Helen  Yoest is a garden writer and coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Like Page.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum

Please visit my other blogs:

Beautiful Wildlife Garden

AND

Tarheel Gardening – your online resource for North Carolina gardening enthusiasts.

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THIS MONTH IN THE GARDEN

Mid-Atlantic Region

September Maintenance Guide

Helen's Haven Summer - Mixed Bed

INTRO
September delights. With the dog days of summer behind us, September opens with cooler air creating a fresh scent and a sense of excitement.  The source of this excitement may be for no other reason than it being bearable enough to be out of doors once again.

Here’s some September Inspiration in case you need it.
BULBS

• Hopefully, bulb selection was already done while the selection was good.   Buy what you fancy while they are available. Avoid mushy, soft, moldy bulbs; buy from a reputable supplier.  And it is good to know that bigger IS better.
• October is a better time for planting, but purchase in September while the selection is best.
• Plant fall-blooming bulbs, such as autumn crocus.

HERBS

• Continue to harvest basil and use for cooking. Continue to pinch back flowers.

ANNUALS

• Sowing seeds of California, Iceland, and Shirley poppies, sweet alyssum, and larkspur this fall for spring color and fun.
• If your Zinnia’s have powdery mildew, they will come out soon, as such, no need to worry about them.  Next year, look for mildew-resistant strains.

PERENNIALS

• Towards the end of the month, as the weather cools, the best time to plant and divide  perennials begins.

TREES AND SHRUBS

• Our native Dogwood is a fantastic four-season tree making it a choice for all those zoned to have one.   As the leaves turn from green to red, excitement ensures.

ROSES

• Roses make a big comeback in September and October.  Be sure to stop fertilizing your roses 6 weeks before the last expected frost. In Raleigh, we have a 90% chance of a frost by Halloween. Therefore, stop fertilizing by mid-September. If you have rose varieties with nice hips, this is also a good time to stop deadheading to allow the hips to remain. To tidy up your rose garden, remove the pedals by hand. Letting the hips to grow to signal the rose to go into dormancy.

PESTS
Watch where you reach.  Black widow spiders are plentiful.

Black widow spider

SEEDS

• Save seeds for planting next year or let plants self sow. Also consider leaving seed heads on the plants for the wildlife to enjoy.

WATER
September and October tend to be dry months, unless we have a hurricane.  Plan to water any new plantings, including bulbs.

WILDLIFE
Don’t be to tidy in cleaning up the garden and deadheading.  The wildlife will enjoy the seed.
Encourage pollinating insects in your garden, such as bees and butterflies, by providing them a tasty treat.  This fall, plan to plant nectar-rich plants.  Nectar, the sugar-rich liquid many flowering plants produce, sustains bees and butterflies.

For the Bees: Add clover, cotoneaster, golden rod, heliotrope, Eupatorium cannabium, Lunaria annua, love-in-mist, asters, and Echium vulgare.

For the Butterflies: Alyssum, Ajuga reptans, Iberis amara, catmint, echinops, verbena rigida, Rededa ororate, Joe-Pye weed.
Did you know:

• 80% of the world’s food crops need a pollinator at some stage in their life cycle; many require multiple visits.
• Stick with the species.   Many double flowers are usually sterile with no value to insects. The petals of the second flower replaced the anthers and nectarines leaving the plant unable to be fertilized.
• Many pollinating insects ingest protein-rich pollen before they can breed and some use pollen to feed their young.
• Plant in en masse making the plants easier to find through grouped color and scent.

David and Lara Rose putting up a screech owl box

Helen  Yoest is a garden writer and coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Like Page.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum

Please visit my other blogs:

Beautiful Wildlife Garden

AND

Tarheel Gardening – your online resource for North Carolina gardening enthusiasts.

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Volunteers getting ready for the Wing Haven plant sale

Mark your calendars for the Wing Haven annual plant sale for members on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 and open to the public on Wednesday through Saturday, October 6th  through the 9th.  10 AM – 4 PM.

