Dayton "Dirt" - October 7, 2016

For the first week of October the weather by all accounts is perfect! The plentiful sunshine and warm, but not overly hot temperatures makes for a great planting season and simply enjoying the weather. Last week’s rainfall of at least 2 plus inches that fell slowly over a few days time finally put the damper on last summers drought conditions.

Most chrysanthemums are bursting forth now in their full glory although the Cheryl varieties from Yoders is just showing color when normally this series would be in full bloom now.

Planting at the nursery is still in swing with the arrival of Helleborus and peonies from Michigan and geranium plugs (as they are called) to plant into 2 gallon nursery containers to use as stock plants for taking cuttings in order to produce more plants.

Just freshly dug last week from Lake County, Ohio are gorgeous, true blue Baby Blue Colorado Spruce that are eerily uniform. This seed collection has been developed over several years time in Canada and was selected for its intense blue color. In fact, once the trees receive one or two trims to shape them at a very young age they are left on their own to develop beautifully.

No doubt a frost is near but as the legend goes, this good weather is not an Indian Summer as that must wait until after a hard frost.

Happy Fall

Tom