NANCY WITH THE LAUGHING FACE

October 20, 2024

The Slow and Steady Approach to Fall Garden Grooming

When it comes to seasonal garden chores, the term ‘annual fall clean-up’ makes me think of lugging a huge vacuum out into the yard and gobbling up every last bit of dead vegetation! That’s why I prefer ‘fall garden grooming’ which speaks of a slower and gentler pace that allows this gardener to fully enjoy each month of the season while still taking care of business.

Perennials ready for dividing and replanting

In Northeastern Massachusetts, fall garden grooming begins in September – the month of adding, dividing and transplanting perennials. Even though many gardeners plant well into the colder months, I prefer to give my plants a good head start on next year’s growing season and that means getting them in the ground by the end of the month, the idea being that early planting ensures good root growth before the ground freezes. While I’m at it, I’ll also add some homemade compost to any planting holes to give those perennials a boost of beneficial nutrients that will carry them well into next spring.

Fall-planted early spring bulbs poking through the soil

October is the month of bulb planting and garlic is a fall-planted bulb that I usually tackle late in the month, once it turns cold enough to keep them from sprouting. And who can resist adding more flower bulbs? How pleasant it is to spend a golden fall day imagining all the beautiful daffodils and alliums I’ll enjoy next spring! If you’re new to gardening and interested in planting flower bulbs this fall, check out my previous blogs: The Wonderful World of Bulbs and Extending the Beauty of Spring Bulb Season.

While planting bulbs, I take the opportunity to cut back faded perennials and remove any weeds or diseased foliage that I don’t want to winter over. Working in one area at a time, I tidy up each garden’s appearance, often making a second pass later in the season.

The seed heads of perennial grasses look beautiful well into winter

By late November most of my perennials have died back to the ground and the gardens are stripped to their bare bones. Although I’ve cut back many plants by this time, I still leave some showy seed heads for the birds and winter interest. On mild November days, I concentrate on adding compost to my flower beds to feed and protect them over the winter months. A true labor of love, this process can take several weeks, but I’ve found that nothing is better for your soil and plants than an annual layer of compost!

The grand finale of my fall garden grooming is a blanket of shredded leaves and grass clippings generously applied to all flower beds, small trees and shrubs.

Birdbaths and other garden structures add winter interest to our gardens

Early December is a great time to decorate any outdoor containers. I like to add different evergreens from the gardens and surrounding woods to fill out a large planter on the front porch. A bright holiday bow is usually all that’s needed as a final touch! I admit it’s a minimalist approach to outdoor decorating; however, with so many gardens in my yard, there’s always something to catch the eye and celebrate the season whether a small evergreen, dried hydrangea blooms, red berries, or a birdbath.

Dried ‘Little Lime’ Hydrangea blooms provide color well into December

By Christmas, the gardens are contentedly lying under their blanket of compost and leaves and my fall garden grooming is done for the season! And, magically, there’s always a stillness that comes over the gardens, just before winter sets in, as if the earth is holding her breath in anticipation of the snows soon to come, marking the end of yet another gardening year.

All photos by Nancy Marie Allen or courtesy of Pixabay

June 15, 2024

Exploring the Hardier Side of Succulents

Succulents are a huge genus of plants that have the ability to store water in their leaves, allowing them to endure long periods without rain. This ability makes succulents useful in xeriscape gardens where regular rainfall is unreliable, but many popular succulent varieties are tender and can’t survive cold weather or frosts.

Fortunately for us northern gardeners, hardy succulents can tolerate temperatures as low as -20 degrees Farenheit and live happily in colder snowy climates for many years. They are a versatile group ranging in size from miniature fairy garden plants all the way up to huge agaves!

The most well-known of the hardy succulents are the ever-living sempervivums or “hens and chicks,” aptly named because of the mother plant’s ability to produce many babies or chicks as the plant spreads out and grows, thus ensuring that the plant lives on. This clump-forming habit allows sempervivums to fill in pockets of soil around rocks, small statuary or driftwood in creative garden settings. Striking colors and forms, even white cobwebbing, add to their charm and they require little care other than an occasional morning drink in dry conditions.

