Landscape plans: 2014

Friday, March 7, 2014

DESIGN WITH NATURE 2

Came across the book Natural Architecture by Alessandro Rocca.

(A different interpretation than Ian McHargs).

Looking at this imagery thru the photographs one is struck by its graphic-ness... I wonder how different I would feel being in the space rather than having the photographer frame the 3D space as 2D and therefore edit my interaction and judgement. Nonetheless, I want this book and are admirous of these creations.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Feature Plant Barberry Royal Burgundy

Barberry Royal Burgundy in bloom

A wonderful shrub for color in the landscape is Berberis thunbergil Royal Burgundy (Royal Burgundy Barberry). Out of all the barberries it is definitely one of the the most vibrant and maintenance free for your garden. Exhibiting deep burgundy velvety foliage, Royal Burgundy holds its color all throughout the spring, summer and into fall until it turns blackish-red and defoliates for the winter. Barberry Royal Burgundy is deciduous, hardy in zones 4-8 and stays compact at a height of two to three feet at maturity. It prefers to be grown in full sun in a well-drained soil and requires little to no pruning. It is drought tolerant once established and is also deer resistant.

Barberry produces tiny yellow flower clusters in spring and red fruit in fall. This photo above shows a rare treat that I encountered while walking through my gardens. Usually the spring barberry flowers remain very insignificant but this one proved otherwise to my surprise!

Barberry can be planted with companion plants such as juniper, gold mop cypress, spirea, knock out rose, fountain grass, daylily, coreopsis, salvia or sedum for a vibrant display of color. I would definitely recommend this colorful and versatile plant for your landscape.

As Always...Happy Gardening!

Thrift

Armeria

Armeria alliacea
Reaches up to 1.5 feet x 20 inches. The leaves are up to 6 inches in length.
The rose-red flowers are borne during late spring into early summer.
Hardy zones 4 to 8 in full sun.

Armeria Formosa Hybrids ( Large Thrift )
A perennial, reaching a maximum size of 2 x 2 feet, with white, pink or deep red flowers borne in large balls all summer long.
Hardy zones 2 to 9

Armeria x hybrida Ornament
Vigorous in habit, reaching up to 15 inches, with large, white or rose-pink flowers.
Hardy zones 4 to 8 in full sun on well drained soil.

Armeria juncea ( Alpine Thrift )
Reaches up to 10 inches in height, forming a dense, compact tuft of grassy foliage and profuse pink flowers borne during late spring.
Hardy zones 4 to 8 in full sun.

Armeria juniperifolia
A Spain native, reaching up to 6 inches x 1 foot, forming a dense, compact, evergreen tuft of gray-green, juniper-like foliage. The lavender-pink flowers are borne slightly above the foliage in inflorescences up to 0.8 inches across, during late spring into early summer.
Hardy zones 2 to 8 in full sun on very well drained soil.

Alba
White flowers.

Bevans Variety
Forms a mound of grassy, deep green foliage, up to 5 inches high, topped by very short stemmed, rounded, pink flower heads during early summer.

Rosa Stoltz
Forms a mound of very compact, grassy, deep green foliage, up to 3 inches high, topped by very short stemmed, rounded, lavender flower heads during late spring into early summer, repeating during autumn.

Armeria maritima ( Common Thrift )
A moderate growing, clumping, evergreen perennial, reaching a maximum size of 2 x 2 feet, that is native to southern Europe. An excellent rock garden plant, it is also great for edging borders.
The grassy leaves are up to 10 inches in length, are deep blue-green.
The pink ( rarely white, red or purple ) flowers are borne over a long season from mid spring to early summer. The flowers are borne on globular inflorescences up to 1 inch across. Deadheading old blooms encourages continuous blooming.
The flowers attract hummingbirds and butterflies.
Hardy zones 4 to 8 ( 2 and 3 on protected sites ) in full sun ( though tolerating partial shade ) on light, well drained soil. Easy to grow and very drought tolerant, it is tolerant of sandy, dry, saline conditions such as on the ocean front. Fertilize during early spring. Thrift are great for containers. Pest and disease problems are rare, though rot may occur on excessively wet sites. Plants can be propagated by division, every 3 or more years apart. Division can be done during autumn or early spring.

* photos of unknown internet source

Alba
Similar with pure white flowers during late spring into mid summer.

