Falland Cleaning up Your Garden...What are YOU doing??

After Labor Day--I cannot but feel that the growing season is over. All my hard work and money spent is now worth nil and a lot of questions of "WHY did I buy that??" Time for retrospection and WHY I bought what and what my hopes were for these plants. Taking notes for next year--just to succumb, once again, to all the enticing plants for sale everywhere in the Spring and the desire to buy too many of them.
It seems to be more a "mental" thing than an actual thing.....but, still--after Labor Day, there is an urge to pull up, clean up, harvest seeds, and get rid of many an annual that is now in a Ho-Hum state...and to clean up the beds while the weather is still nice-----and to start cooking Soup!

I have been starting to pull up useless annuals that now look like so many weeds. Leaves all browned and blooms so-so. At the same time I realize that many of them will get a "second breath" and favor us all with more fresh blooms in the cooler October weather as if to say--"Here I am! I am still alive!.....I can breathe now!!!!"

What do YOU do this time of year? What is the "trigger" from your Garden to you that it is time for a clean-up? End of the Season.....Saying Bye--Bye? Are you obsessing about dividing Perennials? Collecting seeds? Taking cuttings for next year?

I know it is a busy, stressful time for me-- as I have to decide what to save, what to propagate, and what to trash. What to collect seeds from and what to just say "Good Bye" to.
A pretty emotional time of year, I would say! Like saying "good Bye" to a loved one......don't you think?

Share your feelings on all this--will you? What are YOU doing at this time?

Gita

My annual black eyed susans never dried up this year, lie they usually do midsummer. I am so sick of the dozens I have - I'm starting to pull them even with green in the leaves. That's saying something.
I'm starting to look at houseplants and decide what to do with them before frost. Last year I was overboard on trying to save everything.

Busy, yes...stressful, no! I'm just getting fired up! The cooler weather invigorates me and I've been a planting fool the past couple of weeks :) I've been looking at a couple of areas all summer that needed reworking and I've finally tackled them. Most of it is adding plants to fill in the bare spots, either where something died, something didn't do well or whatever was next to it just didn't fill out like I thought it would. I've also got some plants that are getting droopy or stretched because the trees are providing too much shade now that they've grown. I'm anxious to get Hostas growing in these spots so I'm digging up the suffering plants and heeling them in in another area until the spot I want to move them to is ready. That area probably won't be ready until next spring so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they make it through the winter! I am sad though to look at a few things, like my Peonies, whose foliage is crisp and brown :( I don't remember if they looked like this last fall or not so I'm hoping it was just the drought and their roots are still alive and will spring back to life next year. Peonies in other areas of the garden look absolutely dreadful this year - worst powdery mildew I've ever seen! On a positive note the new Heuchera bed we planted earlier this summer is thriving and looks gorgeous! The recent rains we FINALLY received is making everything look much happier and is inspiring me to plant, plant, plant :) I've been really bad about taking pictures this summer but hopefully I'll have some soon to share.

My peonies haven't dried much at all, but they are White with PM

Peony leaves do turn dry and yellow this time of year. I just cut them all down to stubs..
Not much you can do about the mold and mildew.

Have a big project to do yet---I want to move my 6' tall Kopper King Hibiscus to my small, round bed out front. The KK is now in a very narrow bed smack against the house on the East side near the kitchen door. It sure has been doing well! That's why I am hoping it will do even better to be "liberated" to the small bed out front. I am hoping I can dig it up with minimum damage tot he roots--which are long and strong......
Also, where it is now--it is shading out totally my red Day Lilies and also my Proteus Clematis. It just has to go!!!

Big project.......Gita

Here's the KK in it's tiny bed....

And here is the round bed out front of my house where I am going to move it to.....not much else ever going on in there.....

Some of my peonies go crispy every year and others right next to them don't, so I think it's probably some kind of disease and not dry conditions since they all have the same conditions. Last year I cut one of the ones that gets crispy down to the ground as soon as it started to get some dead bits on the leaves and this year that one didn't have any problem. I made sure to dispose of the cut foliage in the trash in case it is a disease.

I haven't seen any powdery mildew on them.

