august, a bit long

Here is something to think over in late summer.

I have for the last two summers been giving my garden labors some new
thinking.  I do not like being outdoors in July and August when it is very humid and
the temps are over 80 degrees.  Actually I hate that work and try to find some
hours in the early am or after the sun goes down.  The enthusiasms of spring
are dampened and I there are days I wish the garden would go away for these
two months.  I work better and find it happier work when the temps are cool to
cold so therein lies some changing of routines.

Thinking and planning is now for spring and fall bloom.  I have been watching
(and quite a lot of the time ignoring) the high summer garden for those
plants that prosper without any attention from me.  Those plants that need
attention with special watering or require constant division or need winter care or
cannot compete with neighbors are gone.  Some new philosophy spurred on by age
as well as summer heat, is now in place.

I have used the summer plants in larger groups, drifts as the books say, and
kept the spring bloomers in the rocks or on the edges or amongst the shrubs.
This all takes some observation in your particular zone to get it right.  We
have had, in the Northeast, a rainfall record season.  Some parts of NY have
not had such rains since 1871.  This will probably cause some more correction in
the next years but a "retired garden" is the aim here.

I have more blooming shrubs and am paying more attention to blooming shrubs
as they should outlast me giving bloom with little attention except from the
lawn mower.  I like bulbs and do not mind replanting many of them each year as
the voles eat them so that is a spring plus that can be accomplished in the
cooler fall months.

I have also noticed a few other things that make summer work that I am trying
to eliminate.  Very small plants get lost in the weeds and heavy growth of
midsummer gardens.  Very small plants are now in the rocks whether they belong
there or do not.  Very low growing, ground hugging plants that need care in
display are a nuisance and there are not many of those left.  If a plant seems to
love some site and I love the plant, it can own that site.  Shade increasing
from the larger shrubs is to be welcomed as it gives a home to some
groundcovers which want this type of location - as the shiny leafed gingers.  Some of
these shrubs can give a home to the small flowered clematis.  Here in my zone,
there is no need to prune them.  If they make it throught he winter, the
flowers are near the top of shrubs.  I have a mock organge that is covered with some
unnamed purple clematis that is never pruned.  Bought it at a market years
ago labeled "purple".

Some midsummer blooming plants that can hold their own if the gardener is
staying indoors with the A/C are Hemerocallis, Echinacea, annual poppies, the
vigorous forms of phlox (not all are vigorous and some need a lot of water), the
phlox David is very late to bloom, the phlox Starfire is a peculiar color but
a very very strong healthy plant, hollyhocks (mixed breeds here from species
plantings), all kinds of lilium with the tigers (lancifolium) if you do not
object to tiger lilies being the most reliable.  Foliage from peonies is good all
summer. The mid-size to taller sedums are good to collect.  They are all nice
in their own way and need little care to succeed yearly.

All of the Hostas look good into late August here due to the incessant rain.
Other years some have been cut to the ground by now.  I picked out a few with
very many deep purple flowers that are grown for the flowers alone.  A number
of ferns, the Christmas fern is my favorite, other shady residents of the
lily family also.  There is a hellebore here, a white hybrid that has been in
bloom all summer.  The rain, no doubt.

All of the experiments, tropical visitors,  petunias for color, sweet potato
vines for luxuriant foliage, plants needing special mixes or special draining
are in containers.  That way the container corral can house about how much you
can manage and each year it can be different.  We have no outside water
supply ( a well in the country) so they are all located by the rain barrels which
are the source of water for them.  This has made those containers a new kind
garden joy.  The container plants, sun or shade, are not saved.  They freeze in
September and are rolled into the garage for the following spring and new
things to try.  We have a lot of containers and acquire plants in spring using all
we need.  Some years all are full, others not.

More summer bloomers that can hold their own are Rudbeckia (all kinds), Joe
Pye Weed (pinks and whites), Siberian irises (for me many of these are late
June), small Spireas that can be sliced off to the ground every few years,  self
seeding annuals and biennials such as digitalis, lunaria, cosmos, poppies, v.
bonariensis, many others fill in spaces and are scraped out in spring in great
numbers where not wanted.  Those self seeders are very important in a
somewhat ignored summer garden.

Gone are nearly all of the rose bushes, gallicas only remain.  I am trying to
ID and remove those woody plants that seed too much or sucker requiring
constant removal of unwanted children.  Fortunately a storm knocked over an old ash
that on it's good years covered the entire garden with seedlings.

Some around the country need water but we in the Northeast are wishing it
would stop.  Remember all the messages on drought in the past years?  There is
something to that old proverb about being careful what you wish for.  Also there
is August.  I seem to detect a malaise in August, I know it affects me.
Garden lists are very quiet in August.

Claire Peplowski
NYS zone 4
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