Hello! I just wanted to pop-on and share my end-of-season garden with you. The fall has never been my garden’s best look, and I thought why not show the good and the bad. It’s the month of August where I usually give up on weeding and giving general craps about yard work, and it shows. There’s always too many end-of-summer obligations and fun party times – weeding and garden maintenance is the first thing to get left in the dust.
My late summer garden tends to look burnt out, and I’d like to find some really hardy and pretty (foliage or flower) that can look fresh during the hot dry days of summer. I really enjoy my hydrangea bush and trees in August and September, but they are large and the space I have for new plantings is not big enough to accommodate more of them. Suggestions welcome – looking for sun-loving late summer bloomers!
This is what early October vs mid-May looks like. Notice anything different?
My window-box irrigation system is still doing it’s job so well! I switched out some of the petunias that were starting to fade with ornamental kale and small mums for the fall.
I have failed again at installing the paver border along the garden bed on the side of my house. I just hauled over a bunch of pavers, lined them up and then prayed that they would somehow magically get installed along the edge of the garden bed. I attempted to transplant a clematis I had growing on the trellis and it didn’t make it – so sad to lose a good plant always. I’ll have to replace it at the start of spring next year. My hydrangea tree sure is pretty though, and I love having this pathway along the side of the house. God bless my neighbor for having the best vines on his house. What a pretty backdrop to everything.
All in all, I stuck to my New Year’s Resolution which was to not be a jerk and neglect my garden like I did last year. I made some new improvements and devoted time to weeding and tending for almost the entire summer. I hired a new lawn care company that’s entirely organic and I’m excited to see how the lawn does going into the second season next summer. The lawn was aerated and seeded recently, and I hope that it helps the lawn to thrive. God only knows how much time I’ve spend babying that grass only to see so-so results – I’d love to have the best lawn on the block.
Easy to Install Low Voltage Outdoor Lighting
Fall Landscaping and Garden Clean-Up
I love your blog! It’s the first one I read! Do you have Sedum(autumn joy) in your garden? Great fall color. Other than that my fall garden is blah. If there aren’t mini hydrangeas someone should invent them. I sitck a couple of plant stands in my garden with perennials in them. My geraniums are still blooming like crazy
Just want to preface this by saying that I am in no way, shape or form a gardener, but I loved the Astors the previous homeowner had planted because they were low maintenance, small, and late bloomers. It was nice to have some colour in the fall. They were also hardy enough to bloom in fall in Canada (a.k.a. winter). We have since ripped out and sodded over that flower bed for lower maintenance landscaping, but I think about those Astors every fall.
I second Jeanne’s Sedum recommendation. Also, I planted some Bobo hydrangeas last summer and they have been the highlight of my garden, October in Maine (zone 5) and they are still going strong in that lovely late season shade of mauve. They are also very compact but produce a lot of blooms. Your garden (even during the fall) is such an inspiration!
I live on the west-coast of Sweden, in our garden in fall I love our Echinacea purpurea, I believe it’s called Coneflower in English? Loves the sun, and is loved by butterflies. Flowers until the first frost.