Fall Gardening Anticipates Spring
It's now time to begin the tasks that will set the stage for the garden in spring. While you could look at them as chores that must be done in the fall, that's the "half empty" view of the pessimist. Most of the jobs we do during the growing season are of the "walk the dog" variety - things that must be done now because there is a need. Fall tasks are those that, if not done, mean the garden will be much the same next year that it is now. That's OK. However, since most gardeners share the philosophy that next year's garden is always going to be the best ever, this is when that happens.
My pleasure in the season is working in the fine fall weather, when the ground is warm, the sky blue and the air crisp. You can divide, move, plant and weed now in anticipation of greater return in the spring on the investment of time spent now. The usual watering, deadheading and pest monitoring are not clamoring for attention now. As the plants start to heed the call to prepare for winter, they are ready for what I want to do. I want to move the Sedum 'Autumn Joy' to the new sunny bed where it won't be flopping on the ground with its load of bloom as it is now. The pretty little plant of Baptisia minor needs to go there too, it has not had enough sun to bloom in its two seasons under the bedroom window. The various lilies that I inherited with this garden are scattered about like awkward children among lower growing things and need to be gathered into their own company where they can knock the socks off the people who walk by and stop to enjoy the garden on their way. The colors of the Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' and the Physostegia 'Vivid' clash mightily in my estimation and I want to separate them to tone down the noise. The Centaurea montana can be divided so I can have more blue in other parts of the garden. Bees must not see blue, else why wouldn't there be more of it in the garden? I'm always looking for new ways to use it, and I really don't think of it as my favorite color. It just looks so fine with so many other colors. This is such a good time of year to make those judgments while I can still see the plants standing in the garden. In spring they are just a hazy memory.
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