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AUGUST IS GOOD MONTH FOR CORRECTING GARDENING MISTAKES
Did you know that Henry Ford forgot to put a reverse gear in his first car? Or that Thomas Edison once spent more than $2 million on an invention that proved useless?
Mistakes, in other words, can happen to the best of 'em.
A crusty old gardener once told me, "If you can't point to a half dozen mistakes you made this year, you aren't gardening very hard."
August is a good month for evaluating gardening mistakes and fixing the ones worth correcting. Here's my list:
Replacing winter-damaged plants. If your evergreens are still exhibiting brown foliage, you can stop waiting for it to turn green. It's dead. Cut out everything that's brown, then step back and evaluate what's left. If it's too deformed, dig it out and plant something in its place.
Overgrown arborvitae. One of the most common mistakes I see is overgrown arborvitae and other plants at the corners or steps of houses. Many arborvitae and junipers that should have been pruned to one central leader instead have three or four points. After 20 or 30 years, many have grown too big for their space. My get-tough advice is, once again, cut down the mistake and plant something more attractive.
Gardens that don't grow. More often than not, the cause is lousy soil. If your plants haven't flourished in recent years, do a major deep cultivation and add plenty of peat, compost or manure, or remove the soil completely (in the case of hard clay) and replace it with loose loam soil. It will be lots of work, but a year or two from now you'll wonder why you didn't do it years earlier.
Poorly sited or spaced perennials. I've put lots of perennials in the wrong spots and didn't realize it until a couple of years later. If you have perennials that could do better in a new space, move them during the weeks ahead. Common reasons for moving perennials are clashing colors, too much or too little sunlight, or two wet or too dry soil.
Too little space for gardening. Discover the joy of gardening in containers. I built two rectangular cedar boxes this spring (approximately 3 ft. long x 18 in. wide x 8 in. high, with drain holes drilled in the bottom), and filled them with a sterile soil mixture. My wife is using one for herbs and I filled the other with a dandy variety of marigolds. Both "mini gardens" have performed beautifully.
I also hung four containers of cascading petunias on "shepherd's staff" plant hooks near my front door. This space used to have an expensive Norway upright spruce that simply wasn't very attractive. I finally admitted the mistake, moved the spruce, and the hanging pentunias are gorgeous.
Overgrown windbreaks. I see these most often on farms - an unsightly tangle of honeysuckle, poplar and ash. It's good cover for rabbits and skunks, but a chainsaw and bonfire could make them look a lot nicer, especially if the cleared space is re-planted to amur maple, plum, cherry, serviceberry, highbush cranberry, white spruce, cedar or other desirable species of tree or shrub.
Poor-doing or too-big lawns. With all the rain in July, I'd venture to say that some advocates of football-sized lawns are now pondering alternatives as they make the countless rounds on their lawnmowers. How about converting part of that outdoor expanse to natural prairie (a subject for a future column) or low-maintenance trees or shrubs?
If you still favor a big lawn but it isn't growing as well as you'd like, you most likely have a soil problem. With all the rain, your lawn should be in peak condition right now, so if it's not performing, consider re-working the soil and re-seeding or sodding in September.
Problem trees. I receive many phone calls from people about giant elms, silver maples or cottonwoods in their yard. The roots are sticking out of the ground, the trees shed too many branches, and the shade is so heavy that grass and flowers refuse to grow beneath. The sad truth is that these giant trees belong in river bottoms, not in front yards. Removing these trees is a major decision, but at least permit yourself to consider what life might be like without that monster next to your house.
Here's the bottom line: Never be afraid to make mistakes in your garden. But also remember the ancient teaching of Confucius: "A man (or woman) who has made a mistake and doesn't correct it is making another mistake."
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PUTTING DOWN ROOTS:
A Delightful Blend of
Gardening Wisdom, Wit
and Whimsy
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by Cliff Johnson |
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