Report From PIA – July 27
In this area, some people view Memorial Day as some sort of magical gardening date…they want all their landscaping to be done by the end of May. In contrast, devoted gardeners will be planting, tweaking and weeding throughout the summer. Both approaches are perfectly valid.
Yesterday I moved three Heuchera ‘Georgia Peach’ to a shadier location, and replaced them with three Liatris microcephala in the lakeside border. At the same time I pulled crabgrass plants and other weeds, and noticed that the Profusion Zinnias that were planted in the entry garden in early July have tripled in growth and are now starting to bloom.
I don’t expect most people to be as interested in the process of constantly improving their gardens as we hortaholics are. I remember one consultation client who clearly stated to me that her idea of a good day gardening was putting the golf clubs into her trunk and heading to the course, followed by lunch. Fair enough.
What I think we can all come away with, in and out of the garden, is the notion that there is much about life that requires constant tending. What’s required is that we all acknowledge what’s most important to us, and then put the time into the planting, tweaking and weeding of that particular arena. Be it a golf game or garden, things will grow better with ongoing attention.
My entry garden is planted with annuals, perennials and shrubs that bloom in shades of blue, coral, yellow and white. The area around the birdbath on the left is a bit sparse right now because I recently took out some Carefree Celebration roses. The coral flowers on these shrubs turned pink as they aged, and more annoyingly, they all developed huge blackspot problems every year... far from carefree. So now I'm thinking of what can go in their place. Continual tweaking...
