Let Your Garden Retain the Colors of this Fall

The arrival of fall bathes a garden in vibrant colors of yellow, orange and fiery red. However one can keep the colors of autumn alive in your garden even after the leaves are raked away. Here are a few ways to grow lasting foliage which will continue to lend fall colors to your garden.

The first step as with any garden project is to clean the garden and prepare the soil. Clear away all the fading summer annuals and rake away dried leaves from the flower beds. You can use the fallen leaves and old annuals to start making a new compost pile. Add fresh compost on beds and top pots with good organic potting soil.

Vary the colors in your garden with green and fall-colored foliage. some green plants which also give good architectural structure are Japanese Plum Yew, Whipcord Arbovitae, Lirope, Bergenia, Vinca and various evergreen ferns.

Among the plants which give more colorful foliage in fall shades are Heuchera, Heather, Nandina, ornamental grasses like Leather Leaf Sedge, Euphorbia and some varieties of Azalea leaves. Plants which lend cool winter hues of white, blue and grey to a garden are variegated Vinca, “Silver Queen” Heather, Lamb’s Ear, Sage, Sedum, Blue Fescue and Blue Oat Grass.

A garden looks best when created on varying principles of colour, texture and architecture. If it has a pleasing mix of evergreen, semi-evergreen and fall foliage, no matter what the season, it will never lack in beauty.