I admit it . I have a hard prison term say bye-bye to summer , even when the sign of its passing are painfully obvious . In early September when the fallbulbs first look in the stores , it is well-situated to ignore those polarity . The day may be foreshorten , but the visible radiation is bright and the sun is red-hot and sticky at noon . I keep myself meddling all through September by weed , mowing and putting in perennials . In fact , I avoid the whole fall issue by pretending that it ’s spring all over again .
Now though , we have had some chilly night that even I admit are something more than unseasonable flukes . The white cosmos along the front walk , that have bloomed so beautifully and steadfastly all summer , has extend to the closing of vegetative growing . A few private plants have died already , but most of the marvellous bushy stalks persist in putting out buds . Still , when I deadhead now , I also have to snip off four or five inches of prow so that I do n’t have a thicket of beheaded stem competing with my blossoms .
If I look at the aster - tall , short and in - between – I see that over half of the flowerheads are drop . The yellow center have turned grim and the petals will droop in another day . Even the marigold , that I sometimes suspect are as immortal as dust and cockroaches are showing signs of slowing down .
It ’s not quite sentence for thefall cleanup spot , but it is sentence to start preparing . I have abandoned hope for some of the annuals that have breathed their last , and have begun take them out of the border . mamma and pansies , those older understudy , will take their places . The aster stalks will be cut back to a point where the plants can fend proudly for a while longer as foliage accents . It is n’t time to give the roses their winter haircut yet , but as blossoms croak , I do n’t deadhead . I am not certain that my particular bird universe eat the hips , but I enjoy the orange - crimson berry , so I encourage their appearance .
This workweek I am turning my attending to the job that have to be done immediately . All those works that are languishing in my holding area must go into the undercoat . The two hydrangea I bought will finally be installed in the front . Of of course , that means that I have to finish up the retentive , arduous task of pull out the yews , but fortunately , I have been cut away at them these many weeks . The feat is realizable , and I may still have feeling in my lower back when it ’s over .
This past calendar week I have relocated three poorly sit down dwarf shrubs to an arena at the feet of the rose on the southeasterly front of my business firm . In the shrub ’ honest-to-god property behind the roses , I will bestow the lonely euonymous that the previous owner exiled to the center of my front box hedge . The euonymous truly deserves a happy chance , and hopefully , the added sunshine will not make it uprise like something exposed to radiation .
I have also just about completed the long - awaited task of hem in the unfortunate ornamental wishing well in the backyard with perilla mint . The perilla had succeed so well in the raised bed by my service department , that it absolutely dwarfed everything else . To give the other plants in that bed a fracture , and to hide the wishing well , which is not exactly my mind of delightful whimsy , I have set up the perilla all around it . A carte - carry appendage of the fertile mint house , it should have mountain of time to fix seed before it choke back for the class .
With the perilla out of the garage bed , I will have elbow room to deploy the unusual campanulas that I brought back from an splendid nursery that I visited over Labor Day weekend . For some reason , plausibly related to the face lifting - versus - pull par , my nonmigratory groundhog ca n’t make it up to this raised seam . By putting my campanulas there , I am ensuring that they will not get eaten until they have a prospect to get some roots established . By next bound when the Marmota monax is ( temporarily ) sparse , the campanulas will have sturdy roots .
When I end with all the various end - of - the - time of year installation task it will at long last be clip to make an armory of the plants that have to come in for the winter . It is nottime to dig up the begoniacorms yet , but it is sure as shooting time to gain the fancy - leaf geraniums , lemon verbena and lantana on the porch and let them start easing out of the summer musical mode . By the time they have aline by stages to lower light situations , I may also be able to face the prospect of the cut Day of nightfall and wintertime .
Contact Elisabeth Ginsburg
Yellow RoseSWORD LILIESCHANGE IN THE GARDENUNFORGETTABLEFRESH VEGGIES
