After a season of hot, dry summer weather, the garden often looks like Tobacco Rd. — worn out and ready for a cleanup. I start to cut back spent perennials and remove exhausted annuals slowly and in phases, trying to neaten plants that are truly finished for the year, while leaving anything still green and vigorous to prolong the season through fall. While some of these plants … [Read more...] about Leave some seed for birds
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Moving shrubs in autumn
I walked out early this morning to find a thin layer of frost across the garden. This is the first frost of the season, and a clear sign that gardening time is growing short. The list of things to be done is long: planting tulip and hyacinth bulbs; cutting back some perennials (and leaving others for winter interest); digging out aggressively spreading weeds; and moving … [Read more...] about Moving shrubs in autumn