Summer has ended and the first days of fall are upon us. I totally love this time of year! As I look out over my yard and gardens, I realize there is much work to be done yet to keep my landscape healthy for the upcoming spring season.
Fall brings with it glorious vibrant colors, a nip in the air, great apples, Halloween around the corner, and those inevitable yard and garden chores. Your annual containers are being changed out to mums, ornamental kale, annual grasses, pansies, and many brightly colored gourds and pumpkins. Many of these are more cold tolerant. Pahl’s carries all these varieties in many beautiful colors to be brought home to decorate your containers and front stoops. Straw bales and corn stalks are also available. Your perennial beds will be in need of cutting back, cleaning out, and mulching when the temperatures are finely cool enough. Any extra mulch needed should be applied after the first hard freeze.
One tip I can give to you is that the humidity levels are down and our subsoil moisture is too. Your trees, shrubs, perennials, and evergreens will need extra water to see them through to dormancy. If you water deeply twice a week, this should be sufficient. Fall is a great time to be seeding new lawn areas as well as over seeding existing areas in need of thickening up.
Appropriate shrubs should be pruned after leaves have fallen off. Pruning will establish the overall framework of the shrub and enhance its beauty and flowering power. Lilacs, rhododendrons and azaleas have formed their bud set for this upcoming spring already, so no fall pruning is needed. Don’t forget to rake up all those leaves!!!
Fall is the time of year that I reflect back on my gardens and landscape. I am making mental notes on what aspects I loved and hated. What did well and what didn’t. What I can do better to achieve the look I am trying to establish for next season along with landscape projects needing to be accomplished. Hail was not my friend this year. It stole a lot of my joy in 5 minutes flat. As gardeners, we have learned to deal and adapt to Mother Nature and her many moods . I hope this next coming gardening season; she chooses not to pitch quite as many fits!!! To all Happy Fall!!
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