Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Garden Maintenance–Late Summer and Fall


Spent a couple of hours in the garden this past week doing the tidy-up. 
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Late Summer is a good time of year for some simple maintenance and gives the garden a fresh look.  By removing all the brown, what is left is the green foliage, and blooms that were buried in the debris.

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Here some coneflowers and Joe Pye Weed got some help standing tall. They were weighed down by the heavy heads and new bud that are forming. By propping them up, sun light and water can get to the plants, and freshen up the foliage.  Also removed some weeds that were hiding.

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As I have said before, we lost several large trees last year, and this Caryopteris is liking the extra light.  New shoots and some great blue blossoms are a treat. The Liriope and it’s pale lavender spears are just beginning to bloom.
 
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Yesterday, I trimmed back behind the rock border Sweet Woodruff.  The pathway was getting smaller and
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Late summer is a great time to divide perennials.  Here I moved some daisies that were in another bed that is getting turned into lawn.  They do not look fresh at this time, but by keeping them moist for the next couple of weeks, the roots will take hold and will turn into a nice stand of daisies next spring.
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Daylilies are another plant that divides and transplants well.  This area is where a Blue Spruce once stood, and is gradually getting filled in with my new plan for a border.  We also put some daylily root sections in these two red containers.  I hope they take hold and survive winter.  They may need some added winter protection which I’ll discuss later.


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This is the Solar Eclipse Redbud we planted last spring.  A rainbow of orange, peach, lime, and gold are present in the new leaves as they mature. 100_3095
The green border of the mature leaf here is certainly living up to my expectations.


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Maintenance of the late summer garden includes providing water.  Yesterday, this hydrangea was drooping and blossoms were hanging low.  After a good drink, today this side of the garden is perky and vibrant.

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This pile of debris is from the front garden where I cut back Spider 100_3100Wort, Tradescantia, and dead fronds of daylilies. 
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The pathway is visible once again after Lamium was trimmed back.  Just another bit of tidying once in a while.

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This rose is the Sunny Yellow Knockout® rose.  I choose to leave the rose hips on the shrub.  It is a bit of color in the winter, and besides, pruning it is just one less thing I need to do on the fall maintenance list. 

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The spent blooms of Hosta have been trimmed off.  I’ll wait till the rest have faded to remove them.  The Astilbe in this bed will get to keep their seed heads through winter.  As I told a fellow gardener recently, I’m a lazy gardener, and if I can keep from one more chore I will and call it ‘winter interest’.


These tarps of debris will get added to the compost pile.  With visions of future ‘black gold’ ready for the garden in spring. 100_3101
This large amount of debris is really misleading as to the time and effort it took me to gather it.  Over several days I spent less than two hours in the garden removing the brown and renewing the garden for a few more weeks of beauty.

Watering took a day of moving sprinklers every hour to cover the whole yard.  Even though we have had some more rain this year than during the drought of 2012, our area in Ohio is still about 4 inches below average rainfall for the year. Trees, shrubs, perennials, and lawn all needed this supplemental watering at this time.  And if the rains remain scarce, I will continue to water through the fall and into early winter until the ground freezes.

Thanks for stopping by today.  And enjoy your time among the plants.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Is Your Garden Sustainable?

 

Gardening Ideas to Reduce Our Environmental Impact

November 15 is Recycle America Day in the US.  And I think this is a good time to look at our gardening habits and perhaps reduce our environmental impact - if even just a little bit.

Sustainability is one of those words that encompasses so many elements.  The concept is to reduce our use of natural resources of  water and fossil fuels. Conserving water goes in tandem to maintaining clean water.  Air pollution goes hand in hand with fuel emissions and manufacturing.

So I was trying to reduce this huge subject into a more meaningful conversation – What can I do, as a gardener to achieve more sustainable living practices?   Here are some of my ideas. 
Create and maintain a recycled garden.
Compost – Is the ultimate sustainable thing anyone can do. Recycle grass cutting, plant debris, food scraps,and paper. 
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Compost
How does this reduce usage of natural resources? 1) No trash truck needs to use fuel to take your garbage to a landfill. 2) No plastic bags are needed to wrap up you garbage - Plastic that can stay in landfills for decades; and making plastic bags uses petroleum products, which are not renewable.
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Plastic Bags of Refuse

  Recycle plastic pots
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Pots Pile Up in the Potting Shed
This is a tough one for me, as my trash recycler does not take the black pots. Not the right code number - too dirty – whatever. So I take the containers back to the garden center where I bought the plants.( HINT: buy quart size plants. They use less plastic, and the transportation for more small containers, than costs for transportation for the fewer, larger ones. )
The containers should be washed out of soil.  The shredder that reduces this plastic for reuse gets bogged down if mud binds up machinery. 
Since some trash haulers do not take nursery containers, businesses are stepping in to take this huge source of plastic out of the landfills.  Lowe’s is one such company.
Once the pots and trays are returned to the store, they are picked up by local vendors and sorted. The reusable material is sterilized and reintroduced to the production cycle. Serviceable trays are recovered and reused in the growing, shipping and sale of live plants. Material not deemed reusable is crushed, banded and sent for recycling.

Rain Barrels capture free water
Collected rain water can be used to water plants. Rain water runoff is reduced. Reducing runoff lessens erosion, and reduces chemicals that get into the sewers, streams, and rivers. A typical 1 inch rain fall on a standard roof  of 1000 s/f can collect 600 gallons of rain water.  I have a Fiskars rain barrel as one of two I have in my yard.
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Rain Barrel by Fiskars
Use newspapers as mulch
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Newspaper as Mulch
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Recycle Newspaper
Recycle with thick layers of newspaper, or cardboard. This effectively blocks weed seeds from germinating by blocking out the light.  The paper will decompose and add nutrients to the soil.  Cover with a layer of compost or decorative mulch for a more finished look. 
Reduce Water Usage
Forego (some of) the lawn.  Just because everyone has one, is not a reason to have one.  Up to 50% of home water usage is used on the lawn.  Rain water is not well absorbed by turf – only about 10% -  and runoff is high.  This can pollute area watersheds especially if chemicals are used for fertilizer and pest controls.
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Water Runoff

Use Native plants – once natives are established, they need little supplemental watering. I have discussed Native Plants in a previous article. (Read it here.)
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Native Echineacea
Use Mulch on Beds – Mulch can reduce water usage by keeping the sun and wind from drying out the soil.  Plants are not stressed by extreme soil temperatures either, since the mulch keeps the soil in a more even range.  Mulch in the fall only after the soil is near frozen as the insulation of the mulch may allow the soil to remain too warm and keep plants from hardening off sufficiently which can cause tissue damage in freezing temperatures.
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Add Mulch to control Weeds and Conserve Water
Obviously, there is much a gardener can do to be more environmentally friendly.  Recycling plastics, recycling newspapers, reclaiming water, and reducing water use, are all key elements to a sustainable environment.  Sustainable living is multi-faceted, and these gardening ideas as just a few. 

What sustainable practices do you feel are important?  Tell us about them.  I love to get comments.  Thanks.