Fantastic Fall Tips

This week while I am busy digging around in my stash closet, we have a wonderful
article from Susan Radke, the owner of Seranya Studios Art Boutique and awesome
landscape artist.


Fall is often a dreaded time for gardeners. The feeling of winter rushing in upon us as we
watch our beloved flowers fade can be a trying time. It is also a time when yard and garden warriors can feel a bit......well, worn out. The thought of putting away the patio furniture is daunting enough, let alone all that cutting back and fall clean-up.
Personally, I have chosen a simple approach to my fall gardening. I love to have time to enjoy the fall colors, walk in the crunch leaves, and the chance to wear my favorite sweaters without needing a bulky winter coat is delightful to me. I'd like to share a few things you might
consider to make your fall yard and garden chores a bit less daunting.
First-make a note of this for next year's growing season if you're not already doing it. Select some of your plants (Echinacea purpurea aka Purple Coneflower is a perfect candidate) to prune before flowering to delay blooming. You can extend your bloom time on Purple Cone
flower well into September and October by cutting them back by one-half in early June or when they are about 2 1/2 tall. Then you'll have those wonderful "cones" to leave up to catch the snow and feed the finches. You may wish to do this with a portion of your planting so you can enjoy the long bloom period or stagger the blooming in your garden.
Next-you don't have to cut everything down. Unless you are one who loves the pristine look of uninterrupted snow, leaving sturdy perennials up for winter creates wonderful winter interest and provided food for birds too. I like to leave almost everything up though some plants don't always look so great. It saves me a lot of time. There are some plants that always need to be cut down (like bearded Iris to eliminate some of the threat of iris borer), but some are so lovely when touched with snow or even ice. Experiment to find out which ones are your winter favorites. A few great candidates for winter interest include:
.Sedum 'Autumn Joy' and similar sedums
.Echinacea Purpurea- Purple Cone Flower
.Solidago (Goldenrod) hybrids
.Rose Hips-let some of your roses produce hips (seed pods) starting in August rather than cut  them all off. This works great with your shrub roses and many have lovely color
.Gateway Joe Pye Weed has seed heads that look great in early winter and later provide covering for birds are they break down in later winter.
.Bigroot Geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum) gets great fall color and is semi-evergreen-so don't cut those leaves off. Just clean up any brown leaves in early spring
.Ornamental grasses-many have strong flower stems which hold up well. It is delightful to see the birds perching on these as they sway in winter breezes, and they provide great nesting material in the spring
.Hardy mums-generally they aren't the greatest looking winter interest plant, but they seem to overwinter better when they have their stems in tact through the winter
Don't touch your lavender? Avoid heavy pruning after late August and wait until new growth breaks in spring (which can be very late-be sure to be patient with your lavender)
Liatris spicata (Gayfeather)-particularly shorter varieties are very attractive with fluffy seedheads on red-tinted stems. Birds like them too.
Don't rush to cover or mulch over you more tender plants. It is less important to keep the plants warm than to keep the ground frozen. Especially around your shallow rooted perennials such as coral bells. Let the ground freeze (often around Thanksgiving time) and then lay your pine boughs or other covering over pachysandra, coral bells, etc. This keeps them from heaving out of the ground during thaw cycles in midwinter.
Cut shrub roses back in spring rather than fall. Hardy shrub roses don't need to be covered like tea roses so they're the ones prefer to grow. Leave them up and cut back to new growth in the spring. This way you can also enjoy those beautiful rose hips that you chose to grow too. Most of us know these days to keep our lawns longer --2-3 1/2" during the summer .
But fall is time to gradually bring the grass down to about 2 - 2 1/2". This will reduce the space available for moles to make runs under the snow in your lawn. Fall is also a good time to fertilize for strong root growth, and if it has been awhile since you have aerated your lawn --consider having that done in October. Leaving the cores on your lawn allows them to decompose over winter. They will disappear by spring allowing the soil and plant material to put the nutrients right back into your lawn even while allowing oxygen to penetrate and revitalize your grass.
Leaves, leaves, leaves! Nature's woodland fertilizer. If you have leaves that fall into your plant beds and they are not too thick-consider letting them stay. They will decompose over the winter and in early spring you can gently cultivate them into the soil around your plants and trees. Getting them off the lawn is easier when they are dry-use your mulching mower with it's bag attachment. Then, use those shredded leaves as mulch or top=dressing in your flower and veggie gardens, adding excellent organic material to your soil.
Bottom line?  Give yourself permission to let your fall be  little less stressed by letting nature do a little more, and you doing a little less.  You'll not only be providing your body with a little respite, you'll be providing food and shelter for your beautiful winter birds.
Thank you so much Susan, for your insights--we appreciate them and gosh, with all that extra time you might take a class at Seranya Studios Art Boutique, or spend an afternoon there enjoying all the wonderful Art.


