One of the things I appreciate about having my gardens open in September for the benefit of a local non-profit is that it pushes me to get out and do some of those little garden tasks that make the difference between tired and terrific. It’s only natural that as we near the end of the growing season we run out of steam, but if the gardener doesn’t do some tweaking at this time of year the landscape can look more weary than the landscaper. A couple of hours in the garden doing some cleanup, cutback and deadheading works wonders. Here is what I recommend for your weekend project:
Here is how my entry garden looked in July. The daylilies and coneflowers added tons of color to this area and they carried the day. Now, however, these flowers have wilted and only the stalks and seed-pods remain.
It’s time for me to go into the garden and cut down those spent flowers and stalks so that they don’t detract from the rest of the garden. I am LOVING my hands-free tote for this task since it’s lightweight, adjustable, and holds lots of dried flowers, weeds and other debris.
Of course I’m thrilled that this is not only made in the USA, but the company is based in Massachusetts. Buy local!
I was first introduced to the United Solutions company when I attended P. Allen Smith’s Garden to Blog 2014 event at his gardens in Little Rock last May. But when United Solutions sent me a sample tote to try I have to say that I was immediately taken with the fact that this is a light-weight, versatile basket. I adjusted the checkerboard handle to fit my body, strapped it on and went into my flower beds. Since the basket wasn’t heavy and it went easily over my shoulder I didn’t have to move back and forth to drop the daylily and Echinacea stems into a container…the basket was right there at my hip at all times.
A couple of my daylilies still had a flower on the stalks. Yup! I cut it off along with the stalk. Since daylilies don’t form new flowers on the old stalks you can clip these down into the plant to clean things up. Since I knew these flowers only last one day I didn’t hesitate to cut them off knowing that getting the cleanup done in a couple of hours was more important to me than letting those flowers stay for just a few short hours.
The plants looked so much better once I was finished!
Although I miss the color that the daylilies added, now the blue Vitex shrub, white Echinacea ‘Milkshake,’ Profusion zinnias, Sedona coleus, Calamintha, Mecardonia ‘Gold Dust’ and ‘Blue Horizon’ Ageratum can take center stage. This early fall tweaking also shows the places where I can add some ‘White Peacock’ ornamental kale plants in the next couple weeks. The kale will look great even as the other plants are killed by frost.
At this time of year gardeners should be clipping down daylily stems and cutting down any perennial that doesn’t have good looking foliage. Don’t be afraid to cut down browned, bug eaten or otherwise unattractive plants except for those that are “woody” such as lavender. Peonies often start to decline in late-August, and these can be cut completely to the ground without hurting the plant. Basically, if the foliage doesn’t look like it’s actively photosynthesizing, it has retired for the season and there’s no harm in removing those leaves and stems. This often opens up areas where fall annuals such as kale, cabbage, Snow Princess Lobularia and pansies can be planted. A couple of hours in your gardens this weekend will result in a beautiful landscape going into fall and winter…even if your garden’s aren’t going on tour, as mine are!
You can get the hands free tote in several colors including black!
