first week of September

The garden’s third September of its fourth year. The biggest change September brings is this mid level fizzy layer provided mostly by deschampsia, sesleria and Scabiosa ochroleuca that envelopes the plantings in a gauzy champagne scrim. The scabiosa is an energetic reseeder but is easily edited. It finds openings to grow I never could, billows out like low-lying tulle fog, then retreats to a small basal clump in spring.

Lots of yellow confetti continues to be thrown in September by the annual Madia elegans, which closes in sun, and Verbascum roripifolium. The madia leaned into the vacuum left by removal of a large clump of Silver Spike Grass. After briefly considering adding something new in the grass’ place, a small piece of it was resettled — can’t think of anything better! Another clump of this grass may also need dividing in spring, but I couldn’t bear to disturb the status quo by untangling the sanguisorba and others entwined with the grass. I’d like to have some jobs done before leaving end of October but not at the expense of enjoying the fall garden.

Heading east off the patio, a small planting of ‘Hawkshead’ hardy fuchsia, mountain mint, Bergenia ciliata, miscanthus and Calamagrostis brachytricha surprised me by becoming a living embodiment of the cooler weather to come. Lots of rain predicted for September too.

I’m excited about the potential of a shrubby fatshedera found at Secret Garden Growers in spring. ‘Yvonne’s Petticoats’ is described as a 4×4′ shrub. It shot up to 3 feet fast, a worrisome vigor since it was planted too close to the south fence with no room to expand. It was moved last week to give it a better chance to show what it can do. (The bigeneric cross of ivy and fatsia are normally lanky, vine-like creatures. I have one winding around a triangle palm in the SoCal garden.)

And I do need to correct the record that I couldn’t tell much difference among the several persicarias I’m growing this summer. ‘Blackfield’ is a bit later to flower than ‘Summer Dance,’ but the blooms are noticeably darker and tighter, and the entire plant is more finely drawn, the leaves smaller, more tapered.

Gardeners are like judicious goats, constantly nibbling at things — or maybe I should speak only for myself. I’m getting a jump on spring by cutting back a few things, dividing the biggest clump of Silver Spike Grass, pulling euphorbias, verbascum, cerinthe and others from the gravel area for a clean slate until spring brings loads more. Spiders and slugs rule September! More soon, AGO