Cooling Temperatures Bring Changes to Bridge Gardens
November 16, 2023
By Rick Bogusch
November has brought the first frosts, but we’re still harvesting greens from the vegetable gardens and sending them to the Sag Harbor food pantry.
Seeds sown in September are producing decent yields of lettuce, arugula, spinach, cilantro and radishes. Plus, all the kales are still going strong.
The Herb Garden has been mostly cut back, but there are still many leaf textures to enjoy, as well as the last flowers of pot marigold and Mexican tarragon.
There are also a surprising number of flowers in the Rose Garden. Susan Bush, Summer Memories and Pomponella Fairy Tale continue to provide color and lure in visitors. Next month, we’ll prune to prevent wind rocking and apply a dormant oil spray to any remaining leaves, stems and surrounding ground to smother as many black spots spores as possible. Then, plants will be mulched for winter to protect their branch crowns from freezing.
The Rose Garden was started by Jim Kilpatric, one of the founders of Bridge Gardens. I remember working with him the first year I was here, learning the plants and how to prune and manage them. I still think of him and those days whenever I’m there.
Autumn is a great time for planting trees and shrubs and any remaining perennials in your nursery. And it’s a great time to snap up bargains at local garden centers. Lately, we’ve been planting winterberry hollies, native Stewartias, cedars, buttonbush, native grasses and many others.
Another task for autumn is pruning certain trees and shrubs. Jackson Dodds, from Jackson Dodds, Inc., recently conducted a workshop at Bridge Gardens for a large group of interested and enthusiastic gardeners who came from all over Long Island to learn. Jackson gave class members a detailed tutorial on the how’s and why’s of pruning and bravely demonstrated them on several of Bridge Gardens plants.
Jackson is a trusted and knowledgeable arborist who dedicates his time to share his expertise and teach others to follow good practices in the landscape.
Rick Bogusch
Garden Director, Bridge Gardens
rbogusch@peconiclandtrust.org