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I'm still battling the snails in my garden. Crushing snails are done every morning and evening. Putting bait out when its raining regularly won't have the desired effect since most snail and slug bait work by drying out the pests. But when its raining they will often recover. Dry, sunny weather is required to really work.
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I love the plump candy-pink berries of the symphoricarpos 'Candy'
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If you choose several varieties of astilbe, you can really extend the bloom time. My main astilbe bed are just finishing up after blooming for nearly two months, and the astilbe 'Pumilla', which is the last to flower, hasn't even started yet.
Of course, it helps if the soil is on the moist side as well.
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| | Another plant you should pinch back are tall varieties of sedum. They're beginning to turn color now and we have 'Autumn Joy' and 'Autumn Fire'. |
Pinching the phlox back in June hasn't slowed them down at all. The stems are nice and sturdy and I doubt that even the usually leggy 'David' will topple despite the heavy rains. Next year I plan to pinch back even the Volcano series of phlox, just to make them a little shorter. Some are almost five foot high when they were supposed to be only three, and are almost growing into the lower branches of a nearby physocarpus tree. The newer 'red' varieties we carried this year are more of a rose-red and don't blend well with orange plants like coneflowers or daylilies.They do look fantastic with dark leaved shrubs like barberry and smokebush though.
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| | The yellow button flowers on tanacetum is a wonderful dried flower. |
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