With the correct amount of planning and effort, a garden can turn into something very beautiful and pleasing to view.
One of the best parts of being a gardener is that you can plan your flowers or vegetables to bloom at certain times of the year. Most plants are only able to thrive around those times; that is why some herbs and flowers are specified as fall plants or summer plants.
When you buy a starter plant or seeds, the packaging should tell you all of the information you need to know to help it grow properly. Otherwise, if you don’t follow the recommended care routine, they may not grow the way you want them too or in the correct seasons.
Fall is one of the prettiest times of year because of how the leaves change color, and the air gets chilly. People start decorating their houses, both inside and out, with fall decorations, but the best part is fall gardening.
If you have the time, you can create a section of your garden that blooms in fall; and it’s not just flowers, there are other fall gardening plants like vegetables and herbs that you can use as well.
Preparing Your Garden for Fall Gardening Plants
Before you start making changes to your garden and begin planting new fall plants, this is a good time to get your existing garden cleaned up. You can clean it up by clearing any old or dead plant debris that is laying on the ground around your plants.
Sometimes it’s beneficial to leave some of the plant leaves that die on the ground so that they decompose into the soil, but if you’re making serious changes to your garden, you will want to clear it completely.
If any vines have grown over to where they are invading the space of other plants, go ahead and cut those back or move them. Not all vines will cause harm to plants nearby, like ground-cover plants, but just to be sure, do your research online on the species of plant and deal with it accordingly.
Next, check for pests like snakes, spiders, or other animals/insects that might burrow into the ground or eat the plants. Watch out for signs of beetles, stink bugs, wireworms, and even rabbits because they will all cause harm.
The smaller bugs will attack the seeds you plant underground, and rabbits eat newly sprouted vegetables.
If it is absolutely necessary, you can call pest control for the insects, but be very careful with how you deal with a rabbit problem since they don’t do much harm and are just trying to take care of their family.
Fall Gardening Vegetables
Remember, as you are going about your fall gardening that there is a difference between plants that you harvest in fall versus ones that you plant in fall. It is important to know the difference to avoid accidentally planting the wrong plants at the wrong time.
If the wrong type of plant is placed during a season like winter instead of summer, for example, it is likely that it will die as soon as it sprouts, or the seed will not germinate in the expected amount of time.
During fall, you will be harvesting, and sometimes removing, vegetables that recently became fully grown; as well as planting new plants that will grow around springtime. If you have no vegetables growing this fall, plant your fall vegetables in your garden in late summer when the next year comes around so that you will have a full harvest next fall.
Gardening Vegetables to Plant in Spring for Fall Harvest
- Beets
- Carrots
- Green onions
- Chinese cabbage
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Kohlrabi
But, since it is most likely fall when you are reading about these fall gardening ideas, your primary concern is what types of vegetables to plant right now for spring harvest.
You will notice that many of the vegetables you can plant in the spring, you can also plant in the fall. That is because most of these types of vegetables grow best in colder weather when it’s not too hot and not too cold. They grow fairly quickly.
Gardening Vegetables to Plant in Fall
- Broccoli
- Brussels sprouts
- Cabbage
- Swiss chard and collards
- Peas
- Kale
- Kohlrabi
- Leeks
- Mustard greens
- Radishes
- Spinach
- Turnips
All of these fall gardening vegetables are capable of growing and surviving a winter frost. Once it becomes winter, you can lay blankets on the soil to keep it from freezing and place a cover on the vegetable plants overnight.
You must take these precautions if you live in an extremely cold zone; otherwise, you may lose your vegetables to the cold.
Fall Gardening Flowers
Vegetables aren’t the only type of plant you can sow in the fall, and they certainly aren’t the prettiest. Flowers are what most people look forward to seeing bloom.
There are a lot of species flowers that can bloom in the fall, just like in other seasons; it may not seem so because of the cold weather and all of the leaves falling, but many flowers love this time of year.
Fall-Blooming Flowers
Below are some types of flowers that bloom in the fall. Under each flower picture, there is a link that you can click to view prices for seeds for that flower on Amazon.
Balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorus)
Blue Mist Shrub(Caryopteris)
Goldenrod (Solidago)
Japanese anemones (Anemone x hybrida)
Spotted Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium)
Mums (Chrysanthemums)
Sneezeweed (Helenium)
Chrysanthemums are one of the most popular because of their small, perfectly-rounded, warm-colored flowers. You may have seen them for sale at a local grocery store, on one of their outdoor fall plant stands. They are also one of the easiest plants to grow.
