Fall Gardening Guide: Time to Play in the Dirt!
Fall conjures up images of fallen leaves raked into huge piles (and children quickly scattering those piles). It’s the season to tend the lawn and gardens before they sleep through the long winter. Tired plants need to be cut back; hoses and sprinklers, drained; lawn mowers, retired.
But what you may not know is that fall is an optimum time to refurbish spent gardens with new perennials, to split and transplant overgrown plants and sprinkle a few flower seeds. And let’s not forget planting fall bulbs if you want a much-needed dose of spring color to enliven a dreary March day.
The good news is that time spent in early autumn, when the temperatures are mild, will yield a bounty of blooms next spring and summer.
How can something so plain be so beautiful?
Put on your garden gloves, grab a spade and start digging holes. Planting bulbs in clusters rather than singly makes for a more dramatic display. The general rule of thumb is the depth of the hole should be equal to three-to-four times the height of the bulb, but each package of bulbs will have specific planting depths. You can throw in a little bulb boosting fertilizer in the bottom of the hole. Or not.
Are you a bit of a renegade who shuns carefully plotted gardens? Try tossing handfuls of early spring-flowering bulbs into your lawn and plant where they land, using a conical bulb tool to plant single bulbs. Come spring, your dreary lawn will sport cheery blooms. By the time you break out the Lawn Boy, the flowers will be spent and their leaves, wilted.
Plant fragrant varieties, like hyacinths, by your front door and you’ll be rewarded with their sweet scent every time you leave or enter your home. Are you dying for some color, any color, when March comes in like a lion? Crocus, scilla, and snowdrops are early bloomers, often poking their heads through the snow. To extend the blooming season to Mother’s Day, plant early, middle, and late spring blooming daffodils and tulips.
While there are plenty of mail order sites, local nurseries, such as Mulhall’s and Lanoha Nurseries, have impressive selections of bulk and individual bulbs. Waiting until late fall to buy will save you money, but you will not have the selection. If you check out Mulhall’s on Tuesday and Friday between 2-6 pm, you can support another home town business – Coneflower Creamery. An ice cream truck AND flowers – life doesn’t get much better!
One-time effort produces years of color
And by that we mean perennials. Plant them now, and welcome them back next year, the following year, and the year after that…
Is the selection in fall as extensive as spring and early summer? No. But garden centers, like Cirean’s Farmers Market, still have stock to offer, often at deep discounts. So, if your hostas doubled as a cool bed for your dog on hot summer days, or your spouse accidentally sprayed weed killer on your peonies, now is the time to replenish. They may look a little leggy and a tad tuckered, but they will come back next year rejuvenated by their rest.
Late August through early October is perennial planting time. Plant when it is too hot, and they’ll wither. Plant when it’s too cold, and they’ll freeze. September, as Goldilocks would say, is “Juuuuuust right.” The idea is to let them settle into their new home a few weeks before the first frost. Giving perennials of a more tender variety, say Japanese anemones (which are lovely autumn bloomers), added protection during the winter is advised.
But before you tuck them in with a layer of leaves or mulch, treat them to some nourishment. Benson Plant Rescue sells buckets of worm castings that you can sprinkle around your newly-planted perennials. Gross? Yes. But things that are good for you are often gross. Kimchi, cod liver oil, and colonoscopies come to mind.
The easy way out
Not into dirty fingernails or invertebrate upchuck? Honestly, not too many people are. Never fear. If you want to instantly add a pop of color to your front porch, you can’t go wrong with autumn’s poster child – the mum. Mums come in all shades and sizes. Creamy whites, sunny yellows, russets and reds, burgundies and browns. In other words, they scream autumn.
Check out the hardy mums at Indian Creek Nursery, which are grown in their own greenhouse. You can empty your pots of summer’s sad leftovers and plop your new mum right in, plastic container and all. If you really want to get crazy, throw in a few pansies for good measure. If the tight buds start to flower too soon, pinch them back to delay the bloom season. Most hardy mums used for front door displays can be planted in a bed later, as long as the ground is not frozen and night temperatures are not consistently below freezing.
Support Local
Fall is the perfect time to get out and explore local garden centers, and Omaha is lucky to have several. In addition to the ones mentioned above, add Wenninghoff’s, Robert’s Nursery (two locations!), Yano’s Nursery, and Canoyer Garden Center to your list. Your garden will thank you, and so will these local business owners!
* Specific loan program availability and requirements may vary. Please get in touch with your mortgage advisor for more information.