“Our Nursery Shop is bursting at the seams with unique plants, tools, and gifts for your garden and home. We have an incredible selection of plants—unusual shrubs, antique roses, herbs, perennials, native plants, ground covers, bulbs, and more. Plus our volunteers can give you plenty of advice on how to make them flourish. All proceeds benefit Wing Haven, a Charlotte treasure since 1927. Free garden programs at 10:30 each day of the sale. Garden admission is free during the sale.”

The nursery is set in the bucolic grounds of Wing Haven, 248 Ridgewood Ave, Charlotte, NC.  Hope to see you there!

Helen Yoest is a garden writer and coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Like Page.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretu

Helen Yoest gardens from her 1/2 acre, zone 7b, wildlife habitat in Raleigh, NC.

The TarHeelGardening blog is published and edited by Helen Yoest. For more information on Tarheel Gardening, please visit our website at Tarheel Gardening - your online resource for North Carolina gardening enthusiasts.

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MY GUEST THIS WEEK

My guest today is Debra Lee Baldwin, author of  Designing with Succulents , Succulent Container Gardens. Both of these wonderful books are bestsellers.

Debra will be talking about her book, Succulent Container Gardens and how we can add these beauties to our gardens.

Succulent Container Gardens

Helen  Yoest is a garden writer and coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Like Page.

Each week, Helen host’s a garden talk WebTalkRadio.net show called Gardening With Confidence™.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum

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Folks living in or traveling through the community surrounding Highland Methodist Church in Raleigh, NC on Ridge road, are seeing a delicious view.  Garden Supervisor and horticulturist, Cullen Whitley has taken the church’s outreach vision, and along with a dedicated team of volunteers, created a community garden that is educational, functional, and beautiful.

In November 2008, a mission team from Highland United Methodist Church, looked to their own front lawn to help area residents.  As a way to help recent immigrants who attended  ESL (English as a Second Language) classes at Highland, the church decided to build a community garden as a way for these students to be able to work the soil.  Countries represented in the ESL program include Asia, Nepal, Cuba, Pakistan, Vietnam and others. Most are apartment dwellers with no access to garden, building a community garden would help them with a secondary goal as a demonstration garden and a teaching garden.

The vegetable garden has been named “Victory” garden.  As Cullen explains, “Victory means something different to each individual.  For us, there’s victory in a hard day’s work.”  Volunteers are encourage to write what ‘Victory” means to them and put into the mail box.  Cullen plans to publish these essays.

Cullen Whitley

The success of Highland’s Victory Garden has lead to interest from 5 other area Methodist churches and a retirement community.  Cullen will work with these organizations as they build a Victory gardens on their front lawn.

As you drive by on their Saturday morning work session, stop in and say hey.  You will be welcomed with a hearty hello and offered  the sweet taste of goodness, cultivated from the soil.

Helen Yoest is a garden writer and coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Like Page.

Each week, Helen host’s a garden talk WebTalkRadio.net show called Gardening With Confidence™.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum

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Each day, your front garden welcomes friends and family, as well as, those passing by on foot and in vehicles.  With a few considerations, your curb appeal can pleasantly welcome visitors all season long. A desirable notion since, as the old adage goes, you don’t have a second chance to make a good first impression.

With your personality starting at the edge of your property, create a style that is uniquely yours.  As you walk up your drive, consider what others see.  Is it an expression of who you are?  Can your visitor clearly find the front door? Is it pleasing to the eye year round?  Does everything just seem to fit?   With a fresh eye, evaluate what you have and see where this may lead you.

CHOOSE A THEME

The style of your home will guide you in choosing a theme.  Staying within this theme, helps to pull everything together.  Your home’s style gives you the place to start.  Adding elements that speak to who you are, is where you come in.  Just remember, for your look to stay cohesive; for a look that all fits together, stay within your style choice.

Sweet, flirty pedestal urns will look out of place in a garden of a contemporary-style home. A ranch-style home is the most flexible in allowing you to tweak your style. If doing so, still stay within the theme of change.  Whether accentuating a traditional, relaxed, or formal look, maintain the look throughout.

YOUR BEST INVESTMENT

Your best investment of time and money is to focus on the entry way.  A visitor should not be confused; make the entrance clear and obvious.  Ideally, the path is wide enough for 2 adults to walk side-by-side (4 – 5 feet) and made with a material that compliments your home’s style.

