Fall Clean-up in the garden

The last week I've been concentrating on Fall clean up in the garden. It is kind of sad pulling up dead and dying annual flowers, removing the moon flower vine from the arbor, and cutting back an overgrown vine. Fall garden chores also included relocating my limelight hydrangea, and planting 3 azaleas purchased earlier this year. I also started a new compost pile in one of my 2 compost bins.

There are many pretty colors provided by the maples, blueberries, crape myrtles, dogwoods and Virginia Sweetspire as I work in the garden. When the leaves fall they need raking, unless like me you put down a pre-emergent. Raking can break the weed-shield provided by the pre-emergent. My husband mulched and bagged the leaves so I could add them to the compost pile I started. In a compost pile, the natural process of decomposition is sped up and you are left with a rich form of organic matter for your flower bed or vegetable patch. Compost also helps soil retain water.

In fact, autumn is a great time to make compost since there is a good mix of leaves, some spent plants and grass clippings. This means you will have a combination of carbon (leaves and other “brown” material) and nitrogen (grass clippings and other “green” material), which produces compost quickly. Keep the pile moist and turn it often, and you will have compost to use in your garden come spring. Or just leave it alone to decompose slowly.Don't compost any diseased plant material.

Some of my garden clean up will go on a brush pile. It will provide winter quarters for lizards, frogs, toads and small mammals such as chipmunks and rabbits, as well as bumblebees and other native bees. The leaves and other dead vegetation are like a “down comforter” for winter wildlife. You can Start your own brush pile with a layer of loosely stacked or crisscrossed branches, and add stalks and leaves on top.

When autumn approaches, I stop removing some spent flowers and let them to go to seed and only remove diseased plant parts and leave the rest standing in some areas of the garden. I don't like the sight of brown stems but like to leave some of them as cozy winter nests for wildlife. Lady beetles, butterflies and other insects will bed down among the stalks during the cold season. Siskins and other birds will dine on the seeds of sunflowers, cone flowers, grasses and other plants.

Using these clean up ideas will not only produce less of the waste clogging up landfills, you also will protect your plants and enrich your soil, while providing a winter welcome mat for wildlife.

Some Quick Gardening Tips for Fall

Now with cooler temperatures coming to the Lowcountry I can finally get back outside to do some gardening and landscaping. Here are just a few things I will be doing this fall. What is on your to do list for Fall?

Vegetables- Now is the time to clean up the summer garden. Many pests and diseases over-winter in old plant debris. Get it out of your garden and into the compost pile, as long as it is not diseased. Otherwise, have it removed from your property. I’m growing a few cool-season crops right now such a radish, spinach and lettuce. Most cool-season crops can handle cooler temperatures than you might imagine, and many taste even better after a few light frosts. If you've never had a fall vegetable garden, you're missing a real treat.

Landscape-Fall is absolutely the best time of year to plant any tree and /or shrub. The soil is still warm enough for roots to actively grow and yet the demand on foliage growth is waning. Trees and shrubs planted now have months to develop a healthy root system before the heat of next year. Be sure to keep your new plants watered. The drying winds of the cooler weather can quickly dehydrate plants. Check the soil moisture often, and water when needed. For new plantings, provide water once a week in the absence of rain.

Organic Gardening-Don't waste those fallen leaves. Dump the leaves onto the grass, and run your mower over them. This shreds them into small pieces, can be raked into beds. They break down rather quickly and are a very good way to add organic amendments planting beds. They also pull double-duty, serving as that important layer of mulch over the winter.

Flower Gardening-Plant those bulbs, in cooler climates, plant in October. In southern climates, the best time for bulb planting is November. Tulips, daffodils, crocus, iris and hyacinths are all great choices for spring color. This is also the ideal time to divide perennials and plant perennial seeds for next spring.


This will keep me busy for the next few weeks, how about you? The best part is that next spring, I will be rewarded with a garden that comes alive, looking better than ever and due in large part to the work I do this Fall.

Color in my fall garden

Starting in late August I begin to shop the clearance rack in the garden centers. This year I have picked up at ½ price, $1 or even free plants mostly perennials for my garden. While shopping for seeds at Lowe’s yesterday I found a Rabbit eye Blueberry bush at ½ price to replace one of my bushes that died this summer. I already rescued Black and Blue Salvia, May night Salvia, Veronica, Gerbera Daisies, a Butterfly bush and Verbena and they are happily planted in my garden and flowering! I bring them home, add some compost and a bit of fertilizer to the planting bed, loosen the roots (if they are pot bound), then plant then and water well. I keep them watered during dry times and when I’m lucky they will bloom in the fall. If not they are well established to bloom next summer.

