Fall

Deep Dark Plants for Halloween and Beyond

October 30, 2011 4 comments
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Photo at left: Mackerel showing his love of Phormium ‘Black Adder’ October always makes me want to curl up with my gardening books and highlight the deliciously wicked black plants found within. But you don’t need to limit black and dark plants to Halloween. They can fit into pretty much any garden scheme, from English [...]

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Fall Garden Tasks in the Pacific Northwest

September 26, 2011 9 comments
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This time of year, my landscape maintenance company is busy as anything, pruning and helping all the gardens recover from months of wild blooming abandon. While a lot of what we’re doing right now is pruning to keep things at the right size in relation to their surroundings (we don’t want the plants leaning boorishly [...]

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Fall Leaf Raking: Finding the Middle Ground

November 6, 2010 17 comments
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All gardeners evolve. There is something about being outside and working hard in nature that inspires learning and growth. The issue of fall leaves is one I’ve been struggling with lately. Last year I wrote about why you shouldn’t let your fall leaves stay, and all of those reasons are still true, but… This year [...]

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Monday Miscellany: Pruners, Leaf Litter, and Attracting Pollinators

October 25, 2010 0 comments
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Was absolutely delighted to get this awesome comment from Heuchera on my Hand Pruner Showdown post comparing the different types of pruning shears: Recently I lost my old Felcos and needed to find a new pair. I had owned a different model, so I decided to research the web to see if the No. 2′s [...]

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Fall Leaves: Leave ‘Em and Weep

December 5, 2009 4 comments
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Once upon a time some newbie garden writer thought it’d be a great idea to encourage people to leave their fall leaves on the ground. Hey, it’s got all the qualities of a great article for the masses; it tells folks what they want to hear (stay in your jammies on Saturday and don’t bother [...]

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How to Prune Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ (Video Tutorial)

November 30, 2009 15 comments
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Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ is a true garden classic, especially paired with ornamental grasses, lavenders and colorful sages. It’s particularly great because during the summer when everything else is blooming, its greenish-white buds are getting bigger and bigger, creating a subtly beautiful show, then as everything else slows for the fall, ‘Autumn Joy’ bursts into bloom [...]

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Your Gardening Body: How to Rake and Sweep Without Strain or Pain

November 15, 2009 0 comments
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Anne Asher, a movement specialist from The MOVE! Blog,  has been kind enough to answer some common questions about how professional and/or passionate gardeners can reduce the strain that comes from repetitive gardening tasks. Here’s this month’s installment: Dear Anne, By November, fall leaves are piling up around perennials and shrubs. I like to rake [...]

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Delicate Flowers: What NOT to Plant in Fall

November 7, 2009 10 comments
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Recently I read an article on Sunset’s website, suggesting that we all rush out and buy those discounted perennials to plant for fall. We all know by now that fall planting is a great idea, but is fall really the best time to plant everything, even perennials? Many perennials don’t actually live all that long [...]

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Fall Color Container Planting Idea

October 24, 2009 7 comments
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A client came up with this pretty container planting idea for summer and fall. The spiky Phormium/ Flax Grass makes a vivid centerpiece, then she used red Coleus and orange Impatiens to pick up on the Flax’s colored stripes. Last, she used some purple trailing Petunias to cool down the combination and spill over the [...]

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Fall-Blooming Heathers for Autumn Color

October 10, 2009 4 comments
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Calluna vulgaris ‘Sister Anne’ In all the time I’ve been designing gardens, I have never had anyone tell me, “please, no heathers!”. Thank goodness, because heathers are my secret weapon for extending any season’s interest. By the end of summer many perennials have stopped blooming, but the winter bloomers and fall colors haven’t started in [...]

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