{"id":64,"date":"2007-11-06T13:56:13","date_gmt":"2007-11-06T21:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=64"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:33:25","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:33:25","slug":"miles-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/miles-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Miles to Go"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILES TO GO
\n<\/font><\/font><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When I started on my personal garden perfection project last February, I gave myself one year to make the garden so lovely that I wouldn’t be ashamed to take a page from garden writer Beverley Nichols’ book and invite anyone and everyone to see it.\u00a0 In between then and now I’ve hosted a garden wedding reception and opened up my property for a local garden tour.\u00a0 The wedding guests and the people who turned up for the garden tour seemed appreciative and that was extremely gratifying.\u00a0 It took a lot of hard work to get ready for those two big events, and I was tired.\u00a0 For a few hours after the tour I considered ending the garden perfection project six months early.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But the next day I looked around and I knew that the project wasn’t nearly finished.\u00a0 Getting a garden ready for a major event is a little like being a bride–you prepare as much as you can before the big day, but as zero hour approaches a lot depends on cosmetics.\u00a0 In the garden the closest thing to foundation and concealer is mulch and the annuals that are popped into place at the last minute.\u00a0 Those horticultural cosmetics are a godsend, but it takes much more than that to achieve a great garden.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So I decided to go forward.\u00a0 As fall has progressed I have installed new plants, continued to move things around and even added more mulch.\u00a0 In this case the mulch was less for appearances and weed suppression and more to keep the ground moist during the recent dry spell.\u00a0 Now, as the weather finally begins to turn colder, I am in the process of looking around myself once again and considering the ways that I can keep the garden perfection project going right through the end of January.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gardens are never static, and in order to keep one in a state that you wouldn’t mind people seeing–even in November–it is very important to keep it looking tidy.\u00a0 That by itself is a big job in the fall, even if you have someone who blows away your leaves and mows the grass for you.\u00a0 Chances are your garden, like mine, is full of dead flowerheads, brown stalks and spent material, all of which have to be removed.\u00a0 Fixtures like pots, non-frost resistant ornaments and some birdbaths need to be brought inside for the winter.\u00a0 You can certainly trim your hydrangeas now, unless you want to leave the mostly browned-out flowerheads for winter interest.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of course clearing out the detritus can make the garden seem very bare, but that can be a virtue.\u00a0 Bareness is a desirable quality, as it brings the bones of the garden–shrubs, trees and hardscaping–into the forefront in a way that doesn’t happen during the greenery-laden growing season.\u00a0 But if the bareness is too much because there isn’t enough structure or enough plants with evergreen leaves, berries, fruits or interesting shapes, it’s time to start planning for the future.\u00a0 Set up some kind of a notebook or diary, if you don’t have one already, and record information about the bare spots, then do some research and figure out what you want to put there.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And if the existing shapes in your garden–the shrubs–could use a bit more shape, prune or trim them.\u00a0 Now that it’s cooler, hedge or shrub trimming will feel invigorating rather than draining.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I didn’t have enough time during the growing season to fulfill one of my garden perfection goals and rid my back and front gardens of the English ivy that has taken over two large beds.\u00a0 I have nothing against ivy in general, but there is too much of it on my property and I want to replace it with something more interesting and less rampant plants.\u00a0 If you have a problem with ivy, or some other invasive species that you have been itching to remove, you can still get at least some of it out before hard frosts turn the ground to iron. \u00a0I favor the newspaper and compost method, which can be used even after hard frosts, but if you have lots of spring-flowering bulbs or perennials that grow up through the invasive ground cover, you are going to have to hand pull at least some of it.\u00a0 There is no better time than now, when you can combine hand pulling with bulb planting. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The same goes for edging, especially if you haven’t been diligent about it during the growing season.\u00a0 Nothing makes a garden look better than a clean edge, and it will lessen the workload next spring.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I know that the best thing that I can do for my garden and the success of the garden perfection project is to be out there every day, even if the weather is foul.\u00a0 I can spot the problems and plot the solutions, not to mention staving off Seasonal Affective Disorder by soaking up the diminished rays of sunshine when they are available.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My garden perfection deadline is only three months away.\u00a0 Even though it’s getting chilly, I have a lot to do.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MILES TO GO \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When I started on my personal garden perfection project last February, I gave myself one year to make the garden so lovely that I wouldn’t be ashamed to take a page from garden writer Beverley Nichols’ book and invite anyone and everyone to see it.\u00a0 In between then and now I’ve … 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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","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=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1714,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/1714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}