July 10, 2008

garden tip: first, make things worse

Filed Under 'woo-woo' (essays and such), annuals & perennials, tools & techniques, vines

I’M BUSY MAKING BAD SITUATIONS WORSE THESE DAYS, which is exactly what has to be done to bring any garden from now to a visually pleasing high summer and fall. It’s not unlike cleaning your closet: Things have to get pulled apart and look a lot messier before they get better. Really. The butchery around here extends beyond the huge swaths of beheaded bigroot geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum), above. Want the hit list? Feeling brave?

Some euphorbias, particularly the basic early spring yellow species called polychroma, will start to flop open and get mildewy here if they don’t get a brutal cutback, so you can see (left) what I’ve done to them (same thing I do again in earliest spring before new growth begins).

The new red-foliage polychroma cultivar, ‘Bonfire,’ seems to stand up better to summer, so I’m not chopping it down. Will I regret it? Don’t know…only my second year with the plant, so it’s all an experiment.

Which is what cutbacks are: You observe what is going on, and if it’s not looking good, you consider administering a haircut.

The pulmonarias were shorn to the ground after flowering last month, and already have a new set of showy leaves (instead of tattered, about-to-mildew old ones). They would have grown a new set right up and over the old, but I prefer to just shear them, rather than fussily deadheading each flower stem.

Perennial salvias, like the popular ‘May Night’ and the nemorosa varieties ‘Snow Hill’ and ‘Caradonna,’ can do with a good, hard cutback when they’re done blooming. A new rosettes of foliage will be emerging down below, and a lower-impact second flush of bloom will eventually be mustered.

Catmints (Nepeta) look a mess when they pass their first major bloom, so hack them back I do (again, same treatment as in earliest spring), forcing another flush of foliage and perhaps more flowers. Again, most of all what I am seeking to do is avoid having to stare at big, ugly, floppy plants long past their prime. I’d rather have a tidy, smaller mound of fresh green and a bit of a hole than a gone-by mess.

Apparently some visitors here agree, including two from mores southerly zones (John and Writermom, see their comments), who confessed to cutting down their spring-flowering Clematis recently after intense heat had fried them. Again, experiments. One, so far, reported success, even though the books won’t tell you summer Clematis butchery is on the recommended list.

With anything you are this harsh on, be sure to keep an eye on watering while it rejuvenates. And don’t panic, or at least not right away. Some plants (like my euphorbias) will sit there looking like you killed them for a week (or two or three). And then, most times, they’ll get up and growing all over again.

Given any good haircuts lately? Perhaps that stringy hanging basket of petunias?

Bookmark and Share This Page | « Close

Save to Browser Favorites

Email This to a Friend

HTML:

If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS feed or Email feed.

Comments

52 Responses to “garden tip: first, make things worse”

Terri Clark on July 10th, 2008 5:17 pm

This is excellent advice, Margaret. The recently shaved plants in my garden remind of the 1950s summer crew cuts my brothers used to sport!It has also given me narrow windows of planting space to tuck in a few showy annuals so that when the “hair” starts growing in, there will be skirts at the bottom of their feet. So far polygonum, pulmonarias, geraniums and some early spring grasses have seen the sharp edge of my secateurs. Never thought about doing the same to euphorbias as that white sap always makes me think they’re being bled to death. But I’m out the door now to sharpen the knives and give it a try- I’ll let you know the results.
Brian G. on July 10th, 2008 5:20 pm

The annual Salvia that I started from seed my very own self (please, no applause) is very leggy. It is just blooming now but looks weedy. If I cut it back at this point will it bush out or am I too late?
You also remind me I’m looking pretty shaggy myself. Must make appointment for a good pruning.
Cindy on July 10th, 2008 5:56 pm

Oh, I am terrible at cutting back! I always feel so bad for the plant. Silly, I know but I do feel mean as I perform the necessary task. In fact I have a catmint in some serious need of a makeover. Add that to the ever growing list of garden to do’s.
margaret on July 10th, 2008 6:06 pm

First, just this: I love you guys.
OK, got that out of my system (but really, it is SO helpful this first fulltime season of my life in the garden…after decades of just a couple of days…to have you all to “talk” to.

@Brian: I got a haircut yesterday. Phew! I think it’s one of life’s best pick-me-uppers, after cleaning a messy closet (but easier).

@Terri: Eek! I am afraid now that you are going to behead your spurges…what if they hate you for it? But if they do get mildewy and nasty in high summer, like mine, I guess it’s the best course. Onward!