Adding Color at the Entrance

Adding color at the entrance gives the most impact and welcomes visitors.  It also makes it easiest for the homeowner to maintain.

Color can be added to containers, garden beds, and with garden accents.

Containers

Container gardens at the home’s entrance works well with any home style.  Experiment with the placement and arrangement of containers.  A staggered, asymmetrical placement with small grouping getting bigger as you the approach the house, leads the eye forward.

A pair of pots formally frames the front door.  For a more relaxed style, add layers of planters beyond the front steps.  Adding hanging baskets from the roof eaves, window boxes, and arrangements on the front porch can add impact to welcome your visitor.

Garden Beds

Well maintained garden beds and borders will convey a relaxed feeling.  Remember, the front garden is always on show.  Keeps beds weeded, pruned, and top-dressed with fresh mulch, with an edge that is clean and crisp.

Garden beds and plantings should be in scale with the home.  A Southern Magnolia is well suited as an specimen tree for a two story home, but would be overpowering next to a single story ranch.

Garden Accents

A well placed garden bench at the front entrance welcomes your visitor.  Garden art, boulders, sculpture, or a fountain can be added to create the perfect welcome.

With just a few considerations, you can begin today creating curb appeal that tells something of your personality even before you open the door and say, “Welcome.”

First printed in Triangle Gardener.

Helen Yoest is a garden writer and coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Like Page.

Each week, Helen host’s a garden talk WebTalkRadio.net show called Gardening With Confidence™.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum

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Welcome to Gardening With Confidence™ on WebTalkRadio.net.

MY GUEST THIS WEEK

My guest this week is James Baggett, editor of Country Garden Magazine.  We will be talking about Country Gardens magazine and James’ perspective on what makes a country garden.  James has been a garden editor and writer for more than 17 years with Perennials and Nature’s Garden magazines for Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications, as well as the former executive editor of Country Living Gardener and Rebecca’s Garden,

James is also the author of Flower Arranging, a Best of Martha Stewart Living Book and the former garden editor of American Homestyle & Gardening.

To subscribe, click here:  Country Gardens magazine

James Baggett the uber-nature boy spends free time on a photo shoot checking out the wildlife

Helen Yoest is a garden writer and coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Like Page.

Each week, Helen host a garden talk WebTalkRadio.net show called Gardening With Confidence™.

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Reducing Lawn

Helen's Haven™ Mixed Border BEFORE How the garden looked when we first moved here in 1997

The duties of lawn mowing fell to me at an early age.  As a child, Saturdays in suburbia were spent mowing the lawn.  Lawn mowing tends to be a typical task for the boys in the house.  Not ours.  My brother preferred doing any other chore, including cleaning the house.  We worked out a deal; he would clean for me and I would mow for him.  I believe I got the better end of the deal; so does he.

There is a movement in American for Lawn Reform, a collation started by friend Susan Harris with 9 others, made up of a mix of lawn-haters and lawn improvers.  I’ve always had a love affair with lawn.  But even with love, there is always room for improvement.

Motivated by being practical and efficient, I set out to maximize my lawn while minimizing the care.  A little bit of well place turf can go a long way.

Each year since 1997 when we purchased our home, I set about to reduce the lawn.

It started innocently enough, reducing lawn as a way of making mowing easier.  I wanted a continuous run.  My approach was to start the mower, go forward and complete the job with no other gyration – no turning in a terminal end, no working around a tree, no little area off by itself needing care, and no backing up.  If there was something in the lawn that needed to be worked around, like a table and chairs set, it was moved to another part of the property.

That first year’s season as I mowed, I left those awkward areas to grow so I could see the shape they made.  In doing so, it became clear where I would add beds.  The decision of what those bed areas would become was made at another time.

As a result, the perimeter around the property, with the exception of the street-side, became beds.  The trees in the center of the grass were tied together into a mulched island.  Awkward areas on the side of the property were no longer dealt with as grass.  Those areas became mulched beds with no vision of what they would become.  I was optimistic it could be figured out in coming years.  In the short term, I grew vegetables there.  In the long term, I amended the horrid, clay soil with of organic matter in the form of composted leaf mulch.