Bloodstone
Reaches up to 10 inches in height, with deep rose-red flowers borne over a longer period than any other cultivar.

Dusseldorf Pride
Reaches up to 10 inches with rose-red flowers during late spring into early summer.

Laucheana
Reaches up to 6 inches with bright pink flowers borne late spring to mid summer.
* photo taken on June 14 2012 in Columbia, MD

* photos taken on June 5 2013 in Columbia, MD

Nifty Thrifty
Very attractive, white variegated foliage and rose-red flowers borne during late spring.

Robusta
Very vigorous, reaching up to 15 inches x 2 feet. The flower clusters are up to 3 inches across.

Rubrifolia
Reaches up to 9 inches x 1 foot, with rich purple-red foliage and bright rose-pink flowers.

Splendens
Reaches a maximum size of 1 x 2 feet, with deep rose-red flowers borne on rounded clusters from late spring to mid summer.
Hardy zones 4 to 8

* photo taken on April 10 2012 in Columbia, MD

Vindicative
Reaches a maximum height of 8 inches, with deep rosy-pink flowers.

Armeria pseudoarmeria ( Border Thrift )
A woody based perennial, reaching a maximum size of 2.5 x 3.3 ( rarely over 2 ) feet, with lance-shaped leaves, up to 10 x 0.2 inches, forming dense tufted clumps.
It is native to coastal Portugal.
The white to deep pink flowers are borne on globular heads up to 2 inches across, during early to mid summer.
Hardy zones 4 to 8 in full sun to partial shade. Drought tolerant.

Bees Ruby
Similar but reaching a maximum size of 2 x 3.5 feet, with rose-pink flowers.

Green With Envy Garden Show

Ive been invited to take a stand at Green With Envys Garden Show. Its taking place on the 20-22 June at Green With Envy Nursery - 281 Vause Road, Berea, Durban.

If youre in the area you should definitely stop by - it should be interesting.

Its quite short notice, so Ill have to do some quick thinking...

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

landscaping ideas for backyard

landscaping ideas for backyard

Everyone wants a beautiful front yard, beauty in the eye with the beholder. Thou art the particular beholder; lets start right now there... please on your own.

5 unusual landscape concepts for your front yard.

1. Sapling lattice, this is a variance on a design known as the Belgium doublet. Seed young trees and shrubs a foot as well as two separate, but perspective the timber toward the other. Weave your trees above and beneath, tie these where that they cross, gently slice a little will bark off and they can grow with each other.

landscaping ideas for backyard fire pit

2. Loose your lawn, develop some foods. Today increasingly more home owners take a look at their garden and understand that its time for something different! Originally the particular lawn would be a symbol loved by the aristocracy who needed people to realize they were rich enough which they could simply grow turf instead of greens in their meters.

Vegetables get home, rip out your lawn and set some natural and organic fresh food you are cooking. Same amount of h2o, no mowing and trimming. Make your affirmation.

3. Arborsculpture is the artwork of forming live woods trunks. With its root base in old alchemy, this art is dispersing across panoramas worldwide. Small trees are simply just bent along with pruned in to desired designs. Chairs, garden shelters, bridges, watercraft, or even a drive-thru archway where a couple of tree come to be one sapling across your own drive. The worlds your oyster to the selection of shapes its possible to grow through living bushes. The magic of the art is incorporated in the fact that trees and shrubs will develop together whenever grafted as in your lattice example. In addition when a sapling is kept in place for quite a while the new condition is forged permanently. Uncommon tree styles that find the eye may be easily grown.

landscaping ideas for backyard fences

4. Stones, no drinking water, no weeding, simply put them straight down and they continue to be there to get a million many years. Rock perform comes in every size and styles. One imaginative way to employ rock is usually to take a pickup truck with lots of containers to a landscape present and load them with various colored gems. Arrange your stones in to a mandala, or try and copy the particular Zen rock garden concept. For lower maintenance metres, stone is tough to beat.

landscaping ideas for backyard corner

5. Berries, less function than greens but still causing food budget, fresh fruit trees bring arborsculpture, lattice work or simply just to provide berries for the stand. Apples as well as pears are some of the least complicated to grow. You could like to test some of the adjustable variety apple company trees, where by many since 6 different oatmeal will increase on one woods. If you have a new tree this way you will learn what type you like finest and what type of apples will certainly grow the top in your local weather.

