{"id":271,"date":"2011-09-12T04:13:16","date_gmt":"2011-09-12T12:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=271"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:32:34","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:32:34","slug":"clean-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/clean-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Clean-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEAN-UP<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My beach garden in the Finger Lakes is home to a lovely, fall-blooming sedum with the varietal name ‘Black Jack.’\u00a0 It is a tall and similar in configuration to the well-known Sedum ‘Autumn Joy.’\u00a0 The difference between the varieties is that ‘Black Jack’ features leaves and stems that appear almost black.\u00a0 The combination of the black leaves and the pink flowers is striking.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I installed ‘Black Jack’ three years ago.\u00a0 In its first spring, it almost flamed out when my cousin, who takes care of the place when we are not there, decided to have a beach fire a little too near the garden.\u00a0 Not much remained of ‘Black Jack’ once the charred parts were clipped off.\u00a0 I left the remains in place–just in case–and saw new growth after about a month.\u00a0 The beleaguered plant bloomed weakly that fall, but eventually rose from the ashes like a sedum-shaped Phoenix and recovered strongly the following year.\u00a0 Last spring, the lake overflowed its banks, flooding the garden.\u00a0 ‘Black Jack’ was completely submerged for about a week.\u00a0 It recovered once again and is blooming handsomely as I write this.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The lesson of ‘Black Jack’ is that disaster recovery is possible and plants often surprise you with their resiliency.\u00a0 They are almost as resilient as people.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This has been a tough year for both plants and people, with widespread flooding and hurricane”\u201crelated damage in the East, drought in the Southeast and huge wildfires in Texas and elsewhere.\u00a0 People who are trying to rebuild their lives and homes don’t have time to worry about gardens.\u00a0 For those of us with less damage, however, there is hope–not to mention work to be done.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Clean-up comes first.\u00a0 You can’t assess damage until you remove the debris from the garden.\u00a0 Pile up branches, sticks and other debris.\u00a0 Remember that small sticks can go in the compost pile, but will take longer to break down than leaves and yard waste.\u00a0 Straight sticks can also be set aside for future use as plant supports.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rake out beds and shovel off heavy accumulations of stones or mud, if possible.\u00a0 Recover containers from wherever they have landed and set aside, along with any plants that have been separated from their pots and need to be reunited.\u00a0 Some of those plants may be candidates for in-ground installation to fill spots left by specimens that did not survive.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Once the large debris is gone, tend to the plants, clipping off damaged parts, marking spots where plants have disappeared or died back completely, and noting the holes in beds and borders.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don’t let yourself get depressed.\u00a0 The garden that was a vision of loveliness three weeks ago may look like a disaster now, but small signs of renewal will come quickly.\u00a0 A few sunny days will bring new growth to many of the plants and a few–like asters, chrysanthemums and boltonia–may start to bloom.\u00a0 If you think a particular plant is dead, wait awhile before removing the remains.\u00a0 A well-rooted specimen will often grow back from the roots, though it may not happen until next spring.\u00a0 Instead of worrying about death, look for signs of life.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Once everything is cleared away and tidied up, there will be bare spots.\u00a0 Fill them by dividing crowded perennials.\u00a0 This may not help much now, but will pay off handsomely next spring.\u00a0 If you have some extra money, place bulb orders.\u00a0 Romping through the fields of daffodils and tulips spread across catalog or website pages is good for the soul.\u00a0 If you don’t have extra money because of storm-related or other expenses, write down what you want anyway.\u00a0 A month from now, bulbs will start going on sale and some of your favorites will be among the discounted offerings.\u00a0 Plant retailing, just like all other retailing, offers abundant second acts for those who are patient.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cut back all your zinnias, cosmos, marigolds, impatiens and other annuals.\u00a0 If the weather remains mild, all will bloom again.\u00a0 If some of your potted specimens have died, recombine the survivors in new multi-plant arrangements.\u00a0 You can use Gertrude Jekyll’s trick of distributing bountiful pots throughout the garden to add color.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gardening is all about imposing an individual kind of order on nature.\u00a0 When the chaos of severe weather or life in general turns things upside down, the most satisfying feelings come from restoring some semblance of order.\u00a0 Gardeners have an advantage in this respect, because we have so much practice.\u00a0 Tough roots and faith in regrowth and regeneration get us and our plants through every time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CLEAN-UP \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My beach garden in the Finger Lakes is home to a lovely, fall-blooming sedum with the varietal name ‘Black Jack.’\u00a0 It is a tall and similar in configuration to the well-known Sedum ‘Autumn Joy.’\u00a0 The difference between the varieties is that ‘Black Jack’ features leaves and stems that appear almost black.\u00a0 The combination … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1520,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions\/1520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}