@Cindy: Welcome to A Way to Garden. This is one of the very hardest lessons in gardening (after the one about giving up on certain plants that just won’t “do” for you once you’ve tried several times).
Cutting back is so hard to stomach sometimes, and I was ashamed to show you all the post (the photos especially) as if I’d done something WRONG. If the garden doesn’t look perfect, I am embarrassed. Funny, huh? Do we need to exhume Sigmund Freud to figure out who’s got some control and self-esteem issues over here? Might be me… :)
Terri Clark on July 10th, 2008 6:08 pm

It’s so funny because just like Brian I also made an appointment to get my longish hair trimmed. I think we’ll all feel cooler from a cut!!!
Brian G. on July 10th, 2008 7:01 pm

Hey, lets all go together!
june on July 10th, 2008 7:11 pm

Oh its so nice to see you write about this! I have recently been feeling conflicted about cutting back my plants. Want to get rid of the tired looking overgrowth but was not excited about having a bunch of sticks poke out of the ground. The horehound I cut back looks excellent now. I also seem to cut back my hyssop at just the write time:
http://tinyurl.com/5gw29z

I cut it before it got overgrown and it filled back in nicely without having to go to the stump of sticks phase.

Thanks for the info, I have some cutting back to do!
Melissa on July 10th, 2008 7:14 pm

Got my haircut yesterday as well!

You mentioned leggy petunias. I have some in both the front and back yard and they are getting really tall and leggy. they are still blooming profusely though. Should I cut them back some, if so how far?
margaret on July 10th, 2008 7:33 pm

Welcome, June! Thanks for the hyssop link, and the quick trip to Asheville, NC (haven’t been there since a native plant conference eons ago, but beautiful country). This is a hard lesson, and frankly I posted it partly to make myself go out and do it, too…a little scary to be brutal, but it’s key.

Welcome, Melissa. “Blooming profusely” doesn’t sound like “leggy” to me. Hmmmm…hard to tell without seeing. If they look stringy and the blooms are not all the way consistently up and down the stems, I would give them a haircut. A way to experiment if you are afraid: Trim back some stems hard, some halfway, some not at all. See what happens. Or maybe do one or two stems hard, one or two not at all, and most halfway. Again, an experiment! Also, petunias are hungry guys, so douse them regularly with a fish-emulsion and seaweed extract diluted to recommended strength (look on the product label).
GardenGuyKenn on July 10th, 2008 8:17 pm

Okay.. I’m convinced that you’re psychic Margaret… before I even came in to AWTG this evening, I wrote on my weekend to do list: ‘Cut back tired plants.’ (which by the way was written on the back of an envelope) Nature is rather amazing.. one week things are lush, green and full then with a bit of heat and a day or two without rain, it looks like the end of the season for some. So, I’ll be spending my Saturday doing the three C’s: Clip, Chop, Compost.

While we’re at it, put me down for a cut and color… a bit too much of the grey is showing…
deb on July 10th, 2008 8:29 pm

I always feel the need to apologize to the roses after I prune them. The look so sad for a few weeks, but it is always worth it.
elizabeth on July 10th, 2008 8:47 pm

margaret,
thanks so much for the post today. my nepeta are looking so overgrown and bad, but i haven’t had the courage to cut them back until now. so thank you. same goes for spring euphorbia which are looking bad. i gave one a major haircut last week, but haven’t had the guts to take care of the others. as for my pulmonaria, they’ve responded well to cutting back so far. this is my first year with mrs. moon…totally dreamy. puts her neighbor roy davison to shame. plus my dicentra spectabilis are ready for big cleanup. ah spring ephemera. thanks again. i love your site.
margaret on July 10th, 2008 9:05 pm

Welcome, Deb, and welcome, Elizabeth.

@Deb: Roses are especially tough, you are right. After bloom the climbers and ramblers really need it, or they just get too crazy. I wonder which others you prune where you are; perhaps some floribundas need deadheading? (And p.s., love the wild “monkeys” on your blog.)

@Elizabeth: Go for it with the Nepeta…they will look dead for a little while, but be brave. The pulmonaria really do benefit, and the bleeding heart…well, I just cut like 15 of them, really big clumps, to the ground. I don’t expect much back where they stood, at least not till next spring, but it’s a relief to be rid of their sorry spent selves for now. Annuals, anyone? Or even just a fresh layer of mulch where they were would be better than what they looked like.

