I have mixed feelings about moving the sedum. They are such a resilient plant, and super easy to propagate if they do get damaged. Literally if a stem gets broken, I stick it in dirt, it roots, and I have a new sedum plant.
I really like the fall color sedum provide as well as the 12 month interest. The pollinators LOVE them and the bunnies eat the unbroken stems all winter. When the bunnies do that, it also makes my spring cleanup easier. But for some reason, once the stems are broken, the bunnies don’t seem to have as much of an appetite for them. Very different from the sunflower!
I have already brought sedum plants and sedum cuttings up north and they are doing well with the mulch around them. I suppose where I’ll land is that if any of the Autumn Joy sedum get severely broken this fall, I’ll move those plants up north right away and let them sleep there. Then next summer I can take cuttings and start building a row to make a hedge – maybe on the farthest long gutter downspout.
It was a season of daylily abundance here. Day after day there were 30+ daylilies blooming everywhere I looked. An incredible treat coming out of a now mature daylily garden.
Up north at the little reno house, success! It doesn’t look like much in pictures, the front porch needs love, and the old shed needs paint, but the deer are now staying away from the new plantings. What worked? It could be that our dog likes to “leave his calling card” right outside the “entrance” to the two areas, or it could be the mulch. Time will tell.
So after so much trial and error with up north gardens in the past 3 years, how did I settle on what to do? It was actually a “happy accident”.
The association board at the townhouse (from which I am now retired), decided to have all rock gardens between the garages pulled out and replaced with asphalt. In the rock garden between our garage and the neighbor’s garage there was some history I decided to preserve. There were rocks from a previous neighbor’s parents’ farm that we had used to keep the landscape rock somewhat contained, and there was an alpine current bush that my father had given me 15 years ago that had thrived there, providing many a happy day for our neighborhood birds. The rocks went up north in two batches in big bins (which are now quite beat up from the weight but oh well, it’s for the new garden!).
For the foundation, because the soil at that little house is rocky and needs some gardening love, I chose to do a modified lasagne garden, putting a layer of heavy cardboard down on the very old lawn, adding soil where needed, securing the cardboard in place with the rocks, and putting a good 6″ of mulch on top of that. I worked the cardboard around the plantings. Then I trimmed the areas with the smaller rocks.
Because I was tentative on how well things would work, and because the results of my previous up north gardens were less than optimal, I built in sections. I brought up plants from things that needed dividing or saving from the townhouse gardens. The Rainforest Sunrise hosta needed to come out of one of the areas in the townhouse garden because it was getting crowded. The shrub start was from rootings off the alpine currant that was removed. The sedum were cuttings and divisions. The daylilies were from last year’s purchases and plantings, and the daylily seedlings were from last year’s Purple D’Oro seed harvest.
The plants I put in before I decided on the modified lasagne method took a bit of a hit from the deer, but since I put the mulch in the deer have left everything alone. Fingers crossed.
There is so much more that needs to go up in the next 8 weeks. Two trellises went up because we had to replace the ac at the townhouse. The new ac unit was bigger, necessitating the removal of the trellises. I cut back that clematis, and it will be moved next. Beyond that, the Blue Mouse Ears desperately need dividing, a Patriot Hosta has really burned this year in the landscape rock and drought and needs moving, and I should move some crowded hostas out of the area across the path from the weigelia. That will probably fill the current garden up at the little house, and then I will finish putting the rest of the mulch in. After that, sleep new little garden. Rest up for next year.
The shrubs have now been trimmed for the upcoming season, the sedum are in full color,
and the last blooming hostas are still hanging in there.
Last weekend I trimmed part of the clematis and a hosta that is first to come up, and first to fade. Although we’ve had low 80°F temperatures on and off, the mornings are crisp and cool.
The hummingbirds are still coming through, and Tuesday we saw something new – a dragonfly migration. There were dozens flying around above the lawn. It was very cool.
Over a week has gone by and we are enjoying beautiful days in the garden. The hibiscus had over 30 buds about a week ago and day after day we are getting treated to multiple blooms.
The sedum are really getting beautiful.
Even our butterfly friends cannot resist a visit.
while many parts of the garden begin their resting time.
Not me, though. Not a lot of resting here. I went on the association landscaping committee, then volunteered to fill an open spot on the board. If you’ve never served on a board, give it a try! You will not be bored – lol!
This coming weekend will be more garden trimming – probably starting to trim back some of the hostas that are starting to turn.
One of the last hostas to bloom in our gardens are the ‘Rainforest Sunrise’ hostas. The leaves are gorgeous all season, but the wine colored scapes and lavender blooms are icing on the cake as the gardens wind down.
The sedums are pinking up too. It’s that time of year.
And yet another sign of fall, this weekend the farmers market had apples! I absolutely could not resist! Crisp air, crisp apples. Embrace the season.
A week or so ago we made another trip to the local garden store. 4 additions and a replacement came home with us – two lavender plants, and two more chocolate colored sedum, plus another ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ hosta. It is my favorite time of year to plant, when I know with almost 100% certainty what survived the previous winter, and where I have gaps going into next year.
