Itea virginica
Virginia Sweetspire

This native shrub is a great choice for spectacular fall color that rivals the ubiquitous Burning Bush. Fragrant 2- to 6-inch long white flowers bloom in early summer on the ends of arching branches. It is a trouble-free shrub that tolerates heavy shade or full sun, wet or dry soil, and grows 3 to 5 ft. high with a larger spread. Virginia Sweetspire is very effective when planted in a large mass. Plants should be provided with winter protection if temperatures dip below -20 degrees F.

Photo Courtesy Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder

By mid August, many spring- and summer-blooming perennials start to look tired. You can extend the enjoyment of your garden well into September and October by planting ornamental grasses, late-blooming perennials, and trees, shrubs and perennials with colorful fall leaves. Plants with berries and interesting seed heads add winter interest as well.

Great plants that bloom in the fall include Helianthus (Perennial Sunflower), Helenium (Helen’s Flower), Eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed), Tall Sedum, Chelone (Turtlehead), Sweet Autumn Clematis, and Aster. Many plants that start blooming in the summer continue through fall. These include Echinacea (Coneflower), Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan), Nepeta (Catmint), Coreopsis (Tickseed) and Anemone. Deadheading (removing spent flowers) or shearing back these plants encourages continued flowering.

Tall Sedum

The feathery plumes and muted blue and green leaves of ornamental grasses contrast nicely with late-blooming perennials and last well into winter. Vegetables with brightly colored leaves can also add fall interest to the garden. Seeds of leaf lettuce, salad greens, and swiss chard can be sown in August. The interesting textures of carrot, kale, and ornamental cabbage leaves add contrast to the garden as well. These plants do double duty in the garden, first as foliage interest and then harvested for salads.

Perennials with yellow, red, purple, silver, and blue leaves are great additions to the fall garden. Combining fall flowers with fall foliage gives more depth to the garden. Amsonia leaves turn a nice yellow, and the leaves of Lysimachia clethroides turn yellow and red. Some of the Cranesbills (Geranium spp.) have bright red fall leaves. The leaves of shrubs such as Aronia, Cotinus, Itea, and Fothergilla turn the rich autumn colors of red, yellow, and orange. Setting these colorful plants against a background of dark evergreens is a great way to show off the fall foliage in your garden.

Cotinus obovatus autumn leaves

If your garden’s season seems to end in August and you’d like to extend your enjoyment of it, call or e-mail MDI Grows. We can design more fall color into your garden. Your existing plants can be moved or pruned to make space for plants with colorful fall foliage or bold autumn blooms.

Slugs and snails, like deer, will eat any leafy greens if they are hungry enough. Large, irregularly shaped holes in plant leaves and shiny slime trails indicate the presence of slugs or snails. They like leafy vegetables, succulent plant parts, and the tender new foliage of many plants. But there are certain types of plants that slugs and snails avoid. Plants that are hairy, pointy, or thorny could injure them or even kill them. Plants with thick, waxy leaves or strongly scented foliage are also not favored by slugs and snails.

Slug and snail-resistant plants

Astilbe – Astilbe species and cultivars

Beard Tongue – Penstemon species and cultivars

Black-eyed Susan – Rudbeckia species and cultivars

Bleeding Heart – Dicentra species and cultivars

Catmint – Nepeta species and cultivars

Columbine – Aquilegia species and cultivars

Coneflower – Echinacea species and cultivars

Cushion Spurge – Euphorbia species and cultivars

Foxglove – Digitalis species and cultivars

Hardy geranium – Geranium species and cultivars

Hellebore – Helleborus species and cultivars

Heuchera – Heuchera species and cultivars

Jacob’s Ladder – Polemonium species and cultivars

Lady’s Mantle – Alchemilla species and cultivars

Lamb’s Ear – Stachys species and cultivars

Lungwort – Pulmonaria species and cultivars

Masterwort – Astrantia species and cultivars

Meadow Rue – Thalictrum species and cultivars

Meadow Sage – Salvia species and cultivars

Peony – Paeonia species and cultivars

Phlox – species and cultivars

Pincushion Flower – Scabiosa species and cultivars

Spotted Dead Nettle – Lamium species and cultivars

Stonecrop – Sedum species and cultivars

Waxy coated blue-leaved Hostas

Ferns

Ornamental Grasses

Roses

Hydrangea – Hydrangea species and cultivars

Potentilla

Rhododendron

Holly – Ilex

Viburnum species and cultivars

Control of slugs and snails

Slugs are most active at night and in wet weather. Promote good air circulation around plants. Encourage predators. These include birds, frogs and toads.

Water in the morning instead of in the evening so that foliage is dry overnight.

Place saucers or slug traps filled with beer in the garden to trap slugs. Clean them out every day or two and replenish – use cheap beer!

Lure slugs away from the garden by setting out grapefruit and melon rinds in the evening. Dump the slugs into a bucket of soapy water the next morning to kill them.

Set empty flowerpots or milk cartons on their sides in the shade. Dispose of slugs and snails that congregate on them.

Water a small area, away from your garden. Set a wooden board down – elevate it slightly with a rock. Turn it over and dispose of the slugs and snails that have congregated on it overnight.

