Rake, mulch, put the tools away
The easy weeks for getting the garden ready.
Rake leaves off the lawn and onto the beds, where they break down into mulch, or into the compost pile. Clean and oil your tools while you're thinking of it. Where freezes are on the way, drain the hoses and bring in anything tender. Where they aren't, you're done early.
This week in the garden
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The cushion that keeps itself warm
The fourth of the alpines looks like a tuffet of moss until early summer, when it does something no moss can.
The king's blue
The fifth of the alpines is the last flower standing in the high meadows of the Sierra Nevada, and it carries the name of a Balkan king who lost his throne to Rome.
How plants learned to hunt
Carnivory shows up at least a dozen separate times across the plant family tree, and every time it's the same problem, solved by a different trap.