By late August the days are perceptibly shorter as sunrise lightens night into day at a later hour. The shrill chorus of cicadas and katydids announces that summer is on the wane. Now is the time when I'm preparing for autumn. Bulbs were ordered bulbs earlier, and I expect them to arrive in late September. Autumn is an excellent time for planting. I'll be adding new perennials, rearranging some existing ones, and thinning out where there is too much of others. My mildew-resistant beebalm, Monarda 'Jacob Cline', has outgrown its allotted territory. (Though not according to the hummingbirds who eagerly visit its red flowers.) Fortunately I can share the excess with a neighbor who wants some.

Late in August, after cleaning up a weedy area next to a shady path I decided to plant. Somehow I find it easier to care for a planting bed than just maintain an empty area. Since most shade-tolerant plants flower in the spring, I focused on foliage effects to provide extended interest right through summer and into early autumn. To start, I chose a medium size hosta with a light green leaf narrowly edged in yellow. Sorry, I don't know its name. I made 9 rather small divisions from a larger plant someone gave to me. Six hosta anchor one end of the long, somewhat narrow bed. Two golden moneywort, Lysmachia numularia 'Aurea', sprawl on the ground in front of them, their prostrate stems clothed with pairs of round yellow leaves that will quickly fill in and make an attractive groundcover. Adjacent to the larger group of hosta are 3 Epimedium X cantabrigiensis, which has bright, medium green, 3-parted leaves. In spring they'll have light yellow flowers. I planted the epimedium in a triangle, with the base towards the path. Next to the epimedium are 3 plants of a ginger, Asarum species, with reniform (that's kidney-shaped in plain talk) leaves, glossier than our native Canada ginger. They are also planted in a triangle. Then there are 4 shaggy wood ferns, Dryopteris cycadina (also known as D. atrata), planted towards the back of the planting bed. Their stiff leathery fronds are semi-evergreen, and should last well into winter. In front of the ferns are 3 plants of yellow-striped mondo grass, Liriope muscari, in a row, one more ginger, and the last mono grass. The 3 remaining hosta complete the border, and balance the larger group at the other end.

Foliage and flowers will work together to make this area attractive from spring through summer, and even continue late into the year. I used two plants with simple roundish leaves - hosta and ginger. The epimedium and fern have a lacier look. And the liriope has a simple strap-like leaf. While flowering is sparse, there is color from the foliage since both hosta and liriope have yellow-variegated leaves, and golden moneywort is chartreuse-yellow. The epimedium will kick things up a notch when it is in bloom, since it has yellow flowers. The hostas go dormant first, while the ferns, ginger, and epimedium will last until mid-autumn, and the mondo grass is evergreen. I'm pleased with my design and am eager to see how it looks next spring, after the plants have settled in and made some growth.

In the never-ending story of the garden, August is the time to propagate tender perennials I want to keep over the winter for use next summer. Coleus, pelargoniums, and plectranthus have grown so huge that digging and potting them would be a major chore, as well as a significant transplanting shock to the plants, not to mention the difficulty of finding them indoor quarters. Fortunately such plants are easy to clone, and there are no legal or moral quandries about doing so.