@Kenn: I thought we agreed not to talk about fast-growing gray hair. :)
mss @ Zanthan Gardens on July 10th, 2008 9:08 pm

Time to be cutting back the tomatoes here in Austin…past time, probably. I’m looking forward to that lovely fall garden.
Pru on July 10th, 2008 9:25 pm

Oh my! Just what I’ve been up to as well. The other big chore was cutting off all the over-the-hill flowers on the big blue hostas. Since I really just like the foliage I think that next year I’ll consider not even letting them bloom at all - seems like that would be easier. I used all the various trimmings to make a nice layer of organic stuff in a new lasagna bed I’m starting, so progress on that front!
Ted on July 10th, 2008 9:54 pm

Boy, I really feel like the outsider here. I dead head and cut back some, but never cut back so hard anymore. I just don’t think the ugliness is worth it. For things like bigroot geranium, lungwort and lady’s mantle I just give the spent bloom stalk a firm tug and they pull from the base, leaving the foliage behind. I trim salvias and nepetas back to healthy buds, but never down to the ground. I guess I’m just willing to put up with a little more imperfection, and inflict on the gardens I tend.
Pam on July 10th, 2008 10:10 pm

Like Ted, I pull out the bloom stalks from Geranium Brookside, G. Magnificum, and G. Nimbus, and am left with a nice little mound of new foliage. G. Samobor needs more drastic measures: cut it to the ground and it will regrow in about 3 weeks. In the meantime, I use a container plant to cover up the bare spot.

Can I cut to the ground Primula ‘Wanda’? What about Brunnera “Hadspen Cream”?
margaret on July 10th, 2008 10:19 pm

@Pru: Yes, hosta blooms…i could live without most of them, except late, fragrant large trumpets of white H. plantaginea, which is great.

@Ted: Sounds to me like you have done your own experimenting and found formulas that work for you just fine. So many factors at work; I just have miles of some of this stuff, and it’s unbearable looking in such masses when it all flops open from mid-July onward, or goes mildewy all at once. I used to do the pulling thing w/the flower stems, but once the beds got so big (and I planted so many new areas, oops!, with such big swaths) I found big scissors or grass shears just worked faster. But I get what you’re saying…the bigroot geranium rebounds pretty fast, but some of the others can be ugly for a good long spell.

Welcome, Pam. Yes, my bazillion ‘Samobor’ get the hatchet after bloom, too. I haven’t ever grown Wanda primulas, and the various kinds I grow usually get swamped by other things all summer (like nearby hostas that leaf out) and so I haven’t noticed them enough to cut them back. I have cut back Brunnera when some leaves got brown-edged and crispy looking in dry times, but not regularly as a matter of course. But if something looks ratty, I would probably at least cut out the bad leaves (or more).
Anna on July 10th, 2008 10:23 pm

AWWW, do I have to? I hate to cut down plants. I know it’s trimming them up for brighter days–but it’s so brutal. Good advice and your weblog is just awesome. I got to go look at your gardens.
Amy on July 10th, 2008 10:28 pm

So true - my catmint get a good cutting back after the first flush of blooms and if I keep after my pansies they will bloom until frost. I’ve also found that my purple flowering lamium goes from drop dead gorgeous in spring, to leggy and not so attactive in July. I give it a drastic cutting back (by then there’s already new growth near the ground) and it perks right up.
zina on July 10th, 2008 10:41 pm

I enjoy cutting things back (and I also can get really into cleaning out a closet), but I get confused about the nepeta I have in a border. I hate how floppy they get, but I also don’t like the idea of a border getting shorn.
I get a bit paralyzed! Any suggestions?
margaret on July 11th, 2008 6:21 am

Welcome, Anna…and no, you don’t have to do anything. It’s your garden, and the way it looks and how you run it is all your deal. It’s “A Way to Garden,” not “THE Way…” or “The ONLY Way…” Really.

Welcome, Zina, to A Way to Garden. Paralyzed is the right word, and after all these years I still get stuck there, too. Susan, who has helped me in the garden fr years, will say “We should cut down the Xxxx today,” and I say “Can’t we wait a little longer?” and get all chicken. It’s our annual dialog, and actually kind of funny now. Like the dental appointment you want to postpone if you think it’s going to hurt, you know?

