Garden Maintenance–Late Summer and Fall

Spent a couple of hours in the garden this past week doing the tidy-up. 


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.


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.

 


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.
 



Yesterday, I trimmed back behind the rock border Sweet Woodruff.  The pathway was getting smaller and
needed to be groomed. 


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.

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.



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.
The green border of the mature leaf here is certainly living up to my expectations.





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.


This pile of debris is from the front garden where I cut back Spider Wort, Tradescantia, and dead fronds of daylilies. 


The pathway is visible once again after Lamium was trimmed back.  Just another bit of tidying once in a while.

 
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. 


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.
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.

Garden Ideas for September Color

September Colors That Pop

"I've been looking at so much dirt and mud I forgot to look at why I garden in the first place ... pretty flowers in bloom!"




The variegated liriope is sending up lovely purple spikes in the September garden. And this stone has moss that is blooming from all the crevices.  Quite lovely.



Asters in shades of lavender are just coming on. I find asters are more reliable than mums in my garden.  I wouldn’t want a September garden without them.




The clematis has never bloomed this late in the season, and I saw several more buds yet to bloom.  (Hoping the weather doesn’t get too cold before they do.)




The few roses I have left are getting in one more show.

Eupatorium rugosum ‘Chocolate’ is a real bright spot in the garden and it has dozens of bees visiting. This is a relative to the native known as ‘Joe-Pye Weed’.

The yarrow, Achillea, is a ferny perennial that held up well in full sun, and little water.   After cutting it back by about half in mid-July, it is full of buds and color again.





Japanese Anemone (varieties unknown) are in full sun and are 4’-5’ tall.  They typically bloom in autumn and, they too, are loaded with bees.

  
 Sedum, Autumn Joy is simply gorgeous.
 
 The blue of the plumbago is not as full as previous years.  This is one plant I severely cut back in the garden renovation.




Black-eyed Susan are adding color here and there.  The Caryopteris is a shrub with a dainty blue blossom. It is getting more sun now that we took down a big ash tree, so I’m hoping that next year is will bloom more. 




Chelone lyonii, Hot Lips, or Turtlehead has a bloom that reminds folks of a turtle’s head and resembles a snapdragon.  Preferring moist locations, I am happy to see ‘Hot Lips’ looking so well after this hot, dry summer.  The spirea was quite satisfied with the summer sun., however.  I pruned about a third of the plant off earlier in the summer, and, as you can see, it is a  show-off!



The plant world never ceases to amaze me – this weigela ‘Wine and Roses’  a spring bloomer, is reblooming in mid-September.



Fading blooms of hydrangea are elegant and a beautiful shade of mauve.

Trictus, Toad Lily is tiny, about one inch in diameter, but I’ve seen humming birds hit on them all week. Dainty blooms are very pretty, and the foliage holds up nicely too. 

I really needed to see the garden.  Too often I get bogged down in the chores, and forget about the payoff of all the work – the flowers!
Thanks for visiting my September garden.  What is blooming in yours?

Landscape Design Dilemma– Visual Clutter

Design Elements That Overwhelm

When I was gardening for clients, our Owner/designer of the company exclaimed one afternoon that the problem was ‘visual clutter’!  We had worked this small garden on several occasions, and then we would go back at the home owners request to tweak the beds once again.  The design was not coherent and seemed messy. 
I have been guilty of this phenomenon in my own garden.  Mainly because I started my fevered passion of gardening as a Plant Collector.  I had to have every plant on each trip to the garden center.  The Plant catalogs didn’t help either, with the endless gorgeous pictures staring back at me.  Without fail, I bought plants and THEN tried to figure out where to plop them into the garden.  If that didn’t pan out, we dug out another bed to accommodate the new residents. 

In other words, we did not have a plan, unless you call planning to buy more, a plan.  We did not consider much more than if the plant needed sun or shade.  Even then, we took to plant to its limits – with minimal success. 

This bed is example of what I call ‘visual clutter’.  Colors are all over there realm of cool to warm.  The individual plants are buried by others, so that none of them gets the respect it deserves. 

This hosta bed is boring.  Similar colors – green – similar textures, and all of the plants are the same height.  Good landscape design should balance these features. 

