Brrrrrrrrrrrr

Right now in Nashville it's around 45 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill feeling like 35, but just give these pansies a little sun and they look so good. On some other wet very cold day they will retreat and look like something in your compost bin. But they are so worth it when the sun comes out again. And they give us these colors all winter, often lasting into April or May -they don't like a lot of heat. By then you can replace them with the many many choices of annuals available in Spring.

(These pansies are planted in a steel sculpture in very little soil, facing Southeast. They get a half day winter sun. When there's sun. Because they are in a shallow container I do give them occasional water during the fall and winter. Pansies planted in normal beds typically get enough moisture from winter rains and snow to not need supplemental watering.)

A Winter Day

I love tulip poplar. Liriodendron tulipifera (aka yellow poplar, or tulip tree) has a beautiful light green leaf, a unique green and orange flower and in winter gives us shapely seeds. Here's a tulip poplar seed with silver maple (Acer saccharinum) seeds in background. The winter sky and leafless trees give us the opportunity to look at things a little differently. How eye-catching things are in the winter when so much is just reduced to the structure of a view.


It's a great time to see the basics of a yard/garden/street/ landscape.



Look at your yard now to see what the basic frame is...do you like how the trees create boundaries and vertical movement? Are they blocking a nice view of your house, or draping around a beautiful door drawing attention to it? Do you like the contrast of ornamental grasses against evergreen trees and shrubs. You can look now to be thinking about next summer. Even from the comfort of your kitchen or living room window you can look at the yard and think about how you can add some eye appeal. See a nice bank of green laurels or cedars? ...but if they look kinda plain you can underplant or plant in the sight line with some color.

Of course evergreen shrubs and trees as foundation plantings are all that are desired by some. Their advantages are the simplicity and lower maintenance. And with so many varieties of color to choose from even among evergreens, you can create an interesting palette. But there are many winter options for visual show that are not evergreens.
Structure and color are available from many sources.....the beautiful bark of birches and crape myrtles, the flowing tans and yellows of ornamental grasses, red bark and berries, the green dry eucalyptus stems.

There are several winter bloomers and winter color options. Blooming December to February are various species of Helleborus (aka Christmas rose or Lenten rose) and they have nice tough semi-evergreen foliage that looks great all winter; Witch Hazels (Hamamelis virginiana) bloom a subtle yellow in the mid to late winter. Many hollies are producing bright red berries which are more noticeable. Ilex verticillata (winterberry) is a low growing deciduous shrub that has fantastic bright red berries most of the winter. It will highlight and contrast well against the dark green background of evergreens. Also for color : red twig dogwoods (Cornus sericea) , kinda plain-jane much of the year, but then they drop their leaves in fall and the red stems look great against some hollies or a dark painted house. Ornamental grasses are great for white/cream colors and eye-pleasing movement when the wind blows. Don't cut them until mid-February.

It's nice to lounge around and check out the catalogs full of spring and summer blooming plants. It's also comforting to simply enjoy the clarity of winter.

October Colors and To-Do list

A quick post about What's Blooming This Week:

Asters, native and otherwise look just great. Knockout roses are still blooming. Wild ageratum is mixed in with some of the native asters. Muhly grass is a blast of pink mist. Butterfly bush still going. Japanese anemones look great in mass plantings. Burning bush, hydrangea quercifolia, and dogwoods look really nice, turning some rich reds.
And that's not even the tree color!

What to do, when there is a rare moment without rain?

LAWN: If you dutifully overseeded your Fescue lawn a couple of weeks ago, you might have a nice crop of fine seedlings. OR a lot of your seed may have rotted or been washed away and you can overseed again, maybe at half rate if some of the first crop sprouted.

PERENNIALS: We should be getting some frosts soon, so if this is your only weekend available for awhile, you can cut back your herbaceous perennials, trimming the monarda, hostas, iris, platycodons etc. to within a few inches of the ground. Leave your tall coneflowers and sedums and sages if you like their look; leave all your ornamental grasses for some eye appeal during the winter (cut them back in mid-February to early March).
P.S., you can divide many of these plants now if you need some space or want to give root sections to friends. Note on the bearded iris, you can divide them now, but next year immediatley after blooming is better. Dividing now will work, but they might postpone blooms for a year.

After a few hard frosts, you'll be able to see what softer tissue plants have 'melted' in the cold and you can remove any dead above-ground plant material.

Plant bulbs (tulips, hyacinths, crocuses, etc.).

SHRUBS: Don't do much pruning. Trim very lightly, if you must, the yews or laurels. Don't touch the forsythia, they have set their buds for spring. Of course, have a go at any overgrown Privet hedge. Really, do.

HERBS: Harvest all that basil now! Make pesto!

