September 3, 2021 Grading the garden

 Well, it’s September.  I dreaded it as a child because it meant summer vacation was over. I dread it as an adult because it means summer is over. Things haven’t changed much.

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.

 I’m planning on cutting back a little on houseplants. Well, we’ll see anyway. My porch should be warmer this year and maybe more things can go out there. But I will still need to be moving some things around to accommodate the bigger sized plants that will be coming back inside.  And I have got to get lights and timers hooked up- September is always fun here.

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.

 I am still getting a few tomatoes and I see a melon or two.  But I will definitely give my food garden a C- this year. I don’t think it was the grow bags I used, although it didn’t help that it was so dry, and they dry out fast.  It was disease and other problems caused by the weather extremes.  Like everyone else is mentioning the tomatoes seem to be ripening very slowly and I fought all summer to keep the fungal problems controlled. Lettuce did well, but cukes did not.  Melons are producing but late and slow.

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.

 As the oak by the driveway has grown so has my shadier areas. The deck used to be full sun much of the day, but now it’s shaded about half the day.  The front border stays shady a bit longer in the morning as the tree is to the east of them. Already the lilies on the east end aren’t getting enough sun and will need to be moved. I’ll have to decide if I need to switch more plants from shade to sunnier areas too.

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