This month we see the autumn equinox on September 22, which
is the calendar start of fall. But meteorologists use September 1, as the start
of the fall season. So get out that
pumpkin spice stuff.
If you go out in the evening you know the daylight hours are
becoming shorter much faster now, you can almost tell it from day to day. As
the nights grow longer, they have more time to cool off so clear nights from
now on are going to get chilly. I don’t mind that at all- until we get to the
frost part.
Yep, that’s coming soon. Everyone in zones 6 and lower needs
to keep an eye on the weather – looking ahead a few days to give yourself time to
prepare. While you can cover tomatoes
and your blooming annuals a few times, your tropical plants need to be inside
before even a light frost hits. Covering
them isn’t a good idea.
This is the time when I evaluate my garden season and I give this one at best a C grade. There were too many temperature extremes, too much variability and for us, not enough rain. I know that may surprise some of you. Just a few miles south of here and to the west of us rain totals for the season pick up. And when you get to Detroit and some other southern areas they had an exceptionally wet season. Too bad we can’t spread it around.
Anyway, most gardens in the state of Michigan had problems one way or another. And we aren’t the only states. I suppose somewhere people are having great garden years but many of us aren’t. We are going to transition into the La Nina weather pattern sometime some, so the experts say and that is going to alter the weather probably the opposite of what you had this year, so stay tuned.
In my garden the toad lilies and sweet autumn clematis are blooming and there isn’t much left that still has to bloom. The autumn sedums are starting to color up and the snakeroot is just starting to bloom. I have one or two mums that are just starting to bloom. Some of my mums have been blooming for a couple weeks now. Soon it will all be over. But right now, it’s still pretty colorful.
So, what will I do differently next year? I’m going to work on a water system for those grow bags and another way to keep weeds down between them. One thing I will say is that the one marihuana plant I have loves the grow bag and is the nicest plant in the garden.
In the main flower bed, I have a spot that remained empty much of the year. I need to find something to plug in there. It had a rose I hoped would mature and fill in, but the rose is not working there at all. It needs to have pink or purple flowers since there is so much gold and yellow in that area, or maybe a deep red. I do have a red hardy hibiscus close to the area and maybe a deep pink one would work there.
Next year I probably will not plant petunias in the front bed since the perennials have matured and there just isn’t any “front edge” left for them by mid-summer, they are buried under larger plants. They do look nice early when the perennials aren’t at full expansion but later, they disappear. And the clethra I have in that bed was buried this year by rudbeckia and sedums. I’ll be moving it this fall.
I’m going to expand the garden just a bit on the west side of the cedar trees. I’ll be clearing that area out this fall. It’s not too large of a spot and it’s shady. I’ll probably stick with hosta, astilbe and maybe a few woodland natives. I have hosta seedlings I can move. On the east side of the house north of the deck I am going to try and rip out the common daylilies again. Some of the hopniss vine has to go too. I have done it 3 or 4 times in the past and they always come back. It’s a smaller area too, but I would like to have something there that’s prettier.
It’s time to order fall bulbs- well past time. I have procrastinated this year. I love
tulips but it’s always a gamble with the deer around. Last spring, they didn’t bother much but you
never know what they will do next spring.
I always pick one new species of bulb to try, and I am going through
catalogs trying to decide which of the few I haven’t grown that I want to try.
What grade do you give your garden efforts this year? What are your fall garden plans and what are
you doing differently next year? And
most important- what new bulbs or plants are you going to try next year?
For it’s a long, long while from May to December. But the
days grow short when you reach September. — Maxwell Anderson
Buy those bulbs so spring will be pretty
Kim Willis
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