The kids going back to school aren
’t the only ones who dread this time of year. Just about now
every year, gardens begin to look a little worn. And no wonder –
what with the long hot summer of wear and tear, with a little
vacation thrown in. It’s easy to see why gardens may be a little
short on color and a little long on weeds
about now. But don’t worry, there are a few bits of advice to
help spice up the garden for a whole new season.
The kids going back to school aren’t the only ones who dread this time of year. Just about now every year, gardens begin to look a little worn. And no wonder – what with the long hot summer of wear and tear, with a little vacation thrown in. It’s easy to see why gardens may be a little short on color and a little long on weeds about now. But don’t worry, there are a few bits of advice to help spice up the garden for a whole new season.
What season? I call it “the in-between summer and fall season.” Our weather is still warm, with Indian Summer temperatures. It’s too warm to pull out summer bedding plants and replant with fall/winter ones like pansies, violas, calendula and Iceland poppies. Instead, consider cutting back many summer annuals. Leggy petunias and impatiens, or bloomed-out geraniums can be cut back this time of year for a whole new round of blooms.
It’s one of the blessings of living where we do. Friends back East and in the Midwest are beginning to put their gardens to bed for the winter. Here, we can simply cut things back and they’ll re-bloom for another two months before frost becomes heavy and regular. Just make sure to give your cut-back flowers a couple doses of fertilizer to make new growth get growing again.
Of course, you can buy a few new bedding plants for some instant color and to perk the garden up, too. Things like gazania and verbena will still bloom strong right into winter. In fact, gazania will act as a perennial in our climate. It may not bloom quite as mush in the winter, but foliage will not die down. Gazania actually acts as a year-round groundcover in our area. This is as opposed to gazania being a seasonal annual anywhere it gets snow.
You’ll find that most nurseries are in-between seasons, too. Many benches will have summer bedding plants like petunias, marigolds and impatiens. But they’ll also have the fall/winter flowers in, too. If I had to choose, I would go for the fall/winter annuals this time of year. It may be a little too early for them, but it’s better to be early rather than late. Planting brand new summer annuals this time of year is a waste of money, especially when you can usually coax another round of blooms from existing ones simply by cutting back and fertilizing.
You may be surprised at how much better your garden looks just by a little cleaning up. Deadheading or cutting off old spent flowers will dramatically improve things without spending a cent. Pulling weeds, spraying Roundup on weeds growing between cement and trimming overgrown shrubs will also improve looks. Save major pruning for late fall and winter, but you can get a headstart on some overgrown evergreens and vines.
Go ahead and get a jump on fall garden clean up, too. Rake leaves into the compost pile, and pile loose mulch, such as pine needles, straw or leaves. Placing supplemental mulch atop bare dirt makes a big improvement, too. Buy redwood soil conditioner or shredded redwood (also known as gorilla hair) in large bags from any garden center.
Spice up your garden during this in-between season.
Keith Muraoka lives and works in Gilroy. His award-winning column has been in this newspaper since 1984. E-mail him at: ga********@*ps.net, or write him in c/o Morgan Hill Times, P.O. Box 757, Morgan Hill, CA 95038.
