Hit the Dirt; Autumn is for Gardening

Hi this is Claire Ackroyd and this is hit the dirt. It's a little hard to miss the fact that it is now fall. Although I prefer to call it autumn because fall sounds like a sort of things dropping off season and Autumn has a much more sort of dignified name for a beautiful season the seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness which I had to learn once when I was in school. It's my personal favorite the seasons My birthdays in the autumn and I think that that might have something to do with it I find my energy levels going up as the temperatures drop and it's wrong to think a fall is just sort of the transition between summer and winter. It's a beautiful season of its own and it is New England's absolutely most magical season if you compare it with spring which is too cold a summer which is too hot and buggy and too busy and winter which is way too cold. The fall is perfect is the most gorgeous beautiful weather and it's responsible for the most stunning and spectacular moment in New England when all the foliage turns and so. My feeling is that the fall autumn should be enjoyed and celebrated in the garden not just as a season for

cleaning up and putting the garden to bed for the winter but as a season a long season in its own right there's eight to ten good weeks of autumn weather in this area. On a good year which is as much summer as you get on a poor year so why not treat autumn as a season for the garden. It's a sad but honest capable fact that nurserymen or even not three women. So more plants that are spectacular in the spring are plants that have the finest moment in the fall. Takes a city for example. We sell tons of Pacifica which has one maybe two weeks of beautiful yellow flowers in the spring and it's a nasty looking plot the rest of the year. But we sell very very few products who have both the glory is in the autumn. This is understandable people get antsy for some bright color. After a long dry winter. But I would like to encourage people to think of autumn as a season for specifically for planting for plant things to enjoy in the garden.

It's a lovely season to be in the garden. It's good weather it's a good but good season for gardening itself. The ground is warm. It's a good time for planting plants. If you plant plants in the spring you're asking most probably to do two things at once to start growing and to get established all at one go. If you plant them in the fall when the ground is warm and they are naturally going into dormancy all you're asking them to do is to get established in that ice form ground to get ready for winter and they don't have to have the double energy requirement of also starting the whole new year's growth. That doesn't hold true for something some non-root hardy plants of which Magnolia is possibly the best example. Do poorly moved in the fall. But in general planting in the fall is a very successful thing to do. So plant a garden that is specifically to enjoy in the fall so that when you're out doing your chores putting a garden to bed for the winter enjoying the wonderful bug free weather.

That we get in September and October make your garden something to enjoy for the season that you're out in it. So how would you plant a garden that you designed just for the fall. In my view many things that are the most spectacular in the fall are large that big beautiful things with a big impact and so should be seen from a distance and should be planted whether the morning or afternoon if you like light shines on the early morning light in fall is magical. When the morning is cool and the sun is coming up when you want to plant your garden where you see it with the morning light shining on it from a nice distance away. What would you plant. Well. Next week I want to talk about plants that are especially good for fall color. But I want you to. Meanwhile drive around as you as you admire the fall try to identify the products the All-Seeing and look at the different color combinations. It's not all reds and oranges that are wonderful all the colors green and gray are important fall colors because of the contrast full of the Reds and the yellows spruces and green foliage seeing gray foliage.

I can't say blue spruce is possibly the only season that I really enjoy blue spruces when that contrasts it with the Reds and golds of fall. Don't forget to the perennials I've talked recently about perennials that go on blooming late and they're wonderful color combinations you get with the pink and purple. Asters against orange and gold full foliage which is a color that most people wouldn't allow but when it happens naturally is absolutely beautiful. So. That's all for this week but next week I'm going to talk about the specific plants for full color. And this is Claire Ackroyd and you've been listening to the duck.