The Garden in a Different Light Digital Art

Purple Coneflower

It is 38 degrees and raining outside in my northeastern garden and thoughts of gardening are going through my mind. Inspired by some of my fellow bloggers, I thought I would put a new twist on some of my garden photographs and am trying my hand at some digital art to pass the day. I mainly used the brush stroke tool and then either softened or enhanced certain portions of each photograph. On some of the imaging I filled in with additional color and used a marbleizing effect on the corners. I have had this editing software for some time now and am still learning that there is much to explore!

Stella D Oro Daylilly

Aster

Painted Lady Butterfly on Coneflower

Coreopsis Zagreb

Cottage Garden

Dahalia

Grasses and Daylilies

Roseanne Geranium

Hydrangea Pink Elf

Star Magnolia Blossom

Peony

Ruffled Daylily

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my garden "in a different light". This digital artwork is fun but challenging. I will keep practicing and know I have much to learn so any comments or editing tips would be appreciated!

As Always...Happy Gardening

Author: Lee@A Guide To Northeastern Gardening, Copyright 2013. All rights reserved

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Garden Designers Roundtable Designing with Native Plants

Native plants have a particular allure for me. Perhaps they evoke memories of my childhood. I remember drawing Tolkien-esque maps of the forest that bordered our suburban home in the Alabama Piedmont. The thicket of Sparkleberry trees (Vaccineum arboreum) I drew to look like Mirkwood Forest; I sketched the huge Southern Red Oak—the meeting spot for my neighborhood friends—to look like one of the mythic trees of Fanghorn. And while I romped through these woods with a pack of irreverent boys, we all had a certain reverence for a cluster of Beech trees that resided at the intersection of two streams. When the winter sun backlit those copper leaves, that golden grove became our Lothlorien.

But the allure of natives is stronger than just memory; in them, I feel a more primal pull. For me, there is something very powerful about that attraction—something even ancient. I want to articulate why native plants have this appeal and how this can be used to create bolder, more emotionally-rich gardens and landscapes.

illustration by Alfred Parsons for The Wild Garden

Readers of this blog know that I am an advocate for native plants, but sometimes I get frustrated with the reasons I hear for using natives. Yes, the environmental benefits are real: their value to our bees, bugs, and birds cannot be understated. But as a gardener and plant lover, choosing plants based on environmental ethics is kind of a bummer. Life is serious enough already; I want to garden as an escape from weighty moralism.

To understand designing with native plants, you have to understand the garden itself. Designed landscapes and gardens are manipulated fantasies. They are our mental projections, our ideas, and our desires projected onto a piece of land. And gardens and landscapes don’t really live apart from us. Ultimately, without our input and continued maintenance, they would cease to be. That gardens are fantasies does not undermine their value; on the contrary, this very fact is what makes them art. If all gardens are fantasies, then native and naturalistic gardens are a particular kind of fantasy.

A native garden is a fantasy of what used to be. They are green anachronisms. Yes, native plants still exist in the wild, but the concept of using native plants in designed landscapes is connected to a sense of loss. Native gardens as a genre did not really exist before industrialization. They didn’t need to—native plants were everywhere. In fact, the earliest meaning of gardens referenced their enclosure, their otherness from nature. But now we plant native gardens as a memory of what once was. That doesn’t mean that native gardens need to be mournful or backwards-looking places. Pierce’s Woods at Longwood Gardens is one of my favorite native gardens. It is an exuberant celebration of the flora of the Eastern forests. But part of the emotional power—the source of its poignancy and meaning—of any native garden derives from the reality of loss.

Why does this matter? Most of the world no longer lives in meadows or forests. We no longer forage for our food or read the stars to find our way home. As a species we spent thousands of years navigating through native environments to survive; only in the last 150 years have we become removed from these places. But a part of us still longs for this connection. We yearn for a way we used to interact with the earth. Our bodies were not designed to sit in front of a computer for ten hours a day. When we pull weeds or dig in our gardens, we awaken some deep instinct that has long been dormant but still is remembered in our bodies.

Great landscape design—and native garden design in particular—taps into this deep emotional reservoir we have in relation to nature. When a small moment in the garden feels like an expansive meadow or reminds you of a clearing in the woods or gives you feeling of standing by a woodland stream, we have an emotional experience. The great advantage of using native plants is they recall a memory of nature better than some overbred rainbow colored rose. Of course, exotic plants also have emotional associations as well. But I would argue that natives are more closely associated with wildness and nature itself; they are therefore richer materials to explore our relationship to nature.

