9/29/04
Fall Color Makes a Dazzling Garden
By: Donna Couch
What
is this we are experiencing? Could it be cooler weather? What
joy! It brings to mind football season (even though it started
in August when it was still 100 degrees), bonfires, long sleeves
and great décor made from pumpkins, gourds and colorful
leaves.
And
with cooler weather comes changes in the garden and around
the house. All over town you see Pampas grass in bloom. What
a wonderful backdrop or stand alone beauty ornamental grasses
make. One way to really bring the feel of autumn to an area
with grasses is to use hay bales and a variety of pumpkins
in different colors and sizes, with the grass in the background.
This is also the time for fountain grass and other ornamental
grasses to be in bloom.
Another
great focal point for a fall garden is to use an old wooden
or metal wheel barrow filled with pumpkins and pots of garden
mums. Mums are one of the showiest flowers for the fall, and
of course, once planted, they come back year after year. You
can find mums in a variety of colors including white, yellow,
purple, red, bronze and burgundy. They also have a variety
of bloom types: pom pom, cushion and daisy mums are the common.
If planted in the ground, Mums will bloom until the first freeze.
After that, cut them back to prepare for their next blooming
season. If you leave your mums in pots, you can bring them
inside if you know it is going to freeze and just set them
back outside when it warms back up. Either way, mums make a
big, showy splash of color in the garden.
Fall
is also the time for Snapdragons and dianthus, as the cooler
weather brings them back to life. Snaps come in both a miniature
and tall variety, in both pastel and vibrant colors. Dianthus
are found in reds, pinks, corals and white, and are mostly
a low growing plant, and will form large clumps over time.
Both take full sun, but do need to be deadheaded when blooms
are spent in order to keep producing new blooms.
One
of my favorite colors, purple, is showy this season in the
Fall Aster. This perennial can grow to over 3 feet in height,
and becomes quite bushy during its second year, so make sure
you allow plenty of room for it. I already had to move two
smaller plants that were being covered by asters this year.
The tiny blossoms with yellow centers cover the bright green
plant and look very regal when in full bloom. My asters are
close to a rosemary bush that is very fragrant now, and both
are a backdrop to pink skullcap and miniature goldenrod. And
just a few feet from that, red pineapple sage are towering
over silver thyme, both making quite a colorful addition to
the green of other plants whose blooms have faded.
The
cool weather will also bring back some life to some plants
that just don’t do as well during our 100 degree days.
You’ll notice many sages blooming at this time along
with zinnias, impatiens and begonias. They’ll enjoy a
few more weeks of color before the weather turns too cold for
them.
Planting
your perennial garden to have blooms year round will bring
a great amount of pleasure in the fall and winter months. But
especially at this time of year, annuals bring some of the
most dramatic color imaginable. Pansies are a great cool weather
flower and come in almost every color in the spectrum, from
white to black. They look great with mums, and blend in beautifully
with ornamental cabbage and kale. Pansies can take the cold
weather, even when planted in pots. They are gorgeous whether
using one color scheme, two or three complementary colors,
or a variety of colors. Since pansies are low-growing, you
can use a taller border to set them. Pansies will last usually
through April or May, when hot weather starts creeping back
to meet us.
As
we go into this cooler weather, you might not be spending as
much time outdoors. Don’t forget about our outdoor friends
though. Although there is usually more rainfall at this time,
birds are still depending on you to keep a good supply of drinking
water fresh and available for them, and also to keep those
bird feeders filled.
And
as you are cleaning up your garden, don’t forget that
birds like to feast on dead seed heads. So, as you are clipping
and trimming, you can accomplish two things by taking any stems,
limbs and twigs you trim, add some nice greenery and colorful
leaves, and “arranging” them in an old pot or basket.
First of all, the birds will love it, and secondly, you can
use your arrangement as décor on the patio, terrace
wall or under some trees as fall décor.
So,
enjoy the cool weather! Happy Gardening!
