Weekly Green Tip: Avoid This as Summer Fades ❌

http://eepurl.com/jlwsW2View this email in your browser (*|ARCHIVE|*) Avoid This as Summer Fades August 19th, 2025 Are you longing for fall to arrive? Or are you dreading the end of summer? Either way, there’s a few garden meditations to consider with the upcoming change in season. Today, we’ll go over a few things we should AVOID doing over the next several weeks… Don’t prune your woody shrubs and trees. This one always feels tempting… Things start to cool down and your trees and shrubs are looking shaggy and in need of neatening. But if you prune now, you’ll be sending your plant into an existential spiral! In late summer and into fall, the growing season still lingers. And so, when you prune you can trigger new growth. Those tender shoots and buds will be much less prepared when the first frost comes around and prone to damage. Skip the pruning and you skip the plant stress. Here in the Southeast, the safer window is deep winter, once the plant is fully dormant. Be conscious of the late-bloomers. Goldenrod, aster, ironweed, boneset and many of our other native late-blooming friends still need to provide for our pollinators. They are the last buffet. These late-bloomers also tend to be fantastic landscape volunteers! They’ll sprout on their own regularly and re-wild neglected corners. The unfortunate thing is they’ll often get mistaken for weeds since they take awhile to pop! We recommend using your plant ID app when you’re weeding over the next several weeks. There may be some native gems hanging around. Most asters like this frost aster will look like a “weed” to most until they pop like popcorn. SOURCE (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Symphyotrichum_pilosum_98554502.jpg) Late boneset is another unassuming pollinator powerhouse that could easily get pulled. They help a variety of bees, butterflies, wasps, flies, and beetles in the fall. SOURCE (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eupatorium_serotinum_-_Late_Boneset.jpg) Consider not mowing or dead-heading flowers. Habitat often looks messy. And mowing your meadows or grassland in late summer/early fall can destroy shelter for caterpillars, ground-nesting bees, and other critters that rely on standing stems and leaf litter through winter. If you have the opportunity (and no HOA breathing down your neck), try selecting some areas to re-wild or meadow-fy. In the southeast (or anywhere with frosty winters), you can spread native seed after the first few frosts when the ground temps get steadily below 50 degrees. This is called dormant sowing. It allows for natural cold stratification which many native perennials like our sunflowers, milkweeds, coneflowers tend to prefer. Basically, these seeds prefer to go through a period of darkness, moisture, and cold temperatures and then they will germinate. This meadow we sowed has black-eyed Susan and purple coneflower. Both are cold-stratifying seeds, so fall sowing gives the best results unless you choose to manually trigger cold-stratification. https://facebook.com/communityfoodscapes/ https://instagram.com/communityfoodscapes https://communityfoodscapes.org mailto: Copyright (C) *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*. All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|**|LIST:DESCRIPTION|**|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences (*|UPDATE_PROFILE|*) or unsubscribe (*|UNSUB|*) Community Foodscapes · 848 Oglethorpe Ave SW · Suite 115512 · Atlanta, GA 30310 470-600-2636 · cofo.info@gmail.com · www.communityfoodscapes.org https://www.communityfoodscapes.org/