There is something you can do about powdery mildew, by the way. Using a baking soda water spray several times over the summer will usually keep it down.

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/bakingsoda.html

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/02902.html recipe here at the bottom of the page

Call me a drama queen- I took a better look at my peonies and the PM is not all that bad. These are planted right between some puppy poo disposal holes from last year.

I love this time of year. I want to try to save some things for the 1st time-coleus cuttings, elephant ear and begonias and save some seeds. I will go thru and clean out any weeds I missed. I do have 1 bed I have to finish planting with lilies and tulips.
Then I will do some fall decorating with scarecrows and pumpkins.

I'm in the height of Monarch season which doesn't warrent clearing out all the beds just yet. But, if I had been on my gardening game all summer, the mess in my gardens wouldn't be in such disarray. That's a number one pet project next year. Kept my beds tidy as I go along. Is that possible? Maybe not like a display garden, for sure, but certainly better than this mess I have now. What kept me from staying on top of weeds and grasses was buying so many plants this year. What was I thinking? Got a bad case of coopitis I suppose.
I am collecting butterfly chrystalis as I go through collecting seed heads. If I am careful, some of my gardens that don't have host plants in them will be the first to get cleaned out in October. I've already called our local electricity company and ordered free mulch to be delivered.

FREE mulch??? How lucky are you? We've followed the trucks that cut along the electric lines numerous times and asked them to dump any mulch they're looking to get rid of but it's only happened once about three years ago. I think so many people asked them that now they just give up and haul it to the city and nothing's "free" from the city here :(

hart, thanks for the link for the baking soda water spray - I've copied for reference for next year :)

Gita, I don't envy you, I've got two KKs and one Moy Grande to move before next spring. They just don't do well now that they're in too much shade so hopefully the move won't kill them! We didn't have the usual problems with Japanese Beetles this year but because there's not enough sun for them their blooms were less than spectacular.

More planting accomplished yesterday but still no pictures - I was too busy! I've found a source for rocks and after a quick trip the night before to scope it out, I was unloading my first haul. It's not going to be easy, they're located along the river on a friend's property and it's an uphill climb to get to them to the car :( Next trip I've got to remember to take my wheelbarrow!

rcn- I wonder if a cheap kids sled would be easier -to drag rocks up a slope, than wheelbarrow?

I've had a big patch of common milkweed for a dozen year s now and still see maybe one monarch cat a year. Had maybe two chrysali on that time. I just don't get many. . I still leave the stems lay if I ull any- give them a chance to move to a fresh stem if theres an egg or cat I missed. Now this year a bad case of some kind of rust. Its pretty ugly.

Monarchs will usually crawl 30 ft away from their host plant to pupate. Usually up high to form a chrsytalis. I was so surprised to find them under the leaves of a Magnolia ashi tree some 25 ft away from the nearest milkweed plant. That's why I'm having to wait before cleanup in those areas. But, my weather is still warm and is usually a pleasant fall through Thanksgiving. I just can't stand all the ugly tall Bermuda grass that has creeped in.

Please be careful with that free mulch, y'all. Be sure to wear gloves when you handle it. It's probably going to have poison ivy and who knows what else in it.

Debbie, try calling your local landfill. I know here you can pick up a truckload of mulch from ground yard waste for a small fee. I think it was something like $8 a truckload. Same as above, though, don't handle it with bare hands.

Anne Arundel Co MD has good waste service but the one time I went to scoop it myself mulch- it was really really rough. Interesting tho, going to the top of the REAL dump with the big boys..and seagulls and vultures. and stench...

I imagine its a much nicer situation where they encourage giving the mulch to the homeowners

I know when one of the local jurisdictions here considered giving away the mulch, the local companies that sell it had a fit. Said it was unfair to have to compete with free mulch.

Frankly, I don't see it that way. When you buy mulch from a garden center you know you're getting ground up bark and wood chips. When you get it from a landfill, it's whatever has been picked up from people's yards, including weeds, diseased plants, poison ivy, etc.

When people see free that is all they see, quality means nothing in some things. It's the case of buyer beware. We all fall into this trap from time to time.

