End-of-Season Regrets

“ I ’d rather rue the things I ’ve done than repent the thing I have n’t done . ” Lucille Ball said this in an interview during the vizor of her celebrity in the fifties . More than half a hundred later , the citation came to intellect as I was walking around my holding , thinking about my garden rue .

I regret not amending my soil as well as I should .

I regret not having a landscape program before put plants in the priming .

I repent not let more conifer .

As we move into late fall and early winter , that last one is strike especially hard . Why , oh why , did n’t I plant more conifers ? I can make a laundry listing of excuses : coniferous tree are expensive ; conifers rise slowly ; conifers do n’t bloom . But really , there ’s no just reasonableness . Since I garden in New England , where much of the landscape painting dies back after the first frost , I should have more conifers so there is something to depend at in November , December , January , and February . These evergreens are unfeignedly backbone plants , and when you select and embed colorful options like those recommended by Darren Heimbecker in “ Go Beyond Basic Green with Colorful Conifers ” , they foam like precious gemstones class - round . If a conifer shines as brightly as ‘ Pusch ’ Norway spruce , who cares if it does n’t bloom ? Its vivid violent cones are better than any blossom a lowly perennial can bring out .

I imagine I was in a similar boat to many of you when I first started my garden , with cock-a-hoop aspirations but a limited budget . If I could go to the nursery and purchase a dozen tight - fill perennials for the price of one coniferous tree , I was going for volume over substance . Now I regret that pick .

Over the year I ’ve slowly bring more conifers to my bed and perimeter . The change has been gradual but fabulously rewarding , particularly as I search outside justly now and the midget gloomy noble fir along my front steps is the only matter radiate amid the brown , decay foliage border it . If I had implant more conifers 12 years ago , I do n’t think I would repent it today ( although I might have regret the lower balance in my bank account that week ) . So , moving onward , I ’ll follow Ms. Ball ’s advice . I ’ll take the trip , eat the patty , and buy the brake shoe .

And found the conifers .

Danielle Sherry , executive editor

SeeIssue # 220ofFine Gardeningnow

Fine Gardening Recommended Products

A.M. Leonard Deluxe Soil Knife & Leather Sheath Combo

Fine horticulture receives a commission for item purchased through link on this site , including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs .

Buffalo - Style Gardens : make a Quirky , One - of - a - Kind Private Garden with Eye - contagious Designs

ARS Telescoping Long Reach Pruner

Get our latest tips , how - to articles , and instructional videos ship to your inbox .

signal you up …

End-of-Season Veggie Garden Tasks

get together hunky-dory Gardening for a gratuitous mesh unrecorded webinar have Dr. Janna Beckerman , a renowned plant diagnostician as well as professor emerita at Purdue University and the ornamental technical manager …

When I spot a particular sand buck cactus ( Astrophytum asterias ) at the Philadelphia Flower Show a few months ago , I knew I was in trouble . With a delightful color pattern …

When we only prioritize plant life we want over plants our landscape motive , each time of year is filled with a never - end inclination of chores : pruning , pinching , lachrymation , treating , amending , and fertilizing , with …

Video

Touring an Eco-friendly, Shady Backyard Retreat

You must be thrifty when you enter the backyard of garden graphic designer Jeff Epping — not because you ’re likely to trip on something , but because you might be dive - flunk by a brace …