It’s hot and muggy. You’re dying to get out and work in your garden. Wait! Let’s start that over… It’s hot and muggy and the last place you want to be is out working in your garden. Sitting lazily, sipping a drink in the shade surrounded by a beautiful garden, now that is more like it!
August can be a time when gardens look about as hot and tired as we feel. All the spring flowers are a distant memory and any thing in the sun is too hot to enjoy anyway. It doesn’t have to be that way. There are lots of plants, trees, shrubs and flowers that are in their glory in late summer and fall. By planning ahead and working in the coolness of spring and fall, you can create an August garden retreat that will entice you out to sit and enjoy that drink. So how do we make that happen?
First of all, sitting down with that nice cool drink and looking out onto a sea of weeds is going to make you crazy. So in the cool days of spring, weed and mulch the garden early. That will save hours of weeding throughout the rest of the garden season and improve your plants health and vigor. Use mulch that has a bit of compost mixed into it so that it feeds your garden while impeding the weeds. Pure bark mulch starves the garden and the soil. It also forms a crust that will prevent all but the heaviest rains from reaching the soil.
Now on to the fun part: creating an August garden retreat. Its two basic parts include a shade garden with some seats under a tree and a sun garden in view from the seats.
For the shade garden, its best to start with the largest tree your area will allow. A large oak, or sugar maple for example, shade an area large enough for several seats and a nice sized garden around the seats to create a garden room. The climate under the tree is refreshingly cool, usually 10 to 15 degrees cooler than in the sun, and there is likely to be a breeze. If you don’t already have a large tree, consider planting one. There are several trees that bloom in August ranging in size to fit your space. Pagodatree (Sophora japonica) grows to 40’– 50’ with a 35’– 45’ spread. It has very showy white flowers in mid to late summer and tolerates a wide range of conditions. For something slightly smaller, try Glodenraintree (Koelreuteria paniculata). It is 30’- 40’ high and wide. It boasts large showy yellow flowers in August and September. The attractive foliage changes from purplish to red, to bright green and then to yellow in the fall. It is drought and heat tolerant and a great patio tree. Smaller trees create enough shade for a two seat bench. The temperature difference is a bit less but still refreshing. Some that offer August floral or seed displays include the later blooming Dogwoods like Cornus Kousa Satome, a red flowering Dogwood. Also the beautiful Sourwood (Oxydendron arboreum)gets to 35’ tall and 20’ wide. It blooms in July covered with 4”- 10” yellow panicles. They develop into attractive seed heads which continue to decorate the tree right through autumn when their yellow color contrasts with and highlights the brilliant red fall foliage. Styrax japonica is another beautiful specimen tree with smooth grey-brown bark showing irregular orangish-brown fissures. It blooms in June and the fruit is very showy in August. It is 20’- 20’ at maturity.
So now we’ve got a tree and 3 or 4 seats placed under it. The next step is to plant some shade tolerant shrubs and perennials around the sides and behind the seats. This creates a comfortable feeling of place and enclosure. Hydrangeas are a great choice for some of the shrubs. Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia), and the snowball and lacecap Hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophyla) start blooming in July and continue through summer. The Oakleaf Hydrangeas continue into autumn and offer an outstanding fall foliar display as well. Another shrub for the season is Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia). Its spicy sweet fragrance and pink or white flowers brighten the shade and fill the air with a wonderful fragrance. You can have lots of perennial color in your August shade retreat. Astilbe, with its white, pink, purple and red plumes that sway in the breeze, add grace, color and motion to the garden. Monskhood (Aconitum napellus), blooming in July and August, is a magnificent erect plant with deeply cut dark green foliage and 4’ high hooded blue flowers. Cimicifuga (Actaea racemosa) is a great architectural specimen with tall spectacular airy spires of white flowers in July and August. Another shade favorite is Pink Turtlehead (Chelone lyonii) It offers 3’ tight clusters of rose-pink flowers, bronzy new growth and reddish stems.
Once the shady retreat is created, give yourself something to look at from the seats. Plant a late summer and fall garden in the sun as a focal point directly across from the seats. Try Butterflybush (Buddleia davidii) , a fast growing 5’- 10’ shrub with long racemes of fragrant flowers that are attractive to butterflies. It has good cut flowers and blooms from July to September in blue, pink or white. Roses of course are a summer favorite and there are countless choices of carefree varieties now available. Enhance this shrub combination with summer perennials. A fun, long blooming and carefree trio could be Purple cone flower (Echinacea), Sea Holly (Eryngium planum) and daylily (Hemerocallis Mary Todd). These five plants will bloom from July through frost, offer fragrance and attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
So plan ahead for next year, and get ready for the ‘Dog Days’ this fall and next spring. Then get a tall glass of lemonade and relax. Once July and August roll around, you can pack away the garden tools again until fall.
If you have questions you would like answered, please email them to me at LandscapesbyLillabeth@comcast.net.