@Anna: Sounds like you’ve overcome the fear because of good results. Thanks for sharing.
laura on July 11th, 2008 11:47 am

hi margaret,
what about dicentra spectabilis? It still has quite a bit of foliage, but it is yellow. Can i cut it back? I have also read they like quite a bit of room, but I would love to put something that blooms late summer in their spot.

ps. i’m with you. cutting out leggy/ratty/dead foliage is one of my favorite gardening tasks
Maggie on July 11th, 2008 12:11 pm

Hi Margaret! I very happily marched out after reading the haircuts section of the July Garden Chores list, and cut back my hardy geranium (sorry, name unknown) that was looking just pitiful. Even shorn it’s better than it was and already there is new growth on it.
margaret on July 11th, 2008 12:14 pm

@Laura: Definitely take down the Dicentra. It won’t regrow probably till next year, or not much. I think you can put something annual in the hole, yes.

Welcome, Maggie (a name I like to be called, and am by my best friend and a few other longtime pals). I love that we energized and emboldened you to go at the Geranium…at your service!
Bart Z. on July 11th, 2008 2:17 pm

Margaret,
Jim and I whacked back a big lilac last weekend. (I know–a few days past the July 4 cutoff date.) It looks pretty sad but what can you do? It needed at least three feet taken off the top–it was out of control. I realize we may be punished with fewer blossoms next spring…
Do you trim the tops of yours every year, or follow that rule about taking out one-third of the stems to the ground annually?
Marian Faux on July 11th, 2008 2:38 pm

And I also seriously cut back those fall-blooming sedums on July 1, so they bloom, with less flop, in the fall.

So happy to hear I can really chop off the dicentra. Don’t think of it as slaughtering your babies; it’s giving them a haircut.
margaret on July 11th, 2008 2:51 pm

Welcome, Marian. And yes, thinking of it as a haircut makes it all the more agreeable I think! Who doesn’t enjoy the fresh feeling of a nice haircut?

@Bart: I do nothing but deadhead with my lilacs…until they turn the corner to leggy or overgrown, and then I take out a fraction of the stems at ground level each year. But like anything with the part-art, part-science world of gardening, you have to use common sense and eyeball it, not just do what “experts” say. The “experts” (books, garden writer like me) aren’t there in the yard looking at the plant like you are, and can’t really make a judgment call for you, just offer guidelines. If the shrub was really overgrown, it probably can’t get worse from the chop job, and you can always watch how it breaks (or doesn’t) and take out some stems at the base to encourage vigorous new ones to fill in. I say “you have to grow it to know it,” and this is a lesson in the making–your experiment. Great.
writermom on July 11th, 2008 3:15 pm

Good topic. I’ve been dismayed with my garden the last few days — first it didn’t rain for more than two weeks of crispy hot weather, and now it’s rained off and on for five. The first few days of good rain were great, but now everything is looking a bit tattered, overgrown and exhausted.

It occurred to me that some slash-and-burn gardening might be appropriate — I figure that at some point, it can’t look any worse. Rather than battle the powdery mildew on my bee balm, I’m going to whack away the infested parts.

Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve sometimes used the weed eater to give plants, especially unruly, leggy mums, a hair cut. I just shave a few inches off the top; they really don’t seem to mind. I don’t recommend this method AT ALL, but I gave the salvia a little trim too, and it’s happily blooming. I just don’t have the patience for meticulous scissor trimming.
Heidi on July 11th, 2008 3:30 pm

Margaret,
I have to second everyone else, you are really psychic. I have a post for my blog already to go about how awful my garden looks now. Maybe I will just be patient and after everything has a chance to recuperate after the haircuts I will re-examine my thoughts about chucking the whole thing.

Also, I have been wondering about nepetas. I grow both “Six Hills Giant” and Walker’s Low.” Both are very nice and I have always been happy with their beautiful spring flush of blue. However, this June while vacationing on Nantucket, where I grew up and used to garden, I noticed that almost all the nepetas on the island are an electric blue. I have looked online and through lots of catalogs and can’t find anything that comes close to the brightness of the blue that I saw. Do you have any idea what nepeta it could be or is it just the way the beautiful island light makes everything more special?
margaret on July 11th, 2008 4:42 pm

@Heidi: Really all that you could look at would be ‘Joanna Reed’ or ‘Souvenir d’Andre Chaudron,’ my friend Andrew at Loomis Creek tells me, since I’m not growing any “new” ones. Neither is any greatly divergent color; the latter is shorter than the others and some sources say has “showier” flowers, but we’re not talking startlingly so. I like your “beach light” theory…
Tammy on July 11th, 2008 4:43 pm

