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Great Time for a Refresh 8 WAYS TO PERK UP YOUR FALL GARDEN By Janice F. Booth Autumn is well underway here in Maryland, and there’s a special sweetness to this post-COVID pandemic fall. Kids are back in school or back in their college dorms. We’re settling into our work routines, modified though they may be post-pandemic. When we return home, to our familiar haven, our house or apartment and garden, we’re enjoying the benefits of all the little projects we accomplished during quarantine—those new, small appliances for the kitchen, that repainted den or office, and the dear garden—polished or even expanded from past seasons. Feels good, doesn’t it, to look over your accomplishments? Now, however, fall is upon us, and our long summer on-the-go has ended. Time to plump up those couch pillows, have the windows cleaned, and tidy up the garden for the last lovely months of the year. Here are some suggestions for perking up our tired gardens and patios, preparing them for fall parties and quiet sunset drinks or dinners on the deck.
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Start with the obvious. If you have a gardening service, ask them to remove the dead and dying annuals from the flowerbeds and pots. Remind them not to pull out the zinnias and chrysanthemums; they’re in their glory now. Dead-heading any old blooms could help these plants continue to bloom during the next month-or-so. (If you’re doing these tasks yourself, no worries. They’re all easy tasks; take a large basket or plastic pail into the garden and just pluck out dead blossoms and brown, withered plants.
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While they or you are clearing out the tired plants, trim back some of those spring-blooming bushes that have grown a bit leggy over the long, summer, growing season. Once trimmed back, your forsythias, flowering quince, and lilac bushes will still have time to grow and prepare to send out new growth and welcome blooms once spring arrives.
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Another great way to freshen the garden area is with some strategically placed new plants. In the garden
