While the temperatures are cooler and you are naturally getting some more water in your garden via rainstorms, why not try to renovate your planting beds? Autumn is a great time to place some new plants and reinvigorate your landscape. This is especially true if some of your existing ones were unfortunately damaged during the heat and dryness of summer.
What Can You Plant in Autumn?
There are many different types of plants that you can add to your planting beds during fall. For example, most species of trees and shrubs can be safely planted in the fall. They can use this time of mild weather to get their root structure started in the ground and get ready for the coming dormancy period of winter.
Do check with your garden center before planting to be sure that it will do well if planted during the fall as some kinds do better when they are As the Morton Arboretum notes, these include “bald cypress, American hornbeam, ginkgo, larch, magnolia, hemlock, sweetgum, tuliptree, and willow…and many types of evergreens”
You can also freshen up your planting beds with some new perennials and annuals. Though annuals will not usually last more than a few months or weeks, it will definitely help add color to your planting beds and extend the gardening season before the botanical world gets quieter in winter.
Finally, this is the time to plant your spring-flowering bulbs like crocuses, daffodils and tulips. They need to go through a period of cold in order to be triggered properly when the temperatures start to warm after winter.
How are you renovating your planting beds this autumn?
Image by garryknight under a Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License
