My flowerbeds have been looking a little tired. The long dry spell left my beds dried out and the Day Lilies were taking over the beds with their dried out leaves. It was time for some fall sprucing.
I just love adding some fall mums for a frugal bit of color. For $2.48 each (at Lowe’s this week), I was able to brighten my bed up with a little bit of color. Best of all, the mums come back every year and when I see their bright colors start popping up in my beds, I know that it won’t be long before my favorite season is here.
I trimmed the Day Lilies down for the year. They could have lasted a few more weeks, but it made it easier to pick a good placement for my mums. I put eight mums into the front flowerbeds and marveled how something so simple can make a girl so darn happy!
I am still loving how we solved our barren spot in our lawn with this boxed in tree. I planted four mums in and cut our sad little Hostas down. I am hoping that they do better next year because they looked pretty sad this year. A fresh bed of mulch (an extra bag tucked in our garage from the last project) and my tree looks a little bit brighter.
How do you prepare your flowerbeds for fall? Do you plant again or just cut things down? I am a newbie gardener so I am always looking for tips!
I am a newbie too. We still have our veggie gardens going strong. And my flower beds seem to be doing okay. I planted some filler stuff a few weeks ago. I do trim stuff back, but not based on season just based on need. Since it’s Florida and the seasons don’t change all that much and we don’t freeze, I hope to be able to keep most everything going this year.
Your beds look really nice!
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Looks great, I love the added fall color! Extra mulch will help your plants weather our midwest cold snaps. If you have any friends with hostas I would suggest a swap next spring, some varieties do better in sun, some in shade, and they all split and spread well.
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Very pretty, Amy! OK, so I’m a newbie gardener too so we’ll learn together!
The one bit of advice my MIL gave me is to trim back your grasses and other stuff during spring. I’ve (meaning hubs actually) done this year after year and they come back in thicker each year.
I’m also planning on taking my box garden and tilling an actual spot in our yard for a garden next year. They say that’s good to do in the fall too.
I’ll be watching this post for some tips!
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how do you get your mums to come back? I’ve tried – for YEARS, I’ve tried…and they always die in the winter. Grrrrr.
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Our motto in gardening: try something once, if it doesn’t work don’t do it again, if it does make a note and do it again.
For preparing beds in fall (I’m in WI), clean out the dead stuff (that way you don’t have things rotting as the spring thaws and detracting from blooming bulbs) then for the less hardy plants pile up a couple extra inches of mulch. This helps to privde extra insulation to the plants. You can always finish up cleaning out the beds in the spring, no big deal.
Another thing to do in fall, plan for spring and where you might enjoy seeing extra color after a long winter and have fun with bulbs. I like to try to have my plantings near the doors I use most frequently the windows I look out the most, more bang for my buck enjoyment-wise. Then plant in layers and clumps (it generally looks a lot nicer to have clumps of spring flowers rather than a random tulip here and there). Tulips and daffodils need to go down 6 inches (squirrels love to eat these bulbs so proper depth helps prevent this), but then you can put a layer of crocuses at 3 inches down. The crocuses will be finishing up as your daffodils are starting. As your daffodils are finishing, your tulips will be getting going. Add some iris tubers, they’ll bloom after the tuplips, and your are pretty much set to have 2-3 months of early flowers.
If you have some bulb stimulator (I think that’s the name) throw it in when you are planting the bulbs, it makes them happy.
A way to save money on iris tubers, find a friend or neighbor who needs to thin out his/her bed and ask if you can have some. Beds usually need thinning every few years and most gardeners love to share.
Hope this helps
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Jaime- Those are such great tips! I need all the help that I can get in the gardening department. You also reminded me that I really wanted to plant some bulbs too so I will definitely have to do that too!
Kathy- I can’t grow anything, but my mums have always come back. Do you lay down mulch? I have heard that helps with protecting them. The ones that I got from Ginger Valley come back bigger and bigger every year. I am hoping the ones from Lowes will do just as well because they were less expensive!!
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