A cobweb variety sempervivum in the garden

Personally, I find that sempervivums are especially fetching in natural looking hypertufa pots. These rugged stone-like planters enhance the beauty of hardy succulents while providing a frost tolerant environment where they can overwinter outside. That’s right, you don’t have to do anything special to protect the plants or pots when winter arrives; in fact, they’ll be perfectly safe under a soft blanket of snow while waiting for spring!

Hypertufa planters filled with hardy succulents and mosses

Planting hardy succulents in pots allows us to elevate them to a patio table or stand where they can be enjoyed close-up and we can also move those pots around as light conditions change over the summer months. These plants thrive in a half day of sun but morning sunlight with afternoon shade is best during the hottest months of summer.

Hardy succulent plants include sedums and ice plants amongst others. These companion plants to sempervivums make pretty fillers and spillers in planters and gardens alike, and they enjoy the same growing conditions. It’s always fun to mix the different colors and forms of hardy succulents and, delightfully, many produce beautiful flowers as well!

Grouped Sempervivum and Sedums — Close-up of hardy succulents in a hypertufa planter

The true beauty of hardy succulents is that they need little care other than an occasional watering when they become dry. After potting in fast draining succulent soil, I like to add a top dressing of worm castings which slowly feeds the plants over time. Additionally, small rocks or gravel can be used when planting directly out in the garden. The plants will need an occasional grooming to remove debris such as pine needles or dried leaves, but that’s really all the fussing they will require.

These charming, easy-care plants are an excellent choice for beginner gardeners, those with physical limitations and children, and I hope I’ve inspired you to try a few of these very special succulents in your own garden space!

The colors of sempervivums change with the seasons

April 15, 2024April 16, 2024

Extending the Beauty of Spring Bulb Season

Flower bulbs push the gardening year right up to the edge of winter and there’s nothing more uplifting than the first garden blooms! For me, one of the greatest joys of gardening is seeing those first spring bulbs breaking through the earth as if by magic.

If you enjoy an early spring bulb garden, you’ve probably thought how wonderful it would be to keep those beautiful blooms going from early spring to summer. Fortunately, with the extensive variety of flower bulbs available today, you can easily achieve a long spring season by planting early, middle, and late-blooming bulbs.

Anemones tucked at the feet of perennial Lady’s Mantle

While spring bulbs are in their glory, take a few minutes to evaluate your own garden and perhaps visit others for some flowery inspiration, then plan on ordering your bulbs early before they sell out. As you browse catalogs or websites, try to visualize what you’d like to see in your garden and choose a color palette that appeals to you. Next, pick your favorite early spring bloomers and extend their season’s beauty by using the early, middle, and late-flowering variety plan.

Later-blooming Daffodils with Anemone and Heuchera

For example, Daffodil bulbs can bloom as early as late February here in Northeast Massachusetts and bright yellow Rijnveld’s Early Sensation is one of the earliest. Snowdrops and crocus are also very early bloomers and would make good companions. Ice Follies, a classic early to mid-season bloomer, looks stunning with the smaller bulbs of Early Snow Glories (Chionodoxa forbesii), Hyacinth, and Siberian Squill (Scilla siberica). Thalia, a pristine white beauty, blooms next along with Grape Hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) and old-fashioned Bleeding Heart while late-season Pheasant’s Eye looks lovely with the stately globe alliums as well as early spring perennials.

Thalia with old-fashioned Bleeding Heart and Vinca

You can try this method with many spring bulbs including Tulips, Alliums, Hyacinths, Daffodils, and of course the earliest bloomers such as Snowdrops and Crocus. Something to keep in mind is that smaller flower bulbs make great supporting stars for their larger spring cousins!

Alliums make a bold exclamation point in the late spring garden

Seek inspiration and plan your bulb garden now, purchase and reserve bulbs early to get the best varieties, and plant this fall for a colorful and long-blooming display next spring!

