Upstate Gardeners' Journal

10/12/2025

If you don’t want to leave them where they fall, gently move your leaves to nearby garden beds and natural areas. !

It’s time for one of the easiest things you can do for wildlife: just Leave the Leaves! 🍂🐝

Leaves, fallen branches, and plant stems aren’t trash – they are homes for wildlife, and vital shelter to survive the cold winter. Butterflies, bees, fireflies, and other wonderful bugs we spend all spring and summer hoping to attract, still need our help in the winter.

Let your yard be just a bit messy and wild! That’s not to say you can’t do any tidying up — rake leaves into garden beds, around trees, or just in a pile out of the

10/12/2025

🍂 As soon as the first frost hits, it’s time to rescue your cannas.
If you’re in USDA Zone 6 or colder, those vibrant canna lilies won’t survive winter in the ground. But don’t panic—saving them is easier than you think.

https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/flowers-fruits-and-frass/2016-09-30-digging-and-storing-cannas

10/12/2025

🍂October 10 by Wendell Berry ~
Now constantly there is the sound,
quieter than rain,
of the leaves falling.
Under their loosening bright
gold, the sycamore limbs
bleach whiter.
Now the only flowers
are beeweed and aster,
spray of their white and lavender
over the brown leaves.
The calling of a crow sounds
Loud — landmark — now
that the life of summer falls
silent, and the nights grow.

🍁Photo from the Japanese Tea-House pond at Bedrock Gardens ... and a little musical accompaniment - https://share.google/9AaBBlNbym8m4Z5np

10/12/2025

10/07/2025

It's garlic planting month! 🧄

Our Garlic Planting Guide by Dayna Walton () will guide you through the growing cycle of garlic.

Garlic is planted this time of year and settles in over the course of the winter. In early spring, you'll start to see green growth pop up from the ground. Shortly after, hardneck varieties will provide you with scapes to enjoy, signaling they'll be ready to harvest in just a few weeks time.

Once harvested in summer, garlic cures and is ready to be enjoyed or stored! The cycle is complete and starts over again that fall.

10/07/2025

10/07/2025

The full Harvest Supermoon of 2025, captured from Rochester, New York.

10/07/2025

Some double-sided tape would work well for the adhesive needed at the bottom of the papers. :)

09/27/2025

09/26/2025

Enjoy 15% off all shrubs, now through Sunday! The stage is set for planting, rain in the soil, cooler temps, fall is officially here!!

✅Need shrubs for bird food? We have them.
✅Need to block unsightly items or screening shrubs? We have them.
✅Need shrubs for foundation plantings? We have them.
✅Need shrubs for food forest, such as blueberries? We have them.
✅ Need shrubs with color all summer? We have them.
✅Shrubs for wet areas? Yes!
✅ Shrubs for dry areas? Yes!
✅ Shrubs for sun? Yes!
✅ Shrubs for shade? Yes!
You get the idea...we are fully stocked!

Open 7 days a week, Monday -Saturday 9-5, Sunday 10-4.

09/26/2025

Always lots of gardens and autumn color to see here!

As part of our $5 Days this weekend, we’re proud to offer ASL-interpreted tours on Sunday, September 28 with interpreter Samantha Geffen:

🕚 11 a.m. & 1 p.m. – Toward Freedom and Fairness walking tour (departing from the Toll House), explores the fight for Black freedom and civil rights in our region.
🚋 3 p.m. – Village tour on the Trolley (meet at the Trolley stop outside the Carriage Barn).

👉 Admission is just $5 all weekend, September 27 & 28: https://www.gcv.org/event/5-day-at-gcvm/