The Month is September, the Year is 2021 and Fall is On Its Way
The author’s garden in early September replete with hydrangeas, carex, rudbeckias and a downy woodpecker
It has been a few months since the last newsletter and while the world may be going to heck in a handbasket, our gardens are still here asking for little but providing lots. I have a rather small garden, (I refer to it as compact), but it is amazing the number of plants I can stuff into it. In fact, according to many books, I don’t provide sufficient room for each plant. Hogwash, I say, they will figure it out.
Since I am told I do many things incorrectly, I have decided to provide:
Armitage’s Common Sense Gardening – for people who enjoy the dirt
Don’t listen to anyone who renders opinions without being asked. This is your garden, make as many mistakes as you would like.
Ask for help from other gardeners. Gardeners by nature love to share successes and failures. We make lousy politicians but great priests. If you ask for help, you and your garden buddy will stare, scratch heads and then come up with workable solutions. The other major bonus of asking a garden friend for help us that he/she will undoubtedly share some of their plants with you.
Ask for professional help, but only if you have major issues with drainage, or limb/tree work and especially when your back hurts. My guy puts down compost every year and Susan has him trim things that I don’t think need trimming. He helps save both my body and my marriage.
Small gardens are so much easier than large ones. Having done both, I recommend downsizing a garden as much as I do your house when all the kids have left. A small garden provides far more time to sip wine while admiring it, rather than guzzling Jim Beam to forget about it.
Stuff as many plants together in your garden as you can afford. Start with groundcovers like Ajuga or creeping Charlie, add some cone flowers, heucheras, lobelias etc among the groundcovers and then add a small shrub like Deutzia or even some lily bulbs in the same space. The plants will adapt, the weeds have no soil to invade and if plants get too crowded later on, move, propagate or give them away. See note #1.
That is enough for now, the next five are no more complicated than the first five, but I must move to other things.
Speaking of other things, fall is coming. We will be seeing a million pot mums and two million pansies in the shops very soon. Fortunately, there are many plants, particularly perennials, that shine in the fall. Unfortunately, because they look like green things only, we tend not to buy them in the spring.
Hardy mums (not pot mums), asters, perennial lobelias, anenomes, grasses, sunflowers, heleniums and many more keep the garden exciting, offering something new as summer turns to fall. It is not too late to plant them if you can find them online (perennialfarmmarketplace.com). It is also quite likely that some of those perennials you planted last year or in the spring did not make it, and there are holes to fill. (see #5 above). Planted here and there in the garden, they provide other spots of color to complement the color symphonies of your maples and elms.
By the way, a listing of fall perennials is easy to find on my App (menu-fall flowering plants).
I Don’t Want to Mention Covid, I Really Don’t but….
How can it be, that we are still masking because of Covid-19? How can it be that we are still doing zoom meetings, wondering if schools will be closed next week and still feeling like we have forgotten something when we forget our mask to go to WalMart? We should be no more thinking about Covid any more than we think about the common flu.
Yet, we are.
There is little doubt that even given the scientific miracle of developing vaccines in record time, many people refuse to be vaccinated. Where is Darwin when we need him? That we are still masking, even when fully vaccinated, is a testament to their selfishness and stupidity. I am going back to my garden.
Is Fall Actually for Planting?
I have been told for years that Fall is for planting. Cool weather and additional rainfall provide excellent reasons for planting, however, let’s not get carried away. In truth, spring is far better, but garden chores are usually so numerous in the spring, it is good to use the fall for planting. If planting in the fall, wait until fall weather actually gets here. That is, don’t start planting pansies in the South on September 10, it is far too early. Planting flowering pot mums in early September means they will be finished by October. Now, this is up to you, but you be donating money rather than spending it. The same is true for gardens in Vermont and Ontario. The only difference is your fall weather comes early, as does Jack Frost.
However, just when I want to relax, I am told that fall is for clean-up. Geez, what do I need to clean? But as I walk around my garden in the fall, it occurs to me that those four-foot-tall weeds may have escaped my attention. Perhaps those disease-ridden leaves on some of my early perennials need to be removed. Susan has pointed out to me that it may be time to rediscover the windows of my house that have been covered with holly, and to release the strangle hold of certain vines that threaten to eat the neighborhood. Of course, the dead annuals are not really enhancing anything in late fall, and clearing them out, along with any fungi, or disease organisms they carry, makes for a cleaner garden in the spring.
I don’t worry about tree leaves that fall in the garden, they make look unsightly but provide future compost. Unfortunately, Susan is less compost-conscious than I, and soon she will be handing me the rake to clean the detritus.
It is catalog time, on paper or online.
I keep receiving news of the newest and best perennials, shrubs and ferns but it is the bulb catalogs that catch my eye in the fall. This is without doubt the best time to plant most bulbs, so if room permits (see #5 above), go for it. Here are my choices, depending on climate, you may want to try a few.
Lilies: I plant at least three of a single cultivar. I love the Orientals, but Asiatics are equally good.
Narcissus: Can’t have too many daffs, but get creative, try some unusual ones.
Muscari: Grape hyacinths are among the easiest of the smaller bulbs to enjoy. Purples, whites
Ipheion: Don’t know blue-star flower, try them. They are among my favorites, and successful.
Zephryanthes: Another small bulb flowering in summer. I can’t get enough of them.
By the way, my App has information on a ton of bulbs and where they can be purchased. Go to menu-plants-bulbs.
Perennials
Not to be overwhelmed by bulbs, buying perennials now is also catalog-easy. There are way too many, but here are a few I have recently found. As with bulbs, they may or may not work for you.
The App has a copious listing of perennials (menu-plants-perennials) as do a couple of good books I happened to have written (on website, allanarmitage.net).
Speaking of books
It seems that few people want to write a reference book anymore (takes a huge amount of time) and even fewer publishers want to publish them. Their excuse is “that nobody reads anymore.” Hogwash yet again.
I wrote the 4th edition of Herbaceous Perennial Plants secure in the knowledge that many people want up to date information and actually still enjoy reading. In fact, it seems that some people agree with me. Herbaceous Perennial Plants, 4th volume, walked away with 1 Gold and 2 Silver Medals from the Garden Communicators International 2021 Media Awards. I am a little biased but I agree that they selected the best reference book for perennials available. And while the book can be accurately described as a tome, I believe you will find very readable.
In closing this month, let’s just keep having fun.
You can join me on my fun times by following me on Facebooks and the like. You can join me on my walkabouts on Facebook Live (stay turn for planned walkabouts in September and October), share my time on lectures or listen when I appear on radio shows like Ron Wilson out of Cincinnati, Niki Jabbour out of Halifax, and many others.
Here is my last chat with Ron Wilson: In the Garden with Ron Wilson and Dr. Armitage
and with Niki Jabbour from my August 1st Interview.
And don’t forget I write regularly for Greenhouse Grower.
Lastly, please stay tuned for my latest literary adventure,
which has nothing to do with plants. A cross between Erma Bombeck and Dr. Suess, it is called “Tales of Big Jon and Other Creatures”. A book about the stories all our kids provide as they grow up, and sure to make you smile. An announcement as to its fall arrival will be sent out to all followers.
Make sure you follow, like, subscribe, and all the other things to keep up with me on Social Media.
I seem to be everywhere these days.