Autumn is here! Which means it’s time to get back out into the garden.

Posted on September 29, 2024 by John Kevin Hickey

Here’s a dirty little secret about Ol’ MrVintageMan: I don’t do a whole lot of gardening in the month of August. Disgraceful, I know. I spend all winter pining for the growing season to start. I become ecstatic when the garden bursts into bloom in April and May. June is an absolute delight. Even through the heat of July I am enjoying the little slice of Eden we have created on our suburban plot.

Come the first of August though, and I bid the garden adieu for awhile. I wave to my plants and tell them “alright guys, I’m going to be inside for the next 4 to 6 weeks. You’re pretty much on your own until sometime in September. Good luck”! Then I retreat to the air-conditioned sanctuary of the house, only coming out in the evening when the temps have cooled off a bit to relax in the hammock for a bit.

Don’t get me wrong, I still do some things in the yarden. Mostly mow, weed and water. Lots and lots of watering. There is a lot less mowing then there was in May and June, mostly because at least half the lawn has gone dormant from the heat. The only sections of the grass that are green are the areas around the sprinkler heads, or the parts that are shaded by the trees or the deck.

I really hit the weeds early and hard this year, so weeding hasn’t been too much of a chore in late summer. Which is good, because one the the most aggravating things about gardening is unsuccessfully wrestling a weed out the ground while being fried by the blazing sun.

Greeting old friends

But come autumn, and the garden (and the gardener) becomes renewed. It’s a joy to go back outside, even in mid-afternoon. With the cooler temperatures the plants start to recover and thrive again. There’s no doubt that I harbor a certain wistfulness around this time of year, as I become all too aware that there are only a few more weeks of the growing season left. But that melancholy fades away as the late summer and the autumn blooms appear.

On a gardening podcast I listen to, one of the hosts stated that when autumn arrives gardeners go back out into the garden and greet their plants like they are old friends whom they haven’t seen in a while.

Great, autumn is back. So what do I plan to do about it?

Lots actually. In fact, I have so many gardening plans I may have to divide them into two blog posts. Today’s post concerns my plans for the backyard.

To start with, I am going to do something once and for all to this area of the Long Border in the backyard.

Not very attractive, is it?

I have tried numerous times to get this area to fill in with no luck. The plants I have put in here have all been tough, waterwise plants, but as you can see the spot looks atrocious and barren. And for years I could never figure out why nothing would grow well here.

This summer I finally got my answer. You can barely see it, but in the back of the photo is the stump of the Alberta spruce I cut down earlier this year (see: https://www.mrvintageman.com/this-week-in-the-garden-odds-and-ends/). In early September, on a relatively cool day, I dug out that stump. For the most part it wasn’t too hard. Most of the roots were about the size of one of my fingers, and easily cut with a pair of loppers. There was, however, an enormous root that went from the stump to the lawn, and it just so happened to be just below the area in question. It was easily as big as my wrist, and I had to chop the sucker out with an axe.

Now with the offending root gone, I am going to fill the area in with these tough, drought tolerant plants.

You see here the collection of plants I bought on sale in August. There’s one Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) called “Denim and Lace”, that is supposed to be more compact and not quite as lanky as the species. There’s two “Hidcote” lavenders (Lavandula angustifolia) which come from the dry, rocky areas of the Mediterranean. There are three North American native “Goldsturm” black-eyed susans (Rudbeckia). And one hens and chicks (Sempervivum) succulent. Most of these plants typically start blooming in late July and early August. My hope is that they will provide a “pop” of color in mid-summer, when most everything else has taken a siesta from the hot summer sun.

Elsewhere in the backyard

Late last year I planted a native chokeberry shrub in the birdbath border (see: https://www.mrvintageman.com/late-season-goings-on-in-the-vintage-garden/). The variety was named ‘Lowscape Hedger’, and I had high hopes for it. You will note that I used the past tense “had”, because the damn thing bit the dust this year. Even worse, I have no idea why. Did I water it too much? Not enough? Maybe it caught a disease? I will never know the answer.

R.I.P ‘Lowscape Hedger’ chokeberry

I have had problems trying to grow shrubs in this area. I lost another native plant, a Serviceberry (amelanchier) a few year ago. I know the soil is fine, because bindweed and thistle thrive just fine in this spot.

While both serviceberry and chokeberry are North American natives, they call the eastern half of the continent their home. The part of the continent that gets a lot more rain and snow than the western half.

