The break between July and August is summer’s turning point. Meadowsong has begun, the trilling of Island insect life. Exoskeletons of cicadas cling, emptily and split down the middle, to shrubbery and outdoor furniture.
Island inhabitants used to read vast differences into the preferences and foibles of the July people and the August people; in retrospect, it seems quaint. Now the distinctions have merged into a mere undifferentiated blur.
Who can be surrounded by twinkling fireflies in the woodsy dusk? Who gets to walk barefoot on a carpet of self-heal (Prunella)? Who can take in the stillness of dawn without engines somewhere, firing up? Fewer and fewer of us here on Martha’s Vineyard.
M.V. Agricultural Society Fair
It is almost past time to make and groom your produce and floral selections, and to ready those dish gardens and crafts projects. The fair, August 21st through 24, is not very far off! As with everything, lead times have increased. Please consult bit.ly/MVAS_FairEntry for entries
and deadlines. Paper fair books will be available on the hall porch starting tomorrow.
Xeriscape?
A morning with dewy grass is an event. It feels fortunate to be receiving even spotty and intermittent rains. You the visitor may retort, “But here on the Vineyard, it rains all the time (dammit)!”
July weather? August weather? Now it is just hot, all the time, broiling pavements and tools that burn the hand, sucking moisture out of trees, gardens, lawns, and us.
What is xeriscape and xeriscaping? (Like questions one might ask about a dog: Is it friendly? Does it bite? Or does it have anything to do with cacti and gravel gardens?) It is time to add xeriscape and xeriscaping to the Island garden vocabulary.
Please read the following link, which describes xeriscaping far better than I could: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeriscaping. We know that plants that are not well-suited to their placement often suffer from pests or maladies: We simply cannot make them “straighten up and fly right.” We would like to use our knowledge as gardeners to choose plant material and garden designs that have survivability.
Another way of describing xeriscaping is to plant in a way that is sustainable, after initial establishment, due to being well-adapted to location and water needs. Speaking of pests, in fact researchers have now, unbelievably, documented sound communication between plants and their insect predators (bit.ly/Reuters_Plant-InsectConversations). There is so much to learn!
Xeriscaping has the potential to reduce water usage and maintenance, improve biodiversity, and lower pollution, as well as reduce heat.
Vertical accents
As the season turns, gardens are adorned with an ever-changing cast of characters. Bulb lilies now in bloom are bewitching with fragrance, colors, and vertical accents. (Something to watch for in heat waves is thirsty rabbits pulling over these, and other stems, for moisture.) ‘Casa Blanca’ and ‘Stargazer’ and tiger lilies, Lilum tigrinum, are frequently seen, but much more is available. Check with bulb suppliers for fall ordering.
Vertical accents are prized in perennial and mixed beds. These often display a mass of undifferentiated mounders, such as daylily foliage, clumps of phlox, astilbe, veronicas, rudbeckias, and more. The foliage of bearded iris creates strong vertical contrasts, even after the spring flowering is past. A giveaway of iris rhizomes has been taking place at 31 Dudley Ave., Oak Bluffs, and may still be ongoing.
Towering thalictrum
Another group of vertical accents, if conditions are right, is Thalictrum, in the Ranunculaceae. Twenty-two species are native to North America, but many species are widespread throughout the Northern Hemisphere. They are blooming now, and are generally more shade-loving, but can handle sunny sites if conditions to their liking are met: good, moist soil.
The foliage is reminiscent of columbine, or maidenhair fern, divided and delicate. The flowers are airy, a bit like baby’s breath, with many species producing fuzzy-looking flowers.
Thalictrum rochebrunianum is a tall, ethereal-looking misty lavender. It can attain six feet, but four is more likely. There are a number of named cultivars. Shorter T. flavum is topped with fuzzy pale yellow flowers, with a long period of bloom. T. delavayi and T. aquilegifolium contain some white-flowered cultivars, such as ‘Nimbus’ and ‘Splendide White.’ Our own Island woodlands contain blankets of Thalictrum thalictroides, the enchanting rue anemone, in spring.
In the garden
Planning and planting for fall is where we are now, another part of high summer gardening. It is always a pensive moment to acknowledge that we are also losing the light, the photons, even as days remain hot and summery.
Plantings of greens I made in shaded areas are not really happy. Mini–butternut squash are emerging from their hills.
Protect tomatoes from raccoons by picking when just coloring, and ripening in a warm, dark place. Squash bugs have hatched. Hill potatoes; plant more.
Cut back tawny daylily, astilbe, some salvias’ foliage. Deadhead tired, aging hydrangea blooms; cut two nodes down to where small leaf shoots show.
Always good is to find a section of garden space that would benefit from a quick cover crop of buckwheat. Litter from henhouses is incomparable, again if a section can be set aside for this hot, organic matter to enrich. But anything, any organic matter that can be added, is better than none. And speaking of henhouses, hang flypaper to trap some of these ever-present insects. Keep birdbaths refreshed and clean.
State Forest clearing: What’s the rush?
I respect the opinions of those who support the goal of oak barrens restoration in the Manuel Correllus State Forest. Unquestionably, the scrub oak barrens represent globally rare habitat that supports many cogs seen and unseen in ecological terms.
However, after years of forest neglect by state agencies, it is very difficult to support the seeming frontal assault of the clear-cutting plan, shelved since the early 2000s. That was virtually the Stone Age in terms of our understanding of complex and inter-related climate trends and science.
It is late, but many here are begging to be heard. The ask is for an altered, slower, and more gradual plan of action with respect to the project. What’s the rush?
Don’t scratch – investigate! Tick check every night.