So: to continue the late summer inventory (which really will help next year if I remember to look at it):
1. Where are the holes in the garden? I'm not talking about rabbits here, although I'll share with you what might be the most interesting and useful info you'll ever get from me. If you have rabbits in your flowers or vegetables, the problem may be your lawn. Back in the day, when we were all young and gorgeous, American lawns were seeded with part clover. It turns out that rabbits LOVE clover, and when the lawn has enough clover, they'll eat it out of preference and leave the hostas alone. Now the aesthetic has turned (with the worm) and people all want golf greens in the front yard. So what's a bunny to do? Moral of the story: plant clover in the grass and enjoy the garden!
But back to the bare places in the garden, or the places where you're going to get rid of an overly aggressive plant.
I still have bare patches where the latest of the bulbs' foliage had to die back and I never got around to planting anything. Lucky for me (and you) there's still plenty of time to put something in now, and maybe the best plants for those spots are summer-bloomers, which will step up just as the bulbs are reeling next summer. These are plants that are in bloom in the garden center right now, or even those that have already bloomed and may be on sale now. Don't know what they are in your region; here in beautiful zone 5 they might be coneflowers (Echinacea sp), or Chrysanthemums (not the mums you get at the big box store for fall, but the ones that look like daisies and have the Latin name Leucanthemum. 'Becky' is a nice cultivar.). Or you might consider something long-blooming like the horticultural geraniums, again, not the red and pink flowers you find at the grocery (which are called, in Latin, Pelargonium) but the lower growing Geranium sanguineum or Geranium macrorrhizum. These bloom in spring, but many of them - my favorites are 'Max Frei' and the Geranium striatum – continue to bloom all summer.
Another shorter-term strategy for filling bare spots is to place containers with annuals on the empty place. I like to use colorful containers, so the pot itself is interesting. Sometimes I use pots with perennials or small shrubs so I can move the plants around the garden to find the right spot for them.
2. What do you want to change about your garden next year? For me, I'm getting tired of how shaggy my garden looks. I have this small 'prairie island' in the middle of my tiny back yard (all you people with real yards would laugh), and as it's grown out, the little paths around it have shrunk to where you have to fight the plants to get by in August and September. I want to put some paving stones around the island and maybe create a small sitting area in the garden itself. As it is, I spend most of my sitting time on the deck, which means I'm overlooking the ugliest garage in Chicago (I know. Whine, whine.) or else supervising the Molloys next door, who are really capable of supervising themselves. Actually, I have this really interesting trellis like thingy (that's the technical term, garden nerds) shown in the picture, which acts as a mini screen between me and the Molloys. Next year I want to plant just one plant in each of its 7" pots, so the plants will have more room to grow and can produce more foliage. I like the Sweet Potato Vines for this purpose, but I always sucker myself into wanting flowers too, and then I stuff two plants in one pot, and neither one of them gets to grow very much, and the plants look stringy. But it would also be nice to be able to sit at plant level, instead of just up above.
Another thing I want to do next year is get rid of my Ninebark in front. I don't know if they maybe don't get enough water (because they're close to the house) or what, but they've had some fungal infection for the last two years and I need them out. But I have to figure out what else I can put there, given the part shade conditions, that will have nice burgundy foliage. I don’t think there's enough light for a Purple Leaf Sand Cherry or a Smokebush, nor enough space for a Japanese Maple. What to do, what to do?
3. If you had money to burn, what would you do in the garden? That's a fun fantasy, but in many ways, money isn't the point. I love the garden because I can experiment, I can interact with growing things, I can smell, touch, and even hear the garden. So if I won the lottery, I might replace the deck with a terrace, but that's about all. No, I know. I'd buy the lot next to Rory's house (up on the corner) and get the neighbors together and turn it into a playlot/community garden. Now that would be fun!
OK, do take a look at my website at view link There are a few new photos up of decks I've done this year, and some of two-year growth on one of my gardens, and more to come as soon as I can sort out the photos. Happy gardening!