The only daylilies that are still blooming are the ‘Marque Moon’, and they are wrapping up. That area needed some fall interest. The two new sedum are just what that area needed. They are babies now but will fill the space within the next few years.
The two lavender tucked under the weigelia, right along the path, where I can brush by the leaves and enjoy their scent. I hope they survive the winter and return. They are zone 4 so we’ll see.
In the progression, as the daylilies are winding down, the ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum are now taking the stage. I know, they are kind of like ‘Stella D ‘Oro’ – everybody knows them – but I absolutely love them. Over the years I have propagated many new sedum from our original ‘Autumn Joy’ plants, which were a gift from my Dad. I learned to do that at first because we had a fearless bee chasing Irish Terrier (Darby) who broke off stems in his efforts to eradicate our entry garden of those “buzzing menaces” – lol. From those poor broken stems I rooted sedum plants that within three years formed a hedge! That hedge got too big and I had to gift some, but now, years later, our garden boasts a fall tapestry of their beautiful form and changing color, woven in throughout the landscape. Here’s their first efforts at color morphing this year.
The garden also has an abundance of seed pods. The daylilies are full. The ‘Purple D ‘Oro’ are crazy full this year.
I think I will have quite an April seedling project coming up.
And of course, the weather has been INCREDIBLE! Cooler temperatures soothe my soul. The crisp air renews me.
I already miss the “Wow!” of the new daylily blooms, but to everything there is a season. There’s still a lot of garden left.
Yesterday was an overcast day, with a bit of breeze, and rain on the way. Perfect day to put additions into the garden.
Saturday I visited the local garden store. I decided to bring home three additions. One was a chocolate colored sedum, to fill in a spot that previously had a chocolate drop sedum. It did not return last year but I held out hope. It did not return this year so I decided to get another chocolate colored sedum to match one we alread have (SUNSPARKLER Plum Dazzled) and see how that goes.
The other two additions are coneflowers. Years ago, at our house, I had a 20′ x 20′ wildflower and daylily corner. I really enjoyed that. We need a bit of late summer/early fall color on our path by the linden, so I tucked the new coneflowers in there (POWWOW Wild Berry).
Today also started the daylily wrap up. Our last ‘South Seas’ daylily bloom of the season was today.
I suspect the last ‘Hush Little Baby’ bloom of the season will be tomorrow.
It’s all good. Today I watched as the bees and butterflies flitted from bloom to bloom on the hostas. They do the same on the daylilies. Next year they’ll do it all again. And maybe those seed pods that are forming on the daylilies have something beautiful in store for us down the road.
We may have almost 6 weeks until the official start of fall, but fall is definitely poking it’s head around the corner here in Minnesota.
Mid-week I also noticed we are past the half-way point of daylily blooms. I still have a wonderful palette of all the colors each day, and seeing what the new day has brought continues to be breathtaking. Sadly, however, we are only a few days away from having some colors wrap up. The peach, the ‘South Seas’ and the ‘Hush Little Baby’ daylilies are at the “one bud left” stage. The red daylilies are not far behind. They bloomed in abundance for the past couple weeks and were absolutely gorgeous individually and en masse.
But … the sedum are looking so good, and their color is right around the corner.
And so begins the “thinking” time of year regarding the garden. First I “think” and think and think and think. Then I plan, then I do. I have some Aureomarginata hostas that are huge and should have been divided last year. Now a year later I have joined our association’s “newly formed” landscaping committee – as in three of us – lol. There are people in our association that have expressed interest in a landscape refresh. We have loosely discussed going more toward perennials. They are beautiful and can easily be trimmed to ground in fall by the landscape service. So I’m looking through my garden and thinking, and thinking, and thinking.
There will be gifting. I love to do that. But what scope? The Aureomarginatas deserve space. Could divisions be a good start at single, easy landscaping for folks that don’t or can’t do gardens, but like them? I suspect that’s where I will reasonably land for this fall. “Do not despise the day of small beginnings” (Zechariah 4:10).
August is here. The grass starts to look tired. Every corner crevice needs to be swept at least once per week to prevent a webby effect, and it’s going from warm to nice to warm to nice.
This week was gorgeous. This weekend was a bit warm – high 80s and humid. Tomorrow is supposed to be 10°F cooler.
The dayliles are still beautiful and the hostas are in varying stages of bloom. The sedum look very full. Soon they will start to pink up.
In the “speed to come out of the ground”, besides, of course, the tulips, this year the lilies won. Yeay lilies! You go girls!!!
When I could barely see the sedum, and no hostas were visible yet, both the daylilies and the asian lilies were welcoming spring. Last spring came with the realization that we had, inexplicably, lost quite a few hostas that were very full and healthy in 2017. This May I was watching closely, and hoping we didn’t have a repeat. Thankfully we didn’t and now the hostas are gigantic. Right alongside them, the asian lilies that showed up early have been slowly, gradually getting ready for their big show. Now literally overnight the asian lilies went from green buds to color. We are right on the edge of dozens of asian lilies blooming! Wonderful time of year! And then the party will begin, with hosta blooms and daylily blooms flowering and going right through September. It’s summer in Minnesota!
while many parts of the garden begin their resting time.
Susan's Daily Garden 