Easy Autumn Color &  Flavor

August 30, 2016 | By webadmin

With the cooler weather just around the corner and rain making a comeback, we’re inspired to start replacing warm season plants with varieties that will thrive through the next season. Fall, with its mild night temperatures and increasing rainfall, is a great time to grow a fresh crop of seasonal blooms, herbs and veggies.

Here are some of our favorite herbs, veggies and color that can be planted soon in the next few weeks, and through fall, to freshen up your garden.

Flowers

Fall might just be one of our favorite seasons to plant annual color. Many varieties we choose will often survive through a frost and some will bloom even better once the days begin to warm again the following spring. Did you know marigolds prefer spring and fall weather in Dallas? You can plant marigolds now for a nice show of fall color. Even geraniums are happier in fall. Ornamental peppers make a fun and colorful addition to fall containers. Chrysanthemums are the quintessential fall bloomer that can be dropped into containers, or planted as a perennial in the garden.

Iceland poppies can be planted mid-fall and provide a showy pop of mixed colors through spring. While violas and pansies are the mainstays of winter color, sweet alyssum, English daisies, cherianthus, dianthus and silver dusty miller are all excellent varieties to plant as temperatures cool down this month. 

Flavor

Herbs are not only flavorful, but beautiful as well. Herbs are good companion plants in the landscape for your seasonal color. Cilantro, dill, fennel and either flat leaf or curled parsley are the herbs we most look forward to planting each year and now is the time. Mix them into your full sun color container gardens and among the blooms in your garden beds.. In spring, allow your cool-season herbs to bloom. Not only will they give you another season of interest, they’ll attract bees and butterflies to your garden. Other herbs that grow well through winter include chives, chervil, mint and thyme.

Dill in bloom, curled parsley and fennel.

Vegetables

Our summer heat can be tough on edibles. It’s actually easier to grow many veggies through the cool months in our climate. Lettuce, Swiss chard and other leafy greens can be planted now by seed or transplant and mix perfectly with seasonal blooming plants. You can even grow them in containers  Broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, peas and winter squash can also be seeded this month. Never be afraid to mix your edibles with your flowers!

Carrots, broccoli and a mix of greens are a must in the winter edible garden.

Healthy soil is the key to a successful harvest and display for all your plants no matter the season. Be sure to amend your landscape beds and containers with compost when you refresh your landscape color and add fertilizer at planting time.

Not into DIY color plantings? We can do it for you! Let us design and plant your seasonal color changes to keep your curb appeal fresh year-round.