Fall Work /Yard Clean-up and Linnaea Cuttings

While I'm focussing on preparing for winter (!) there are still things flowering in the garden and around the acreage. Here some Malva flowers keep the season bright, while Parthenocissus /Virginia Creeper behind has already turned fall colours!

September *is* fall, in Alberta! Weather could be warm or cool, we could see snow, or rain (no snow yet this year, but we've alternated pleasant with cool and damp)-- so it is time to wrap up garden tasks for the year-- there should be some weeks left to get stuff done, but nothing is guaranteed! And after a spring and half of summer where I barely got out there, I have a lot to do!

I've spent a couple of recent afternoons outside, trying to catch up on weeding and other tasks, so,yesterday, pulled a few more tons of weeds, esp thistles, collected seeds, chopped a few dozen poplar saplings and stuffed them in the Fedge (that's another topic), did a touch of mowing, picked up some fallen apples-- of course spent too much time photographing flowers, seeds and insects! -- and spent a few minutes doing a bit of clean-up in one of my firewood cutting areas.

Pile of woodcutting debris and old leaves, bare spots where other piles were.. Linnaea/ Twinflower grows all over here among the grass and weeds in a half-shady site.

Over a few years (I'm getting old, a few years could mean up to ten), this area has ended up with several piles of sawdust, wood debris/bark, twigs etc, and some raked up leaves. I raked them up a bit to make the piles fewer and smaller-- I use this material eventually for soil amendment in its more decomposed parts, or mulching (some of the tougher bark stuff, which would take years to break down). In the process, I ended up with a pile of Linnaea borealis / Twinflower stems, since they grow in the area, and quickly colonise those piles of wood debris.

Pile of Linnaea borealis / Twinflower, pulled up by the rake while cleaning up wood debris (with some old tarp and twine destined for the garbage).

I decided to pot up some of that bounty/waste, and handled it in the usual careful, scientific way gardening is carried out here: I found some good sized nursery pots from a stash under a tree in one of my nursery areas, piled some barky/woody composty stuff about halfway,plopped some clayey /humus from nearby pocket gopher mounds on top of that (the plants would have been fine with all organics, but I worried it would dry too fast), added some finer material, leaf mould etc from the piles, mixed it a little, then painstakingly laid on the 'cuttings' 😉 added some more leaf mould/soil on top.. then a thorough soaking... They are in a sheltered spot for now, and will join other seedlings, extras and cuttings for the winter, pots either buried /partly in soil, or surrounded with mulch.. Ask me next year how successful this was!

Coarse, rich woodland material-- just remove weed bits, hopefully! Linnaea will grow right on rotting wood, piles of debris etc, so this is fine for it.. soil added to the mix, didn't get a shot of that!

Pots half full of coarse stuff, clayey/humus mix went on top of that..

Sifted out some finer stuff by hand, quickly, for upper layers

Then the cuttings (some had some roots) laid in, and another layer of semi-fine rotted leafy stuff  on top.