Out and About in the Late Summer Garden

Today I was back in the garden again, picking away at the necessary tasks required in preparation for fall. I must admit, one of the biggest challenges I face every year is deciding which perennials I should deadhead and which ones I should leave alone. On one hand, allowing the flowerheads to remain on the stalk provide a smorgasbord of seeds and nectar for late summer birds, bees, and butterflies, and much needed protection from the cold for snakes, mice, and other animals which over-winter. However, overgrown plants also produce thousands of seeds which may cross-pollinate with other varieties (not always a bad thing), they may produce new plants which spring up in places you don’t want them (think digging up and moving potentially aggressive species), and they may harbor pests or diseases which might infect tender plants in the spring.

Hmmm. What to do, what to do….

I decided to give only some of my beloved plants a light trim and haircut and then set out to work on the next garden task: Planting spring blooming bulbs. I really wanted to try a planting of a variety of tulips. However, our backyard serves as a thoroughfare, meeting place, and community kitchen for the neighborhood deer. While Bambi and her friends’ tastes in garden cuisine do change slightly from year to year, I know with certainty that tulips, lilies, roses, hostas, and sedum are always the equivalent of deer candy laced with addictive opioids. Therefore, I opted to plant daffodils and hyacinths this fall and pray the spring hordes of voracious deer will find the taste and smell of these spring beauties too offensive to eat.

So, off I went in my golf cart, loaded with my bulb planter (If you don’t already have one of these, I strongly advise buying one. They save hours of back-breaking work when planting bulbs and can also be used for small plants/plant plugs), my gigantic bag of daffodils (the hyacinths are scheduled to arrive in 2 weeks), and a super-sized tumbler of iced tea. A few hours later, I was done; definitely tired, but unbelievably happy I was able to spend time outside in the garden on a beautiful late summer afternoon. To make the day even more special, I was able to take a few photos of some friends who came to visit.