How to add zing to your fall garden

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September is a great time to give your garden a colour facelift

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I admit that by now, my garden usually has a few bare spots: holes that were formerly occupied by bulbs, or where I’ve planned badly, or a plant has died on me (it happens).

But the cooler weather makes working in the garden much more pleasant than in the heat of summer, and September is a great time to zing things up with some colourful new blooms.

Here’s a partial list of my go-to September additions. Some are perennials, so with a little care they’ll return next year.

But since the goal is adding colour right now, I usually just plant them where I want, keep them going till winter, and happily dig them up (or move them) later.

Michaelmas Daisy

Also known as fall or hardy aster, Michaelmas daisies add a cheery spray of soft purply blue, pink or white to September roadsides and meadows as well as gardens.

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Plant them in full sun and they’ll come back year after year; or treat them as an annual and place them wherever you’d like a burst of colour.

Blanket Flower

Blanket flower is another perennial wildflower that gardeners have tamed, notable for its bright red blooms with yellow edges and brown centres, a bit like black-eyed Susans (to whom they are related).

It’s another sun lover, and if it likes the spot you plant it in, will spread nicely and come back next year.

Marigold

Marigolds are annuals here in Ontario, and are a sure-fire way to add sunshine to a late summer garden, with their full, pincushion-y flowerheads of yellow, orange, red or a combination of red and yellow.

They’re also great for attracting butterflies and beneficial insects to your garden.

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Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ is one of my garden favourites at any time, not just fall, since it goes through several equally attractive stages over the course of the season.

It starts out as a tidy mound of light green, close-packed little balls (possibly giving rise to one of its common names, stonecrop). These grow into stems topped by florets that resemble broccoli (or tiny trees, as little kids rarely fail to notice), which gradually turn rosy-red as summer turns to fall.

Sedums are a member of the succulent family, so be careful not to overwater them or let them stand in water. Also, for best bloom colour, they like at least partial sun.

Chrysanthemum

The stores are full of potted chrysanthemums this time of year, and while I personally find them a bit old-fashioned, they’re another can’t-miss fall performer in white, yellow, pink or maroon.

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For best flowering, give them lots of sun, but if you’re buying pots for fall colour and don’t intend to naturalize them as garden perennials, buy them in near-full or full bloom and plant them anywhere that gets even a little sun.

Japanese Blood Grass

With its deep-red blades, Japanese blood grass is beautiful in a fall garden, or in containers with other fall bloomers.

While like most grasses it’s pretty hardy, you’ll want to plant it where it gets as much sun as possible; in shade it tends to revert back to regular green.

Ornamental Cabbage

Like mums, I find ornamental cabbages to be a bit of a fall garden cliché, but if you’re lucky, you can find ones that are more interesting in shape or colour than the standard round cabbage heads.

Most ornamental cabbages look like exaggerated forms of regular edible cabbage (and technically, they are edible!), but are far more colourful, with light green, white, purple or white-and-purple centres surrounded by grey-green outer leaves.

For best colour, plant them in a cool part of the garden and don’t let them dry out.

Please feel free to write in with questions, to comment or to share your
own city gardening adventures. Write to me at marthasgarden07@gmail.com

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