Plant of the Week to Eradicate
The Burning Bush is SO not the plant of the week. Pictured below, it has so much fall beauty that it is actually still sold in some nurseries. If you were to see it in a nursery, far be it from me to recommend strident indignation, but if you would politely (kindly, even) inform the buyer (perhaps leave a note for him or her if some wide-eyed cashier, definitely hired for retail skills instead of horticultural prowess, gives you no hope of comprehension) that the Euonymus alatus is an alien invasive that is taking over native plant habitats.
Such a beautiful no no! The Burning Bush won’t be able to hide in your yard at this time of year. Seek and destroy. Please.
Plant of the Week to Celebrate
On the other hand, Acer saccharum ‘Bailsta’ Fall Fiesta, would be more of a ‘seek and procure’ plant. It has amazing fall colors of yellow, orange, AND red. Native to the northeastern U.S., these well-formed, fast-growing trees are what drives peepers to book the B&Bs a year in advance. Choose a place in your yard carefully, as it grows to 50 feet.
Gorgeous.
Guest
Erin Schanen the Impatient Gardener lives in southeastern Wisconsin, and she has a wonderful garden blog. She is very knowledgeable and shares garden goodness on Facebook, Instagram, and her YouTube videos. Erin and I had a wide-ranging chat from garden styles to native plant theories—she sort of sees it the same way I do: any plants at all (well, maybe not alien invasives) are better than just a lawn. But she doesn’t seem to suffer from guilt like I do, which would be much more freeing. I need to look into that.
She plants tons of natives, though, and recently designed a naturalistic garden that she described for us in pretty good detail on the pod. Here’s a recent YouTube that she posted about augmenting the garden with spring bulbs. She thinks she planted too many. I think you can never plant too many, so our slightly guilty complexes are reversed on this topic.
One of the many things I loved about talking with Erin was her great attitude. No stuffiness, no rules—just experimentation, learning, fails, and fun. Here’s an example: a video entitled Four Plants that Look Terrible in my Garden Right Now.
The Play List
Divide a perennial: Shovel it up and slice it into 2-3 pieces using your soil knife or your shovel. If it’s really recalcitrant, jump pogo style on the shovel. Re-plant a third and spread the other bits around. Remember, big groups of plants are often more attractive than the polka dot look.
Plant a tree: Small is good, not only for the patient and thrifty gardener, but for the health of the tree. Dig a hole 2-3 times as wide as the roots but no deeper, and make sure there are no roots wrapped around the trunk that would strangle it later. If it’s Ball and Burlap, remove the twine, remove the wire, and remove as much of the burlap as you can. Planting a tiny bit too high (it will settle) is always better than too low. The tree needs to breathe where the trunk flares out.
Plant some bulbs: Check out last week’s blog and pod for more.
Use your compost: Not so much, right now… I mean you could, but with all that free top dressing falling out of the trees, you may just want to let it sit and cook a while.
Drain and store your hoses: do you think that including this in the list for several weeks now will FINALLY inspire me to do that? Fingers crossed.
Listen
Simply classic: Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s Autumn in New York.
And Autumn in Charlottesville isn’t too shabby.