8 Tips for Your End-of-Summer Perennial Garden

Fall is a perfect time to take advantage of the sales at the garden centres. It’s also one of the best times to do a little gardening. With lots of sunny days ahead paired with cooler nights, plants will quickly get established in your garden with minimal stress. Good for the garden, and for the gardener!

Choose perennials that are already in bloom. Not only can you get the colour that you want, you also know that they bloom at the same time every autumn, adding interest to your garden for many years to come.

Contrasting colours, like the black of this “Blackjack Sedum” pair well with the green leaves and plants you already have in your garden. Add one, or several to increase the amount of impact in the space. One of my personal favourites is to pair a wider leafed plant with a narrow one of contrasting colours.

Choose plants for their interesting shapes and structures in addition to their pretty flowers. The best gardens include plants that have architectural details like this “Autumn Joy Sedum” with its large flat leaves and massed pink flowerets.

Add grasses into your space. They balance the flowers but also add interest all the way into the cold months with the delicate seed heads. Not only do they look great moving in the wind, they attract colourful birds, which harvest the seeds all winter long.

Bees are also still hard at work in the fall, adding extra honey to help keep the rest of the hive fed all winter long. Traditionally, they are attracted to blue, yellow and white flowers, but this one clearly likes the pink of this fall flowering Rose of Sharon.

Include berries in your perennial garden design. These little pops of red look spectacular when contrasting against snow or frost. They even look amazing in cut arrangements in outdoor planters, or in a wreath on your front door.

And don’t forget the evergreens! No perennial garden is complete without the backdrop of some decorative cedars or yews. This favourite in the garden frame the beautiful fall blooms, but then go on to add winter interest until the spring bulbs start to bloom.

There you have it! A fantastic fall garden, ready for next season.