...if you have a backyard and a kitchen, this blog might be for you!

a chronicle of tips and recipes on everything from gardening to canning and baking your produce, even if you're planted in suburbia...in fact, especially if you are planted in suburbia.



Monday, September 12, 2011

Late Summer Ornamental Garden Calendar

It's that time of year when the fragile and demure blooms of spring have utterly given way to the bold and brash of late summer.
Fabulous displays of cut flowers are available even in the most humbly-kept ornamental garden-- I would know...
...while still leaving plenty of lovely blooms outside for the evening's backyard sitting-spell.
Recently, I shared Country Living Gardener's vegetable garden calendar for this time of year. Now you get its companion, the ornamental calendar for late summer:

Deadhead flowers regularly
Continue to hoe beds and borders to control weeds and promote continued blooming
Take cuttings of fuchsia and geranium
Watch blooms and leaves for signs of mildew and aphids and treat accordingly
Layer trees and shrubs
Fertilize potted plants regularly
Clip evergreen hedges (add some to compost heap--my own addition, not official)
Water regularly.

This time of year gets busy, but a little time still dedicated to the garden will yield great results. Autumn-loving plants are hardy things!

Happy flower-cutting!

2 comments:

  1. So pretty. I can't grow Sweet Alyssum in the south, except maybe in Feb-March...maybe.

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  2. Lisa...I can't wait to see pics of your Florida greenhouse if you end up going that route. You'll have to be the feature of one of my "garden pilgrimage" posts in that case!

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