Fall Planting

Written by Jungle Jim

This is the lead time into Fall. The days are getting shorter, the temperatures are softening, and it is getting easier to get out of the air-conditioned house.

Fall is a great time to do planting. The nursery trade used to welcome fall with big sales that over time have gradually stopped. It’s not because fall isn’t a good time to plant, but because as an industry, we’ve lost focus.

Fall should be almost as popular for planting as Spring. There are a lot of color plants that bloom even better when planted in the fall rather than spring. They include annuals like Pansies, Violas, Primroses, Snapdragon, and Paladosum Daisy that bloom all fall and winter.

There is a whole crop of vegetables that should be planted in the fall like Broccoli, Cabbage, Lettuce, Peas, Turnips, Onions, Beets and Carrots. If you’d like to know more about fall vegetable gardening, come to our Fall Veggie Garden How To informational seminar on September 17 @ 11.

Perennials love to be planted in the Fall and a lot of them are available in 6-paks. Delphinium, Foxglove, Penstemon, Candytuft, and Coreopsis are ready. If planted now they develop into those magnificent plants you see in the Spring here.

As far as general trees and shrubs go Fall planting means a huge increase in next Springs growth. This may not be apparent on the exposed portion, but the important growth is in the root development.

Jungle Jim