Taking that into account, I’ve decided to give a western native a try. Perhaps it will find the area I’m going to plant it in a more hospitable than its eastern cousins did. And not just any western native, but a Colorado native. Say hello to ‘Grey Rock’ Ninebark (Physocarpus monogynus), also known as Rocky Mountain Ninebark.

Say hello to my lil’ friend

Ninebarks are native to North America, and the eastern varieties are apparently quite stunning. Rocky Mountain ninebark is found in the mountain states (duh), with a range stretching from Montana to New Mexico, with outcroppings in Arizona, Nevada and South Dakota. What makes ‘Grey Rock’ unique is it was found in the Cache la Poudre Canyon near the city of Fort Collins, which is about an hour drive north of me. It’s gets pinkish/white flowers in spring, the seed heads that turn a bright red in summer, and dramatic orange and red foliage color in the autumn. It’s supposed to be somewhat drought tolerant.

For those that are curious: the reason these shrubs get their name ninebark, is because when the bark of mature branches start to peel, the bark comes off in strips and reveals a different color bark underneath.

Here’s hoping it’s tougher than the its predecessors.

Making the move

A couple of years ago I planted a upright phlox here along the front of the deck. Upright phlox typical bloom in late summer, providing color in the garden when it needs it most. Phlox’s are generally not waterwise, and in more humid areas of the country are prone to a fungal disease called powdery mildew.

The phlox I planted is a variety called ‘Jeana’, and is supposed to be more drought tolerant and disease resistant than the standard varieties. You can see ‘Jeana’ in the picture below.

Having a hard time seeing it? Yeah, that’s the problem. The poor thing should be about two or three feet tall by now. It is really not doing well in its present home at all. I have helpfully added a visual aid to allow you to see it.

According to the instructions that came with the plant, it prefers morning sun with afternoon shade. Which it gets in this location, but I have a strong suspicion that it is not getting enough sun in the morning for it to thrive. Hence its stunted growth.

So I am going to take a gamble and move it into the Long Border. The spot I am going to put it in is that open area surrounded by the irises you see below. The phlox should get more sun in the morning, and I am hoping that the blue spruce (which is to the right and out of frame in this picture) will provide some afternoon shade.

The reason it’s such a gamble to move the phlox this late in the year is that it might not get established before the winter cold comes. I could wait until spring to transplant it, but I fear that since it is struggling so much where it’s currently at, it may not survive until then. Either way, the odds are not good that the plant will make it. Might just as well take a chance and put it somewhere it might thrive.

And in it’s place…

I am going to replace that phlox with this little guy:

This is Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa) ‘Aureola’. Japanese forest grasses are able to tolerate more shade than most grasses, which should be perfect for this little spot in front of the deck.

Forest grasses are not particularly drought tolerant, but that is OK. The spot I’m going to put it in is right next to a container whiskey barrel. We put annuals in the barrel for all season long blooms. I generally water that barrel nearly everyday during the hotter months, so it will be no problem giving the new grass a drink while I am at it.

Just take a look at these cool variegated leaves:

To help this grass thrive, I am going to amend the soil of its new home with a LOT of soil amendments. Two kinds of compost, and a little spagnum moss to help the soil hold on to moisture longer.

Adding a focal point

My last project for the backyard this autumn is planting a Cotinus, also known as smoke bush. If you’ve ever seen one in flower, it not a shrub you easily forget. The sprays of tiny flowers that cover the long upright stems are so prolific it looks like the plant has smoke coming out of it, hence the name.

The shrub comes in both green and purple varieties. The specific variety of smoke bush I have chosen is named ‘Winecraft Black’. Supposedly, ‘Winecraft’ keeps its purple foliage all summer long, and doesn’t turn a muddy brown as the season progresses like other purple varieties do. ‘Winecraft’ is also a dwarf variety, only getting to about 8-10 feet tall. The standard varieties can get up to 20 feet in height. All smoke bushes have good fall color, but ‘Winecraft’ is supposed to turn a dramatic orange color.

This shrub is going in the very back of the corner border. I think the purple foliage will provide a nice backdrop to all the green leaved plants in front of it. The orange fall color should hopefully mingle well with all the different ornamental grasses I’ve planted in this area. It should also provide a nice focal point throughout the growing season, drawing the eye to this area of the garden.

And most importantly of all, I am hoping it will block out my neighbor’s shed and lumber storage rack he has attached to it. That thing is an eyesore, and I’m sick of looking at it.

Planting a smoke bush here to draw attention away from the neighbors shed. Note the dormant lawn in the foreground. I can’t put enough water down to keep the lawn from shutting down in late summer, so I’ve stopped trying. The grass will rebound in the spring.

