There's no reason why you can't have beautiful fall color right outside your front door. Fall is a great time to look around, take stock of the colors and plants you like, then head to the garden store.
If it's trees you're searching for, maples can't be beat for vibrant color. Also try red oak or 'Autumn Glaze' ash, or hawthorn trees, which not only provide color with leaves but also berries. The ginkgo tree has unusual fan-shaped leaves that turn a golden yellow. For shrubs, check out euonymus, which turns bright red in the fall, and so do other shrubs like blueberry, barberry and sumac.
There are a lot of different choices, and each one of these plants look fabulous alone, but group them together and you get a dramatic look. We've chosen spirea for the front. You get the greenery and beautiful pink flowers; plus, in the fall it sets the garden on fire with its crimson color. We've also chosen viburnum. Again, we get the greenery, the white flowers in the spring, a fabulous rusty color in fall. With red-twig dogwood, not only do the leaves pick up the color in other plants, but the beautiful red bark looks fabulous against winter snow.
No fall garden is complete without the addition of ornamental grasses. The blades provide an array of color from golds, yellows, reds to purples. The beautiful plumes open in the fall and stay throughout winter.
Japanese larch is green during the growing season, but in the fall the needles turn buttery-yellow. Because the tree is deciduous, the needles will fall off the tree.
To get the bed ready for the fall plants, amend the soil with the three magic ingredients--peat moss, cow manure and a little bit of compost. As far as planting goes, the same rules apply. Dig a hole that's at least three times as wide as the root ball and as deep as the plant is in the container. The site for this type of fall garden should have at least six hours of sun a day.
Before you place the plant in the hole, don't forget to score the roots with your pruners. This will loosen them so they can spread. Then, make sure the plant is level with the soil surface. Then just back-fill with the rest of the soil. Space the shrubs so they have room to spread.
When you're planting ornamental grass, consider placing it near rock. Grass and boulders go together nicely. Tuck the grass right into the crevices of the boulders so it looks like they belong together.
It's a good idea to give all your plants a good drink. Don't fertilize. We don't want to encourage any new growth that won't have time to harden off before winter. And once the ground freezes, bring in some mulch--about four inches.
Although it doesn't look like much right away, in a couple of years the garden is going to look fabulous.
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