Last Minute Gardening

I seem to be inserting quick garden times in, here and there. I have to share my autumn schedule with school demands, seasonal housework, fitting in fitness workouts, and recently, with a revved up amount of activity on the computer. I just can’t miss this Indian Summer we are having, though (and yes, this is it- don’t count on more of these beautiful days once they are past). So I planted a Smith & Hawken tulip combination that I found last minute at Target. It’s a variation of a color combination I had done years ago -but those plantings have “run out”. Queen of Night, Pink Diamond, and Maureen tulips make a medley of pinks and deep maroon
of the Darwin type. I put them next to some new red-leafed heucheras [‘Melting Fire’] I’m trying out.

I had to lift the variegated sedum, so I divided that and then put it into a section of ground under a Prairie Fire Crabapple on one side, and a little bed of ajuga, the old “Metallica Crispa”, on the other side fronting some Annabelle hydrangea. It had crept out into the grass elsewhere, so I dug it up and put it where it will do some good.

The thing I don’t like about Sedum spectabile when it gets older is the way the branches all splay out from the middle; it looks much better as a younger plant. Mine was overdue to be divided so I am glad to have accomplished that.

Cleaned out all the calendulas along the walkway, trimmed down the lavender and rue, pulled out some wayward lambs ears, and generally tried to ready for winter- when you don’t want to see the garden all tattered and unkempt, if possible. I also corralled my husband to trim off the heavy growth of the willow tree. Everything looks more like it ought to, now. Not perfect, but like somebody cares.

The leaves are not quite all down from the trees yet, so we still have some raking to do. It’s been nice and warm here the past few days. I hate to see the autumn go, but time marches on whether we wish it to or not!

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