And you can always plant some pansies or if you dare, ornamental cabbages.

Thanks for reading, and here's to the sun predicted for next week!

Autumn Equinox...

....is today, September 22. This is an astronomical event. Daylight and night are approximately equal in length. The name ‘equinox’ comes from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night). Because of the tilt of our planet on its axis as it revolves around the sun, we Northern hemisphereans have a little more distance from the sun for the next six months. We had mid-March until now of our half tilting more towards the sun...giving us long daylight, shorter nights, more heat. Now we approach winter.

Today is a good day for calibrating your your sundial. At noon the sun will be almost directly overhead. If we lived on the equator it would be exactly overhead.

Mid September (and early October)is also a good time to...

Over-seed cool-season turf (Fescue lawns).
Begin some garden clean up by deadheading and cutting back any perennials that are looking withered.
Applying pre-emergent herbicides to put a dent in winter annual weeds.
Plant crocuses and daffodil bulbs.
Save seeds from your vegetables and annuals.
And enjoy a few minutes of the evening before nightfall.

Rainy Day Colors

It sure has been a lovely week, all this slow peaceful rain. More like November weather than September. But it's come at a good time, we were getting a little dry. I still like to look out the windows at the shining leaves and emergence of fall colors. We will be coming in to another beautiful time of year.



The dogwoods and Japanese maples are starting to turn to their red decor, even saw a little dose of red in a burning bush. Sedums, Autumn Joy are at their best mild pink, and will eventually go to the burgundy/brick color of fall. Salvias in blues and plum colors look great in the rain.

Here's a fading Celandine poppy (wood poppy, Stylophorum diphyllum) behind some annual Perilla and a Quercifolia. The hackberry leaf snuck in for a cameo. BTW here are some more lovely poppy images:
http://www.hort.wisc.edu/mastergardener/Features/flowers/Stylophorum/Stylophorum.htm




Click on this pic to see the rain droplets on the needles.



I don't mind a few consecutive days of rain but it could get old after awhile. The cats and I are getting antsy to get out side and play.

Rain?

Just a quick note to say that we are seeing a drop in rainfall totals. We had normal or above normal rain levelsfor July, but most of August was a little on the dry side.
If you dont have irrigation, a few of your plants may be getting thirsty.

Any perennials,shrubs, trees new in the ground less than a year need TLC.
Many established plants will be fine, especially hostas, coneflowers, many sunlovers. But keep your roses watered regularly, your astilbes, your vegetable gardens, dogwood trees, rhododendrons, and again, any new plantings which are still trying to establish mature root systems.

Our temperatures are great and we human types are probably really enjoying the fall-like weather. Thank goodness we are not having extreme heat typical of August. Don't forget your plants in pots too, give them a drink on your way outside.

Summer Watering

August 1, halfway through Summer!
As of the end of July the Nashville area has had three months in a row of above-average rainfall. A healthy amount of rain for our landscape plants is usually an inch a week average. In July we received a total of 6 inches.
There are no drought reports for middle Tennessee. At this time in 2007 we were in a severe drought and in 2008 a moderate drought. What a great summer!


After all this nice weather don't be too concerned if we get some hot dry days...it is August after all. Remember that you can over water to the detriment of plants. Too much moisture can set up environments for root rot, and diseases. Most plants want a good drink and then a day or two of drying out.


So here we go with some basics on watering your landscape plants:

Let's start by saying that each species has particular culture requirements so it is best to know your plants and what they want. An example is that Astilbes (a shade lover) don't like to dry out, they like steady moisture. But your geranium, as much as it loves water, wants to dry out well between drinking binges.Hostas can actually handle a lot of dry weather, most roses want a drink several times a week. Even well-established Dogwood trees may want supplemental watering in hot dry weather.



All things being equal, appropriate watering is a LONG SLOW watering, less frequently. For example, water 2-3 times a week at barely a trickle for long periods (yes, maybe hours, you have to experiment to see what works in your situation) . This allows the water to seep in slowly, reach the deeper roots and soil levels, trains the roots to seek water deeper, not shallower, establish stronger root systems. DON'T water daily for a few minutes with the sprinkler. Daily light watering is wasteful and can be detrimental.

Containers...can need more watering than plants in the ground. They dry out more quickly, especially in terra cotta or clay.



August 1 is officially mid-Summer, halfway between Spring and Fall Equinoxes. There seems to have been a blend of Christian and pagan celebrations in earlier days in Europe, marking the first successful summer harvests and the assurance of having some grain to put up for the winter. I am certainly grateful for the bounty of flowers, tomatoes, cucumber and other garden goodies received of late. At any rate I hope to squeeze a lot more fun and enjoyment out of the rest of summer.