I'll be sure to use gloves, Hart. I usually don't but know I should. They tell me it's mostly oak and pine but you never know. The utility guy is a family relative to my aunt's SIL. I think all the utlility guys scoop up all the good stuff for themselves, friends and family. Hope I lucked up this time.
I'm glad Gita started this thread. I'm cleaning out some low ground cover weeds and discovered they had covered up a clump of TB Iris. That's not a good thing. Glad I caught that before the rhizones became too damp.

I'm just saying that I disagreed with the commercial vendors, Chris. I think anyone who wants free or near free mulch isn't doing that in place of buying truckloads of the stuff.

You know, if any of you have a lot of trees, you might want to invest in a chipper and make your own. My father always had the nicest mulch he'd made from grinding leaves he raked up out of the yard.

I got one used in the Valley Trader (regional classifieds paper) a few years ago for $50.

It took at least two seasons to figure out that the "new" weeds to our lawn were coming from the city compost we were using to reseed the fescue. I'm bad about not always wearing gloves, but they saved my hand from a potentially nasty cut on a twisted piece of scrap metal that was in the city mulch. You just never know what's gonna show up in that stuff...plastic bags, pieces of cable, wire. I finally got over that good deal.

Down here, fall is when warm season grasses fade away to make room for the cool season grasses. So everyone is busy trying to get the fescue established. The question for us this year is whether to incorporate clover...intentionally, that is. It's a weed to many, but it's soft and green and can take the summer heat with little to no extra watering.

And it's a nitrogen fixer, which is the main reason clover is included in some grass seed mixes.

When its time to shred up the Xmas trees- that might be one season where you know what 95 percent of the mulch is.

OK! I have to ask once more--or make a statement of something I "know"......because I have heard it/read it.....

Mulch from chipper/shredder machines, from when they are cutting down trees, is NOT good mulch for your beds--because it is NOT decomposed/composted. It is a given that, once you spread it around in your beds, it will slowly decompose--BUT---I have "heard" that, because it is "raw" wood chips, it will rob your soil of Nitrogen in the process.

Can anyone tell me if this is true--or false???? I have always thought that mulches have to be partially composted before you use them. This would not apply to shredded leaves.....of course. They are wonderful!!!!

Gita

Discovered a link about a microclover that, when added to grass seed mixes, gives the lawn a consistent grassy look. I don't know if the microclover is actually on the market or just in trials...gotta keep researching, but I've added nitrogen fixing to the list of pros for this weed.

That's a very good point, sally. I sure hope I've put mulch down by then, but it wouldn't be the first time I've done things out of season.

Gita, my apologies... I don't mean to hijack your thread.

Besides reseeding, there are two other fall items. One is to map out what is planted where so that come spring, I'll know where NOT to dig. If I could just quit moving stuff around, this wouldn't be so critical. Every fall, I resolve that everything is where it should be...but then spring sales happen, then summer sales...it's a vicious cycle that I thoroughly love! The other fall item is to assess what should be trimmed back now. The winters throw me for a loop on when to prune what; so I tend to prune very little. As a result, I have the ugliest smoke tree you've ever seen...

It's false, Gita. It was thought for a long time it was so, but newer research has proven that it will only rob nitrogen if you dig it into the soil. There's no problem at all with using green wood chips as mulch.

If I recall correctly, a Master Gardener speaker explained that it has to do with the size of the pieces. The larger chips rob nitrogen because it takes them so much longer to decompose...as opposed to the shredded stuff, which breaks down much faster. From a nutrient perspective, in the long run it's better to mulch more frequently with shredded (cheaper) mulch than less frequently with the mulch chips.

oops...keep cross-posting!

In light of Hart's posting, perhaps the size isn't such a key factor either....

Edit: I say that because it's been a few years since that particular mulch discussion, and I don't entirely trust my memory. I know there was a LOT of discussion involving any and every type of mulch available, and the shredded vs. chip was the one thing that kinda stuck out in my mind. Sorry to have confused the mulch question even more!

