[This is my October column for the Takoma and Silver Spring Voice newspaper.  I'd love your feedback!]

Gardeners want to know: Do I really have to remove leaves from my lawn? And the answer is that a few are fine but a thick coating of leaves will smother turfgrass over the winter.

Next question: Can I leave them in my flower beds and borders? On that one opinions vary, and some sources even recommend raking leaves into the beds for the winter. But like most gardening advice, it depends - in this case on their size and shape, and how many you have. An impenetrable mat of leaves, especially from oaks, can smother groundcovers and keep rainwater from penetrating into the soil, so my own practice is to wait til all the leaves are down in late fall, then lightly rake the easy-to-get majority of them, being careful not to yank the groundcovers out of the soil. I hand-remove the remaining leaves during spring clean-up.

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The September issue is out, and archived here with the sidebar.  Some bits that are new to this blog are:

In the News

• The EPA finally issued its new emission standards for mowers and blowers, as reported here.

• Still more reports of lawn wars, this time in Ottawa.  Oh, and this one in Lansdale, PA.

• The NY Times shows us a sustainable landscape, and reactions to it differ.

• Great update in the Chicago Tribune on plastics in the ag and hort industries, only about 1% of which are recycled (versus 25% or more in the beverage industry).  Lots of encouraging signs at the end of that article, though.

On the Blogs

• GardenRant had a meaty debate about street trees.  First, the con position from our California contributor, then the pro-street-tree position from Buffalo.

• Gardeners weigh in on the term "invasive" and what information they really need about plants.

• Gardeners tell wonderful stories (in the comments) about their favorite wildlife encounters in the garden.

• Golf, will it ever be green?

• Another hot discussion of faux lawn, after learning that celebrity environmentalist Ed Begley has one.

• Great reports of hummingbird-attracting plants in the comments, and feeder instructions galore.

New on Sustainable-Gardening

• It’s time for some VINES.  Like crossvine, a great American native, or American wisteria, the better behaved alternative to the Asian types.  Plus, climbing hydrangeas, and hardy kiwi vine.

• Check out Stuart Robinson on "Using Rubber Mulch in the Garden".

• Lise Mahnke in Denver explains the "7 Principles of Xeriscaping".  She also contributed "How to make your own solitary beehouse".

• New contributor Billy Goodnick provides a fair-and-balanced overview in "Pro’s and Con’s of Faux Turf" - in his usual lively style.

My So-called Second Career

• On the writing front, I delivered my first article to the nice folks at Organic Gardening  Mag - scheduled for April of ‘09 - about spring garden coaching.  And I have another coaching story in the works for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. 

• I talked about urban and sustainable gardening to an Elderhostel group visiting D.C. and they were great - living up to the many good things I’ve heard about them. 

• Next up - the speaking gig Amy Stewart and I have in Portland, Oregon this week at the Garden Writers Association annual meeting.  The topic we’ve been asked to cover is "Blogging Success Stories"

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 In the fine tradition of gardenblogging, I present a snapshot of what’s flowering in my garden at mid-month.  Doing a grassy version of flowering is this Miscanthus sinensus but don’t worry; this late-flowering variety - ‘Morning Light’ -  isn’t invasive.   (Here’s more about that.)  This one does a great job hiding my trash cans.

More blooming action in my garden?

• ‘Flower Carpet’ rose
  
• Caryopteris
• Hardy begonia
• Japanese anemone
• Spirea reblooming 
• Lespedeza
• Aster
• Salvia
• Sedum in pots - photo on GardenRant.

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What’s not to love about a native plant that’s:

• Gorgeous
• Seeds successfully in my garden, beating out all the crap weeds brought here by the birds and the breeze
• Free

It’s smartweed (Polygonum pensylvanicum), a summer annual that’s dispersed across the U.S.   I love its 8 to 10-inch spikes covered with dark pink flowers from June through September. 

People are asking me what this is and where can they buy it, so I know it’s not just me who appreciates smartweed.  So again I say Up with Weeds!  (Just not the ugly ones.) 

Dwarf white pine

Now notice the cute little pine in the background?  It’s another gorgeous native plant, though this one’s the cultivated variety ‘Blue Shag’, and even MORE people ask about it and obviously covet it.  This one started out looking like a perfect mound and was mistaken for Mugo pine, but the needles are softer and now that it’s been allowed to do its thing for a few years, it seems to have a much more interesting shape.  Earlier in the season it really IS blue.

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Just LOOK at this thing, the most prolific unwanted garden feature of the year in my area.  Yes, tent caterpillars covered the crotches of every single plant in the Prunus genus, AND some.  And when they finally emerged they rained down on the world, sparing not a single head of hair.  Total yuk!  But at least they don’t actually kill the trees, right?  Coz that’s what all the email groups were saying. So when one of the three ‘Yoshino’ flowering cherries in my curbside garden failed to leaf out after it bloomed, I wasn’t too worried.  Everyone said it still would, eventually. 

So when it DIDN’T leaf out I thought "Ah-ha!  What do THEY know about tent caterpillars never killing trees?"  I pointed this one out to everyone who’d  listen as proof of the lethality of those disgusting insects. 

But then came the annual Labor Day Block Party, centrally located immediately in front of my very own home and the set of three Yoshinos, two looking normal and one looking dead.  I took advantage of the neighborhood naturalist/botanist (not sure of his multiple degrees but am sure that he knows a helluva lot about plants), asking him to confirm the tree’s total demise.  He took one look at the bark and declared the cause of death to be not tent caterpillars but BEETLE INFESTATION, showing me the beetle entry holes.  He said sure, the tent caterpillars contributed some stress to the situation but they didn’t deliver the killing blow.

Instructive, what these actual experts can tell us, and a little humbling. 

Now what do you do when the Three Stooges suddenly become Two?

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Surf right over to The Green Parent to see my guest-post "Kids and Gardening."

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Yet another gardening mistake in the same shady border with the awful Bishop’s weed?  Yep.  Except I planted Houttuynia four years ago, so have been regretting it for much longer.  Just look at the taproot on this sucker - like a tiny carrot, only a lot longer.  None of my mere weeding tools are even long enough for this guy.

The photo on the right shows what happens to it in the shade, where its tricolor leaves (red, yellow and green) revert to all green.  Cute little flower, though.  

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