Next week, the front yard

And that’s it for the backyard projects this fall. Well, I am going to plant spring flowering bulbs back here, but that will wait for a few more weeks.

Coming up, some changes to the front yard. Stay tuned!

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MrVintageMan’s autumn reading list for 2024

Posted on September 22, 2024 by John Kevin Hickey

‘A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.’ Samuel Johnson

Musings on seasonal reading

Before we get to my list, let me expound on my thoughts about seasonal reading. You can skip ahead to the list if you want, but you’ll miss out on some very profound thoughts.

Not really.

After I started writing this blog, I became aware that my reading proclivities dropped off dramatically during the late spring and summer months. This confused me for quite a while. I could think of no reason this should happen. Oh, I still read stuff during the summer: light science fiction/fantasy, murder mysteries, magazines, religious tracts and siding pamphlets left on the front door. You know, stuff.

Summertime is generally known for easy reading. Autumn and winter are apparently the seasons for more serious study. The only reason I can think why this is so is because autumn and winter are the traditional months when students return to school or college. But for most adults, those school days are long past. Why should we choose our reading choices based upon the calendar?

After a bit of thought, I finally came to a conclusion about why my reading drops off in summer.

Summertime, and the living is easy

Things get busy during the summer, and there’s so much going on that reading takes a back seat. In my own case, there’s traveling, gardening, bicycling and grilling to be done. Even on days when it’s too hot to do much outside, I only have to wait for the sun to dip behind the house and cool off enough for me to go outside and lounge in the hammock for an hour or two. After all, summer is a time for both activities and relaxing.

Once I put 2 + 2 together, I had an epiphany. Everybody else are also active during the warmer months. That is why easy reading is so popular during the summer.

Most of you are probably thinking to yourselves: no s#*t, Sherlock. Hey, I never said I was the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

Autumn changes everything

Come autumn, though, and my interest in reading immediately picks back up. The nights grow longer, and the evenings get cooler sooner as the sun sinks toward the horizon, chasing me back into the house earlier and earlier each day.

I feel there’s something primal about autumn reading. The night swiftly closes in. The wind begins to pick up, making the limbs of trees sway to and fro against the darkening sky, and causing fallen leaves to skitter along the streets and sidewalks. Dark clouds come scudding in, threatening rain.

It is evenings such as this that give me such a pleasure in putting on a pair of sweats, heading down to my library, flipping on the warm glow of a lamp, firing up the gas fireplace, flopping down on the loveseat and cracking open a book. Whilst I read I can listen to the rain spatter on the windows, and the house creak when a particularly strong gust occurs. To me, such an evening harkens back to the days of our distant ancestors, who used to gather around a bonfire at night and tell stories to each other.

And that is why autumn reading is so great.

The List…

Ok, my philosophical discourse is finally over. Time to get to the books. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you MrVintageMan’s 2024 autumn reading list!

The Imitation of Christ (Harvard Classics Vol. 7) by Thomas A. Kempis

Many years ago I was given the “Harvard Classics 5 Foot Shelf of Books” series. And the books have moldered on my shelves ever since. One of my 2024 New Years goals was to read at least 10 pages from the one of the Classics every day. I am now on Volume 7, which includes Confessions of St. Augustine and The Imitation of Christ. I recently finished Confessions, and am now reading Imitation. There is some debate as to who actually wrote The Imitation of Christ, but most scholars attribute it to Thomas A. Kempis, a monk in the order of The Brothers of Common Life, who wrote it sometime in the mid-14th century. Imitation is one of the most widely read Christian devotionals in the world. Some say that only the Bible itself is read more.

Even though I’ve just started reading it, I have already come across a passage that really struck home for me, as it is an attitude that I have spent most of my adult life attempting to live by: “We may enjoy abundance of peace if we refrain from busying ourselves with the sayings and doings of others, and things which concern not ourselves”. Amen! Preach it, Brother!

Graveyard of Demons – Book 5 Saga of the Forgotten Warrior by Larry Correia

Scheduled to be released on November 5th, Graveyard of Demons continues the saga of Ashok Vadal, who was once a member of the high ranking Protectorate and carrier of the mighty sword Angruvadal, but is now an outlaw and reluctant protector of the untouchable class. Against him are arrayed overwhelming forces, both man and demon. The demons of the deep oceans have returned to land to wage war once again on mankind, and throw down the gods who imprisoned them in their watery gaol. Meanwhile, men continue to jockey for power, attempting to use the demons for their own purposes. Looks to be a very exciting read

Enemies of All by Richard Blakemore

What could be better for autumn reading than a book about pirates?

