Fall 2005: A Season in the Garden
· Escape Garden Design, Aspen, Colorado
Fall is the season of putting things right and putting things away, with one eye always on the first freeze.
Spring bulbs go in now, tucked where they will be seen from a window come March, which is when they will be needed most.
It is also the best planting season of the year. The soil is still warm, the air is cool, and trees and divided perennials get a quiet head start before the ground locks up. A tree planted in fall is ahead of one planted next spring.
This is when we put the gardens to bed: cutting back what needs it, leaving seed heads and grasses for the birds and for winter interest, blowing out the irrigation, and shutting down the water features before a freeze can crack a line.
We also spent time this season on the everyday craft of the garden. The cheapest way to fill a garden is to divide the plants you already have, and most perennials are happy to be split every few years. When a clump gets crowded, flops open in the middle, or blooms less than it used to, it is asking to be divided. Dig the whole clump, split it into sections each with roots and shoots, and replant promptly with a good drink of water.
Drain and winterize anything that holds water before the first hard freeze, and do not let a warm spell lull you into waiting too long.
Our soil is mostly alkaline clay, the air is thin and dry, and the sun is strong, so the plants that last are the ones that have made peace with all three.
We take on only a handful of gardens each year, which is the only way to give a place like this the attention it asks for.
More than anything, a garden up here rewards patience: it takes a season or two longer to settle than people expect, then looks like it was always there.
We design, build, and maintain our own gardens, so we live with the results for years and learn from them.
The land around us is the best teacher there is, and the gardens we like best borrow from the hillsides more than from any catalog.
Everything in this valley runs on the same short calendar, and the gardens that thrive are the ones designed around it rather than against it.
More when the season changes. As ever, ask if you want a hand with your own piece of the valley.