HOW’S YOUR GARDEN BY L OIS T R IG G C H A P L I N
Fast-Growing, Cool-Weather Harvests
we get a proper ID. But the climbing aster (Ampelaster carolinianus) is easy to distinguish. It’s one of the few that makes a vine. The plants have sparse, woody stems that grow 8 to 12 feet long, but when pruned it turns into a sprawling shrub. It can be trained either way. This is a native aster that blooms very late. At our house, the blooms seem to survive the first frosts in fall, too, usually staying in bloom into December. Because it blooms so late, it is especially valuable in gardens for nectar and pollen for pollinators late in the season. Some of the bees that visit include sweat, leafcutter, bumble and mining bees. Butterflies that visit the flowers include sulphurs, buckeyes, swallowtails, fritillaries, common buckeyes and others. Try climbing aster on a fence, let it drape over a wall, or
SIMPLE TIMES
THE CO-OP PANTRY Cilantro
There is still time to plant cilantro, radishes and scallions for harvests this fall and winter. These three items are best and most economical when you can pluck just the amount needed fresh from the garden. Fall is the best season for cilantro because it doesn’t bolt until spring. Onion transplants sold now are long day, so they won’t make bulbs but instead are perfect for scallions all winter. Bonnie Plants offers cilantro transplants and onion bunches in the fall. Popular small round, red radishes such as Cherry Belle mature in only a month and will hold in the ground for a while. Start those by sowing a few seeds in the garden each week this month so that they mature in succession.
An Aster That Climbs! There are so many aster and aster relatives that they can be hard to keep straight. “It’s one of those aster things” is what my garden circle usually says until
Climbing aster
October 2021
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