Summer Garden Tasks and Edits~Because Nature’s Pruning Isn’t Always a Team Player!

Art of the Garden

Jul 24

I have some good news and some bad news. It all depends on which side of the garden gate you’re looking at things in the garden.

If you are a home gardener ~ good for you. I congratulate you and your hard work. You made it through the “silly season.” And if you’re like us, you kinda’ took a well-deserved break for a wee bit.

But now, it’s time for some summer seasonal garden tasks and editing, made all the more urgent by the severity and frequency of the violent storms that scorched and then drenched us all.

Aggressive Summer Rain Storm

While I have long been equally grateful and resentful of Mother Nature’s pruning, it doesn’t always align with my schedule. She can be an unpredictable garden team member ^:^

As in, that party you were planning for the patio? Forget it when the winds blow so hard they knock branches and limbs and leaf litter about like a ticker tape parade.

Nature’s pruning isn't punishment though.

It’s smart of the trees and shrubs to shed dying or weak limbs and leaf appendages; but I have to ask them, who do you think is gonna’ clean up this disarray?!

This, as I noted in my Native Plant Garden Tour and in the follow-up post is not to refute the admonition to “Leave the Leaves” but rather a qualification that healthy autumn leaves are different from diseased or unhealthy spent in-season leaves that the plant has shed for a reason.

So I clean these “spoiled” leaves out, as pictured above.

Shed Tree leaves that need to be cleaned away ~ I don’t “leave” these leaves

Cherry Laurels shed their unwanted leaves that need to be cleaned out

Often, plants grow so quickly they shade out the lower little guys and they die off. Or even their lower limbs go poof.

Or the extreme heat and smoke renders plants just as parched as we are.

And we gotta’ clean that stuff up.

And then there is the animal browsing. This kind of “garden pot luck meal grazing” makes me wish I had the power as the head food-concierge to refuse them dinner reservations at MY garden table ~ This is not a snack bar, after all. I want to send the critters a memo: “Stick to your own home gathering and leave my garden be.”

So between critters, and weather, it’s time to get back in there and do some garden editing, along with your harvesting.

The good news is that, as you can see in the Gallery above, the herbs and fruits are “hanging in there” (sorry, couldn’t resist.) After years of resistance, my now oh-so-many tarragon plants have gone bananas! They are punching it up like crazy. I see lots of dried tarragon and tarragon ice cubes in our future.

The homegrown arugula is a god-send, especially in this scary chapter of cyclospora ~ I’m feeling grateful for our abundant garden lettuces, including the lemony sorrel.

And the feverfew and lemon grass are heavenly in homegrown salads, savory dishes, and as drink garnishes, as are our lemony begonias, and mint (in its containers, mind you.)

The apples and kumquats are dialing it up, as well. And the Agastache and Hyssop and Nasturiams and …

The Provence lavender continues to graciously generate oodles of “scentastic” for drinks ~ lemonade and a variety of cocktails, too, as well as floral compositions. Lavender is such a terrific companion plant. Next to my pillow and cozying up to the hydrangeas or Casablanca lilies.

I’m also snipping off some of the spent blue English Lavender. Often, they rebloom. But I leave enough to share with the birds ~ especially the finches.

The size & fragrance of the Provencal Lavender is (literally) breathtaking

Will prune this English lavender for rebloom

Pruning

If you were to refer to me as a “reluctant or reticent” pruner, you wouldn’t be wrong. Not for my garden design clients’ gardens where I practice a most disciplined and rigorous horticulture code, but in my home gardens. I would sometimes cringe at having to cut the plants back. After all, I have viscerally felt their growth, experienced their struggles ~ so it used to be a parental struggle to cut. However, I have learned that good pruning ~ like a good haircut ~ only improves one’s looks. I even mustered the courage to cut the center of my dahlies as per Erin at Floret Flower Farm. All digits crossed. (I’ll update you accordingly!)

And so, I have gingerly pruned the lace-cap hydrangeas that border one side of our Grillscape garden. Why?

Because I am adhering to the horticulture guideline of “Prune after Bloom” ~ and they were so glorious this year!