Margaret,

I am so delighted to find your blog! I had wondered where you were. I have missed you on Homegrown. How wonderful for you to be able to retire early and spend time in your garden.
Here in Texas, some days we are just putting out the fires. So, yes I have begun to whack away at some of my salvias and other spindly creatures.
margaret on July 11th, 2008 4:45 pm

Welcome, Tammy…here I am. Now as for my early retirement, turns out blogging takes time, and then there’s the issue of making a living. I am brewing some fun ideas of what’s next for me, but it’s cutting into the “retirement” aspect of things to be sure. Nice to “see” you again.
dennis r on July 11th, 2008 9:45 pm

speaking of pruning..i planted a show off forsythia 5/26/08(i know you think they’re garden puke, margaret) & it’s grown 5 inches already.
how do i know?…i tied a loose twisty under the top buds of 1 cane & measured up from there. my Q? is: should i prune it back now for more lateral growth to make it a fuller ‘puke’ shrub? lol.

dennis r
zone 5
hudson valley, ny
Dee/reddirtramblings on July 12th, 2008 7:57 am

I’m doing the same thing Margaret. I just wrote about deadheading and chopping back. Must be done to keep these going. Thanks for showing the decimation.~~Dee
margaret on July 12th, 2008 8:39 am

@Dennis: To be specific, I called forsythia “vomit of spring,” naughty person that I am. I’d prune it right after flowering, not now that it’s done much of its growing for the season.

@Dee: It was hard to show the decimation, as I said. Right now, I can barely look at many parts of the garden, let alone “show” it. And so now I’m heading over to Oklahoma (that would be YOU) to see how your haircut salon is going…
Carolyn on July 12th, 2008 12:36 pm

Great post. My first gardening teachers were a wonderful family I used to babysit for. (Those babies are now in their late teens). They do this kind of serious hacking even with houseplants. They had a huge, old Dracena marginata with stalks that touched the ceiling. In spring they cut those long bare stalks to the base of the plant and rooted the tops for give-aways. Before long a plump new plant emerged from the base. The results taught me that it’s ok to be a little ruthless and that has been my mantra this year with cutting back as well as editing self-sowers.
margaret on July 12th, 2008 12:45 pm

Thanks, Carolyn, and welcome to A Way to Garden. And you bring up another great point: All those Nicotiana self-sowns outside in a particular bed of mine are healthy and lush…but that doesn’t mean I should leave them all there. One more task for the to-do list.
Lyn on July 14th, 2008 11:48 am

Read your post just after my Inspection Walk this morning…. yep, it is time for some “tuff love” in this zone 9 garden.

Not much heat in the summer on the coast, I am STILL waiting for the first Hollyhock blossom to open! But everyone grows at a good steady pace from March until November… can’t ask for more than that, right?
Wondering if I may ask for other posts to include their zone when commenting? As a newbie gardener it would be tres helpful.
joyce on July 14th, 2008 5:28 pm

I am starting to feel so much less alone…So much of my garden is about keeping it pruned back — especially the astors! I cut them back at least 3 times throughout the summer, and pull out tons of them all the time. Alma Potchka and Purple Dome have married and the children are very gratifying, but different every year. This summer I goofed by cutting back the baptisia that was flopping into everything, but it is growing back kind of low and bushy and looks good!

What about daylily leaves? They get so ratty, but what a chore to keep them cleaned up! Do you cut them back when they have finished blooming?

This blog is wonderful.

Joyce
margaret on July 14th, 2008 5:38 pm

Thanks, Joyce. I don’t grow daylilies (I know, what am I thinking?) but when I did years ago I only removed the messy leaves–ones that were yellowing or tattered. Removing all the leaves (cutting the whole plant back) won’t kill it, but I don’t think it will make it happy, either. Can you selectively groom out tattered stuff?
As for your asters, yes! Good point. I usually did one cutback a season with them, forcing later but sturdier bloom.
genata on July 16th, 2008 10:29 am

Is anyone else as loathe as I am to cut back oakleaf hydrangeas? They look so gorgeous as they fade from cream to almost peach, I can’t bring myself to do it. I’m wondering if it’s too late to cut back other hydrangeas also- they are making new growth, and while we’re at it, nicotiana, beautiful tall, light green flowers, which I did shear, do you think they’ll flower again?
Lisa in CA on July 16th, 2008 9:42 pm

I whacked my columbine at the end of blooming a few weeks ago because it was looking real leggy and unkempt and now it is starting to fill out again. It was a nice surprise because I really thought I had done her in.
margaret on July 16th, 2008 9:58 pm

@Genata: Welcome. The Nicotianas can bounce back pretty amazingly, in my experience, and I often cut the flower stalks to the ground for a late flush of bloom. So good move.
Big blue hydrangeas (if that’s what you’re talking about) bloom on one-year-old wood, meaning they aren’t going to set more buds now (unless it’s ‘Endless Summer’ that you have, which as its name implies can keep on making new flowers all summer). You can deadhead as blooms finish if you want.
As for the oakleaf types, I either don’t deadhead at all or if they need pruning I do it right after bloom–not later. If they are overgrown, take out some of the oldest stems at the base. Ditto with the blue mopheads.

