A few days ago I read an article in The Telegraph, an English newspaper, on the fabled long borders at Great Dixter, an estate garden that was the longtime domain of the late plantsman and author Christopher Lloyd. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/9552586/Great-Dixter-gardens-going-out-in-a-blaze-of-glory.html)
Great Dixter is open to the public full time, so the beds and borders have to look good in all weather and all seasons. Most of us home gardeners don’t labor under the heavy burden of perpetual perfection carried by Dixter’s head gardener, Fergus Garrett, and his employees.
The lesson of the Great Dixter (and other notable public gardens) is that to look its best, a collection of plants should be treated like an art collection and curated skillfully. Plant siting is important, as is affording viewers an unobstructed view of each specimen. Individual plants or plant groups should shine during their periods of greatest glory and then recede as other plants bloom. Making this happen requires cutting back spent specimens, removing annuals that are past their time and dropping in potted plants when holes crop up in the overall arrangement.
All of that is especially necessary in the fall, when many plants are in the process of slowing down at the end of the growing season. It is easier for asters to shine, for example, if they don’t have to fight with the spent daylily foliage.
The curatorial process can take as much or as little effort as you are willing to give. It’s fall, though, and what better time can there be to work in the garden?