Give your garden a late summer trim

Clip off any broken stems and spent flowers to make way for fall splendor.

- by Debra Anchors

Fairy Roses and Lavender

August is the perfect time to renew the garden. If you give beds and borders some extra attention in late summer, the garden will come back to life and carry on well into fall.  Begin the important task by sprucing up perennials that have finished blooming.  Cut back all the straggly flowering stems clear to the base of the plant.

Remove all the dried seedpods of daylilies and iris, being careful to prune the woody stems all the way down for a tidy appearance.  Then gather up your courage and cut back any tattered foliage that makes your garden look over the hill.  Particularly in a dry summer, daylilies, iris, cranesbills, lady’s mantle, speedwell and even astilbes take on a decrepit look that won’t improve without this kind of radical action.


Mulch around the newly groomed plants with compost or well-rotted manure, and water them well.

Fill in the blanks – Make some notes about which areas are now vacant before the foliage grows back; these are ideal spaces to plant bulbs in the fall.  Next spring you’ll have drifts of color between perennials before they leaf out fully; and by the time your daffodils and tulips have finished blooming and their leaves have turned yellow, the perennial foliage will expand to cover the spent plants.

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Leave a legacy, but garden like you’ll live forever! 
-Debra

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