South Eastern Connecticut Landscaping

When I planted the kales and cabbages this past September, the trees were barely beginning to turn the golds and yellows that are autumn at Clay and Limestone. Autumn is lovely, but, it gives way to months of winter when there is more brown than white covering the ground. More color is needed in the garden.

I plant cabbages, kales and mustards for immediate impact and with an eye to the future~The serrated and fringed leaves of flowering cabbages grab attention and keep it all winter long.

A feather leaf kale shimmers in the rain

The feather leaves of kale shimmer with diamond raindrops in our wet winters.

fringed leaf kale dancing in the snow!

Mild winters with only occasional snow means we need cabbages for long term daily garden duty. Many cabbages and kales have been planted in beds and containers. Tulips, daffodils, violas and wallflowers have been planted with them.

Early in October, the kales and mustards hosted the colchicums that were planted at their feet.

colchicum and kale

All the kales and cabbages will survive what ever winter throws at them (they are hardy to -10*).

Cabbage flowers

Next spring they’ll send up the sweetest flowers just in time for~

IRIS

COSTCO TULIPS

and,

VIOLAS

So, trust me, no matter how tattered they look after your long winter~Let them be and you may see

Cabbage flowers everywhere.

xxoogail

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Posted by mgervais

What is it called when a plant has three different leaf shapes at once? I can’t figure it out, but that’s what going on with sassafras (Sassafras albidum, USDA Hardiness Zones 4-8). Sassafras is an…

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While I’m not officially wrapping up the Fall Color Project for this year the entries do seem to be slowing down! More and more leaves are finding their way to the ground, hopefully to become mulch or compost as nature intended!

Today’s entry comes from the blog Garden Sense and shares with us the gorgeous colors that fall foliage brings to shrubs. Brilliant barberries, itea, fothergilla, oak leaf hydrangea, chokeberry, and even azaleas fill this post with plenty of autumn wonder.  Go pay a visit to Chris’s post if you haven’t already and enjoy what could be the last of fall’s wondrous foliage!

Thank you to everyone who has participated so far! I’ll be posting the wrap up post before Christmas so if you still have fall colors to share be sure to let me know!

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The foliage is still there on some if the trees and shrubs in our garden and is fading fast. Most of what remains now has a reddish hue in the leaves but in some cases what remains isn’t just the leaves.

The ‘Shasta’ viburnum is showing red in the last few of it’s remaining leaves. In my garden it’s the first viburnum to drop leaves, the Burkwood and arrowwood viburnums still haven’t begun their color changes yet while the snowball viburnum is completely naked.

Here the ‘Constellation’ dogwood’s mottled foliage shows some red hues also. The brown tips are evidence of the dryness we had this summer. I’m still waiting to see that “perfect” gardening season!

This dogwood leaf is on a tree along the back fence line from a Cornus florida dogwood. It blooms white when it blooms. Before too long I need to gather some berries to stratify over the winter and try to grow some dogwood saplings.

And the Bradford pear tree (which you should never plant) is nearly on fire with red orange foliage. It also has a fair number of fruit that will be freely sown by the mockingbirds to spread invasive hybrid pears everywhere!

But like I said before the red isn’t only in the leaves! The Nandina domestica berries are a bright red.

And the red is also in the bark of these red twig dogwood shrubs. It’s one of my favorite plants for winter color. It’s easy to propagate more just by sticking 6-8 inch stems in moist soil. As long as the soil is kept moist over the winter they will root. This little one was propagated last winter/spring and placed near the shed. I have a few others that have three foot stems on them.

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One of the lesser shown areas of my yard this year has been the sideyard and corner shade garden. In the past I’ve featured it quite a bit but to be honest I’ve been disappointed with it this year. After I removed a cedar tree in the spring the morning sun began to cook the hostas in the garden. They weren’t too happy. When you add up the flooding rains in May and the extremely dry and hot summer you can understand why the garden might look considerably less than perfection. I replaced the cedar tree with a dogwood which in time will look great but until its foliage fills out the shade garden will just have to tolerate a little extra sun.

Recently I expanded both sides of the sideyard gardens. I didn’t do much more than move the border stones but it had an immediate effect. The pathway was improved by making it more narrow (down to about 8 feet from 11-12) and the gardens could house more plants. In the spring I will be forced to move several hostas otherwise they will get covered by the oak leaf hydrangea in the corner. It’s a good problem to have since inevitably I’ll end up dividing the hostas which means – MORE FREE PLANTS!

Let’s take a quick tour of the pathway.

Here’s a picture from underneath the arbor. On the right is the corner shade garden and to the left is the self-sowing garden. Straight ahead is the dogwood (‘Constellation’).

Here we are a few steps down the pathway. You will notice the black plastic hardware cloth I have around the trees. That is there to protect the young trees from the deer which have been a constant source of frustration this year. The tree on the left is a ‘Forest Pansy’ redbud. ‘Forest Pansy’ redbuds have beautiful purple foliage early in the spring that turns a more normal green through the summer. Straight ahead is a shrub line of caryopteris.

A look over at the corner shade garden shows the hostas are on their way out for the season. the foliage is all wilted due to the frosts this week. 

Further down the pathway you can see the stone border and the caryopteris plants behind it. 

And here is the destination the pathway eventually takes you to. On the right is Russian sage and snowball viburnum while on the left is a redbud, birch tree, ornamental grasses and a few other plantings. If you follow the sight line of the pathway you can see a red maple tree which has dropped it’s foliage and the garden shed way in the back.