Piracy has existed from the moment humans started sailing, and has bedeviled all cultures and nations at one time or another. But for most of us, when we think about pirates, it is the ones who prowled the seas from the mid-17th to early 18th century. Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, Henry Morgan, Anne Bonney and more pique our interest.

Richard Blakemore’s Enemies of All covers the so-called “Golden Age of Piracy” in detail. He doesn’t just cover the names we all know, but also the crews and victims of pirate ships, as well as how these pirates impacted the imperial ambitions of the Great European powers.

Avast, mateys! There be gold in them there pages!

The Practicing Stoic by Ward Farnsworth

I had The Practicing Stoic on one of my autumn reading list a couple of years ago, but I never got around to reading it. So I’m going to give it a try again this year.

Anybody who has used Cognitive Based Therapy (CBT), and especially the branch of CBT known as Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), will immediately recognize that many of CBT’s precepts are strikingly similar to Stoicism.

Stoicism is a philosophy that was popular in ancient Greece and Rome. The most famous Stoic is the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. While there are differences in their approaches, both CBT and Stoicism believe that external events are beyond the individual’s control. The only thing the individual does have control over is how he or she reacts to those events.

Amazing it took nearly 2ooo years to relearn that.

While there are tons of books on Stoicism, I’m interested in reading Ward Farnsworth’s The Practicing Stoic because he doesn’t just collect the wisdom of the ancient Stoics. He apparently explains how to apply Stoicism to in our modern lives.

Reading Colorado: A Literary Road Guide by Peter Anderson

Reading Colorado is an anthology of stories and vignettes, both fiction and non-fiction, that take place in the great state of Colorado. A sort of reading road trip if you will. Writings include those by Mark Twain, Willa Cather, Jack Kerouac, Isabella Bird and many more.

Now, this is a fairly thick tome, so I am not about to try and read the whole thing this autumn. I’ll select several stories that sound interesting and read those. However, this puts me on the horns of dilemma. How should I go about choosing which stories? Should I pick one from each region of the state? Should I go chronologically by the date the writings were published? Perhaps I should select different topics to expand my reading palette? So many choices! I guess I’ll figure it out when I open the book.

A little something-something to celebrate Halloween

Something a little eerie…

Portable Poe by Edgar Allen Poe

I haven’t read Edgar Allen Poe since my high school days. I’ve had this Portable Poe on my bookshelf for many a year. What could be better on a late October evening, with the night drawing in, than to read a few stories or poems from one the early masters of the macabre?

What shall it be? Perhaps the gruesome fate of Fortunato in the “Cask of Amontillado”? Maybe a man driven insane by an audible hallucination in “The Tell-tale Heart”? Perchance a poor widower haunted by a persistent and annoying bird in “The Raven”? Something else? Hmm. Once again, decisions, decisions.

Something of a Halloween murder mystery

Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie

And finally, what could be more appropriate to celebrate Halloween than to read a mystery about a murder that occurs at a Halloween party?

While attending the Halloween party of some neighbors, a mystery author is informed by a young girl that said young girl had once witnessed a murder, but was too young to understand it at the time. Now that she is older, she is sure of what she saw. Same girl is later found drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. The distraught author calls upon her friend, noted sleuth Hercules Poirot, to find her killer.

In conclusion

So that’s my reading list for this year’s harvest season. A real bumper crop of books, it I do say so myself.

What about you, do you also find your reading habits change when the leaves start to fall from the trees? If so, what books are you planning to read this autumn? Got any suggestions that I might enjoy?

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This week in the garden: Oops! I messed up.

Posted on September 12, 2024 by John Kevin Hickey
The front yard looks good in this photo. But a couple of weeks ago things were looking dire.

I have been gardening for nearly 30 years. You would think I would know what I am doing by now. You would be mistaken. This summer I made two novice blunders, both occurring in the waterwise front yard. Big enough blunders that it could have destroyed all the hard work and time MrsVintage and I put into the yard. There is a reason why I haven’t been posting anything about said front yard. It’s because it looked like hell. And it’s all my fault.

The drought tolerant plants were really struggling this year, and I couldn’t figure out why. In fact, the situation was pissing me off. I thought these plants were supposed to be so tough! In fact, I was concerned that we were going to lose a lot of our plants.

As you can see in the photo below, this plant is practically a skeleton. It’s desiccated and has been devoured by grasshoppers. I did learn something this year: grasshoppers LOVE drought stressed plants. I have bitched before about the locusts devouring our gardens before, but this year was particularly bad. Not just at our place, either. All along Colorado’s Front Range gardens and farmers crops had been ravaged by the tiny monsters. According to grasshopper experts, since we had such a wet spring and early summer in 2023, the damned locusts produced an above average crop of eggs. Definitely won’t have that problem next year.

