The West Chicago Garden Club

Spring was slow to arrive to the Kruse garden.  So rather than talk of what may be sprouting in the garden let’s look forward and ask some questions.  In August are the sedums flopping in your garden?  Are the groundcovers messy and weed infested?  Are the summer perennials falling and leaning into each other?  Are you so discouraged that you hope for an early frost?  If so we want to share some experimentation we have done at the Kruse garden in pruning, shearing, cutting back for height, longer bloom, and flop prevention.   It is a garden that has to look reasonably nice with a minimum of care.

We can start with a book.  The “Well-Tended Perennial Garden” by Tracy DiSabato-Aust, 1998, is very useful.  It provides a guide as in “should we or shouldn’t we” shear, prune, or cut.  Her motto is “Shear Without Fear”.  It gives impetus.

To start, a lawn mower or string trimmer is wonderful for cutting spent flowers of Ajuga, trimming periwinkle, ivy, winter creeper groundcovers.  It could be done any time in the growing season when the groundcovers are too tall or too weedy. Continue Reading »