The Ultimate Late Summer Garden

The ultimate perennial garden. It's not difficult to bring that vision to mind. For me, it's a classic English border, with iris, lupine and poppies, that continues blooming right into the fall, with wave after wave of color and form: foxgloves, roses, delphinium, dianthus, hollyhocks, lilies and more.

Bloom time in most American perennial borders runs from late May through early July—a glorious but short 5 or 6 weeks. By late July, most perennial gardens are past their prime and look pretty dull for the rest of the season.

Fortunately, there are many perennials that bloom in late summer, including coneflower, asters, mums, Russian sage, cimicifuga, sedum, rudbeckia, and phlox. But I've found annuals are the real key to summer-long color.

Unlike many perennials, most annuals thrive in summer's heat and once they get started, will keep blooming right into early fall. With a little planning you can create annual - perennial partnerships that will keep your flowers gardens looking terrific for a full 5 o 6 months.

There a are few perennials that save their big show for the end of the summer, and remember impatients bloom until frost, and the the coleus have incredibles colors to choose from.

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Preparing your garden for Autumn

                                                                                   Soil Health:

Soil is dry after a hot, dry summer. Increase organic matter, especially nitrogen, as it adds moisture.

• Organic resources – things that are from a natural source
• Organic products – liquid fertilisers, eggs,  worm juice, compost tea, comfrey tea, purchased products (ensure they are organic) and slow release fertilisers,pellets etc.

Gather resources from around your home. Don’t throw away green waste (i don’t call it waste !!)  into green waste bins, keep it all !!  Soil can become water repellent after long periods of dry. Adding organic matter will help to hold moisture in soil.

Grow Support Plants around your gardens. A few great plants are the veggies and herbs

Support Plants are used to improve soil health and as good companion plants. Growing

these plants amongst your gardens means you have free resources available as needed. Chop up the foliage and place over the soil, cover with a sprinkle of mulch. This is a quick and easy way to feed the soil.

                                                                          Get to know your soil type.

• Sand – has large particles, good drainage, poor water holding, good root development, good aeration, high erosion & low compaction.
• Clay – has small particles, holds nutrients well, bad drainage, poor aeration, lower erosion; high compaction.
• Loam – balance of sand, clay and silt and best growing for plants.
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• While gardens are resting here’s some jobs to do…
  
  • pruning
  • weeding
  • composting
  • mulching
  • irrigation maintenance
  • planting
  • pests & diseases
  • seed saving
  • harvesting
  • cooking
  Make a list of foods to grow.
  
  
  
  • Start with a ‘Shopping List’
  • Sow seeds
  • Propagate cuttings
  • Planting seedling
  During Autumn it’s still warm enough to do vegetative propagating and grow new plants.

Nurture & Care for your Garden

Our gardens respond to nurturing and care just like us. If you spend time in the garden, enjoying all the abundance of nature and connecting with nature then your garden will respond. We have a natural connection with nature and plants!!