Planting and taking care of a garden is one of the most therapeutic and rewarding activities you can learn, and Fall is considered the best time to start according to many gardeners.
The cooler temperature and pleasant weather make it a perfect start for most shrubs, plants, and trees. Keep reading to learn more and gather the best fall planting tips!
There are plenty of options to plant
The first point of our fall planting guide is plant sizes and which plants are suitable for starting out.
By having options with smaller roots, you will get a plant that will suffer less from transplanting from the pot to the ground and will adapt faster than a larger specimen. So you can have multiple plants next to each other without issues.
Here are some great plants for this:
- Pansies
- Violas
- Spring bulbs
- Trees
- Shrubs
- Perennials
- Chrysanthemum
- Kale
- Black-eyed Susan
- Radishes
- Shasta Daisy
- Sedum
- Marigolds
- Nemesia
- Spinach
- Arugula
- Mâche
It’s easy to know where to plant
During Fall, the dryness of the plants lets you notice the gaps in your garden, so you know that new seedlings can be placed there. Leaving the soil covered, in addition to not letting it "die", protects pollinating insects from the wet and icy winter weather, as these insects hibernate there.
To plant in Fall means growing for winter because during the cold season the roots will strengthen and then bloom in Spring.
There's no right time for some plants
If you bought plants or even a tree at the beginning of fall, don't worry about immediately putting them in the ground. You can wait a few days without any issues, as this doesn't cause the plant to die. For trees, it's better to plant when their leaves haven’t grown yet.
This is because during Fall all the tree's effort is dedicated to growing roots so that in spring and summer, they can focus only on leaves, flowers, and fruits.
What not to do
Avoid planting mid-season evergreens. Since they keep their leaves all winter long, they are likely to dry out when the ground freezes. Plant in early fall so that the plants create their most specific system for winter.
Evergreen plants like Holly, Rhododendron, and Boxwood have broad leaves and are more susceptible to leaf stress during cold days.
Avoid plants that take winter damage, such as:
- Butterfly bushes
- Caryopteris
- Large leaf hydrangeas
All of these planting tips are for transplanting new plants, but if you want to change something that is already part of your landscape, autumn is a really great time to do it.
Less watering
When starting a garden during Fall, water before planting! Remember to water small plants in their pots a few hours before, but for shrubs, water the soil it will be planted in beforehand.
Also, depending on where you live, be mindful of when to stop watering. This usually happens during late October or November. The temperatures going below zero would cause the soil to freeze, which would greatly damage your roots.
Know how to wait
Bushes won't have top growth when planted during Fall, but that's a good thing. Any growth the plant has at that time will be too fragile to survive the cold of Winter. Autumn planting is solely for the plant to develop root growth.
Then in spring they bloom without delay, as they have had enough time to keep the roots strong, and now they can concentrate on growing into leaves and flowers.
Need some help with your fall garden? Contact a local landscaping company and solve all your doubts before planting your seedlings!
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