Switching to Autumn Plants & Flowers

In October, I thought I was ready to put the garden to bed for the year, but once I got my hands dirty, I changed my mind. Some of the plants, including my ornamental grasses and Liriope (which we call monkey grass in the South), still looked terrific. Instead, I cleared out all of the spent flowers and fading perennials and replaced them with some hardy chrysanthemums and pansies.

Before

I’ve always loved the “very late blooming” mums that are available at my local nursery. My goal is to keep color in my garden as long as possible, so the very late bloomers are perfect – they won’t bloom until close to Thanksgiving.

Then there are the pansies - an awesome little flower with an unfortunate name! Based on the name, you’d think a pansy would wither and die at the first cool breeze. Instead, I’ve had pansies remain in bloom through snow storms! This year I was lucky to find these beautiful rust-colored specimens.

Rust Petunias

This weekend, it was time to finally cut everything back and re-mulch. Although most people don’t cut back their perennials (especially grasses), I’ve found that doing so revitalizes the plant and helps the overall shape when it returns in the spring. 

It’s time consuming, but worthwhile.  It might be my natty nature showing, but seeing the before/after actually relaxes me a little! Everything is all tidy and ready for winter!



After



Nate helps clean the pond filter