It is official.  As of the 23rd of September, the days are now shorter than the nights and will continue to be so for the next six months.  While that might sound depressing to us, the fact is that Mother Nature doesn’t seem to be bothered by it at all.  In fact, there are actually plants that seem to wake up in the winter, bloom and set fruit while the rest of us are hunkered down in our homes.  Go figure!

For anyone who has followed my columns over the years, you will recognize the following mantra:  “If you want year ‘round interest in your garden, you need to go to the garden center once a month and buy something that looks interesting.”  You don’t have to spend a boat load of money, just buy something that catches your eye.   If you do this every month, for 12 months, you will have year ‘round interest.  It is that simple!  I realize, of course, that it will take some finessing and planning to work these monthly purchases into your garden design, but with a little “organizing” it can be done with relatively little stress.  And always remember that plants can be moved and rearranged as the garden evolves.  Other than trees, the garden is a fluid composition that can be adjusted and reassembled throughout the years.  NOTHING IS PERMANENT!

Make no mistake, September is by far the best month of the year to plant a new lawn or restore an old one.  If you are thinking that you would like to put some new life into your lawn, you need to get with the program while the soils are still workable and warm enough to germinate the seed.  Which means that you are going to have to pry hubby off the couch, away from the football game, and get him out into the yard to finish this project.  

The whole concept of “fall” is something so much more than the relative hours of daylight and darkness.  Fall is a feeling, a sense of change, and there are different things that trigger that feeling in us.  

FALL IS FOR PLANTING:  It is true, fall is an excellent time to plant just about anything.  You can plant new shrubs, trees, perennials, vegetables, lawns and containers this time of year and they will get established in the fall and take off like a rocket come spring.  Here is a list of other chores to consider this month...

It’s always a dilemma this time of year.  It’s time to do our fall planting and get ready for fall & winter but the flowerpots and beds are still looking great.  In an effort to get our money’s worth out of our summer plantings, we nurse our Geraniums and Petunias along well into October.  But by waiting so long to replant, we miss the opportunity to compose new plantings that will look interesting all fall & winter long and into the spring.  

There is no way I could get through the summer without spending at least one column on the attributes of ornamental grasses.  They are in a league all of their own and the month of August is by far the best time to view them.  

Plants are a lot like pets in that they are living creatures that want to be loved and cared for.  They want to leave the pet store (substitute plant store) and be adopted by some loving family that will care for them.  No one in their right mind would bring home a new puppy and not make sure it had water and food all the time, yet home owners time and time again bring home new plants, water them once and then leave them to fend for themselves.  Too bad plants can’t talk.

August is a pivotal month in the garden.  We have a choice to continue to water, feed, prune, plant and keep things looking nice or we can just throw up our hands and let nature take its course.  Considering the lack of rainfall, many of us have probably already done just that.  I am going to assume that since you are reading this, you would like to know what to do to keep things looking nice.  Here we go…

Okay, I admit that one of the last things on my mind is planting a fall crop of veggies.  It’s all I can do to keep up with the zucchini, beans and pumpkins that the missus planted.  They have grown so much that I can hardly get to the garden to plant anything new, even if I wanted to.  But the reality is that this heat wave we have been experiencing is going to come to an end.  The nights are going to start cooling off and the days will continue to get shorter, which are all triggers for fall crops to germinate and start growing.