Soils are currently very dry, as is observed if doing any planting. Amazingly, the soil is powdery dry right under the surface, despite the long soaking from the three-day nor’easter week before last.
It is astonishing in view of that steady downpour, and is testament to the ability of the sun’s infrared rays to penetrate, heat, and dry soil. However, early fall mornings find gardens and lawns with heavy dewfall, an effect related to radiational cooling.
These conditions invite frogs to lawns and gardens. Two species spotted recently are leopard frogs and minute pinkletinks. To identify pinkletinks, “look for the cross on the backs of the tiny little cuties,” according to Liz Olson of BiodiversityWorks (biodiversityworksmv.org). It bears mentioning to keep eyes open for them (and all wildlife) when mowing. Who wants to make frog-burger with a lawnmower?
However, dew’s moisture, plus increasing shade and dry soils, also invite foliar conditions such as powdery mildew, and other bacterial or fungal issues. The conditions creating them are usually superficial humidity simultaneously with the stress of dry soil.
A perovskia story
Many years ago someone we garden for shared plants of perovskia with relatives we also garden for. The perovskia prospered and thrived in the new bed, which happens to have irrigation. All was well at first; the perovskia settled in, and was a beautiful, airy blue cloud, and we even added some additional plants.
However, problems began to accumulate in this bed, and other perennials seemed to weaken, or even disappear over the winter, despite our excellent garden soil.
Perovskia (Salvia yangii), native to steppes from Afghanistan to Tibet, has been a go-to plant for xeriscaped gardens, and those who desire an easy-keeping plant. It supplies lavender blue color topping silvery-gray foliage throughout the season. For many gardeners, it has become a stand-in plant for lavender (Lavandula spp.). Some neophytes even mistake it for lavender, and wonder why they cannot smell lavender scent.
In the bed mentioned above, the other plants sharing it began to fail, or disappeared. Eventually, in reworking the bed, we discovered it to be riddled with three-foot-long, woody perovskia roots that had deeply invaded, everywhere!
Long story short: Grow this sub-shrub in the leanest and driest site and soils you have. Otherwise, it becomes a garden thug. It does not play nicely with other plants when it is irrigated.
Leave the leaves
Fall means falling leaves in our temperate climate. It may come as a surprise to many that fallen leaves should remain in place instead of being removed. Why is this so?
Here are some of the reasons, from Rebecca McMackin in her Grow Like Wild newsletter: “Herbaceous plants and deciduous trees do not throw their leaves away in autumn. They place them carefully on top of their root systems, where those leaves buffer temperatures, provide habitat for ground-dwelling organisms, and slowly break down to create the next generation of soil.
“Leaves, old stems, rotten wood are all methods through which plants create the soils they want to live in. When we micromanage the duff layer, raking out and topdressing [e.g., removing the good stuff, and then adding imported, non-native mulch], we can interrupt critical processes.”
There is much we do not know. Do I recommend mangy, untidy, garden mess? No, that is not the point, and I do not. As gardeners, I recommend our looking at nature and trying to emulate and support what happens in the natural world.
As gardeners I attempt to encourage our being aware of the connections that make where we live habitable, and to not interfere with them. I recommend a focus on the incredibly thin, fragile layer of soil that makes all life on Earth possible.
Suspend the “neatnik” impulse, where and if possible! Nature is not “tidy,” but has its own order, pristine if we can but learn to recognize it. Leaving plant skeletons and organic matter on soils over winter protects both soil and the insect life that need this habitat and cover, not to mention inhibiting weed-seed germination.
Perform the actions that help to put carbon back into the soil. Doing this leaves soil soft, moist, and spongy. Leave garden cleanup to late winter.
Abelia for Island autumn
There was a time when abelia, the glossy-leaved, semi-evergreen flowering shrub, was a chancy choice for Island gardens, suffering dieback or winterkill here. For better or worse, climate is changing. It means the available palette of shrubs for Island gardens is expanding, as USDA Plant Hardiness maps (planthardiness.ars.usda.gov) are altered to reflect the current first and last frost dates, and min/max temperatures.
This means that abelia, although non-native, have become handsome, reliable, late-flowering shrubs in gardens here, as pictured. There are more than two dozen cultivars in commerce, including the standby Abelia x grandiflora, three in the ‘Creek’ series, and compact, variegated ‘Kaleidoscope.’
Abelia are of easy culture, according to “Manual of Woody Landscape Plants” by Michael Dirr, consisting of preference for acid, well-drained, moist soil, in full sun to half-shade. Drought tolerance is good once established, but abelia do not tolerate high root temperatures. Shade tolerance is greater than the literature indicates. Prune to remove winterkill, or to shape. Can be hedged.
In the garden
Conditions favor lawn repair now, if required: thatching, aerating, and overseeding are three usual remedies, also topdressing with screened compost. Look for perennial plants to divide; divisions recover well at this time. Bt sprays: Vegetable brassicas like cooler days, but are still hosting caterpillars, which may feed on ornamental kales as well. Compost all passé vegetable-garden debris.