@Lisa: It is amazing how long some plants you deadhead will test you, as if they’re playing “chicken,” or playing dead. Some of my euphorbias out front looked like goners for nearly four weeks,and now they’re growing again.
Mariann on July 24th, 2008 12:27 pm

I do a couple of things to take the sting out of hacking back some of the plants that just do better later in the garden when they are cut back. For salvias, I force myself to cut some stems in the back of the plant, even if it blooming like crazy. Then when the front part of the plant is ready to be cut back, I take that away to reveal the lush, new growth created by the first cut. I do a similar thing with nepeta only I take cuts out of the center. The new growth fills in quickly and by the time I get around to cutting off the tired looking first blooms (this week finally, the center portion is already a green mound. And, yes, annuals are my friend for filling in holes.
margaret on July 24th, 2008 1:17 pm

Welcome, Mariann. I like your trick for staging the destruction. Very smart. Thanks for visiting, and see you soon again, I hope.
Suzanne on July 25th, 2008 8:00 pm

My dear mother could never bring herself to cut back her perennials so whenever I visited her in California I would barely finishing hugging her before grabbing the pruning shears and going on a spree in her garden. The first time she was shocked but soon appreciated the effect. Still she was unable to get over her fear of doing harm to the plants.

In the Northeast one shrub that I have found that loves multiple haircuts throughout the spring and summer are the bright leaved Spirea (Goldflame, Goldmound etc.) They can be trimmed a little or a lot, either way you get new colorful emerging foliage and a flush of repeat blooms. I am on my third Spirea haircut of the current spring and summer.
Amy on July 26th, 2008 12:19 pm

Margaret,

First I must thank you generally for your website. I generally don’t “do” blogs, because they seem to be mostly about people with like ideas passing them back and forth, or sharing the same rants, or telling each other how clever they are. But ‘A Way to Garden’ is so different. Informative, inspiring and beautiful! Very beautiful!

Now thank you specifically for ‘First Make Things Worse.’ I was on vacation in June and worked too many hours in July, and everything is out of control. With your good advice and inspiration I’m ready to regain control of this mess.

Pruners sharp — onward!!
margaret on July 26th, 2008 1:26 pm

Welcome, Amy, and many thanks for the kind words. Now as for “regain control”…well, I’m not promising anything will ever be truly in control, but it certainly will be better after your planned assault. Keep us posted (and take no prisoners)!
Amy on July 29th, 2008 6:37 pm

Well Margaret, I attacked boldly and several borders looks much more controlled — if a little shorn and ragged.

But I made an interesting and wonderful discovery. A bed of much overgrown thyme vulgaris that was in flower was full of honeybees!! Not full like in the good old days perhaps, but there were more honeybees than I’ve seen in months! So I left it untouched. Maybe there is something in thyme pollen that is a bee-tonic. I also plan to transplant thyme into all my gardens and allow it to overgrow and flower at will. Anything for the bees.
Terry Haugen on July 31st, 2008 4:37 pm

Hi I just found your site and loved the photos. Did you ever try growing the ” Happy Thoughts” Pelargonium? Not only does it have flourescent orange-red flowers but fancy green leaves with a cream center. Very stunning!
margaret on July 31st, 2008 8:47 pm

Welcome, Terry. Haven’t grown that one, but now that you’ve told me I will have to go find it. Hope to see you again soon.

Leave a Reply

Who's Gardening Here?

from martha to just margaret
I was so blessed to visit and document many of the nation’s finest homemade gardens for 15 years for ‘Martha Stewart Living,’ first as its garden editor and then as editorial director for the company. The list of places we were proud to publish included my own upstate New York home a few years back. Take a tour of how it looked then. Want to know more about me? Or read what Anne Raver said in June in The New York Times, calling A Way to Garden “the best (garden blog) I’d ever seen.” Adrian Higgins of The Washington Post was similarly kind. And so was Martha, on her TV show.
Newsletter Signup

Sign Up Email:
Why Do You Garden?

