Plan Your Spring Garden in August

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I’ve really loved working in the garden this August. Yesterday after an afternoon thunderstorm, I left my air-conditioned office and went outside where I realized that it was hotter and more humid than most saunas (even the good ones). Very dissimilar to the spring garden.

I love being dirty and sweaty, and exhausted by the heat.

For the past 6 years or so, I have taken off lots of time in August. Not to escape the heat and humidity, but to go to places that are hotter and more humid like Santo Domingo. There I can practice my Spanish and also escape the repetitive garden work of August- cut grass, prune hedges, weed, water container, cut grass again prune hedges again, etc.

And of course there is the planning.

Dream Your Spring Gardens

Make plant lists of things to get in the ground in October bulbs, winter annuals, biennials. Here are some of our choices: violas (NO PANSIES), lots of Italian Kale (aka Dinosaur Kale), Scotch Thistle, Honesty (Money Plant), plenty of small-flowered narcissus (Itzam or Hawera) and a few snap dragons and tulips.

Then, edit. Spend a few hours cutting out things that are too big but that will grow quickly and look great in the fall. This week, I cut back crinums, cannas and parrot weed in the water garden. I also cut and shaped a few mums—the perennial mums that had too much growth. With some clever editing you can force a beautiful picture if you prune mums around other plants, help them climb into a shrub or mix with a neighbor without smothering it.

Some of my favorite mums in order of their flowering times are Ryans Pink, Peach, Glorias Thanksgiving Day, and Button Yellow.

Seed in Cosmos, Amaranth and Nicotiana. Most summer annuals will flower nicely in the fall and then get cut down by the first frost. Nicotiana seedlings, however, are very cold tolerant so they’ll keep going past Thanksgiving.

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