What to Plant in Your Garden in the Fall

If you are a new gardener or even a seasoned gardener, I want to share with you what to plant in your garden in the fall.

Garlic

I’ve been gardening for a long time and I just planted garlic for the first time last fall. In early October I planted individual garlic cloves in well-drained soil. I hand mixed some compost into the soil before I planted.

The cloves were placed 4″ apart and 12″ between rows. You place the flat end down (pointed end up) about 1-1/2″ into the soil. After planting, mulch with straw to prevent heaving during winter weather. One clove produces a whole head of garlic next year. If you want a more detailed how-to, you can find it HERE

Spring Bulbs

Fall is the time to plant all the beautiful bulbs that will start blooming to let you know that spring is here! I plant them every fall as I just can’t have enough. I also replace the ones that are no longer blooming or the squirrels have eaten. Last year I bought an auger that you attach to a cordless drill. What a game-changer. Buy yours HERE.

Some of my favorites are:

• Tulips
• Daffodils
• Alliums
• Crocus
• Hycinthias
• Iris
• Lilies

Shrubs & Perennials

We plant our hydrangeas in the fall as they are available in the nurseries now. They are in full bloom and they add interest to your garden right away. You can plant just about any shrub or perennial in the fall if it’s 4-6 weeks before your first anticipated frost.

Did you know that if you plant a spring flowering plant in fall, it will likely be larger and more floriferous than if it was planted in spring? This is because it had so much more time to establish and didn’t experience transplant shock just before bloom time.

I take advantage of perennial sales at my nursery at this time of year. Sometimes I can get 50% or more off.

More Fall Garden Chores

There is still a lot to do in the garden after your vegetables have been harvested and your flowers are dying back.

• Clean-Up the vegetable garden – I pull the spent plants out and put them in my yard compost bin.
• Turn over all the soil and top with fall leaves
• Carefully dig up dahlia tubers after the top growth has died back or a hard frost has killed it.
• I cut back some of my perennials (Daylily, Iris, Shasta Daisy, Bee Balm, Black-Eyed Susan, Phlox and Cone Flowers) basically all the more tender stalked plants. I don’t cut my grasses, hydrangeas, and sedum. It’s fun to maintain some interest in my gardens during the late fall and winter months.

I’m sharing this quote as my gardens right now are glorious. The blooms on my hydrangeas are turning a beautiful pink/maroon color. My coneflowers are stunning. I have wild garlic in my garden and it has shot up beautiful white flowers. The phlox has rebloomed and this time the deer didn’t nibble the buds. Some of my annuals that had a really tough time when the days were really hot and we had no rain, have now filled in. All the sedum has flowered and my grasses have beautiful plumes.

I hope you like me are looking forward to the cooler, crisp days of fall!

Peace,

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