Fall in my Garden
By Marilyn Raff
Come November I’m often weary of gardening and looking forward to a break, but I’m also glad to walk slowly, observe plants more closely, notice what worked or didn’t please me. Cool weather feels welcoming with an occasional burst of much warmer days.
Some people clean and tidy up their gardens in fall, gather up leaves, trim plants, make areas look presentable and neat. But that’s not my approach for several reasons. I may come across a plant that needs quite a bit of cleanup, which I’ll do right then. For a rock garden plant I might fill around it with soil and top with pea gravel. But mostly, I leave plants alone this time of year. I like to see an occasional flower, like a dianthus or a new late lavender bloom, burst forth and surprise me. I want to let the imperfect, messy landscape remain for birds to hide as they fill up for winter, nibbling on seeds, leaves, and hips, and eating bugs. The extra foliage, even if brown, also helps many plants better survive over winter.
In November I sometimes roughly plan future areas, imagining new and exciting possibilities. Recently a friend trimmed dead junipers in my back shady area, where I’ll add Daphnes, Heucherias, sedums. Into November I thoroughly enjoy grasses, especially in this maturing shade area. I like the beauty, lines, and colors of five randomly placed Stipa tenuissima. The beige, green, thin white foliage looks so graceful swaying gently in the wind. Plus, this Stipa is adaptable. It works in full sun or part shade and is not fussy about soil. It has a bad reputation for seeding around too much but with attention, diligence produces great results. Whenever I walk by, I’ll pull a few clumps to keep it in check.
The grasses look so elegant when their foliage and shape highlight perennials below or nearby. In this same shady area I grow Bergenia cordifolia, with its bold, green tinted red leaves that contrast well with the Stipa and I love Paxistima canbyi, Mountain Lover. An evergreen shrub in the Denver area, it shows off glossy green small leaves with a tight growth habit; it remains under a foot tall, no need to trim. It’s a good selection as an understory shrub in a forestry area.
This area is like a potpourri without flowers – an attractive mix of eye-catching foliage. Heuchera Americana ‘Dale’s Strain’ with grayish patterned leaves hug the ground while leaves of Hellebores, Daphnes, Primulas and Campanulas add engaging touches. A pea gravel ground cover with some larger stones, both rough and smooth, that add color complete the portrait. Several shrub roses have lost their leaves, but empty stems add height and structure while the hips add warm accents. The gray rippled foliage of the horned poppy (Glaucium flavum ) is stunning in the fall especially next to layers of coarse granite. Fall and winter is the time to see the bones of a garden.
In late October into November an excellent sight is the lightly repeat-blooming, vigorous, thorny single shrub rose ‘Dortmund’. It can climb or grow as a big groundcover with lovely wrinkled hips in shades of orange before they turn dark, complemented by shiny dark green leaves. Into November, if weather stays mild, I’ll see a burst of 2-inch single red flowers in the center. Although unscented in spring, this shrub boasts many other desirable features in a sunny garden.
In November I make sure the plants I added in mid-October are getting enough water. I water the rest of my landscape on average once a month, unless we get a big snow dump.
