Long-blooming perennials create showy garden accents while blending with landscape plantings.

No doubt marveling at your beautiful garden next spring and summer requires planning ahead. That’s why fall is, I believe, the very best time for planting almost anything in your landscape. Mother Nature provides many incentives for fall planting, insuring your monetary investment and hard work pay extra dividends next spring and summer.

Planting in fall rather than spring gives trees and shrubs more time to grow new roots and become established before warmer temps roll in. The cooler growing time ensures new plants get off to their best start possible. Spring, of course, gives way to Treasure Valley’s brutal summer heat, which frequently wreaks havoc on a newly planted landscape.

There is typically more rain fall thru spring, when it’s least needed. The backwards rainy season is always baffling to me.  Fall is also the best time for transplanting any specimens that are not in the best growing conditions, may be more attractive, or fit better in a different location.

Calicarpa, also known by her common name Beauty Berry. Electric purple berries are a fall show stopper! Several cultivars.

In your garden plan, if you have a specific plant cultivar or bloom color in mind, it’s always best to purchase those items when they are in bloom. That could mean waiting until spring to find that perfect plant. For instance, if you’re after a pink dogwood instead of white, it’s always best to see the bloom color with your own eyes. Plants are occasionally mis-tagged.

Fall is a not only a great time to plant, it’s also a good time to plan. Imagine your garden with a succession of blooms, color, and multi-seasonal interest. The garden can be beautiful even in the dead of winter, but a year-round beautiful garden doesn’t happen by accident.  A professional landscape designer can be of great value in obtaining optimum results.

Don’t miss opportunities to clean up in the fall. It may seem like a boring chore. But for the healthiest garden, removing falling leaves, spent summer annuals and pruning perennials is a beneficial  practice. Composting is a great way to dispose of this type of garden waste and builds beautiful, rich, organic soil for you garden. Compost is called “black gold” in gardening circles. It’s a highly valued commodity for amending the soil.

Enjoy the fall season and updating your garden. It nurtures the soul, and the spring rewards will more than repay all of your efforts.

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