Last week I posted about all the autumn projects I have planned for the backyard (see: https://www.mrvintageman.com/autumn-is-here-which-means-its-time-to-get-back-out-into-the-garden/). Thankfully, I don’t have has many front yard projects planned as I do in the backyard. I mostly intend to swap out a few plants that aren’t performing as well as I would like with ones I think will do better, also add a few shade plants to a dry shade area, and finally I’ll replace three ornamental grasses that died over the summer.

To start with, let’s take a look at the little border that is right outside our front window. On either side of this trellis is a Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grass. I planted these here to match the feather reed grasses on the other side of the little sidewalk that leads to our front door. I was hoping to create the impression of a path going through a grassy field.

Alas, my hopes were dashed. I am pretty sure that the area is in too much shade for this type of grass to do well. In the photo below, you can see how puny and pathetic one of them looks.

For comparison, this is how the same variety of grasses look on the other side of the sidewalk. Quite a contrast, don’t you think?

So, in their place I am going to plant a shade loving Japanese forest grass. If you remember from last week’s post, I am going to plant a variety of Japanese forest grass named Hakonechloa ‘Aureola’ in front of the deck in the backyard. Out here in the front, I am going to replace the feather reed grasses with two Hakonechloa ‘Beni-Kaze’. Unlike the ‘Aureola’ grass, ‘Beni-Kaze’ is not variegated. Instead, it is a solid, bright green grass that turns a reddish-gold color in autumn.

Japanese forest grasses are not particularly waterwise. But that’s OK, for I also have a Hosta, a couple of clematis vines, and a Japanese anemone (a fall bloomer) growing in the same border, and they aren’t all that waterwise either. Since the area is literally right in front of the water spigot, it is no hassle for me to turn on the hose and water the area on a weekly basis during the hotter months.

Raised bed

Moving over a few feet, we come to the raised border on the other side of the front door. It’s a terrible picture, but the border is too wide to fit in a single frame, so it’ll have to do. This border is a source of frustration for me. The end closest to the front door is in almost full shade. The other end gets about 5-6 hours of blazing hot sun in the afternoons. Very tough conditions to get plants to thrive in such dissimilar conditions.

Below you can more plants I bought on sale in August. These will go in shadier spots of the border. In the clay pot you see two Brunnera ‘Sea Hearts’. If you look closely, you can see that the leaves are primarily silver, with green veining running through. Every thing I have read said that ‘Sea Hearts’ stands up to summer heat better than most variegated Brunneras. That silver foliage should help light up the shady recesses of the border.

The two darker plants are Ajuga ‘Bronze Beauty’. Ajuga is somewhat notorious for being a garden thug, and can take over a garden bed. I’m not too concerned (famous last words), because the area is a dry shade spot which will make it a little tougher for them to spread, and because they are going into a raised bed I’m hoping they won’t be able to be able to jump into other areas.

The Ajuga has blue flower spikes that bloom in spring, and the foliage stays green/bronze even in the deepest shade. It prefers moist soil, but mine will have to be a bit tougher than it would prefer.

Going back to the picture of the raised bed, there are three daylily’s planted in there that I don’t think are too happy about their light conditions. I’ll see how they do next summer, but if they look as anemic as they did this year, I’ll move them to someplace more to their liking. In their place, I may plant three more Japanese forest grasses.

Stay tuned.

Replacing the dead grasses

Finally, I’ve got three native ornamental grasses that need to replace the ones that died when I nearly killed all the plants in the waterwise front yard (see: https://www.mrvintageman.com/this-week-in-the-garden-oops-i-messed-up/).

Once again, I got these on sale in August. Seen here is one Panicum ‘Northwind’ switch grass, and two Little Bluestem ‘Standing Ovations”. I will make sure I pamper these babies next year to improve their chances of survival.

And that completes my plans for autumn. Well, I will be planting some spring flower bulbs is a couple of weeks. And I need to clean and oil my tools. Oh, and I should clean out the shed.

Sigh. No rest for the wicked, or for the gardener.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!