Mums can grow well in planters or in the ground, which is why they are the typical flower that you see at the store.
Sneezeweed is a stunning fall flower as well. They have pumpkin-colored petals (great for autumn!) with a large brownish-yellow bulb in the middle that holds a sizeable amount of pollen. They need full sun but can survive the cold temperatures of fall and part of winter.
Flowers to Plant in the Fall
These flowers you are about to see are ones that you should plant during the fall, which will bloom in the spring. Although you can’t see them right now, they will create a nice surprise after winter without having to do anything beforehand except watering.
Most of these spring flowers grow from bulbs rather than seeds.
Daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus)
Siberian Squill
Allium
Fritillaria
Winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis)
Snowdrop
Pansies
Buy Pre-Grown Fall Gardening Flowers
Even though it is an amazing experience to watch flowers grow all the way from a seed to an incredible flower, not everyone has the time to nurse a plant for all that time up until fall.
Most people would like to get their fall gardening done quickly and last-minute so that the garden area of their yard looks nice for visitors during all of the upcoming holidays. There is no shame in being one of these types of people. In fact, you are probably smarter than most.
To produce results faster in your fall garden, go to your local plant nursery and buy fall flowers, or any fall plants, that are already partially grown in a pot. While you are there, you might want to also buy a bag of soil and a bag of your choice of mulch.
Since you are doing renovations to your garden, you will likely need soil to fill in empty spots where there is extra room left over from old plants. If you decide to use it, the mulch can help keep your garden plants warm during cold days and makes the garden look more presentable.
Fun Ways to Garden for Fall
After planting your new flowers and vegetables, or once they have bloomed, your garden should look very lovely; but what is fall without an extra level of creativity and decoration?
Since the holidays will be soon, you will want your garden and the entrance to your home looking beyond perfect. Small planters and other garden decorations will make your yard look complete.
You can choose to take things one step further by adding one of the following elements to your fall garden.
Window Boxes
Even though your garden is ready for the fall season, it may seem odd-looking if it is next to a side of your house that is lacking in the decorations department.
Adding a window box to a nearby window is one quick way to solve this problem. It takes very little time to set up a window box, and it is even easier to take care of the plants inside of it.
The first thing you need to do to place your window box is to buy a window box, of course. There are tons of options online, but here is the best choice window box planter on Amazon.
CobraCo 36-Inch English Horse Trough Planter
This window box planter is metal with coco liner on the inside. What is great about this planter is that it can hang on railings as well as under a window because of the type of mounting system it has.
In the picture, the plants inside the window box aren’t fall flowers, but it doesn’t come with these flowers or any for that matter, so you can place any type of fall flowers in it that you desire. A common fall window box scheme is to use a vine plant and mums or another small fall-colored flower.
If you would like a window box that is more plain, wooden, or plastic, look through some of the options online because there are hundreds of boxes.
Once you have the window box mounted, then you can add your plants. Doing it the other way around might cause some complications since the flowers will be in the way of inside of the mounting mechanism.
Large Outdoor Flower Planters
A garden isn’t complete without some rustic fall decorations off to the side. Even though you have plenty of vegetables and flowers in your garden now, you can plant even more in a separate flowerpot. Find an outdoor flowerpot that is large and ties in with your fall decorations.
Wooden planters are a good idea since they have a rugged and earthy feel to them. Wood flowerpots are usually cheaper than ceramic ones. They mostly look like a barrel but have a lining on the inside to make it more suitable for plants.
Set of 3 Outdoor Wooden Barrel Planters with Drainage Holes and Side Handles
The wood on these barrel planters is completely sealed to prevent unwanted draining, but they have a drainage hole for when you do want to drain excess water.
The side handles also make them easier to carry, and there are three different sizes in this product listing so you can use them in more than one spot or place them all together for a unique fall gardening display.
Fall Gardening
How extravagant you make your fall garden is up to you. Try to venture out each year to find new inspiration and ideas to make your fall garden, unlike anybody else’s and don’t be afraid to try new things.
Even if you make a mistake with planning your seasonal flowers and vegetables, you can always try again next year, and you can always remove a plant that you buried by accident.
Garden planning is the best way to avoid any mishaps and to make your garden look amazing; even if you have to write it down.