Lacecape Hydrangea in bloom ~ Double border to Grillscape Garden

Lacecap Blue Hydrangea ~ Double border to Grillscape Garden

Lacecap Hydrangea’s “blossoms” or Corymb

I’d noticed that in years past, they suffered from browning and aphids, so I wanted to “punch” a few holes or open up the pretty shrubs to allow for more air circulation.

I also weeded underneath, and removed the spent leaves where pathogens can find a too-cozy home.

Pruning Lacecap Hydrangeas ~ Cut above a new shoot for renewed growth

Punching some aerating spaces into Lacecaps

And fluff up the mulch. We all need a little summer spa assist 🙂

Pruned away the parched, brown Mop Head Hydrangea ~ Cut above new growth for regrowth

I also cut back the spent yarrow. Both the Achillea millefoleum ~ the yellow goes before the white ones) and the demure, sweet ‘Ballerina’ that look not unlike Baby’s Breath.

Ballerina Yarrow to be pruned. The blooms “dance” atop the Lavender & Echinacea

Bill and Carlo tackled the Kwanzan cherry tree, removing her wispy tendrils; Bill pruned back the male apple along with the edible cherry. I’m doing the NJ Blueberry bushes.

The Amsonia has become so thuggish ~ and I need to really discipline it back to its more sculpted design but I’ve made the decision to wait to enjoy its golden autumn look and then I’ll do the surgery. (shhhh ~ don’t tell the Blue and Gold Garden Goddess…🤫)

Ever-expanding Amsonia… I’ll prune later in Autumn

Amsonia in May Blue Bloom ~ Burnishes Gold in Autumn

The echinacea needs really nothing ~ just our adoring gaze, along with the pollinator’s thanks.

The Milkweed, ‘Cinderella’ went to seed so quickly this year ~ I see that Native Garden’s blog noted as well. I don’t know why 🤔but have to guess that the climate/weather had a hand. Hope it doesn't interfere with the butterfly messaging and nourishment.

Asclepia ~ Milkweed ~ with Lavender & Hydrangea

Weeding & Deadheading

Like death and taxes, you cannot escape weeding. So queue up the audio book or your favorite playlist and meditate on the task. A little each day is good for the soul and the garden.

Watch too, for the invasives. Coming over our hillside shrubs I see the ghastly bindweed that tries to trick us into believing it’s a Morning Glory. It is not.

And that monster of a vine ~ the Sweet Autumn Clematis. Yes, Yes, it does smell nice but ~ it’s waaayyy too aggressive for me and it’s a terrible thug. It does not play well with others. It too often refuses to budge when you attempt to weed it out.

Do it. You can thank me later.

And enjoy the pleasure of deadheading. Pinching the spent blossoms is its own reward.

Editing the Garden

Now is a great time to walk your garden and take notes. You can readily see what needs to be edited. Perhaps you notice what needs not only to be pruned or deadheaded but also what you can remove or add.

La Barbe Bleue Caryopteris, Monrovia photo by Doreen Wynja

For example, I am planning to add some blue Caryopteris. I used this beaitiful plant years ago in a client garden and when I saw the email from Monrovia for its La Barbe Bleue (TM), I wondered why I had overlooked this pretty plant in my own red, white, and blue gardens. The marvel of cultivation gives us spikes of a vibrant blue ~ so rare in the plant world. Plus ~ drum roll ~ this compact beauty is Fragrant! And we do need more fragrance in our gardens. To that point, I’m also mulling over a mock orange…

And be sure to indulge in the summer delights of your garden. We wait so much of the year for our phlox, hydrangeas, lilies, hibiscus, water beauties, ornamental grasses, edibles and more, not to mention our (three) fountains, and butterflies and hummingbirds and…

Fountains add a spiritual dimension to a garden ~ for us & pollinators

Bask in the glory you’ve created ~ from containers to the variety of garden rooms. I design a variety of garden rooms or spaces based on the view or “borrowed landscape” as seen from indoors as well as the view from beyond in nature. Or in our case, a NYC Skyline. I also use the the microclimates created by a south or western-facing border where you can often grow a greater variety of zoned plants.)