This mulching process was applied to all the areas throughout the property where the tall grass grew from not mowing.

AFTER defining the space, cutting an edge, adding wetted newspaper to kill the grass and covered with composted leaf mulch

The shapeless areas formed from the mowing efficiency effort were covered with 8 – 10 sheets of wetted newspaper, then piled high with 4 – 6 inches of composted leaf mulch purchased form the City’s compost operation.  None of these areas were planted that first year.

That first year, I was still deciding what the garden would be; how it would look.  This was to be the home where I raised my kids.  A place we were putting down roots.  There was no rush build the garden.  No rush to have it done in a day.  My oldest daughter was just one year old and she was followed by a brother and a sister within three and a half years.

I knew the garden needed to be organic, easy to maintain, with long sweeps of grass so my children could run safely and play with no threat of chemicals touching their bare feet.  They needed no fear of chemicals on the figs when they would stop their play on a summer day for a sampling or to pause for the taste of a ripe tomato from the vine.   I knew I needed to create a garden that would attract wildlife so they could marvel at nature’s beauty and harmony.   In those early years with kids, I focused on safety, shape and efficiencies.

Every year since that initial effort, I have reduced more lawn. The first year saw the most efficiencies, but subsequent years saw added value.

The second year found me further defining the shape of the beds created during the previous year while staying with the mindset of keeping a continuous flow.  Another year, found me doubling  the size of the front Red Bed; during another year I narrowed the width of the backyard “soccer” field.  Then there was the year I removed the area from the front path to the porch.  A great year was the one where I widened the right entrance into the secret garden; then I widened it again the next.  Last year, I added a bed next to the driveway so I could trial Proven Winners plants.

In 2010, my latest project was to widen the path to the north entrance of the garden.  Previously, the path had a mow strip on each side with a garden bed to the property edge on one side and a bed to the office on the other.

Each time I reduced lawn, I wondered what took me so long.  I may actually be out of ways to reduce for the near future.  As long as the kids are young and kicking a ball, the “soccer” field will be their domaine.  Wether it’s for a soccer ball, a putting green, a place to chase fire flies, or just a place to lie upon to view the stars in the night time sky; the grass that remains is there for my kids to enjoy.

BEFORE entrance into back garden

AFTER In the next couple of years, the this area will be planted for a lush tropical feel.

There are no gender roles in our household.  I still mow the lawn and I’ve taught my children to do the same.  We have a differing opinion when the lawn needs mowing, so more often than not, I’m the one mowing.  That’s OK.  I like to mow the lawn.  As a child and even today, the task of mowing is un-troubling; a time to think.  A time to gain clarity.  A time to see immediate results of a job complete, and in the spring, the smell of a freshly mown lawn has poets prosing, candle makers perfuming, and children giggling.

There will be a day when my kids move away.  My mind wonders what that bit of turf will become.  Will it stay the same for the nostalgia or for when they have kids of their own?  I can see change.  But for now, I’ll just enjoy my lawn with the kids on a summer day in the south.  Or perhaps, I’ll grab a blanket and a bottle of wine and see if my husband would like to join me to watch the evening stars.

Dig This

The easiest way to add a new garden bed is to commandeer existing turf.  Mark the shape either through efficiencies like I did above or by creating shape with marking paint or a garden hose.  Once the shape has been decided, mow at the lowest setting.

Using the marking paint or hose as a guide, take a straight-edge shovel to cut into the sod straight down.  This will become the bed’s edge.  Once the front edge is cut, turn around and repeat, this time inserting the shovel in at a 37º angle creating a wedge.  Throw and spread this dirt into the area to become your new garden bed.  Cover with 8 – 10 sheets  of wetted newspaper and then cover with 4 – 6 inches of composted leaf mulch or compost.  Let nature due the work for you.  Over time the earthworms and microbes will incorporate and decompose the area into usable, friable earth.

Each year, repeat by adding more compost or composted leaf mulch.

Helen Yoest is a garden writer and coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Like Page.

