Garden Tip 108: REMOVING FOLIAGE FROM ANNUALS Every summer I plant a few annuals in the garden to create an accent or focal point in the landscape. A few impatiens here, a group of super petunias there; it doesn’t take much to create that extra interest. By this time of year any extra interest value is long gone, and it is time for them to go. Years ago, I would pull them all up and lug them off to the compost pile. One year, in an enlightened moment, I realized that I was pulling up a rootball of some pretty [...]

Garden Tip 107: MOWING LEAVES IN FALL I mow my lawn weekly from mid-October through late October, not to maintain grass height but to shred the fallen leaves. Mowing frequently in early fall keeps the accumulation of leaves on the lawn light enough so that I am able to mow and mulch them in place. Leaving the shredded clippings on the lawn adds fertilizer and organic matter to the soil. When leaves accumulate more heavily, I mow, mulch and bag the leaves and spread the collected clippings on the nearest perennial bed or shrub border. When there are a [...]

Garden Tip 106: THE BENEFITS OF CLOVER! Recent rains are doing much to help improve lawns that were decimated by drought and water restrictions this past summer. Last week I over-seeded some bare spots that had truly suffered with white clover seed. For years seed companies and fertilizer companies have tried to convince us that clover is a lawn weed but it can actually benefit the lawn by its presence. Clover is a legume, in the pea family and these plants have the ability to convert nitrogen in the air to a form that is available in the soil [...]

Garden Tip 105: IT'S MONTAUK DAISY TIME! We are all familiar with the white flowering shrub-like perennial that brightens Cape Cod gardens this time of year-- the Montauk or Nippon Daisy, Nipponanthemum nipponicum. Although a perennial, this plant can grow to be three feet tall and three feet wide in a single season, and its bright green glossy foliage is covered with three-inch daisy like flowers this time of year. Interestingly enough, there is another perennial that flowers at the same time with a strikingly similar flower. It is a perennial that I know as Chrysanthemum ‘White Bomb,' but [...]

Garden Tip 104: SUMMER CAMP IS OVER FOR HOUSEPLANTS! Summer camp is over, and it is time to bring tropical house plants back inside. My collection of plants includes a camellia, olive tree, citrus, bay, rosemary and a wonderful accumulation of begonias, ferns, and tender treasures. All of these have one thing in common this time of year, they have grown huge over the summer months and are in need of a fall pruning. Cutting back and shaping these plants now allows them to stay in the pots they are in for the winter months and any repotting and [...]

Garden Tip 103: PRUNING HYDRANGEAS Each spring and fall when the subject of pruning hydrangeas comes up, eyes start spinning and minds start racing concerning the how, what, when and where of correct pruning of these popular flowering shrubs. Some of the different types of hydrangeas have similar fall pruning requirement, so I group them together to keep things simple. The first group includes hydrangea macrophylla (the mopheads) and hydrangea serrata (the lacecap). Fall pruning here involves removing the spent blooms and any broken or obvious dead stems. The second group includes hydrangea paniculata (panicle cone shape flower) and [...]

Garden Tip 102: HARDY AGERATUM Balance and scale are two subjects often referred to when speaking of landscape design. Scale refers to the size and visual weight or volume of landscape elements and their relationship to their surroundings. The principle of scale can be applied to trees, shrubs, plants and garden accents such as boulders, statuary and buildings. I came across a good example of scale while working in the front perennial garden this week. The garden is many years old and is a mixed planting of iris, geranium, daylily, phlox, salvia, agapanthus and more. Over the years most [...]

Garden Tip 101: BRINGING SCALE TO YOUR GARDEN Balance and scale are two subjects often referred to when speaking of landscape design. Scale refers to the size and visual weight or volume of landscape elements and their relationship to their surroundings. The principle of scale can be applied to trees, shrubs, plants and garden accents such as boulders, statuary and buildings. I came across a good example of scale while working in the front perennial garden this week. The garden is many years old and is a mixed planting of iris, geranium, daylily, phlox, salvia, agapanthus and more. Over [...]

Garden Tip 100: AUTUMN COLORS IN THE GARDEN Take a walk in the garden. The blending of seasonal colors in the autumn garden is magical. The September Equinox, the sun crosses the Celestial Equator and the hot summer colors of the garden cool to subtle hues and blend with the warm colors of fall, a most enchanting show that only mother nature can create. Take the time to take it in, no weeding, no deadheading just enjoy. Walk with a morning coffee, afternoon tea or evening wine and absorb the beauty of nature’s creation on this cusp of a [...]

Garden Tip 99: CARING FOR PERENNIAL HIBISCUS Many summer flowering perennials are well past their peak performance in the late summer garden. The vibrant colors of summer are waning. A great plant to have in the landscape this time of year to add a bit of razzle dazzle is the hardy, perennial hibiscus. Depending upon the variety chosen, plants grow from two to three foot tall to larger growing ones growing to a height five to six feet. The flowers of this plant are tropical-looking, growing up to ten inches wide and come in colors of pink, red, white [...]