For more fall color this summer I took cutting from assorted Coleus when Cypress Gardens was pinching back their plants and started them at home. When it started to cool off a bit I put them out in the yard and now with Celosias coming up from last years seeds I have a nice amount of new color in my yard to go with the plants that are still blooming and the trees and shrubs that are beginning to show fall color in their leaves.

I’ve also used the cooler weather start my fall vegetables and herbs, clean out dead and dying annuals from the planting beds and to try and control the weeds. Soon I will be putting down a pre-emergent in hope of controlling winter weeds in the lawn.

Overall this is a good time of year to just enjoy your garden

Benefits of Fall Gardening

The weather is finally beginning to cool down and fall is just around the corner. Fall will be a busy time in my garden –It’s the best time for planting, bed building, path building and other big projects. Fall is like a second spring in the South.

As the overwhelming heat of summer takes a toll on gardeners like myself we also get the pleasure of being able to grow a fall garden. The weather returns to a manageable level and the onset of winter is still many months off so there is still plenty of time to grow flowers and vegetables and to plant shrubs and trees. Fall gardening can be similar to spring gardening in that plants that thrive in cooler temperatures are the best choice for the fall garden.

My fall garden planting plans for this year includes vegetables as well as flowers. Some vegetables I plan to grow in my fall garden this year are: Herbs, Tomatoes, radishes, Salad greens-Leaf lettuce, spinach, chard, peas, and peppers.

I also like to plant and transplant perenials- like Asters, Echinacea, and Veronica; bi-annuals- digitalis and hollyhocks, and sow annual plant seeds of cosmos, bachlor buttons, marigolds, larkspur, and poppies. I find Fall gardening in the Lowcountry to be very satisfying. With cooler temperatures and fewer insects, I can spend more time enjoying the garden and less time maintaining it. Fall is my favorite season to be outside even if I have to suffer sneezing and watering eyes because of Ragweed!

Evaluation Time

Summer usually takes its toll on gardeners and the garden. As late summer arrives and you feel as bedraggled as your garden, take some inspiration from fall-flowering perennials like garden mums, aster, Autumn Joy sedum, goldenrod swamp sunflower, and salvia. As summer’s heat and humidity yields to the shorter; cooler days of autumn, pay a visit to those far corners of the garden that haven’t seen a gardener’s eye since the 4th of July! It’s time to evaluate the landscape and make notes about what needs to be done in September. Plants in decline may need to be replaced by new plantings. Late summer and fall is a good time to plant trees, shrubs and perennials. Be adventurous and select a few new and delectable plants for you garden!

Cool Season Weeds

Now that high temperatures are hitting the mid 70’s in my area it is time to start thinking about preventing cool season weeds. Before tackling a weed control program it is important to know that complete suppression of any weed from your yard is not practical. It is only possible to manage (not eliminate) the weeds by reducing the invasion to an acceptable level. The best method for preventing a weed problem is maintaining the health and density of your lawn. Accurate mowing height, irrigation and fertilization of the grass are the best defense against weeds. With that done; pre-emergence herbicides should be applied to well-established lawns in late summer or early fall. In this area sometime around Halloween seems to be a good time.
Keep in mind that you'll never get rid of all the weeds in your lawn. The wind will blow weed seeds from nearby lawns into your lawn, birds will deposit them and kids running from one lawn to the next will transport weed seeds on their shoes. So do what you feel you must to battle the weeds in your lawn, but do it wisely.

camellia sasanquas in bloom!

Two of my three camellia sasanquas have started to bloom. I’m not sure of the names because I bought them as an experiment to see if I could grow them in my yard. I wasn’t sure I’d have enough shade but knew sasanquas tolerated sun a little better. Since planting the first two my trees have grown enough to provide more dappled shade. The pink one is 5 years old and was moved once and the white one is 3 years old and also was relocated once. The third one was just planted this year and I’m anxiously waiting to see the blooms. It is supposed to bloom a little later.

September, October & November

I was able to dig, divide and replant some of my perennials in September. Daylilies, Shasta Daisies and Coreopsis and Coneflower were just a few. In October I was busy planting spring flowering bulbs, tulips, daffodils, crocuses and grape hyacinths. November I started to see a little sign of fall with the changing colors of my maple trees, berries on my Beautyberries and my first ever Camellia bloom. I thinned and transplanted seedlings into pots to plant next spring and took cuttings of coleus, begonia and geranium.