After this exceptionally hot, dry summer, I’m looking forward to the rainy, cool days of fall. But before everything goes dormant for winter here in the Up North, we still have one or two good months to do a little more gardening.
Yup, late summer/early fall is a great time to add to your microprairie.
Cooler weather.
From around late August on—at least here in Minnesota—you can count on the weather getting cooler as the days get shorter. But is there enough time for them to settle in before the first frost hits and knocks them down for winter?
There sure is. Instead of the weather going from cooler to warmer, it’s going from warmer to cooler at this time of year, which means a lot less stress on plants that are trying to get themselves established in their new landscape. That in turn means a better survival rate and less need to hover over them with a watering can.
Also, unlike in spring, when the soil is cold and soggy from melted snow, in late summer the soil is already warmed up. That gives plants a head start in growing the roots they’ll need to survive winter.
Sales!
The other great reason to add to your garden now is that plants are on sale. Garden centers want to clear out their inventory so they can make room for next spring’s plants and so they don’t have to toss any stragglers left behind. They would much rather send these plants to a good home than to the compost pile. That means you can find discounts that range from good to awesome. The sedges I planted last week I picked up for half off a few days earlier.
Planning comes first.
But some things to keep in mind, too. Just like with a red tag sale at Target, when you see a great deal on a plant, stop and think first, “Where am I going to put it?” Do a little planning before you head to the garden center, and go with a list of specific things you want for filling out your microprairie. That way you won’t get home with a whole bunch of orphans that you then have to shoehorn in, creating an uncomfortably crowded garden.
And like I recommended in the spring, when you get your new plants home, set them out in your garden while they’re still in their pots so you can see if where you wanted to put them will work. Once you see how much space a plant actually takes up, you may want to rearrange things a little. And keep in mind that your plants will get bigger.
Planting.
Once you know where your new additions to your microprairie will go, plant them the same way you did in the spring. Dig the hole and check its depth. When you take the plant out of its pot, though, it’s probably going to be a lot more rootbound than the ones you unpotted in the spring since it’s been growing in that container all summer. So it’s extra important that you somehow slice through that wall of roots that forms between the soil and the edge of the pot, especially on the bottom. If you don’t, those roots will continue to grow around and around, as if it’s still in a container, instead of spreading out. You can even pull some of those roots off. I toss them in the planting hole for compost and to keep the soil loose under the new plant.
Moving on.
Now is a good time to move plants around, too. Sometimes at the end of the summer, you’ll discover that a plant got put in the wrong place back in the spring. Back then, the trees weren’t leafed out all the way, and the sun wasn’t as high in the sky as it is in mid summer, so might you notice now that a shade-loving plant is getting too much sun or vice versa with a sun-loving plant.
Same thing with plants in terms of size. I could tell that the swamp milkweed I bought back in May was already a couple years old when I got it, which meant it had a head start on the other milkweeds in the milkweed garden, but even though I checked on how big they could get, I didn’t anticipate five feet tall and four feet wide! It towers over everything else. I don’t think I want to move it (or even could), so I may have to move some of the other milkweeds that live in its shadow. Otherwise, they’ll all crowd into each other too much when they get to full size.
Lift plants carefully.
Whether they’re new plants or ones you just moved, digging plants up and putting them someplace else is a shock. The trick is to minimize that shock.
If you’re digging up a plant to move, depending on how long it’s been there, be sure that you dig around it in a wide enough radius to get most of the roots. If the plant has been there a while, it could have a pretty substantial root system. The more roots you take with it, the less shock the plant will experience. If it’s a plant you just planted this spring and it’s still fairly small, it shouldn’t be too hard. If it’s an established plant and it has a taproot, be sure to dig down a ways to get as much of that taproot as possible.
Some plants are fussier about being moved than others. False indigo (Baptisia) spends its first few years establishing a pretty sizable taproot before you see much if any action above ground, which makes them difficult to move without damaging them after the first year or so. They pretty much have to stay where they are.
Hostas, on the other hand, are the ultimate in portability. I know they’re not natives, but they’re a good example: they’re exceptionally easy to dig up, divide and share, and face it, you can’t kill a hosta, which is probably a lot of why they’ve become so popular.
Keep them watered.
Check your new plants or moved plants every day to make sure they’re not getting too dried out, especially if you’re having a hot spell and/or you’re not getting rain. Stick you finger down in the dirt—if it’s dry a half inch to an inch down, give the plant some water. Those new roots need to be kept damp (but not soggy) early on until they get a chance to get established. And keep your soil type in mind: if you have sandy soil and it’s hot out, you may have to check the watering situation twice a day.
Don’t expect much.
Your new plants will probably get some new growth but not a lot before they start getting the signal to shut down for winter. Therefore, now is not the time to feed your new plants. It’s too easy for tender new growth to be damaged by frost. Besides, encouraging too much new growth right after a move just stresses them out further. Get the plants ready for bed with some nice, well-aged compost to tuck them into.
Try seeds.
Now can be a good time to plant seeds! Many prairie plants’ seeds require stratification. That means the seeds need a period of cold dormancy before they’ll germinate. The period of cold, then the warmup, signal to the seed that winter has passed and it’s time to start growing. If you want to start your prairie plants from seed, check the growing instructions and see if the seeds require stratification.
Sowing seeds directly in the ground is a lot less expensive if you’re trying to establish a microprairie over a larger area, like a meadow or a big garden, but seeds also have a much lower success rate than starting with plants. If you want to start your seeds indoors in the late winter under more controlled conditions, you can mimic stratification by putting the seeds between layers of damp paper towels, putting those in a plastic bag, and putting it all in the fridge for a set period of weeks (you can look up the stratification period for specific seeds online), before planting them in the garden.
Don’t wait too long.
Around here, winter has a way of showing up (or not showing up) when you least expect it, so don’t wait around too long to do your late-summer planting. Next spring you’ll have a fuller garden and more flowers for your pollinators to enjoy.