Each week, Helen host’s a garden talk WebTalkRadio.net show called Gardening With Confidence™.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum

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There has never been a time I didn’t marvel at a daddy longleg.  Even today, I took the time to check this guy out when I saw him in the beautiful wildlife garden.

Perhaps it’s from sheer amazement for this creature — with out-of-proportion legs to their little bodies.  I often imagined alien craft for SyFy movies used these guys as design inspiration.

Even with a life-long fascination for daddy longlegs, it wasn’t until today that I actually learned about the harvestman.  As I began to research this critter, I soon realized there were many qualifiers to understand.  The quick solution, contact a credible source for help.  As such, I turned to my friend Debbie Hadley who has answered more than one questions for me about insects.
In fact, that is exactly who she is – About Insects

So I addressed my question to Debbie.

Helen – Debbie, I see there is more than one spider referred to as a daddy longlegs.  Can you please tell me what I have in the photo?

Debbie – You do, indeed, have a daddy longlegs, also called a harvestman. People use the name daddy longlegs to refer to three different bugs: harvestman, cellar spiders, and crane flies. The harvestman is an arachnid, but is not a true spider. It belongs to the order Opiliones.

There are several differences between harvestmen and spiders. First, the harvestman’s body is fused together into one section. Spiders have a distinct separation between the abdomen and the cephalothorax. The harvestman has just two eyes (visible in your photo as a tiny pair of black dots near the front end), while spiders have eight. Harvestmen do not produce silk, while spiders do. Perhaps the most interesting distinction is that harvestmen males have penises (spiders use an indirect method of sperm transfer, and don’t have penises)!

Worldwide, there are over 6,400 species of Opilionids living in all kinds of habitats. Many are omnivorous, feeding on small insects, bits of plants, and even fungi. Some scavenge decaying plant material, dead insects, or even feces. Many people believe that daddy longlegs are highly venomous, but have fangs too short to puncture human skin. This is entirely false. Harvestmen are not venomous at all, and can do no harm to people or pets. They’re quite beneficial arachnids, actually.

Thank you Debbie for your help to identify and learn about daddy longlegs.

Check out these two stories by Debbie on daddy longlegs:

What Is a Daddy Longlegs If It’s Not a Spider?
Is a Daddy Longlegs Venomous?

You can follow Debbie Hadley on Twitter @Aboutinsects

I have found that a quick tweet to Debbie with a photo resulted in answers faster than Google!

Thanks Debbie!

Helen Yoest is a garden writer and coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Like Page.

Each week, Helen host’s a garden talk WebTalkRadio.net show called Gardening With Confidence™.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum

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MY GUEST THIS WEEK

Join us as we hear from Danielle Ernest with Proven Winners about new annuals and perennials introduced this year, what we can expect expect for 2011 and where we can buy Proven Winner plants.

Anisodontea ‘Slightly Strawberry’ Trial in Helen’s Haven™ Words like Anisodontea don’t roll off my tongue as well as l would like them too. But Proven Winners has helped with that. Check out their audio to pronounce the Latin names.

I find the naming of new hybrids interesting and often wonder how the process works.  In the absence of first hand knowledge, I envisioned this:  The Fictitious Naming of ‘Pretty Much Picasso.’

TIP OF THE DAY WEEK – Extend your fall season by pruning summer annuals.

As the summer cinders on, some annuals, particularly petunias, will start to look leggy and tired.  Don’t miss the chance to enjoy these blooms well into the fall.

In late summer, many gardeners fall victim of thinking summer is nearly over, so they might as well ignore their tired looking flowers or remove them altogether.  But by doing so you will have a lost opportunity of extended fall pleasure.

There is no reason not to have your annual flowers blooming until first frost.  Revitalize your tired-looking annuals instead by giving a mid-season pruning.

The beginning of August is a great time to trim back annuals. Just trim them back by a third to a half.   Within a week, the trimmed plants will begin to flush out more bushy and fresh looking.

So prune now, and then relax and enjoy the rest of your summer knowing fall will continue to bloom for you.

Helen Yoest is a garden writer and coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Like Page.

Each week, Helen host’s a garden talk WebTalkRadio.net show called Gardening With Confidence™.

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