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This year’s wacky weather has given way to quite a lot of speculation about when the actual peak time for the leaves is. I’ve noticed that this year hasn’t really had a peak color moment. The normal sequential leaf change has been extremely erratic and some plants still haven’t begun to change while others no longer even have leaves. Fortunately not everyone has the same issue and we can enjoy the autumn sights brought to us by other bloggers!

Janet at Plantalicous is Celebrating Autumn for another Fall Color Project Post! (Anyone is welcome to do multiple posts – especially if you can’t fit all that gorgeous foliage into one!) Ornamental grass tassels, coneflower seed heads, and many other fall features add color and interest the garden this time of year.

Gail’s post at Clay and Limestone is a great one for who everyone who enjoys gold! And who doesn’t this time of year? Shagbark hickory, witch hazel, and of course good old Rusty! Rusty is a little more orange than gold but definitely has awesome fall color!

Jan’s put together a perfect post for the fall at Thanks for Today! All the things you think of when imagining the perfect fall scene are there. Wildlife in the form of herons and geese, water with fall colors reflected upon its surface, and picturesque farm house landscapes really set the perfect autumn mood!

More rustic barns and lake scenes await you over at Growing Goodness! Pictures of the backroads remind me of when I was a kid in Pennsylvania riding the bus home in the fall. The view of her property with the cutting garden would be the envy of many a gardener!

Shady Gardener took a different approach when it came to her Fall Color Project post. She showed a sequence of fall as it progressed through her neighborhood! The orange colored maples appear to be on fire. Her words “breathtaking” and “gorgeous” definitely ring true!

Perhaps the number one tree for fall color is pictured in Prairie Rose’s Fall Color Project post – maple! Ash, sumac, and brightly colored crabapples also add color to her post. I’m extremely envious of the free pine needle mulch she has available. I would love to have a few of her pine trees in my landscape!

VP’s second Fall Color Post this year shows us what thoughtful landscape planning can do around roadways! The colorful trees in the fall make roundabouts and roadways into welcoming locations. Let’s just hope that the beauty of these trees doesn’t distract drivers too much!

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Now that we are 100% in the full swing of weed season in most of the country, I figure I’ll share with you one of the misconceptions that a lot of my lawn treatment customers seem to have. (my new customers who don’t read this website anyway!)

That misconception being that lawn weeds can be prevented. Let’s look at this for a moment.

Can Lawn Weeds Be Prevented

The answer is “to an extent.” How is that for dancing around an answer eh? In reality, weeds cannot be prevented, there just isn’t a product available that can do that without also harming your turf. Now, don’t get me wrong, we can use products like Barricade and Dimension to stop crab grass, but not your typical broad leaf weeds.

This is because many of the more common ones like Dandelions, for example, start growing beneath the ground almost as soon as the snow melts. It is just not physically possible to get anything down in time for this. Other weeds, such as creeping charlie and clover have very shallow, surface type root systems, meaning that a chemical burrier would be ineffective anyway.

For the most part, only post-emergent herbicides can be use to actually stop existing weeds, not prevent them.

What Can We Do To Reduce Lawn Weeds?

This is where the prevention can actually take place, and that is in the thickness of your existing grass. Thick turf is the best way to keep weeds from invading. Weeds will attempt to compete with your thick lawn, but they will lose in most cases! Remember, a thick, healthy lawn is the very best way to prevent broad leaf and vine-like weeds in your lawn.

So next time you fertilize your lawn, and weeds pop up a few weeks later, don’t blame your lawn care guy — he didn’t “fertilize your weeds” like you think. Just call him or her back to do a touch up spray and you will be all good!

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Proper Leaf Cleanup

Trees are beautiful because of their leaves, but it is inevitable that leaves fall. Historically, homeowners have raked up the leaves, bagged them and thrown them out with the garbage. Now, that is no longer possible.

We need to remember that eons ago, no one raked leaves. Before people stepped in. leaves fell to the forest floor where they mixed with the twigs and were stirred up by small animals. They provided natural mulch in the winter and then broke down, enriching the soil and fertilizing the trees the rest of the year. We need to take a cue from nature and use leaves in our yards as much as possible.

Different parts of your landscape have different needs. You can use leaves all over your yard, but there are some inappropriate places to put them as well.

If you are trying to grow grass on your lawn, allowing the leaves to remain where they fall is not practical. The weight of the wet leaves can suffocate grass and moisture will build up under the leaves and cause a host of fungal diseases. If you have a mulching lawn mower, use it to cut the grass and chop the leaves at the same time. But, if you end up with more than one-fourth to three-eights inch on your lawn, it’s time to go to Plan B.

Put the bagger on your lawn mower and collect the chopped leaves and grass clippings. Then, place them around your shrubs for winterizing mulch. In the past, I didn’t like to recommend using leaves as mulch because they tended to compress and mat down, but when they’re chopped, they tend to loft up slightly. This allows air circulation and prevents them from compacting as quickly into an imperious layer that limits water and air from reaching plant roots. Chopped leaves will also biodegrade more rapidly.

If you mulch your shrubs and still have leaves left, put a four inch layer over your garden and spade it under. This will provide nutrients for next growing season. You can do the same in flowerbeds.

For areas of ground cover, don’t try to remove all leaves. Allowing some to work down into the soil will add nutrients to the soil in these beds as well. Now, don’t allow the entire tree to shed all its leaves on one bed of ground cover. The plants may suffocate and dies. For these areas, I like to use an electric or gas powered vacuum-type leaf remover and take most of the leaves from the bed without having to continually stomp through it or damage plants with a rake.

If you still have some leaves left, add them to your compost pile. Don’t forget to turn it. If you have children, you might want to leave one big pile of leaves in the yard until it really gets cold. Leaf piles, as you may remember, are great for jumping in, throwing around and just generally having a lot of fun with.

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