Fall Prep

I haven't been up to a whole lot these last few weeks, other than some yard maintenance. And by yard maintenance, I mean vigorously pulling Mexican heather from my rain garden. Those babies have a tendency to take over! And they're obscuring shorter, more attractive plants like my Cahaba lilies and ginger lilies.

After removing 90% of the Mexican Heather

We've had a dry summer which has damaged the woodland ferns in the rain garden. Lucky me! I also plan to dig those out as soon as I'm done with the Mexican heather. Hopefully that will enable my canna lilies to progress as it seems their growth has been stunted the last few years.

Totally Overgrown!

On the hillside, I am going to replace a small island filled with irises and daylilies with another fruit tree. I have my eye on a dwarf pear tree that will fit the space perfectly.

Its a long to-do list with very little time. Hopefully I can get most of this done before we have another cold snap which forces me into hibernation.

Fern-o-rama

Like any good, southern lady [or in my case a lady learning to be southern), I enjoy ferns. Bostons, Kimberly, asparagus, turkey, woodland, bird's nest...I have yet to meet a fern I don't like. Last fall however, I realized I don't like them in my flowerbeds.

 

 

THEY. TAKE. OVER.

A few years ago, I transplanted a few woodland ferns in my rain garden from a vacant lot on my street. They were slow to start but began multiplying rapidly last fall. When the garden went dormant, I dug up as many as I could, only to find they came back this Spring with a vengeance.

I am dutifully digging them up as I don't want them to smother the Crinums, Cahaba Lily, hostas, elephant ears and Louisiana irises. No easy feat as it seems like whenever I pull one up, three others take its place.

As far as ornamentation for my front porch and even my desk at work, they are still the apple of my eye. Pictured below is a bird nest fern in my office.

It seems the moral of this story is that my ferns are best potted.

Lessons From Seasoned Gardeners

Today marks one week since a friend and I visited a church member to help divide Queen Anne & Boston ferns (some of which I got to bring home), and ficus plants. For those of you who've never wrestled out pot bound ferns from tapered pots, no-easy-feat.

Having been devoted to bulbs and seedlings the last last few seasons, I am throughly unaccostomed to treating plants like wayward toddlers. Ferns and ficuses are super resilient. My previous experience watching a Kimberly fern being cut with a reciprocating saw made what we did seem graceful.

The three of us used an axe, butcher knives and a v-shaped weeding tool to rip out and into the ferns with all the fury we could muster. As for the ficuses, 1/2 to 2/3 of the root balls were simply sawed off to regenerate the plants. Who would have thought?!?

That gave me the courage to 'regenerate' my own ficus which was seriously pot bound. The hubby and I lifted it out and I sawed off the bottom half, added fresh soil and repotted it. Done.

I waited a week to post this to make sure everything survived. The ficus is thriving. The Boston ferns had the most body to them, and while a few fronds dropped (I assume from transplant stress), new fronds are coming up. That's always good. They make great additions to the front porch area. The Queen Anne's didn't drop any fronds [surprisingly], but haven't put out any new growth that I can see. They were a bit thin from the start from being so root bound, but the leaves are greening up. For now, they're in the garage. I would express doubt that they will make it, but then I think back to the Kimberly Ferns that are doing so well. I suppose the lesson here is not to doubt someone who is brave enough to take an axe or an electrical tool to a plant.