. It’s easy to cut long lengths of grapevine and weave into wreaths on the spot. Engage children in this fun exercise.
Wreaths have graced gardens since Eden. Weave grapevines into circular metaphors for the cycles of life. The progression of seasons becomes manifest to youngsters and elders alike. Hung on doorways or in the arbor, wreaths are beautiful reminders of cosmic orbits deep within and without. They are also useful storage units: otherwise clip the vines into much shorter lengths for the compost. Grapes are not the only vine for the garden, consider the hardy kiwi.
Kiwi is exotic to many, they thrive for zone 6 gardeners. Be patient and build up your strength. Cultivate tolerance. Kiwis need support and a sunny place. They are sturdy vines that require a year or two to establish a strong root system. Some varieties are gender specific, if you’ve selected gender specific types, label the plants for gender. Both genders closely resemble one another until discrete blooms appear. Rather pricey in hindsight from catalogs, make cuttings and propagate your own from a friend’s planting. A friend lost one of a pair only to guess, which gender? Another planting the next spring had the same sorry dilemma. Several seasons elapsed before a happy mixture of genders for cross pollination occurred.
Following the old idiom, “first year sleeps, second year creeps, third year leaps”, kiwis grow into magnificent arbors. Their clamoring vines overcome nearby fruit trees and share arbors uneasily. Without foliage, their twisting turning annual growth is apparent. Cull out the vines that encroach upon anything in their path. Kiwis are slow to establish but are mighty growers. Their completely camouflaged fruits are now visible and tasty too. Move fast to enjoy, squirrels and birds quarrel over the abundant crops. They need little in the way of guidance, like curling morning glories kiwis wind around and upwards, they defy vertigo. Kiwis have transformed the sunny space above the driveway into a cool, shady reprieve from summer heat. No longer exotic, kiwis are over achievers for the patient and tolerant.
Weave wreaths and thin out exposed vines. Listen, the wind chimes gently remind us, the northern winds are coming, and cold will extend stony fingers into the garden. Under leafy blankets, earthworms will transform leaves into humus for another robust season of growth. There are storms on the horizon, gardeners beware. Keep the pruning shears sharp.
Leonard Moorehead is a life- long gardener. He practices organic-bio/dynamic gardening techniques in a side lot surrounded by city neighborhoods in Providence, RI. His adventures in composting, wood chips, manure, seaweed, hay and enormous amounts of leaves are minor distractions to the joy of cultivating the soil with flowers, herbs, vegetables, berries, and dwarf fruit tree.
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