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By Andy Crossland, ACMG You have pruned, fertilized, watered, sprayed, and weeded since spring. Your efforts have been rewarded with blossoms that no artist can do justice. Most gardeners “do not go easily into that dark night” of winter but try to prolong the growing season. Do your neighbors look out the window to see what that “crazy gardener next door” is doing in the yard covering the plants on the first few nights that frost is predicted? Eventually we all give in to the futility of trying to keep winter at bay. We need a rest, and so do our roses. If we do not want to treat our roses as annuals, we have some work to do before we settle down with the catalogs that bring dreams of next year’s triumphs. Just as we deadhead to prevent the rose from setting hips (seeds) we can now send a…

– By Steve Pettis Turning one’s yard into a suitable habitat for birds requires designing landscapes that provide birds with their five essential needs: food, shelter, water, cover, and nesting sites. Birdscaping is a term used to describe the act of creating suitable habitat for avian species through landscaping. By planning landscape designs with birds in mind, gardeners can provide birds with the things they need to survive and birds can provide  gardeners with hours of enjoyment. Planning a landscape that is suitable for birds is easy. Start by sketching the existing landscape. Make note of all structures, plantings, and topographical features. Make notes on your drawing of the plants to leave, to remove, or add keeping in mind that birds like edges such as forest and planting borders. Choose areas to plant trees and shrubs that birds can utilize. Mix in plantings of annuals and perennials that flower throughout…

PRESIDENT’S CORNER – By Debbie Bush Hello all! As I write this message to you, I’m looking at my beautiful sugar maple in all its fall glory thinking that the drought has taught me a few good lessons – I have been heavy handed with watering. My sasanquas are stunning and the japonicas are loaded with buds. My flowering trees and rhodies were magnificent this spring. Another lesson is that boxwoods are worth their weight in gold. I should have learned that when I visited George Washington’s Mt Vernon and saw his original boxwood plantings flourishing but it took a drought for me to have my “ah-ha” moment.  Boxwood’s are now my favorite plant to buy. But not all is good, I’m sad that the drought has taken a toll on my ground covers. I remember my Great-Grandmothers’ Grandmother’s and Mother’s gardens as a child and the joy of spending…