This message was edited Sep 13, 2008 11:03 PM

plantmover,

NO problem!!!! To me--there is NO such thing as "Hijacking" a Thread. It is just allowing it to "grow'.....become more interesting......NO apologies EVER needed if I have started a Thread and you take it to a new dimension-----just plug away!!!! "Loosely", staying with the topic--of course.....Just makes for more involvement and more interesting reading....

I look at it this way-----I plant the "seed"....(starting a Thread)...and whatever grows out of it is no longer mine. It "roots"----it "grows"-----it "blooms"------and----it only becomes more interesting as people express their own views and share their experiences.......

OK! I have Clover cropping up in couple of spaces in my otherwise lush, healthy lawn. Should I be worried???? I have tried to sprinkle Weed killer granules on it---but then we are always having rain.....and it is useless.....

I know Ortho makes a lawn Clover Killer spray......Is it really good?

My sister in AK actually had someone mail her seeds for white Clover she seeded all over her lawn. Must be better than weeds over there!

Yes! To me it is a weed.....

Gita

Size Doesn't matter, (despite what some guys tried to tell me in college days...)

Passing along this great tip- Mrs_ Ed said to plant a grape hyacint in with other spring bulbs to remind you where they are at this time of year-- I just noticed today. my grape hyacinth foliage is shooting up. I iwsh I knew where some of my daffs are, now that its the time of year people are starting to think about trading and buying them.

Bye bye, pitiful mandevilla that never bloomed once this year, its third. It just didn't grow well enough to hold over thru winter and bounce back. I gave it a chance but its compost now. Yay one less overwintering decision.

I appreciate your kindness, Gita - thank you!

IF I had a lush lawn, I'd try to get rid of the clover because it WILL spread and choke out the grass. But since clover is the greenest thing I have going this year, I think I'm gonna let it stay in my lawn. ;) I haven't tried any of the clover herbicides, so I can't say on that.

Sally, you're a hoot! :) I love the hyacinth tip - thanks a bunch!

Well, I have just gotten back from vacation and it was SO dark I can't see what my yard looks like. I know I have canna, caladium and tuberose bulbs to dig up sometime soon and I need to deal with my ornamental grass. I have a couple of hundred spring bulbs coming soon which will need to be planted and the house plants need to come inside. I've got to see about collecting some seeds from a few of my plants and take cutting from some others. I still have a couple of wild weedy areas that need some work. I also promised Josh that I would "do" his yard as part of his house warming present. That means I will need to start with the weeding and get it cleaned up for winter and maybe some of those spring bulbs will go down to his place.
I love that last fall push the plants put on. One last great see how beautiful I am show.
Plantmover, I'm not familiar with micro-clovers but we have a lot of clover in our back yard and I wouldn't recommend it. Way back when, Ric planted the entire back yard with a grass seed and clover mix. He thought the clover would work really good with the children playing on it. Stay nice and green and it's pretty tuff so the kids and dogs wouldn't wear it down. It worked very well as he planed but he didn't think about the little while clover heads and the minute it started to bloom the honey bees came right in. All we had to do was miss a day mowing and the kids were stepping on bees and getting stung. Now we have to be very careful about keeping it cut or the grandchildren will get stung. Just last month I got stung twice myself. Also it creeps into my flower beds at the edges.

I have my clover battles. We had a lot, and a few stings because of it. (Also found tons of four leafers- the kids did, with the sharp eyes 8 ^)) I tried to kill it last year and ended up just making more room for crabgrass to grow after the clover died.

Most of my yard is just mowed weeds anyway. But the one place Ric actually planted grass was the back yard and then he put that clover into the mix. LOL
Not sure if I'll ever have real grass, it's pretty low on the wish list. ;}

well...let's try this again - just wrote a ton of stuff and lost the whole thing when I previewed!

