Read a book or keep a journal to improve your garden design and green-thumb skills

The third of October is a time to evaluate what did well and what did not in your garden. If you don’t keep a garden journal (I am guilty, but every year I say I will do better) then use your phone to record images of your garden over the seasons.

This year I remembered to snap an image of floppy petunias that spilled out over the edge of a bed into the lawn, making it difficult to mow. No more floppy plants will go in that narrow bed. I also tried cutting back my Alchemilla, or lady’s mantle, as soon as it was done flowering to prevent reseeding all over the garden and to get rid of the untidy foliage that appears in mid-summer. I loved the results: This month my patch of lady’s mantle has fresh new foliage rather than the rusty brown leaves I was stuck with in years past.

My other partial garden success was cutting back my white delphiniums all the way to the ground in late July after the first flush of blooms. One plant put on healthy new growth for a second wave of perfect white flowering spires to command attention in the autumn garden. For some reason a second delphinium plant in the same bed objected to being cut to the ground after flowering and instead offered some feeble new growth but no encore of majestic flowering spikes.

Gardening is an adventure and an experiment so continue to try new plants and new methods. You don’t have to write a book, but a few notes and photo sessions will keep you growing.

New ideas for new plants from a new book

Speaking of books, fall is a good time to add to your garden library and this year the much anticipated book by local author and national garden celebrity Dan Hinkley is available and ready to order: “Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants and Gardens.”

This beautiful hardcover book from Timber Press sells for $35 but is a dirt cheap way to travel the world as an armchair explorer and designer and is a book that will inspire experimentation and new planting ideas.

The book tells the story of how Hinkley created his wind-blown, cliff-side home garden near Bainbridge Island, but the garden story is told with a sentimental twist that shares the history of the people that inspired the plantings as well as the plants themselves.

Locals will love the name dropping of such places like Heronswood, the author’s original garden, but also his rise into the world of horticultural rock stars via the University of Washington, Edmonds Community College and the Bloedel Reserve. Western Washington served as the launching pad for the author to become an international plant hunter and world explorer.

If you want to add unusual but locally tested new plants, then keep a notepad handy as the Latin plant names come fast and furious in this book. There are also visibly arresting photos by Claire Takacs that if they don’t wet your whistle for plant hunting will for sure feed an appetite for novel planting ideas.

Experienced gardeners will pick up tips on propagation, design and planting and I found myself laughing out loud at some of Hinkley’s wry observations on a life well-lived amidst other horti-holics who can’t stop growing, breeding and trading plants.

Dog lovers will nod approval at the many mentions of gardening with pets, but most important of all, this book offers a sweet escape. There is no talk of COVID-19, masks or isolation — except for the plant material that goes into quarantine. Although plenty of plants die, the success stories are what make a garden and these stories of people, plants and gardens have beautiful endings.

Another book to check out is Page Dickey’s “Uprooted: A Gardener Reflects on Beginning Again.”

What happens when you leave a much-celebrated garden after 34 years and start again? You start again but with a different way of looking at the gardening process.

Dickey leaves her large and rather high-maintenance formal garden in New York for a wilder experience on 17 acres in rural Connecticut. This second time around, Dickey and her husband make the choice to embrace the wildness as they create a much larger landscape with much less work. This is another photo-rich book from Timber Press that tells the story of creating a garden with all the challenges of a large site, but the message here is to let wild enough alone and let Mother Nature control the big picture.

The lesson I learned is that some plants just look more formal (boxwood hedges, hybrid roses and highly bred perennials) while others are close relatives of the wild natives and can be added to the natural areas of a place to enhance a natural look. Native plant names are shared generously as the author learns about what grows in her acres of meadows and woods and how the birds and other wildlife (she has bear and deer that wander the farm) enhance the “garden” design.

If you think it is impractical for two seniors to move to an old farmhouse and create a beautiful garden outside their windows, plus provide for wildlife and native flora, then this is the book that will show you how practical the natural gardening movement can be.

Change can be good, moving to a larger place with woods and meadows can be better, and people and plants that are uprooted can thrive in a new home. There are a lot of plant images, plant names and planting ideas in this book, but most of all, the author shows a lot of courage.

Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of several books. Reach her at binettigarden.com.

This story was originally published October 17, 2020 at 5:45 AM.