If you're feeling a little glum about the end of the gardening season, here are a few activities that can help you rebalance: First, support your local farmers by shopping at a local farm stand. Often the growers will have insights on plants and practices that are applicable to your own garden. Get inspired by seeing some of the different varieties of apples, gourds, zucchinis, pumpkins, and other vegetables.  Second, refresh your mulch supply. Top dressing before winter feels as good now as it does in the Spring. Your beds will benefit from the extra layer of protection and you will feel a boost from the beauty of cleaned beds.     Brevities #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of the German botanist Valerius Cordus who died on this day in 1544. Cordus was the author of one of the most influential herbals in history. In fact, centuries later, the botanist Thomas ArchibaldSprague re-published "The Herbal of Valerius Cordus" with his older sister who he considered to be the best botanist in the family. After the book was published, Sprague gifted her with a personal and gorgeous bound copy. He had the book dedicated to her in latin: "M. S. Sprague praeceptrici olim hodie collaboratrici d.d. T. A. Sprague" - basically saying that she had taught him and collaborated with him. Cordus died young, at the age of 29, likely from malaria. He had botanized in Italy over the summer of 1544 with two French naturalists. At some point, he had waded into marshes in search of new plants. When he became sick a short time later, his friends brought him to Rome and then,   they continued on to Naples. When they returned for him, they found Cordus had died. We owe a debt of gratitude to the Swiss botanist Konrad Gesner who had the sense to collect Cordus' prolific writings and preserve and publish them. One expert once said, "There was Theophrastus; there was nothing for 1,800 years; then there was Cordus." The genus Cordia is named in honor of Valerius Cordus.     #OTD   Today is the birthday of the Landscape Gardener Edward Kemp who was born on this day in 1817. Edward Kemp was the landscape gardener and architect at Birkenhead under Joseph Paxton. He placed an ad in the Liverpool Mercury after the opening of Birkenhead, he was out of work and was offering his services, “[Edward Kemp] begs to offer his services to the Noblemen and Gentlemen in the vicinity of Birkenhead and Liverpool…The fluttering testimonials which he has received from numberless visitors to the Birkenhead park, induce him to believe that a simple reference to the past and present condition of the park …. will be sufficient to ensure for him a large and liberal patronage.” Don't worry about Edward Kemp. He went on to be a leading Victorian Landscape Gardener and a successful one, at that.     #OTD  On this day in 1890, the Sequoia National Park was established to protect the giant Sequoia trees, among the oldest living things on earth.  In 1847, Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher, a German botanist, came up with the genus name "Sequoia" after a Cherokee Chief named Sequoyah (1770-1843) who was the son of a British merchant and a Cherokee woman. Sequoyah developed an alphabet to enable his tribe’s dialect to be written.  In 1872, Asa Gray wrote about the sequoia and presented his work in Dubuque Iowa at the 21st annual session of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. During his presentation, Gray speculated on the origin of the trees. He offered three hypotheses: Either they are just coming into existence, and are destined, if unmolested by man, to spread over the world; They have long lived; on the Pacific Slope, and have never spread elsewhere, because no other climate is fit for them;  They are the survivors of a race that once crowded the hills and valleys of the world. Gray felt the last hypothesis was the one with the most merit. He expanded on this point by saying, "Research has found the fossil sequoia gigantea throughout ... Nort