So how does landscape design create emotional connections? We must embrace the fantasy that is garden-making. The great fallacy of naturalistic design is to believe it is more natural. What is natural about creating some miniature replica of a native environment in our suburban yard? It is better to see the whimsy in this and make them more whimsical. The dark corners of our garden must become darker and more foreboding; our lighter areas must become more luminescent. Lines must be stronger, patterns more exaggerated, and contrasts deeper. Native gardens can have the same imaginative power of fairy tales.

Advocates of native plants focus on ecology—a worthy and necessary goal. But let’s not forget the human aspect. Gardens are for people, too. A return to naturalism’s romantic and humanistic roots would give native gardens an emotional edge they sorely need.

Let’s create gardens like fairy tale landscapes, places that seduce, tempt, and above all, lure the visitor to walk down the path.

For other takes on designing with native plants, check out these great posts from other GDRT members:

David Cristiani : The Desert Edge : Albuquerque, NM

Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : East Bay, CA

Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In The Garden : Los Altos, CA

Pam Penick : Digging : Austin, TX

Mary Gallagher Gray : Black Walnut Dispatch : Washington, D.C.

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Genevieve Schmidt : North Coast Gardening : Arcata, CA

Douglas Owens-Pike : Energyscapes : Minneapolis, MN

Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT

Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT

The End of Groundcovers

If I could banish one word from the English language, it would be "groundcover." The era of the groundcover must end. While this age of American landscape design has its roots in the Victorian garden, it has been the dominant landscape ethos since the post WWII housing boom. The primary idea of this era is that non-lawn planting beds need to be covered in a low maintenance, evergreen groundcovers such as English ivy, periwinkle, or pachysandra. The results of this philosophy on our landscapes are nothing short of catastrophic: millions of acres of meadow and forest have been decimated by these invasives, and weve forsaken the spiritually enriching act of gardening for the environmentally impoverishing act of landscaping.

The Rise of the Groundcover

Its easy to understand how groundcovers became so popular. As American suburbs sprawled away from city centers, individual homeowners quickly became absorbed in the enormous labor of maintaining huge expanses of lawn. With so much lawn to maintain, the rest of the yard needed to be relatively maintenance free. Planting beds were established where lawn wouldnt grow--typically in the shady areas under trees or at the edge of the lot. How to fill these leftover beds became a problem. Next to a manicured lawn, bare earth or mulch looks empty and unfinished, but filling these large areas with plants could be expensive.

The groundcover became the magic cure. Tolerant of sun or shade, wet or dry, these low, creeping plants could be sparsely planted in a bed and left alone. Within a year or two, the bed was covered in lush carpet of glossy green ivy, the bright blue flowers of periwinkle, or the happy white spires of pachysandra. When maintained, the long flowing curves of planting beds created sinuous lines against the lawn, a declaration of the well-tended yard.

But the problem was that these yards were inevitably not well-tended. The very quality that initially drew homeowners and landscapers to these plants--their ability to spread--became the beginning of an aesthetic and ecological disaster.

Ecological Disaster

The honeymoon period (two or three years after the installation) yielded to the invasive period, and homeowners quickly realized that these low maintenance darlings actually required maintenance--lots of maintenance. The plants began to move and destroy: the ivies grew up trees and down slopes; pachysandra crept into a wet area and down stream channels; periwinkle moved across slopes choking all other vegetation in its path. Not even structures were safe. The clinging roots of ivies invaded mortar, the muscular branching of wisteria damaged buildings, and the thick impenetrable roots of periwinkle altered the hydrology of yards. [Image to left shows Vinca major, periwinkle, smothering a forest floor].

Often in suburban neighborhoods, the developer backs lots right up against undevelopable land like forested streams or adjacent woodlots. The groundcovers, unaware of property lines, spread into forests, streams, and meadows. Vines climb into the canopy, covering leaves and blocking photosynthesis. The additional weight of the vines often break branches and canopies particularly during snow. The understory invasives smother the ground-plane, preventing native plants from seeding and regenerating the canopy. Ecologists call the zones dominated by invasive groundcovers "ecological dead zones." [Image on right shows English ivy decimating forest floor and smothering trees.]

