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.

Shrubbery Garden - Elegant and Easy

I get to my local library often, and the elegant shrubbery garden that surrounds three sides of the building is always changing.  The garden was donated by Dorothy R Yeck and named after her.  The design was created by Craig Jaynes who is a talented landscape designer.  The ever changing garden caught my eye this week.  It was a mild gloomy day here in South West Ohio, and the Woodbourne Washington-Centerville  Public Library caught my eye as anything but gloomy. 

Evergreens, like these Gold Thread Junipers, sometimes referred to as False Cypress, set off the lovely red fruit of the Ilex verticillata , “Red Sprite”. 

The Ilex “Red sprite” stays small and grows only to three and half feet high and about four feet wide.  Nice plant in this border because it stays within its boundaries.

The Rhassus Frangula, “Fine Line” is the tall thin shrub here.  It will spread to about two – three feet wide, and it’s delicate leaves give this plant a wispy appearance.



This bright blue shrub is a Picea pungens glauca “Globasa” – a compact shrub with blue needles.  



Juniperus ‘Gold Cone’, is a columnar evergreen that will not grow more than two feet wide.  The leafless shrubs around the Juniper, are Caryopteris, ‘Worchester Gold’ and Caryopteris ‘Longwood Blue’ Even thought the Caryopteris is a deciduous shrub, the seed heads remain for some winter interest.


Featured at the front door of the library are Hydrangea quercifolis “Sikes Dwarf”.  Again, this deciduous shrub holds onto the dried seed heads that rustle in the breeze.


Pinus nigra “hombrookiana” is the round pine on the right.  Staying small in height of about 3 feet, this shrub can spread to 6 feet wide. The ‘army’ green needles make this a good backdrop for this shrubbery border. 

Syringa “Prairie Petite” is a dwarf lilac that has ‘large panicles packed with tubular, purple flowers’ as described by Craig Jaynes in his plant summery of this garden.


Aronia, melanocarpa “Viking” has shiny black berries from September through December.  (These few are hanging on into January.)

Beautyberry has these wonderful purple berries.  Callicarpa D “Early Amethyst is the botanical name for this plant.  I’m told that Beautyberry will bloom with small, pink blossoms and will produce more berries if planted in groups. The stems of this shrub make great winter decorations in planters and holiday decorations.

Liriope and an ornamental grass grouped at the entrance of this library garden, are not in the original shrub garden, but they certainly add texture to the winter landscape. The liriope is a grass-like plant that gets spikes of berries in the fall and is sometimes called lily tuft, or border grass.  Just to the rear of the liriope are Oak Leaf Hydrangea, a native shrub.

As these photos show, the shrub garden is in a narrow border surrounding the front three sides of the library.

All the plants chosen are dwarf or columnar so that the maintenance is minimal.  Ask  questions when you are planning a space in your landscape, and choose plants that 1) have color, 2) have texture, 3) have seasonal features like blooms or winter berries, 4) will grow to mature size that will fit into the space.
Do you have a space where the plant material outgrew the allotted area?  I’ve learned this lesson the hard way on several occasions. Envision the look you want, plant the right plants, and above all, enjoy your garden. 

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?