Welcome to our zone 6A upstate New York garden in mid-September, where summer's peak has given way to autumn's planning season. This is one of our favorite times for garden walks because we're not just admiring what's beautiful right now - we're also sharing our upcoming plans for garden bed expansions, new evergreen installations, and the perennial changes that will shape next year's garden.

West Border: Young Plantings Finding Their Rhythm

Our west border, installed just this past May, continues to surprise us with how quickly it feels established. Sometimes the newest garden areas can look awkward for years, but this space has settled in beautifully thanks to strategic annual plantings that fill space while we wait for permanent installations to mature.

The star performer this season has been our Pickety Pink Gaura, creating this incredible textural cloud that we never expected from an annual. We planted it specifically to provide interest while waiting for our new Midnight Blue Caryopteris to start its late summer flowering show. Now that the Caryopteris is blooming with this beautiful color we've never grown before, we can see how well this timing worked out.

Learning moment: the African daisies are clearly on their way out, and our Super Tunia Mini Vista Indigo is showing that characteristic interior breakdown that happens this time of year. It's still providing color, but we can see the season's end approaching.

The Reality of Drought Stress

This summer has been exceptionally dry - we went from being six inches ahead of normal rainfall at the end of May to sitting under two inches for the entire season. We can count maybe two significant rainstorms. This drought has taught us valuable lessons about our garden's microclimates and which plants truly need supplemental watering.

Our back berm, the only garden space without drip irrigation, shows the clearest evidence of this stress. The Arctic Red dogwoods we planted in the lowest, supposedly wettest part of the garden are already dropping leaves and turning bright red from drought stress. The irony? They're doing exactly what we want them to do color-wise, just months earlier than expected.

Even our Limelight Prime hydrangea, typically a drought-tolerant performer, is showing tiny flowers and sparse foliage without irrigation support. If your hydrangeas look similarly stressed right now, inadequate water is likely the culprit.

Major Infrastructure and Design Changes Coming

Expanding the Back Berm

The drought has shown us exactly where we need to extend our drip irrigation system. We're planning to bring the back berm edge out by at least a foot, which will allow us to move some drought-stressed Amsonia forward into better conditions and add a drip line across the entire back section.

This expansion will reshape the natural curve of the bed, moving from an inward curve to a more generous outward sweep that gives us an additional four to five feet of planting space.

Removing What Isn't Working

Sometimes the best garden decision is admitting something isn't right for the space. Our Purple Pillar Rose of Sharon has grown beautifully and has a waiting home with a friend who will appreciate its mature size, but it's simply not right for this location. The structure conflicts with our Illumia Mock Orange, the bloom time doesn't enhance our garden's seasonal flow, and honestly, we just don't love it enough to keep it.

The solution? We have plans for a completely different plant with weeping structure and dark foliage that will complement rather than compete with our existing plantings. Sometimes "I don't like it" is reason enough to make a change.

Container Lessons: The Power of Consistent Water

Our container trials this season have provided fascinating insights into how water consistency affects plant performance. The most striking example? Our Plum Dandy Alternanthera, which shows completely different coloration between our front and back containers.

In the front containers with less consistent watering, the foliage remained olive green. In the back containers with steady irrigation, the same variety developed this incredible reddish burgundy coloration. Same soil, same fertilization, same variety - the only difference was water consistency.

This discovery reinforces that container gardening success depends heavily on irrigation planning, not just plant selection.

Late Summer Stars Coming Into Their Own

Mid-September is when certain plants truly shine. Our Prairie Princess Vernonia is finally coming into its prime with that gorgeous compact habit and olive green strappy foliage we love. The timing couldn't be better, as it's now providing color exactly when many summer performers are winding down.

The Fall in Love Sweetly anemone is beginning its show - for us, this perennial is absolutely necessary in the fall garden. Paired with our Roald Dahl rose and Dressed Up Evening Gown hosta, it creates one of our favorite late-season combinations.

Planning for Plant Vigor Matching

This season has reinforced our understanding of plant vigor compatibility. Our Cool Jazz SuperTunia Vista is performing as expected - as a "mega plant" that requires equally vigorous companions. When we initially tried pairing lower-vigor plants with high-vigor selections like SuperTunia Pink Cashmere (a vigor rating of 4), the results were predictably lopsided.

The lesson? Match vigor levels intentionally. If you're using Vista-series petunias or similar high-vigor annuals, pair them with other plants rated for aggressive growth, like Rockin' Playin' the Blues salvia.

Hydrangea Room Progress

Our hydrangea hedge experiment continues to evolve beautifully. The back row has caught up height-wise with the front row, and we can see them beginning to meld together as envisioned. The next phase involves bringing the edge out by 16 inches and installing our Gem boxwood hedge in front to create that formal structure we're after.

The Let's Dance Sky View hydrangeas have been such a success that we're expanding with more varieties from this series, including the new Let's Dance Blue Jangle - a compact macrophylla variety that will help us compare performance across the collection.

Embracing Seasonal Transitions

Fall garden walks remind us that gardening is as much about accepting change as it is about encouraging growth. Our Vanilla Strawberry hydrangea is flopping spectacularly from recent rains, but those enormous panicles are exactly why we love this variety. Sometimes the most beautiful things in the garden require a bit of staking or strategic placement.

Similarly, our Winecraft Gold Smoke Bush has fallen so completely in love with our site that it's reached four to six times its tagged size. The solution? We're planning to coppice it completely to the ground next spring and watch it regenerate with that gorgeous vivid foliage we originally planted it for.

The Art of Garden Evolution

What strikes us most during these mid-September walks is how much a garden teaches you about itself over time. Areas we thought would be moist stay surprisingly dry. Plants we expected to stay compact become architectural features. Combinations we planned on paper work differently in real life.

Our meadow sage (Salvia 'Sky Bumble') has spread backward into areas with more sun than we initially realized were getting, showing us that our shade assessments may need updating. Our Ice Dragon Japanese maple is growing in every direction except the one we hoped for, teaching us that we need to spend the winter learning proper training techniques.

These discoveries aren't problems - they're information that makes us better gardeners and helps us make more informed decisions going forward.

Looking Forward

As we head toward our first frost (which could come as early as tonight with temperatures dropping to 47°F), we're already mentally preparing for the seasonal transition. Houseplants will come inside after a good rinse, tender annuals will be removed, and we'll begin the satisfying work of putting the garden to bed.

But we're also looking ahead to spring installations, planning our plant orders, and dreaming about how all these changes will look when everything wakes up next year.

What changes are you planning for your garden as fall approaches? Are you learning new things about your garden's microclimates and plant performance this season?

Thanks for growing with us!