Stay tuned.

Change of Seasons, Change of Mood

Are you like I am and dearly love the change of seasons? It seems each time the change begins, one gets a feeling of "starting over fresh". Who wants to wait until the end of the year to change, when you can have a new change four times a year. Do you find you do different things and eat different foods when the weather changes?
I am not sure what that says about a person, but I remember one winter that I spent five months in Florida away from the Wisconsin winter. Now, anyone that survives a Wisconsin winter would think that sounds quite close to heaven, but as day after day of being the same, I found that I craved the change.  While in Florida the days seemed to run into each other
and there wasn't a chance to rejuvenate and look forward to something else.
Probably that speaks to my soul because I am a "scanner". Now one might ask, what is a scanner? Just having reread the book  "Refuse to Choose", by Barbara Sher, it comes full circle again in knowing why the changes are so important to some people.
The joy of life is in the discovering, learning and doing a new project or experiencing a new adventure. One is always searching for that new wisdom. They have an on-line book club to join if one wishes to locate and connect with other people who have read that particular book and want to find like minds. Sounds like an awesome thing to do, but I know once I commit to it, I will want to read and discover something else.
So, once again as the leaves are just beginning to explode in their change of brilliance, my
mind wonders, what can I learn next? Boredom is never a worry here.
Do you have rituals with the changes, finding yourself wanting to rearrange all the furniture, buy new books, take a new class, or just find a new hobby?
Oh my, then after one finds that new hobby and acquires all the new equipment needed, where does one find space for that? When you go into your "stash" closet do all of your old adventures that were put aside for another time look sad and rejected?
So many things and so little time--better get to figuring out how to rearrange all of this.
Meanwhile, why don't you plan to stop in at Seranya Studios Art Boutique and see the
results of all of the wonderful examples of the work of a "scanner".


Stay tuned.

Blogging Brain

My blogging brain has burst a bubble and everything in it has
spilled out.
After days of cleaning out my studio, nothing is left, there is
no doubt.
When walking in this morning, I could plainly see, it felt too neat
Could this possibly be my same old retreat?
Don't worry, no fear, it won't be long
before I once again belong.
So that is it for this weeks ditty
There is no more--oh what a pity.
I will return in time, sweet time
But for now I am done with this stupid rhyme.


Have a great weekend everyone.
Anyone want to take a guess on how long the studio will remain
clean?


Stay tuned.

Calling all creative vibes-------------------

The other day one of the contributing artists from Seranya Studios Art Boutique sent an email regarding the 10 things not to say to an artist.  Let's have some fun with this and give our "tongue in cheek" replies. Perhaps we can compile the greatest answers ever to 

these questions.

Ok, I put my "Sassy Pants" on and this is what I came up with--what say you?

10. I'll just get my friend to make me one of those.
    What a wonderful friend, can I meet them?
 9. You know what you should make?
    Yes, actually I do and I will start on that just as soon as I accomplish everyting I have set out to do.
 8. Do I get a price break if I buy two?
    That is an interesting concept.
 7. I can make that myself.
    Wow, that is great, what process do you use?
 6. Why does it cost so much?
    Now why would you ask that?
 5. How do you make this?
    Well, it all started with a thought and then I had to learn to--blah, blah, blah, blah and on and on.
 4. Will you donate your artwork to our event? We can't pay you but it will increase your visibility.
    Perhaps if your event could do a raffle on this art, it might be a consideration.
 3. My nine year old makes this kind of stuff too.
    Wonderful, he/she must be very talented. And then you move to your next client.
 2. Kids, this is what happens if you don't go to college.
    What happens is you get to live a wonderful life as an artist--oh, and by the way, I graduated cum laude from (insert the name of your own college here)
 1. I can buy that at Walmart for $3.99.
    Boy, you must have the upscale version of that store where everything is made in China.

These are just answers that popped into my head while reading the list. I am sure that you can co better than I did. Maybe we can compile the best answers so next time we are confronted with these questions, we will have the perfect answers.
Comment with your answers and then stay tuned for the best of the best.

Stay tuned