Welcome back to our garden in Zone 6A, Upstate New Yorkâwhere the weather does not care about your filming schedule and fall gardening happens whether youâre ready or not.
Todayâs project is a major seasonal transition around our pondless waterfall. Weâre pulling out annuals, evaluating what actually performed well, transplanting shrubs, and reworking the design to set this space up for long-term success. Itâs rainy, muddy, and very much real lifeâwhich pretty much sums up fall gardening when you work full-time jobs and garden on weekends.
Fall is one of our favorite times to garden because it forces honesty. When you pull plants out of the ground, you really see what workedâand what just looked good in theory.
We pulled everything around the pond, including:
By the end, it was officially a naked pondâand honestly, we love the breathing room.
This was a season-long comparison:
đ If you want control, go sterile. If you want a self-sustaining pollinator party, let it reseed.
We tried Sweet CarolineÂź âSweetheart Shadow Stormâ, and wowâthose roots were no joke.
Our take:
â 9/10 for performance (would be a 10 if it filled in faster)
One quick reminder: fall is when weeds really set their roots. Pulling them now saves you a lot of work in spring. If you see themâdeal with them.
This was the first full season with this pondless waterfall, and we learned a lot.
Sometimes âmore is moreâ just⊠isnât.
We made a big decision up top:
đ Dog hobble out, Oakleaf hydrangea in.
This dwarf variety stays around 3×3 feet, so it can arch gently over the waterfall without crowding the fence.
Weâre intentionally moving toward a cleaner, more monoculture look hereâand it already feels calmer.
Between the moisture from the pond and the dense planting, this space became a critter hotel this season. Frogs? Great. Hawks and owls? Welcome. Legless surprises? Hard pass.
Removing dense annuals helps:
(If you have humane legless-critter deterrents, drop them in the commentsâweâre listening.)
Fall gardening isnât about instant gratification. Itâs about:
We didnât add fertilizer.
We didnât baby anything.
We worked with the weather we had.
Thatâs real Zone 6A gardening.
If you want to see how this area evolved from a limelight hydrangea hedge â blank slate â mixed border, be sure to check out the related video linked here.
Thanks for growing with us đż
-Eric + Christopher, Grow for Me Gardening
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