The fall season is creeping upon us very quickly. This is the time of year where many gardeners start to give up on their gardens and watch things slowly die down but here is still some opportunity to continue gardening for a month or two yet.
First of all, make sure you do some good housekeeping by cutting back all the dead debris from the garden. Don’t cut perennials all the way back to the ground if they still have some green on them, only remove the brown (dead) portion. This is a great time to add some fertilizer if you haven’t done so since July. You can use compost or the fertilizer that you purchased for your summer fertilizing regime. Now that things are tidied up a bit, here are some suggestions to further enhance things.
Annuals
If you have annuals like pansies, violets, snapdragons, nicotiana, etc. they can get tall and leggy this time of year but they often recover and produce a second round of blooms if you cut the plant back by two thirds. Just cut back so one third of the plant remains. In a few weeks (as long as we haven’t had any heavy frosts) you will see bushy new growth and some flower buds emerging.nSoon the plant will be in full bloom again.
This is the time of year that the nurseries and garden stores are selling annuals for fall planting such as flowering kale. Flowering kale is a hardy plant that is very attractive in the garden right until the ground freezes solid. Flowering kale can be planted in place of other annuals that have finished for the season or in amongst the perennials that have died back. They also look great in containers too.
Perennials
There are quite a few species of perennials that bloom into the early fall in our zone such as asters (white and shades of blue, purple and pink), helianthus (perennial sunflower), goldenrod, some of the tall phlox species and sedum. Sedum is a perennial fall blooming plant that blooms in tiny flowers with a resemblance to a star shape and is available in many varieties. Sedum comes in a variety of sizes, growing up to 18 inches in height. Its shrub-like appearance makes it well-suited for rock gardens and small flower beds, is hardy in this zone and is very well suited to most garden soil conditions.
Vegetables
Most people give up on the vegetable garden this time of year but this is a great time of year to plant a succession crop of vegetables that like the cooler fall weather. You need to select seed varieties with a shorter growing season, as time is limited, but the fall can produce some great crops of peas, beans and greens (lettuce, spinach, etc.).
You will also have time to put in a forage crop such as annual rye or buckwheat. I have covered off the methodology of this in a previous column. This method of adding organic matter to a garden is the most economical and fastest way to see improvement in your garden, especially in heavy clay.
If you didn’t plant any this year you may want to plan ahead for next year and consider planting species from the squash family. Winter squashes, pumpkins and the endless variety of gourds look fantastic in the garden as they finish growing when all of the other vegetables have finished. In addition, all of squash varieties make for some fantastic display material once harvested and will last well into the winter.
Sometimes when we are fed up when Mother Nature hasn’t provided the perfect weather for the summer, we give up on gardening and think we will start up again next year. Well as you can see from this column there are some ways to continue right into the fall. Give is a try – fall may be your best season yet.