The U.S. Forest Service now estimates that invasive plants like groundcovers strangle 3.6 million acres of national forests, an area the size of Connecticut. And thats just national forests. Invasive plants are thought to cover 133 million acres of federal, state, or private land, an area the size of California and New York combined. Each year invasives march across 1.7 million acres, almost double the size of Delaware.

An Alternative Concept

The concept behind groundcovers is as pernicious as the plants themselves. It is based on the mythology of the quick and easy, low maintenance yard. Groundcovers signal a disconnect between the owner and the land, a message saying "I dont want to deal with you". The professionals who use these plants, both designers and contractors alike, automatically assume the lowest possible expectations for that piece of land. Groundcovers are chosen based on the assumption that the area will be ignored, abused, or abandoned.

Groundcovers represent a failure of the imagination. Americans understand trees, shrubs, and groundcovers, but beyond these categories, were pretty much lost. We lack Englands rich garden history and thus fail to understand how to use herbaceous plants like perennials, grasses, annuals, or vines to enrich our planting beds. Native plant enthusiasts have long recommended native alternatives to invasive groundcovers, but their suggestions typically replace one type of plant with a less invasive counterpart (a vine for a vine, a creeper for a creeper). What these lists fail to do is to challenge the aesthetic that prompts the homeowner to use a groundcover in the first place.

The alternative to groundcovers is not slightly less invasive groundcovers, but planting beds filled with native biomass. We need to re-imagine our beds filled with a rich tapestry of perennials, grasses, shrubs, and low trees. While our unfamiliarity with these materials make them intimidating, we should rely on the toughest and most resilient native perennials and grasses to fill our borders. The demand for evergreen should be replaced with plants that provide winter interest: dried grasses, seed heads, and structural deciduous shrubs. We should transform our ecological dead zones into ecological hotspots by creating connected areas of native biomass. When we do this, we invite pollinators and birds back into our landscapes.

[Native biomass: Goldenrod and Echinacea fill a planting bed. These plants are low maintenance, provide nectar for birds and butterflies, and beautiful as they change through the seasons.]

A Model Project

Ten Eyck Landscape Architects in Phoenix recently completed an award winning project for a labratory building for the University of Arizona. The landscape around the building functions both as an outdoor classroom and a high performing native landscape. The project harvests water and provides and interface between students and nature. The former grayfield is now a thriving habitat for birds such as the roadrunner and hawks searching for ground mammals. The ASLA awards jury said of the project, "This project shows us everything that we should find in a university landscape. Not a blurred interpretation of "native" but rather a commitment to accuracy."

[Students enjoy a break at an outdoor classroom surrounded by vegetation native to the Upland Sonoran. Photo by Bill Timmerman.]

[The pond is home for endangered fish and is listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a "Safe Harbor" urban site.]

And Im including one additional image to show how native grasses can be used as a groundcover alternative. This photo taken at Chanticleer Garden in Pensylvania by Rick Darke.

[Native grasses such as Prairie Dropseed, Sporobolus heterolepsis, make an ideal alternative to invasive groundcovers. Photo by Rick Darke.]

What are the differences between Indigenous Endemic Exotic and Alien Plants

In the stampede towards being environmentally aware the waters of what actually constitutes environmentally sensitive has gotten quite muddied.

In this increasingly complicated gamble with our planet, youd be forgiven for thinking that using any plant, as long as its green and alive, means that youre doing your bit for the planet. With this poker game though, the stakes are high, so its important to know some of the rules of the game before it goes any further.

I thought it would be good to try and explain some of the words that I hear used so often, but in the wrong context.
For example, what does indigenous mean, and which plants are aliens? Why is an indigenous plant better than an exotic, and for that matter, why does endemic planting beat any other hand in the house?

Here are some quick definitions:

Indigenous/native - a general term used to group plants that would naturally occur in a fairly large geographical area. Both words have the same meaning, it just depends where you are in the world as to which one you might use. A plant is indigenous to an area, if it would naturally be found there without mans influence.

Endemic - is taking indigenous a step further (or closer actually) These are plants that would naturally be found in a relatively small region. The advantages of using plants that are endemic to your area is that they would grow best in your conditions, provide food for all kinds of creatures, and help maintain genetic diversity.

Exotics, are those plants that have been brought in from other places around the world, and very often require a lot of resources to keep them happy.