November 1, 2023

Utilizing Autumn Leaves in the Garden

If you live with trees, you’re probably blessed with an abundance of leaves every fall. For many people, fallen leaves are just a seasonal nuisance to be disposed of as quickly as possible. Fortunately, savvy gardeners know that using leaf litter is a natural and effective way to protect, feed, and beautify our garden spaces, and it’s free!

Blue Star Juniper with natural leaf mulch

Utilizing autumn leaves in our gardens can be as simple as letting them lie where they fall, especially in woodland settings. Undisturbed, the leaves provide not only nourishment for all the varied plant life but also shelter for creatures and overwintering insects. Plus, I happen to love the natural look that leaf mulch creates in my home landscape.

Using leaf mulch in this garden ties it into the woods beyond

Another way to use fallen leaves is to shred them with a lawn mower for flower bed mulch. These smaller leaf pieces will break down quickly to add nutrients to the soil and won’t suffocate your perennials under their weight. Dry, shredded leaves are incredibly lightweight to carry around and make any mulching chore that much easier!

A newly planted garden with traditional bark mulch

Two years later, the same garden with leaf mulch just naturally blends into this forest edge setting

Want to save your leaves for later use? Whole fallen leaves can be piled up and composted in their own designated spot or added to an existing compost pile. They will break down more slowly than shredded leaves but, over time, you will end up with rich leaf humus – the best garden soil additive around!

Japanese Painted Ferns appreciate a humusy soil

Leaf humus is beneficial in the garden as a nourishing soil conditioner, improving aeration and encouraging healthy root development while also aiding in moisture retention throughout the hot and dry summer months.

A Rainbow Leucothoe fits right into this woodland garden

If you haven’t utilized autumn leaves in the garden before, I urge you to give it a try. Your future garden will thank you!

All photos by Nancy Marie Allen

June 8, 2023

The New England Spring That Almost Wasn’t

The spring of 2023 may go down in local history as “the spring that almost wasn’t.” For those of us who love spring flowering shrubs and look forward to a colorful display every year, this spring’s performance was a bitter disappointment!

What I’m talking about is the significant lack or loss of blooms on many early spring shrubs and small trees. When my golden forsythia, that most dependable harbinger of spring, didn’t bloom, I was heartsick!

When the forsythia bloom, spring has definitely arrived (Photo courtesy Pixabay)

As the season progressed, there were more shrubs that suffered the same fate. To name a few in my own garden, the Winterhazel, Pieris, Dogwood and Azaleas either never bloomed or produced so few flowers that I barely noticed them. So, what happened to those long-awaited and coveted spring blooms?

Dogwoods have a serene beauty all their own (Photo courtesy Pixabay)

Like many mysteries of nature, there’s no short answer here, but if we look back over the last year we can better understand the causes. Our relatively mild winter with sporadic record-cold temperatures was coupled with low snowfall which offered little protection for our plants, shrubs and trees. Add to this the ongoing drought of 2022 and 2023 and it’s easy to see how the combination of these adverse conditions has profoundly affected our plants, literally nipping many of them in the bud!

Pieris shrubs normally begin blooming in late winter (Photo by Nancy Marie Allen)

Though there is little we can do to protect our gardens from record-cold temperatures, we can help them better cope by keeping them well watered, even into late fall. Products like Wilt-Pruf are useful in preventing desiccation due to water loss, and a winter mulch of compost around young shrubs and trees will also keep them hydrated and help protect them from extreme temperature fluctuations.

Old-Fashioned Mountain Laurel (Photo by Nancy Marie Allen)

There will never be a “perfect” year in terms of growing conditions, and Mother Nature has her own agenda that doesn’t include consulting us! As gardeners, we must learn to accept the bad with the good and focus on those small triumphs that always seem to come along. Who would have thought that 2023 would be a banner spring for the humble Mountain Laurel, but I’ve never seen them more beautiful!

