Garden editing

Fall is a great time to plant.  The weather is cool, it rains more, and the roots keep growing until the soil freezes, giving them a better chance of surviving the brutal heat of summer.  Fall is also the time of clearance sales at local nurseries, so fall is also the time when I buy a lot of my ornamental plants.  The selection is not as good as in the spring, but the prices are fantastic.

I'm not a designer by any stretch of the imagination, so the lack of selection doesn't really bother me.  I'm not trying to match colors so they coordinate in a pleasing manner.  I'm just trying to fill the space with some nice plants.  For example, I have some chartreuse hostas across a path from some orange butterfly weed.  Each are nice in their own ways, but they were not nice together.  It rather hurt the eyes.  I suppose I'll have to move one group eventually.

Some plants in the garden that just didn't make the cut were...um...cut.  I removed 3 red hot pokers that were impersonating large green octopuses, one rose bush that was very naked (roses without leaves are rather rangy looking), and one rhododendron bush that got flattened in snowmageddon and never recovered.

Out with the ugly, in with the lovely.  Pictures are not mine because 1) I'm not that great a photographer and 2) most of this stuff is not in bloom.  In fact at least three things are just bare sticks sticking out of the pot.

In went a grass called little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) a native plant

 2 purple and 1 yellow baptisia  (Baptisia australis  and sphaerocarpa) also native

steeplebush (Spirea tomentosa) native, attracts butterflies and hummingbirds

mountain laurel 'Bullseye' (Kalmia latifolia) another native



St. John's wort 'Brigadoon', not native, but with pretty leaves.  Hopefully this cultivar is not as aggressive as the species.  It's planted on a shady hillside, so hopefully that will help curb its enthusiasm.

 bush honeysuckle, a native

 gardenia, not native, but is supposed to smell heavenly.  Is marginally hardy here, so hopefully it will make it through the winter.

Solomon's seal, native


winterberry holly, native, birds eat the berries

 and 100 daffodils, not native, but well behaved.  Now almost all the area that was dug up for our sewer line replacement has been filled in with plants, most of them native.  My goal is not to have to water my ornamental landscape at all once things are established (veggie garden is another story, or course).  I'm also trying to attract more birds and butterflies.  We'll see if this makes a difference.  At least it's nicer to look at than the boring, patchy lawn that was there before.