As we move into the first day of Autumn, here in the Pacific Northwest we are being blasted with a final reminder of this Summer’s record heat. Thankfully, we only had a few short waves of high heat that were followed each time by cooler marine air throughout the summer. We did achieve record high temperatures while many other areas of the country experienced record low summer high temps.
Golden Autumn color of Ginkgo biloba 'Mariken'
In whatever region of the country you live, I hope you had a successful gardening season. The early scalding heat did lightly sunburn a few of my more sensitive conifers, but in all, my garden looks very good and I did not sense the need to run my irrigation system. Low water usage is a definite advantage to the established conifer garden. While it is important to closely monitor any garden plant the first few years, here in the northwest, as the conifer garden matures, it simply needs less additional irrigation.
During these early days of Autumn, I’ll be doing some garden bed cleanup and I plan to spend time planting a new bed of conifers. My wife and I have grown tired of a bed of very old, very large shrubs whose only appeal is a couple weeks of flowers in spring. So, out come the big bushes and a new conifer bed will be born.
Enjoy the new season!
Ed-
Conifer Lover