May 20, 2023

Bridging the Mid-Spring Flower Gap

As the colorful display of early spring bulbs fades away for yet another year, many gardens fall into a mid-spring flower gap – that pause before the summer perennials and tender annuals really get the party going!

The following are some dependable early perennials I grow in my own gardens that get me through the mid-spring flower gap and beyond with color, fragrance and form:

CREEPING PHLOX

A classic spring perennial here in New England, creeping phlox blooms prodigiously for several weeks beginning in May and is a sight to behold when planted en masse as a garden edge or along rock walls. If I had to choose one plant to carry my gardens through to early summer, creeping phlox would be it!

SNOW-IN-SUMMER

My mother grew Snow-in-Summer in her garden, so for me this plant has pleasant associations that bring me back to my childhood. Although Snow-in-Summer is an absolute stunner when covered with snowy white blooms in May, it continues to please all season long with soft, silver-blue foliage.

IRIS

Iris are typically thought of as June perennials, but many are early bloomers that add subtle fragrance and bold, sword-like foliage to our garden beds. In the photo above, this bright yellow variety never disappoints when it blooms with the lilacs!

BASKET-OF-GOLD ALYSSUM

Golden alyssum looks best when planted in rock garden crevices or spilling over walls with other May bloomers. A stellar companion for all shades of creeping phlox!

Jack Frost Brunnera looks lovely all season – Photo by Nancy Marie Allen

Lungwort sports silver-speckled foliage – Photo courtesy Pixabay

BRUNNERA AND LUNGWORT

I place these two plants together because they have a similar look to their foliage and flowers although the Brunnera is a larger plant and more sun-tolerant. Both have silvery foliage and tiny, sparkling blue flowers that resemble forget-me-nots. In my opinion, Brunnera and Lungwort light up a shady spring garden like nothing else!

Geranium Macrorrhizum – Photo by Nancy Marie Allen

EARLY HARDY GERANIUM

Hardy Geranium Macrorrhizum is a May bloomer with bright magenta flowers that rise on dainty stems above the rounded leaves. As a bonus, fall sometimes brings shades of crimson to the foliage. This particular geranium makes an excellent groundcover as it slowly spreads to fill in any spaces. Hardy geraniums are perfect companions for cottage gardens!

SWEET WOODRUFF

Delicate-looking Sweet Woodruff is an excellent ground cover to grow under trees where it sparkles in the dappled shade. This plant will spread via runners to quickly fill shady areas as long as there is adequate moisture. Lovely for naturalizing in woodland gardens!

SOLOMON’S SEAL

I know I sing the praises of this plant on a regular basis, but Solomon’s Seal is hard to beat for versatility in the garden! Tall and highly ornamental with its artistic splashes of white, variegated Solomon’s Seal will quickly form impressive colonies. I find that it grows equally well in full sun to full shade, and even dry shade. Charming, fragrant bell flowers dangle along the stems in spring and you can look forward to golden foliage and berries in the fall!

Pink Bleeding Heart – Photo by Nancy Marie Allen

OLD-FASHIONED BLEEDING HEART

This large, almost shrub-like plant, makes a powerful floral display in May but then magically melts away once temperatures heat up. Because of the ephemeral nature of Bleeding Heart, be sure to plant them next to summer perennials such as ferns or hostas which will easily fill those vacant spaces come summer.

All of the above plants are deer and rabbit resistant and hardy in my Zone 6 New England garden. The Iris, Basket-of-Gold Alyssum and Snow-in-Summer prefer full sun locations while the Solomon’s Seal, Creeping Phlox, Geranium and Old-Fashioned Bleeding Heart tolerate both sun and part shade. The best plants for shady gardens are the Brunnera, Lungwort and Sweet Woodruff.

