14 Awesome Plants for Fall, and Book Giveaway!

I am trying to keep alive our “Gammy Garden.” We moved into my in-laws’ house to care for my mother-in-law, a magnificent, gentle, loving woman whose love led me to a path of spiritual transcendence. She raised 6 children, made her 14 grandchildren feel special. And she tended her beloved garden, an everblooming riot of color, which for 50 years was her gift to family and neighbors. When Gammy died, I took on the upkeep of the garden. It was my gift to her children and grandchildren who would come to their old house. I knew nothing about gardening. During her long-term illness her garden had lost many plants. So my first spring I spent hundreds of $ on plants. A mish mosh that proved to be disappointing. Many died the next year. Two years later I tried again. Same results. Gardening became a chore. The weeds wore me down. And I couldn’t figure how to plan how to make it ever blooming and to be seen from afar. I just gave up. But the few intrepid suriving Gammy Garden’s plants would push their heads up in the spring to remind me she lived on and YES, I could do this. This year, I almost died. As I recovered, for some reason, I started back to garden. It became an emotional therapy. The work to revive the garden and clear weeds that took over was monumental. I kept reading, researching. I would walk through the neighborhood and look at gardens for inspiration. I lived at the nurseries.
Now, I have happy singing flowers. But I need more all-season fillers. And I need to plan so the plants in the Gammy Garden are so abundant and vibrant and everblooming that they shout out to the street they face. Right now they still look like a green patchy blur. Bless you Gammy. Your grand girls see me bringing your beloved garden back to life and thus bring memories of you back to them. And they see your garden bring me back to life.

I am going to stop by this week to see what I should do.

I love reading the blogs and I drool over gardening books. However my husband and I have zero time to maintain a garden lately, no experience with gardening, and no green thumbs amoung us…do green hearts count? Our sedum (one of the only names I know) did come back and bloomed lovely…we even had some late blooming hostas this year thanks to a generous neighbor. Our focus has been on clearing out areas of our land for future gardening as there was a lot of scrub brush/half dead trees eating up the sun and killing off the viable plants…our dream is to have lovely gardens (including a vegetable one) with written instructions on how to easily maintain them! Perhaps some grass would be nice too….

Two lovely shrubs and one tree in our garden are at their most glowingly beautiful in autumn. The Viridis Japanese maple (Acer Palmatum Dissectum, “Viridis”) is a small ornamental tree that goes from uniformly green in spring and summer, to red, yellow and orange in October.
Dwarf Mount Airy Fothergilla treats us and the bees to scented, fluffy blossom spikes in spring, and then to a multicolored shower of confetti in the border in the fall.
Finally, a shrub I almost never see, but which is easy, adaptable and a great mid-size plant for the border, is Disanthus Cercidifolius, or heart-leaved disanthus. Like the fothergilla, it is in the witch hazel family. Its open habit and outwardly dangling leaves look like a decorated Christmas tree, with each leaf its own stunning shade of purple, red, orange and yellow. YUM!

Wow! I am impressed with the knowledge of the Mahoney bloggers. I am a timid gardner. Ten years ago, we installed a sprinkler system while our lawn was professionally done with sod. It is still absolutely beautiful. We also installed many bushes around the base of the house — but everything is basically green (except for two rhodos) and there’s no other color! Oh, how I envy the lovely landscapes bursting with color as I go on our annual trek to Mahoney’s to buy our Christmas tree or pumpkins. But my temerity has gotten the best of me.

I planted tulips one year, but that was a disaster. After all that work, most of the tulip bulbs seemed to have been eaten by a critter, I believe. Maybe the book will help me. Or maybe I am destined to just admire other people’s lovely masterpieces.

I’ve been trying for years to achieve a lush, year round garden. I’ve failed miserably. I’ll plant something new every year and most of the time it fails.
I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.

I appreciate your newsletters and promotions and events!
and I love books too…

I have many of the plants mentioned - Japanese fall anemone (though some sadly died with the summer drought), sedums, caryopteris (this looks like it’s swaying in the breeze, but it’s swaying with the bees!), asters, heucheras, mums. And my roses are making one last (albeit small) attempt to shine. But what’s amazed me is my pink phlox - it’s bloomed & bloomed & still looks fresh now after many weeks. I deadheaded it, but do this every year - no idea why it’s doing so well now. I didn’t know about the book - so will look for it for suggestions about what to do in New England winters. (besides don’t deadhead my black-eyed Susans for birds & ‘winter interest’).

I am new to gardening and have been a trial and error gardener….trying things out and seeing what happens. I am wondering about watering. When the weather becomes cooler, do I need to water as much. Throughout the summer I water in the early morning and late evening. What do mums, grasses, and other fall plants need?

I admit I came here just to put in my winning entry chance.

Here are some grass/turf thoughts to complement the garden…

I have added a solar panel to a rechargeable battery driven lawn mower I got on craigslist - and now have a quiet, odorless powered mower that runs on sun power. For yards under 10,000 feet, if you’ve been thinking about going to a reel mower - fantastic, and if you’ve been thinking about rechargeable - also great. Be aware many rechargeable mowers can be hooked up to solar panels with a bit of tinkering. Mine takes about 4 days to recharge enough to do the next mow.

Looking for ideas on how to beautify the space above a retaining wall. It’s a good 10 feet wide on top and in need of natural-looking, carefree beauty. Of course, if anyone wants to give me a price for moving the wall back to the property line I’m up for that too!

I’m new to gardening, so I appreciate all the advice. Still waiting on my anemone to bloom, but my sedum is starting to look great!

I already have a copy of this book and it is a treasure. I especially liked the chapter on vines because I am always trying to get my garden to go UP.