Aliens/invasives are plants that have usually been brought in as exotics, but are so well adapted to their surroundings that they spread uncontrollably, pushing out indigenous plants, and consuming precious resources at the same time.

Naturalised plants are those that have been introduced into an area, but are surviving and spreading without mans help. Naturalised plants tend to become aliens if they are particularly well suited to their environment.

If its possible you should always look for an Indigenous alternative to the plants that you are choosing for your garden. It may be a bit more research, but it will pay off in the long run, with birds and butterflies being frequent visitors to your garden. At the very least, if you plant exotics, make sure that they are not likely to consume large amounts of precious resources.

If in doubt, check your local municipalities or government for lists of good and bad plants.

In South Africa you can find a helpful tool for finding good indigenous plants here, an invasive plant list can be found here.
In North America, a list of invasive plants can be found here.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Fall Garden Maintenance Tips Its that time Again!

Are you getting your garden ready in Fall for the Winter months? Here are some helpful tips that will ensure the vitality and health of your plants.

Skip Laurel

Anti-Desiccant Spray: When the daytime temperatures start falling below 50 degrees (around mid- November here in zone 7) it is time to apply an anti-desiccant spray to your broadleaved evergreens such as holly, rhododendron, cherry laurel, skip laurel, mountain laurel, Japanese skimmia, leucothoe, aucuba and boxwood. These plants can be subject to severe winter burn due to water loss from the leaves by transpiration. Apply when the temperatures are above freezing and there is no threat of rain or frost within 24 hours. (This tip applies to areas going into their winter season-temperatures dropping below freezing: 0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit.) If there is a prolonged thaw in mid-winter it may be time to re-apply anti-desiccant spray to your broadleaved evergreens, especially if there are more prolonged freezing temperatures on the way. For more detailed information go to: Winterizing-Evergreens-Anti-Desiccant-Spray

Watering During Fall Winter: A common question often asked is, "Is it better to keep watering my plants until the ground freezes or should I stop watering now?" It is important that prior to winter that there is significant moisture around your plants. Evergreens do not lose their leaves so they continue to transpire or lose water over the winter months and once the ground freezes it is difficult for water to percolate down to the roots. A well watered tree will over winter far better than a thirsty one and will not be as susceptible to winter frost damage and drying. Continue to water until the ground freezes.

Heuchera (Coral Bells) Caramel

Mulching & Frost Heaving: In freezing temperatures soil around your plants may be subject to frost heaving. This is when ice forms underneath the soil and expands upwards from the ground causing plants such as perennials to push upwards exposing the crown. Heuchera (Coral Bells) and Liriope are especially prone to this type of damage. As a preventive measure apply a protective mulch finishing to your garden beds in Fall. To remedy frost heaving, slightly tap the soil back down and brush the mulch back around the exposed crown of the plant to protect it.

Weeding: Do some Fall weeding and garden maintenance now to prevent weeds from getting out of control in the spring. Dispose of weeds that may have seeds on them in the garbage and not in the compost. Put a clean edge on your garden beds to prevent grass from invading and remove any decaying debris to prevent fungal infection.

Clean up your Perennial Garden: Remove any expired foliage and stalks that could decay over winter. Cut perennials four to five inches above the ground and apply a thin layer of mulch. Some perennials such as ornamental grasses should be left to cut down until late winter-early spring. For more info visit Fall Garden Maintenance: Pruning & Dividing Ornamental Grasses and Perennials.

Knock Out Rose

Pruning Trees & Shrubs: Early summer blooming trees and shrubs form their buds immediately after flowering subsides so pruning them too late may remove next years blooms. These shrubs should be pruned immediately after flowering. Late summer flowering trees and shrubs benefit from pruning in fall while they are dormant. Do not prune roses such as Knock Out Rose in fall. Pruning encourages new growth that may not harden off in time for winter. For more information and a list of pruning times follow the link above.

Bulbs: Plant spring blooming bulbs such as crocus, hyacinth and daffodils now in the fall before the ground freezes.

Lawn Maintenance: Clean up leaves from your lawn or mulch them. Spray to control broadleaved weeds and apply a lawn fertilizer in late fall to encourage a healthier and greener lawn in spring. Cut your lawn a final time before winter.

A little Fall garden maintenance now will save you time in spring and give your garden a good and healthy start. On that note...out to the garden!

As Always...Happy Gardening!