What to Plant now for a Late Summer Garden Refresh
Late August is one of those funny stretches in the garden when everything feels a little tired. The spring annuals have worked hard and are starting to get leggy and fade, the heat is relentless, and we are all looking ahead to pansies, cabbages, ornamental kale, and that first crisp morning of fall. But we are not there quite yet. This little in-between season is actually a very important time in the garden, and there are a few things you can do right now to keep your landscape looking good and set yourself up for a beautiful fall.
1. Pull the spring color and be honest about it
That petunia that has been hanging on since April is not coming back. Neither is the calibrachoa. Pull it. I know it feels wasteful, but leaving a leggy, half dead plant in a good container is like leaving a stained tablecloth on the table because you paid for it.
Clear the pot out, loosen the soil, top it off with fresh potting mix, and start over. It takes fifteen minutes and it changes the whole front of your house.
2. Water deep and early, and stop fertilizing
When the heat is this brutal, your plants are not growing. They are surviving. Pushing them with fertilizer right now is asking someone to run a mile in August after they have already told you they are tired.
Water in the morning, water deep, and let them coast. Once the temperatures break, we will feed everything and they will take right off.
3. Cut back the leggy perennials for a fall flush
Salvia, lantana, and rudbeckia that have gotten tall and floppy will give you another round of bloom in September and October if you cut them back now. Take them down by about a third. It looks harsh for two weeks and then it looks intentional.
4. Get ahead on the fall list without planting it yet
Order your bulbs. Decide what you want your containers to look like in November. Make the list of what you need. Do the thinking now so when the weather finally turns you are not standing in the garden center at seven on a Saturday morning trying to make decisions.
Because here is the thing about pansies and cabbages: it is still too hot. I know you are seeing them out at the garden centers. I want temperatures consistently in the fifties and sixties before I put them in the ground. Plant them into this heat and they stretch, they get leggy, and they never really settle in. Wait. It is worth it.
5. Stuff and shove in the meantime
This is my favorite trick and it is exactly what it sounds like.
While we are waiting on the cool season stuff, I fill my containers with plants that can take this heat and still look good. Some of it goes in the ground and some of it just gets tucked into the pot in its nursery container and covered up. Nobody knows. Nobody is checking.
Remember the 3 T's: tall, thick, and trailing, planted in a triangle. That formula works whether you are spending forty dollars or four hundred.
Here is what I am pulling from right now. Screenshot both of these lists and take them with you to the garden center so you can remember! That is what they are for.
For the sun
Color and foliage: croton, periwinkle, Persian shield, sun coleus, heuchera, creeping Jenny, alternanthera, ornamental sweet potato vine, dichondra Silver Falls, euphorbia Diamond Mountain
Blooms: rudbeckia, echinacea, marigolds, zinnias, pentas, angelonia, lantana, salvia, gomphrena, celosia
Grasses and texture: carex, purple fountain grass, lemon grass, muhly grass, pennisetum
For the shade
Caladium, bird's nest fern, creeping wire vine, Kimberly Queen fern, autumn fern, holly fern, macho fern, Japanese painted fern, shade coleus, Persian shield, rex begonia, polka dot plant, farfugium, cast iron plant, colocasia, dragon wing begonia, torenia, SunPatiens, Japanese forest grass, creeping Jenny
So if your garden looks a little tired right now, don't worry. Mine does too. This is not the time to force it to perform. Give your plants what they need, clean up what has finished its season, make a plan for fall, and use a few heat-loving plants to carry your containers through these last hot weeks.
Hang in there, y'all. The mornings will start to feel different before you know it, and then we get the good part of the year. Until then, keep watering, keep gardening, and remember that sometimes the smartest thing you can do in the garden is simply wait.