January 15, 2023

My Once Lamentable Lack of Winter Interest

As a gardener, I enjoy growing plants, shrubs and trees that hold their own in providing beauty over our long New England winters. I’m charmed by the sight of evergreen boughs covered with snow, bright berries clinging to shrubs and the delicate tracery of bare tree branches.

close photogrpahy — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The problem is that I’ve never had much interest in winter. Even as a child, I had little enthusiasm for outdoor cold-weather activities. While my rosy-cheeked friends frolicked in the snow, enjoying ski trips or skating parties, I preferred the warmth and comfort of my mother’s kitchen and a good coloring book. The only thing I learned to do well in the snow was falling on my derriere and so, not surprisingly, sledding became my only winter sport – at least with that I was able to remain safely seated!

sled in the snow — Photo by Lany-Jade Mondou on Pexels.com

In later years, as a working mom, winter became the season of the dreaded drive. Not only was taxiing my children around a challenge but commuting to work on snowy and icy roads felt at times downright life-threatening. With its constant struggles, winter was the season to get through as quickly as possible on my way to spring!

black vehicle traveling on road near person walker — Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com

It has taken me much of my life, but I think I’ve finally made peace with winter. Through my love of gardening and nature, I’ve learned to value all that winter has to offer. Today, I find winter to be a season of peace and rest, the pause at the end of one growing season and the beginning of another. It’s a time to look forward, to dream and plan!

Next door – The old mill in winter (Photo by Nancy Marie Allen)

Winter is also a season of such stark beauty that any color in the landscape immediately draws my eye and helps me truly appreciate all the wonders that the other seasons bestow in joyful abundance.

Winter moss and lichen (Photo by Nancy Marrie Allen)

As I look out at my sleeping gardens in January, pared down to their very bones yet holding the promise of life just beneath the surface, I find that perhaps winter holds plenty of interest for me after all.

November 7, 2022

Surprisingly Silver Fall Foliage

Every fall, I’m pleasantly surprised to find that some of the loveliest silver hues come late in the gardening season. Perhaps it’s the colder temperatures or the way autumn’s softer light is reflected on the leaves that brings out the intense color. Maybe it’s simply because there is little left in the garden to draw my attention, but I’ve found that silver foliage plants are definitely more striking in November than they are in July.

The featured photo above is Snow-in-Summer or Cerastium tomentosum, an old-fashioned perennial that is covered with enchanting pure white flowers in May. After blooming, the finely textured silver foliage remains a lovely focal point in the garden although these plants prefer and look best in cooler temperatures.

‘Sweet Romance’ Lavender is a workhorse in the sunny summer garden producing abundant wands of fragrant deep purple blooms over a long season while also attracting many pollinators. Although ever so pleasing to us, the deliciously sweet scent of Lavender repels deer and rabbits.

‘Berggarten’ Sage makes an eye-catching addition to the herb or flower garden with its bold yet softly textured leaves. Not only is this plant extremely showy but it also makes an excellent sage for use in the kitchen!

Japanese Painted Ferns incorporate a tapestry of colors on each and every frond while retaining an overall striking silver sheen.

‘White Nancy’ Lamium is one of my favorites for filling in garden gaps as this plant loves to politely ramble and spread amongst its neighbors without overpowering them.

Lamb’s Ears or Stachys byzantina should be included in every garden for its softly textured leaves that just beg to be touched! A classic grown with roses in the June garden, Lamb’s Ears also looks stunning next to white or blue flowers which are remarkably enhanced by its pleasing silver coloration.

Cobweb Hens and Chicks or Sempervivum arachnoideum is a remarkably hardy succulent that loves to tuck itself along and in between rocks or pavers. Colorful early summer blooms on long arching stems look like something from an alien planet but it’s the unusual cobwebby rosettes that make this plant special year round. An easy and fun plant for children to grow!

‘Excalibur’ Pulmonaria or Lungwort is an early spring charmer with pink to blue, forget-me-not style flowers. Long after blooming, the elegant lance-shaped leaves hold their striking silver color well into late fall!

All photos taken in November by Nancy Marie Allen

September 25, 2022September 28, 2022

Fall Garden Chores Simplified

Fall is prime gardening time so take advantage of these golden days to beautify your space, tackle some outdoor chores and get a head start on next year!