Use a barrier of pine needles, coffee grounds, crushed eggshells, or diatomaceous earth (not swimming-pool grade) around plants. Reapply after a rain.

Handpick slugs and snails after dark. Wear gloves!

Use thin copper strips (1-3″ wide) wrapped around plant pots and susceptible plants to create a protective barrier. Slugs and snails receive a small shock when they try to cross copper.

Try slug bait containing iron phosphate. Sluggo, Escar-Go, and Worry-Free are three of these products, which are non-toxic to wildlife and pets. Sprinkle the pellets around the areas you want to protect. Don’t use baits containing metaldehyde, a chemical that is toxic to pets, especially dogs and horses.

Dennstaedtia punctilobula
Hayscented Fern

This fern is an excellent groundcover for a wide range of soils, and grows best in part to full shade. With consistent moisture, it will also do well in full sun. Native to the eastern and midwestern United States, it grows 18-24″ high and spreads by rhizomes to form colonies. The lacy, light-green fronds release the scent of fresh mown hay when crushed or bruised, giving the plant its common name.

Osmunda cinnamomea
Cinnamon Fern

Cinnamon ferns are just now unfurling their fronds in our area. They will open up to become 2′ to 3′ tall clumps. With constant moisture, they can reach 5′ in height. Cinnamon ferns, named for their bright cinnamon-colored fertile fronds, grow best in medium to wet, rich, acidic, humusy soils in part shade to full shade. Cinnamon ferns have a dense tuft of small rusty hairs at the base of each pinna, or leaflet, an indentifying feature that helps to distinguish them from their close relative, the Interrupted Fern, Osmunda claytoniana.

An organic approach to lawn maintenance is safe for you, your children, and your pets, protects wildlife, protects and improves the quality of our natural resources, uses fewer fossil fuels, less water, less fertilizer, and saves on maintenance time and costs.

An organic approach to lawn care uses products and soil amendments derived from plants, animals, or minerals. It improves the health of the soil, providing the necessities for a healthy lawn. Organic matter in soil feeds essential microbes, which convert nutrients and minerals into a form that plants can use. The humus created by this process improves the soil structure and increases the water holding capacity of the soil. Healthy soil supports healthy grass. A healthy lawn resists most disease, pests and drought. Read more…

Composting is a great way to get free garden-enriching organic material while reducing the amount of organic matter that goes to landfills. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website, yard trimmings and food residuals together constitute 23 percent of the U.S. municipal solid waste stream. That’s a lot of good stuff going to waste!

Compost added to the garden improves the soil structure. Sandy soils will hold water better and drainage is improved in clay soils. Compost helps to reduce soil compaction, helps the soil to hold nutrients, helps to maintain a neutral pH, and promotes healthy plants that are less susceptible to diseases and insect pests. Earthworms, beneficial soil insects and microorganisms benefit from the nutrients available in compost. Compost supplies micronutrients for plants that are often deficient in garden soil.

There are many ways to turn kitchen scraps and yard and garden waste into soil building compost. The simplest method Read more…

Fothergilla gardenii and Fothergilla major
Dwarf Fothergilla and Large Fothergilla

Fothergilla major showing fall color, at left of photo

Both of these native shrubs produce lightly fragrant white bottle brush-shaped flowers in spring. The trouble-free blue-green leaves turn yellow, orange, and red in the fall and stay on the plants for a long period. The Dwarf Fothergilla grows 2 to 3 ft. high and wide or larger and the Large Fothergilla grows 6-10 ft. high and wide. Both are easy to grow in full sun or light shade, in moist but well-drained organically rich soil. Lovely when massed in a shrub border or native planting.

Hamamelis vernalis – Vernal Witchhazel

This deciduous native shrub will brighten up your winter landscape. It blooms in March in Maine, with strongly fragrant yellow, orange, or red flowers. The variably colored flowers last 3 to 4 weeks. It is native to gravelly or rocky stream banks and prefers moist, rich soil, but will grow in average well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. Suckers, or stem growths from the root of the plant, can be pruned out to maintain a neat appearance. Vernal Witchhazel is a dense, rounded shrub, typically growing 6-10′ tall with a slightly larger spread. The large leaves turn an attractive golden yellow in the fall and the color lasts for two to three weeks.

What is a native plant?

“Native plants are species that either arrived in Maine without human intervention, perhaps thousands of years ago, or originated here. These species of trees, shrubs and wildflowers have evolved over time and developed complex interdependent relationships with other organisms. They are generally better able to meet the needs of regional wildlife species, including butterflies, better adapted to regional growing conditions and easier to maintain than non-native plants.” -University of Maine Cooperative Extension Bulletin #2500.

Why plant natives?

What do you like best about Maine? Is your answer “the coast,” or “the mountains,” or anything related to the natural landscape? The diverse landscapes – rocky coasts with stands of fir and spruce, woodlands of evergreen and deciduous trees, mountains, blueberry fields, rolling farmland, beaches, lakes, rivers – make Maine a special place to live in or visit. Using native plants in your landscape helps to preserve this “sense of place,” this unique quality that sets Maine apart from the homogeneity of many suburban areas in the United States. Read more…