Sally, what an excellent idea!!!!! I'm thinking one of those plastic toboggans (sp?) would be perfect - now...where can I find one this time of the year? They've still got the beach ball display at Walmart, wondering when they'll switch over to the winter gear? LOL

hart, I had checked into the mulch from the city a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, we live in the 'county' just two miles from the 'city limits' and they only offer it to 'city residents'! The biggest problem is we don't own a pick up truck, otherwise I'd be over at the Virginia Horse Center loading up with their 'goodies'! LOL It's been frustrating, we haven't had a pick up truck for about 5 years now and although I bought a small truck to replace the dead truck, we gave up because we could never get it 'street lega' and sold it :( We use one of our vans like a pick up (no seats in the back) and head into town every fall and collect tons of bags of leaves. We have to be careful with those as well, you never know what people rake up from their yards! I love the people that shred theirs before bagging :)

Holly, you're back!! Most of my yard is just mowed weeds anyway. I used to laugh when people commented on how lush and green our lawn was in Maine. A friend recognized the fact that most of it was just weeds and told me I could always use weed killer on it. I told him if we did we wouldn't have any 'lawn'! LOL I was thinking of you this week when I was collecting rocks :) They're not as nice or as large as yours but they're rocks regardless and I'm going to be a happy woman if I can just find an easier way to get them here!

rcn- I have the perfect cheap thing in my shed- you just have to spend 40 in gas to get it LOL. Did you see an aticle a while back by Toni I think- mentioned using a kids plastic pool as a big leaf and weeding bin that you could drag around with you in the yard. I think that's what gave me this thought.

Thanks for the clover advice, holly and sally. Always good to hear how something has worked out for others before investing a lot of time, effort, and money. I think a soil test may be in order, seeing we've never had one done. I wouldn't bother except the HOA wants to see a green lawn. :/

rcn, maybe you could find one at a thrift store. Using a sled really is a great idea!

This message was edited Sep 14, 2008 12:54 PM

plantmover,

You can also buy these black, plastic Concrete mixer "pans" at HD. They come in 2 sizes and are rectangular containers (3'-long, or so) with high edges--maybe 4"-6" high. Really cheap! Look for them wherever your HD has concrete mix in bags. Ours is in Outside Garden under the roofed-over section. I think the smaller one is around $4--the bigger one--????--maybe $6 or $7??? Not sure!

You would have to drill holes in the "lip" to put your pull-rope through, though. These pans you can get year round! Go check it out.

Gita

Necessity is the mother of invention...sounds pretty durable - thanks, Gita!

Oh it is so good to be home!!!!!! My yard is a mess the lawn hasn't been mowed since we left and I can't believe how big some of the weeds have grown. We had a good bit of rain over the two weeks we were gone and everything is going crazy.
So did Ric and I jump right out and start whipping the yard into shape???
NO, I headed down to Josh's new house. He moved in last week and has already been asked when he was going to "Do something" with his weeds. His house is a corner property right on the main street of a small town and although the former owners had someone cutting the grass they didn't do any of the weeding and there are huge weeds along the whole side of his yard. He wasn't asked in a nasty way, but I wanted to get down there and at least start so they could see that some progress was being made.
Ric headed up to my parents house to mow. My Mom mowed last week while we were away. She can do it but it's pretty hard for her and he was afraid if we let it go a day or two she would do it herself again. Well, I'm pretty tired and Ric is now mowing our front yard with Dad's push mower. Since it is a bagger and our grass is so tall he didn't want to do it with our riding mower. I swear that man doesn't know when to quit!
Here is just a small section of Josh's yard, you can see why he was asked about it. LOL

That concrete pan is a great idea, Gita. They're very sturdy plastic and would last a lot longer than a plastic sled. That's what I used to make my bog garden and it was around $15. It's the bigger size. I can tell you it's very easy to drill holes in it because I did that to make drainage holes.

Years ago I used my daughter's wagon, one of the nice metal ones before they started making everything out of plastic. It was very easy to pull and would hold just about the right amount of stuff. I do think anything with wheels would be a lot easier than dragging something along the ground, especially around here where you have so many rocks to contend with.

I have a plastic garden wagon now, about half the size of my daughter's old wagon, and a wheelbarrow. With all the hills here, I find pulling a lot easier than pushing the barrow. For really heavy or bulky stuff, we have a wagon that can be pulled behind the lawn tractor.

Debbie, next time you buy a junker truck, check into the "farm use" designation. I know a lot of people around here use it who no more have a farm than I do. You need no license for that, just mark the truck farm use where the tags would go.