REFRESH SUMMER FLOWER POTS that are looking tired. Gently pull out any spent plants and replace with fresh annuals or perennials. Some cold tolerant varieties include Lamium, Pansies, Violas, Asters, Heucheras, Grasses, Ornamental Kale and Cabbages, as well as classic Chrysanthemums.

BRING IN ANY TENDER PLANTS you intend to keep over the winter. Summer houseplant vacation time is over, so make sure you bring your babies back inside now before evening temperatures start dipping into the 30’s. If you intend to save corms or tubers such as Caladiums, Cannas, Gladiolas or Dahlias, make preparations to store them properly over the winter so that you can enjoy them again next year.

CLEAN UP YOUR FLOWER BEDS by pulling up dying annuals and cutting back any dry and withered perennial leaves or flower stalks. Be sure to leave some seedheads for the birds and winter interest! It’s surprising how some minimal tidying up in the garden right now will refresh and revitalize the space and carry it through until that final killing frost.

LIFT, DIVIDE AND TRANSPLANT any overgrown perennials or add a few new ones. The moderate temperatures and reliable rainfall of autumn help plants get quickly established before winter sets in, giving perennials a vigorous head start on growth next year!

PLANT FLOWER BULBS now for early spring color. The list of bulbs available for fall planting is vast so narrow it down to your favorites while also keeping bulb-snacking critters in mind. Some dependable bulbs that naturally repel voles, mice, chipmunks and squirrels include Snowdrops, Siberian Squill, Snow Glories, Hyacinth, Daffodils and Alliums.

SPREAD COMPOST around your plants to nourish and protect both new and established gardens. Adding nutrient-rich compost will greatly improve the quality of your soil and help retain moisture during dry summers. Good quality bagged compost is available at any garden center or start your own pile now: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting

CELEBRATE THE SEASON and be sure to give thanks for another bountiful gardening year!

All photos by Nancy Marie Allen except where noted

August 20, 2022

Working on Future Garden Goals

With fall planting season just around the corner, late August is the perfect time for evaluating our flower gardens and planning for any changes we’d like to see next season.

Start by taking a good look at your garden space(s), preferably with a notebook in hand, and jot down what you liked about this year and what needs changing. Ask yourself a few questions: What were your best performers this year and would you like to add more? Is it time to divide some overgrown perennials? Would you like to attract more birds, butterflies and bees? Do you need to focus more on xeriscaping with plants that require minimal water? And, what about adding some spring bulbs to extend your garden season with early color? Defining your garden goals and writing them down provides a convenient checklist to work from.

Now is also a good time to think about garden color, whether you grow perennials, annuals, or a combination of both. Do you love bright pops of red, orange and yellow or is a soothing pastel palette more your style? If you’re like me, you may want to use all of these colors over the season. For example, my earliest spring flowers and those that bloom through June tend to be pale yellows, pinks, purples and blues, while July through September blooms lean towards bolder and warmer colors.

When cool and warm colors are used together, they can really enhance one another such as the blue hardy geranium with golden Rudbeckia in the photo above. I also like to use white as it adds softness and elegance to any color scheme. Looking at a color wheel for reference will help you easily find colors that work together, whether analagous and side by side in the same color family or complementary at opposite ends.

As you dream about next year’s colorful flowers, don’t forget the importance of having good garden soil. Try to get into the habit of adding compost to your garden every fall for its valuable nutrients and moisture-retentive qualities. You can just layer it on top of your garden, around existing plants, and let the rain and snow of winter do the rest of the work. In the spring, add a generous layer of shredded bark mulch. Trust me, if you do these two things every year, it will make the difference between a garden that’s just surviving and one that’s thriving!

Successful gardening requires devotion and commitment, but even with all that enthusiasm, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer work involved in dividing and moving plants, improving soil, creating new flower beds or restoring old ones. However, by writing your goals down and prioritizing what’s most important, you can tackle one task at a time over months or even years, eventually ending up with the beautiful garden you’ve always wanted!

All photos by Nancy Marie Allen