One of the most popular questions at A Way to Garden: Why do you garden? A bunch of us answered in a stream of comments, and there's great other stuff on the Forums. Just in case you'd like to tell us why, too (or have a good read about what makes the rest of us tick).
November Garden Chores

All based on my Zone 5B Berkshire/Hudson Valley location; adjust accordingly.

THE WINDING DOWN is well under way, a beautiful time of reflection and rest…if only we can get the place cleaned up before really harsh weather says “stop.” Target cleanup first to areas where rodents and moles might do winter damage, not leaving any heavy buildup of fallen plants and wet leaves in place. I set out mousetraps under boxes, buckets or cans where I see any activity, to rid them from my beds and borders.

If you had areas where something didn’t fare well—an unproductive vegetable or fruit crop, an unwillingness of some shrub to flower for no apparent reason—quickly gather a soil sample before the ground freezes and take it in for analysis to your local Cooperative Extension service. Some amendments can be spread or tilled in before heavy frost to start to mellow over the coming months.

If it all seems too hectic, remember: Seed catalogs in the easy chair are just ahead. Position it to point out the window, where there are still riches: berries, bark, new birds. Did you join Project Feederwatch yet?

TREES & SHRUBS

PRIME TRANSPLANTING TIME for deciduous trees and shrubs continues into this month, sometimes longer if weather permits and the ground shows no signs of freezing. Make that work include some focus on the addition of fall and winter plants to the landscape.

CLEAR TURF OR WEEDS from the area right around the trunks of fruit trees and ornamentals to reduce winter damage by rodents. Hardware cloth collars should be in place year-round as well.

BE EXTRA-VIGILANT cleaning up under fruit trees, as fallen fruit and foliage allowed to overwinter invites added troubles next season.

BE SURE TO WATER trees now through hard frost if conditions are dry, so that they enter dormancy in a well-hydrated state. Evergreens (needled ones and broadleaf types like rhododendron, too) are particularly vulnerable to desiccation and winterburn otherwise.

ALWAYS BE on the lookout for dead, damaged, diseased wood in trees and shrubs and prune them out as discovered. This is especially important before winter arrives with its harsher weather, where weaknesses left in place invite tearing and unnecessary extra damage. Remove suckers and water sprouts, too.

VEGETABLE, FRUIT & HERBS

MULCH STRAWBERRY PLANTS with a couple of inches of (guess what?) straw. If next year’s plans include a patch of strawberries (or asparagus), do the soil preparation now so the bare-root plants ordered over the winter can be planted extra early come spring.

PREPARE A SEEDBED NOW for peas and spinach for next spring, to get a headstart on such early crops. Spinach can even be sown now through Thanksgiving, for super-early spring harvest; not the peas, of course.

PARSLEY AND CHIVES can be potted up and brought indoors for offseason use. A few garlic cloves in a pot will yield a supply of chive-like (but spicier) garlic greens all winter for garnish. Determined types with really sunny windowsills can sow seeds of bush basil in a pot, too. I rely on frozen pesto cubes instead.

HURRY, HURRY if you didn’t get your garlic in. Ideally it would be in about a month before frost is in the ground. Prepare a sunny spot, and plant each clove 1-2 inches deep and 6 inches apart in the row, with about 12 inches between rows.

FLOWER GARDEN

PROTECT ROSES FROM WINTER damage by mounding up their crowns with a 6- to 12-inch layer of soil before the ground freezes. After all is frozen, add a layer of leaf mulch to further insulate.

PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION to areas around peonies, roses, irises and other flowers that are prone to fungal diseases. Cut down iris foliage and rake well under roses.

CANNAS, DAHLIAS AND OTHER tender bulb-like things including elephant ears need to be dug carefully for indoor storage. There are many methods, but the basics: Once frost blackens the foliage, cut back the tops to 6 inches and dig carefully, then brush or wash off soil and let dry for two weeks or so to cure. Stash in a dry spot like unheated basement or crawl space around 40-50 degrees, in boxes or pots filled with bark chips or peat moss. Details, here.

DON'T DEADHEAD FADED perennials, biennials and annuals if you want self-sowns, or make sure to shake pods around before removing plant carcasses. Nicotiana, poppies, larkspur, clary sage and many others fall into this leave-alone group. So do plants with showy or bird-friendly seedheads, like grasses and coneflowers.

