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Cool Season Color Returns Seasonally

Pansies and violas like cool weather.

Cool season vegetables are the first clue. Now that they are seasonal, cool season color is also seasonal. Both comply with similar schedules. Their cool season centers around winter, including portions of spring and autumn. Some prefer to start early. Some prefer a later start. They also finish at variable times through spring. Some perform until summer.

Warm season color also complies with distinct schedules. Some might finish a bit earlier than their cool season replacements begin. Conversely, some could continue to perform a bit later than their replacement allows. It is gratifying when color of one season finishes as color of the next season begins. That will become more likely later within the season.

Cool season color has a few designations. Winter commonly replaces cool season. Yet, it includes adjacent portions of autumn and spring. Bedding plants or annuals commonly replaces color. Yet, many are actually perennials, and none are limited to bedding. Large homogenous beds are passe anyway. Some perennials linger after their primary season.

Also, some species behave differently here than within other climates. Wax begonias are warm season color, but may dislike locally arid warmth. They perform better for spring or autumn than for summer here. Actually, they become as popular as summer ends as they are when winter ends. They bloom until frost, or continually and perennially without frost.

Growth is slower during cool weather. Therefore, seed for cool season color should start early. For most, small plants, such as those from cell packs, are more efficient than seed. Cyclamen grow so slowly that they are only available in expensive four inch pots. Some cool season color is better for autumn or spring. This includes marigold and snapdragon.

Pansy and viola are the most popular of cool season color. Pansy are a type of viola with fewer but bigger flowers. Various types of primrose are nearly as popular, and can bloom until summer heat. Iceland poppy can grow a bit later in autumn to bloom through winter. Sweet William is a perennial that blooms now until spring, and can resume next autumn. Ornamental cabbage is bold foliar cool season color.

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Planting Cool Season Cover Crops

71129thumbTraditional horticultural technology that was so common in the orchards, that were likewise more common, was more practical than so much of what we do in our modern home gardens now. Orchardists got good insects to take out the bad insects. They got mulberry trees to distract hungry birds from maturing apricots and prunes. They even got weedy annuals to control other weeds.

Once it got established, mustard grew wild under many orchards. It self sowed so efficiently that it did not need to be sown. It grew fast, and shaded out other nastier weeds. Anyone who wanted to pick greens could take all they wanted without setting it back. It was sometimes tilled in early, or cut early and left on the surface as mulch, but was probably most often left to die back naturally.

Besides controlling weeds, the mustard improved the soil and kept it friable, both by dispersing roots through it, and also by decomposing into it. Other types of cover crops help limit erosion through winter, or improve soil fertility. All are very easy to plant and grow, and almost all get all the water they need from rain through winter. They only need to be cut and tilled when they are done.

Of course, they are all ‘done’ at different times. Orchard mustard that never gets cut or tilled is never really done. It just perpetuates itself. Cover crops in home gardens are done when we say they are done, before the space is needed for something else. Some should be cut before self sowing and becoming more a weed than a cover crop, whether or not the space is needed right away.

Cover crops get planted by simply broadcasting seed onto freshly tilled soil that will not be used for anything until next year. After seed is broadcast, the soil can be raked lightly to cover the seed. If it is not watered right away, the rain will take care of it. Fava beans, oats, barley, millet, clover and annual rye grass are some of the more familiar cover crops. Sesame and sorghum are rare.

Freeway iceplant and old varieties of common geranium (Pelargonium X hortorum) can function as prettier perennial cover crops. The iceplant can be cut from established colonies and plugged as short cuttings about four inches long. When geraniums get cut back, the pieces can likewise be processed into cuttings. Unlike annuals, these would get removed when their space is needed.