Landscape plants in the fall are dynamic with a wide variety of earth tones and vibrant colors to enhance your landscape. Oak trees provide fall colors of burgundy, gold and tan earth tones. Maples brighten the sky with brilliant oranges, yellows and reds. Dogwood and crape myrtle not only give us spring & summer flowers, but a wonderful red and orange fall color. Fall-flowering plants like Camellia sasanqua, Encore Azalea, Japanese Anemone and Autumn Joy Sedum provide flowers for accenting your landscape and cutting. This is truly an exceptional season for color in the landscape. It is also the perfect time to plant trees and shrubs.
There are a few landscape tasks that you can do now that strengthen your landscape and prepare it to make a beautiful spring display.
- Fertilize your lawn in September, October and December. Overseeding is best done in September and early October. Apply lime and aerate at time of seeding.
- Planting spring flowering bulbs like daffodil, tulip and hyacinth can only be done now. Do not procrastinate. You will have to wait until next fall, if you do. Visit
Brent and Becky's Bulbs
for a wealth of information and bulb choices.
- Resist the urge to severely prune shrubs. This is done in late February or after the spring flowering shrub blooms. If a good pruning is done at this time, only minor pruning is required during the rest of the year. Only remove stray new growth in the fall.
- Plant pansies for color until next May. It is a strong bedding plant that flourishes during the cold months. Pansies are also a beautiful cover for bulb beds. Daffodils are gorgeous with pansies around them. Other plants like mums and ornamental cabbage are used too.
- After leaves have fallen, do not delay in cleaning them up. Keep them off the newly seeded lawn, so they do not block the sun and moisture the lawn needs or encourage the leaf blades to rot. Clean them out of the branches of shrubbery to keep them from developing open and bare areas. After the leaves have fallen in December is a great time to do a thorough clean-up and mulching. Your landscaping is beautiful for the holidays and ready for spring as well.
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