It’s a bitter pill to swallow but summer has truly departed.
Sure it can be frustrating when the fleeting glimpse of summer fades and the leaves turn from green to rusty brown, but while the color may be draining from your garden, there’s life in the old girl yet!
Sure, you’ll be hosting fewer barbecues and the kids will be jumping through sprinklers a lot less in fall, but there are still a great many things you can do to make your garden a beautiful, vibrant and pleasant place to spend time. As the skies start to grey and the nights grow longer, you’ll be grateful for the splash of color and life that your garden can bring to take the edge off the colder months and keep the winter blues at bay.
Get decorative
While there are some gorgeous flowering plants that will see you through right up to winter (more on those shortly), there are some other great ways in which you can inject a little warmth and character into your garden. Nothing makes a statement like custom firepits which provide a welcome focal point around which the whole family can gather. For a little added cosiness why not try adding a log cabin in which you can shelter and enjoy a hot drink while enjoying your garden despite the adverse weather. If watching wildlife go about their daily business is a source of relaxation and inspiration for you, a bird table is perfect for enjoying nature’s theater while you relax.
Harness the power of perennials
The biggest problem with the onset of fall is the loss of flowering plants, causing your garden to lose the necessary color and vibrancy that you’ve spent all summer cultivating. But fear not! The right perennials can give your garden back that spark of life by injecting a little color. Since most of your garden’s plants will begin to wither around this time of year, it’s up to the perennials to keep everything looking perky and bright to offset the ubiquitous greys and browns of the fall. If you’re not sure where to start, these are some hardy, beautiful and accessible perennial plants that won’t let you down…
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- Japanese anemones- If you’re looking for something to brighten up a potentially dark and gloomy space, these long flowering plants will bloom into long, elegant purple petals, lending the space warmth, brightness and vibrancy.
- Goldenrod- These commonly found roadside flowers have been hybridized to yield more flowers and lend a burst of golden glow to even the drabbest of corners.
- Asters- If only there was a plant that could give you an abundance of color long into the winter… Oh wait, there is! The flowers of Asters resemble daisies and thus are great for lending the garden a sense of cheer. They’re fairly hardy, too, provided that they’re staked down in a sheltered corner.
- Sempervivum- As the greens of your garden begin to turn brown, these babies will give you a splash of green all year round since they’re as resilient as they are beautiful.