This section of the garden has some redeeming qualities.  The height of the Knockout© Rose in the back, and the  shorter hydrangea are more pleasing to the eye.  In the foreground, I have the perennial salvia and iris foliage. 
I like the white accent color of the hydrangea and it gives the eye a place to rest.  Too much going on can confuse and I, for one, am confused enough, and a calming restful color holds that key of peacefulness I seek in the garden. 
 
This bright spot of gold from the Black-eyed-Susan, Rudbeckia, Goldstrum, again offers a mess for the eye to focus on. 
Onesys, and twosys, just don’t stand up to the scrutiny of a visitor in the garden.  The landscape design really needs continuity and this is best achieved by planting in groups.  Odd numbers – three, five, or seven – go a long way in creating a cohesive garden. A garden that folks will remember – ‘oh, that bed of astilbes was gorgeous’, or ‘those hosta  looked so vibrant.’


Restraint is not always easy, but I’m learning the art.  I think the garden will reward me with a calmness, and order that I seek. 
Are you a plant collector?  How do you achieve continuity in your garden?

Herbaceous and Woody Perennials

Perennials - Plants That Return Year After Year

Herbaceous perennial plants are classed as such by their soft, green stems.  Typically this plant group dies back to the ground in the winter but the roots go dormant.

Woody perennial plants have a shrub structure and the woody stems remain in form in winter.  Woody perennials go dormant in winter and grow from the woody stems again in spring.

Here are a few herbaceous perennials I have in my garden. 
  White Bleeding Heart, Dicentra spectabilis

 Pulmonaria, Lungwort

Hardy Geranium, Cranesbill (unknown variety)

 

(Geranium 
“Big Root”, variety is an evergreen ground cover in my garden. This mound is still considered a hardy, herbaceous perennial.




 Dicentra eximia, “ Luxuriant “- Dwarf Bleeding Heart
.
Columbine is an herbaceous perennial.  It produces many seeds that I let fall into the garden as it is a short-lived perennial lasting only about 2-3 years.


    Iris, is yet another  herbaceous perennial that grows from rhizomes, the fleshy root section that sits near the soil surface.
   
Heuchera, 'Dolce Peach Melba'. is a semi-evergreen herbaceous perennial plant native to the United States.

 Heuchera, “Dolce Key Lime Pie”
  Heuchera, “Green Spice” This one has deep red veining and stays fresh looking all year.
 
Clematis, an herbaceous perennial, that vines upward with tendrils that cling to itself or a support.  Here I’ve used trellises and bird netting for their support.

Hosta, Variety Unknown

 
Hosta, are herbaceous plants that die to the ground each autumn. Mid-to-late March in my zone 6 garden, they start sending up their pointed heads.

Hosta, 'Great Expectations'

Astrantia, also known as Masterwort (unknown variety) was unknown to me a few years ago. This herbaceous plant is a charmer and I've seen several varieties in the catalogs. May have to expand my collection!
Fern - herbaceous

These are a few of the woody perennials I have.

Honeysuckle vine never did go dormant this past winter due to the mild temperatures. The early blooms are gorgeous, but I have yet to see the hummingbirds visit it. It’s is a favorite of the hummers due to the trumpet shaped flower.

Hydrangea Buds, “Annabelle”. This is the hydrangea we transplanted last summer when we lost the pine tree. I’m thrilled to see that they didn't stress too much from the move, and again, the mild winter probably helped.

‘Diablo’ Ninebark plants are deciduous flowering shrubs native to North America.
Nine Bark is a woody plant that has burgundy leaves and white flowers. 

Wiegilia,' Wine and Roses'(R)

  Wiegelia is a woody shrub also has the darker leaves and bright pink blossoms. 

 

Knockout Rose, 'Sunny'(R)

”
Roses are a hardy, woody plant.



Climbing Hydrangea –  a woody perennial plant.  The bark exfoliates into these really delicate looking patterns.

Exfoliating bark of Climbing Hydrangea

Japanese Maple 

Japanese Maple –  just had to show the brilliant color this spring!  It’s really doing it’s ‘happy dance’!

I hope you can get out and enjoy your Spring.  c