LAST CALL FOR BULB ORDERS (see Sources), though I swear you can plant them even with a pick-axe and they come up anyhow. Remember our “early, middle, late” mantra when ordering. And think drifts, not onesies and threesies.

PREPARE NEW beds for future planting by smothering grass or weeds with layers of recycled corrugated cardboard or thick layers of newspaper, then put mulch on top.

HOUSEPLANTS

START A POT OF PAPERWHITES in potting soil or pebbles and water, and stagger forcing of another batch every couple of weeks for a winterlong display.

CONTINUE RESTING AMARYLLIS BULBS by leaving them in a dry, dark place where they will have no water at all for a couple of months. I put mine in a little-used closet, and they will come out in another few weeks. Pot up new ones now.

LAWNS

KEEP MOWING TILL THE GRASS stops growing, and make the last cut a short one. Let clippings lie on the lawn to return Nitrogen to the soil, and mow over fallen leaves to shred, or rake them off before snows.

TAKE THE MOWER IN for service now, or store without gas in the tank. Run it dry.

COMPOST HEAP & MULCH

START A LEAVES-ONLY PILE alongside your other heap as a future source of soil-improving leaf mold, or when partly rotted for use as mulch.
Brief but Juicy

ultimate garden no-no’s
WHEN SOMEONE ASKED in a comment about my point of view on using landscape fabric, the fuse was quickly lit: NO! I said. NO! I’ve rounded up some no-no’s we’ve posted collectively so far, but I bet by now there are a few more things to bitch about. Grab a lawn chair and a cold drink, and we can fester together. Sure beats weeding (which ought to be a garden no-no).

lose anything lately?
THE SAYING GOES THAT a thing of beauty is a joy forever. I guess “forever” in this case is in the mind’s eye. My darling, oldest bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora) went down for the count in July, or at least half of it did, and I had already seen the death knell for a couple of my 10 crabapples. Jeez.

true love, really
LOOK, I HAVE A THING for frogs. Call it my little fetish. An issue. Whatever. My general obsession notwithstanding, I’ve finally met THE ONE FOR ME.

hail the stewartia
I LIKE PLANTS THAT EARN THEIR KEEP. By that I mean they do more than a week or two of showing off; they look good in more than a single moment, or season. The small-ish to medium trees in the genus Stewartia are a good bet if that’s the kind of multi-season interest you are looking for. Sound good?

more, more, more clematis
WHEN I SEE ‘POLISH SPIRIT’ CLAMBERING up and through the golden Chamaecyparis in late spring-into-summer, I realize I have a serious Clematis shortage around here. Not in the Chamaecyparis, specifically, but in lots of other places where things look a little dull. I’ve got a penchant for growing vines up and over otherwise-dull shrubbery, you see.

can-do pruning
REPEAT AFTER ME: I can prune. I can prune. If you follow this simple method for starters, your woody plants will thank you.

the ‘other’ peonies
JUNE WAS PEONY TIME, the big raucous kind of peony time, but just before that another kind of peony you might want to consider adopting did its subtler, wonderful thing.

which lilac to plant?
SO MANY LILACS, so little space. Browse a glossary of some of my favorites before you shop—maybe you’ll like them, too.

non-blooming peonies?
Did your peonies not cooperate—was there not a good crop of flower buds, and you don’t know why? This came up on the Forums, and here’s the dish.

twist-off ticks
I AM COMING IN everyday with at least a tick or two on me; not embedded, thankfully, so far, but it's only a matter of time. But I am prepared. Are you?

anything but forsythia
I guess I have a thing against forsythia…even though I have several specimens of it along the fringes of my property. But there are better choices for spring color among shrubs.

surprise (avian) visitors
If you make a garden for birds, or even plant a crabapple or two (or ten), you never know who’ll show up.

magnolias to love
THEY’RE MEMORIES NOW but I couldn't garden without magnolias. Want to know more about the queen of the spring-blooming trees?

order in the garden
I AM LABELING my plants, I am. As memory fades, out comes the label machine, just in the nick. Saved by the Dymo. You can be, too.
Buried Treasure

I NOTICE THAT BLOGGING results in some rich but buried treasure: great stuff in a comment thread you may not see; interesting topics on the forums that perhaps you haven't visited.

Subjects ranging from feeding and pruning Hydrangeas and pruning clematis, to entertaining (read: ranting) lists and lists of garden no-no’s (not just mine!).

Pick a click, and enjoy. Better yet, CHIME IN yourself. Up in the nav bar…that's right, GO FOR IT: our Q&A FORUMS.