So, you might be asking, what was it that I did wrong? Let me give a little backstory first. Last week, as I went to the mailbox to check the mail, I stood and surveyed the front yard. I had just run automatic sprinkler system in the front yard a few days before, so I thought there should be moisture in the ground. I pulled back the mulch from one of the plants, and discovered the ground was bone dry. I checked a few more plants. Yep, bone dry. OK, that could be a problem.

I resolved that the following morning I would deep water the whole front yard. The next day rolls around, and I drag out the hose and run the water for 30 minutes in one spot. Soil should be nice and moist now! I have a soil moisture tester for just such occasions. Stuck the probe in the ground (or tried to. It was hard as a rock) a couple of inches deep. No moisture! None!

I tested a couple other locations where I had watered. Same deal. Confused, I start pulling the mulch back. And I continue to pull the mulch back. Then I pull the mulch back some more. See where I am going with this? The mulch was so thick that no water of any kind had reached the soil in several months! Even waterwise plants need some water every now and then.

Panic time!

This was an emergency situation. I grabbed a rake out of the shed and began raking mulch away from all the plants. Once that was accomplished, I began deep watering the whole yard.

I scheduled the automatic sprinkler system in the front the next morning, because I wanted to make sure the plants were watered really well. As luck would have it, the next evening we had an unexpected rainstorm come through that dumped nearly an inch of water. Checked the soil with my moisture tester again, and now the soil was wet several inches down.

Here was where I screwed up. Back in May we decided that the brown cedar mulch looked pretty shabby (see here: https://www.mrvintageman.com/this-week-in-the-garden-odds-and-ends/). So I covered it with a layer of colored mulch, as you can see in the photo below.

Too much of a good thing

The mistake I made was in not making sure that the mulch wasn’t too deep around the plants themselves. Water couldn’t percolate through the mulch to the soil, which was fine in the parts where I don’t want things to grow (weeds), but bad for the plants that I do want to grow. This problem has now been corrected. The areas around the plants are like little islands in the sea of mulch. They are still mulched, just more thinly.

Good news

I am happy to report that once the plants got the moisture they needed, they bounced back dramatically. For example, these Blue Mist Spirea’s were looking a ghastly before. Their leaves were a faded grey, and the flowers were practically invisible. Afterwards, the leaves took on their normal olive-grey tone and the blue flowers began to pop.

You can see the sad remains of this poor columbine. But if you look at the base of the plant, you can see rosettes of new leaves appearing. I feel much more confident that it will return next year.

We did lose a couple of plants, unfortunately. The “Northwind” switchgrass you see below bit the dust. A couple of “Standing Ovation” little bluestems are also toast.

But it is amazing how most of the plants survived several months without water just fine, especially considering they aren’t fully established yet. Which just goes to show me that these plants are indeed as tough as they are touted to be.

Lessons learned

Ok, so just what did I learn from this? A couple of things. One, you gotta be careful with mulch. Some mulch is a good thing. In spring it helps to suppress weeds. In summer, it keeps the soil cooler and helps it retain moisture (if it gets moisture that is). In winter, it protects the crown and roots of the plants from bitter cold, and helps to prevent frost heave. So, mulch is good. However, more mulch does not mean better.

Two, I need be better about attention to detail. I should have been checking the soil moisture levels all summer. I know better than this. I just assumed that the plants were getting the water they needed. Assumptions, as I nearly found out, can be catastrophic. Adding too much mulch was a mistake, not inspecting the garden was boneheaded.

Something cool

There was something cool that occurred in the front yard this year.

In all the years that we have lived at the Vintage Ranch, I am not sure I have ever seen a hummingbird visit our yard. However, in late August I was lucky enough to see several catching a meal from several of the native plants. I took this picture from the car as I was backing out of the garage, so it’s a pretty bad photo. But if you look between the purple and blue flowers, you can see a blur that is a hummingbird.

Can’t see it? Here’s a closer view. The hummingbird is that tiny brown blur in the middle of the circle. It makes me very happy knowing that MrsVintage and I have created a oasis in our suburban neighborhood we get to share with our native fauna. Grasshoppers excepted.

For those curious about what the two plants in the picture are: the blue flowered one is “New Mexico” prairie sage, and the pinkish/purplish one is “Sonoran Sunset” hyssop. Both are western natives.

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