Fall is indeed in full swing, and it just so happens that it is also the most colorful season for gardeners around the Great Lakes. With temperatures ranging from a warm high 80s and cold that’s almost as cool as snow weather, the ground, shrubs, and trees have taken to October as the last showcase of their beauty for fall. Take a look at what you shouldn’t miss before you go for evergreens, pumpkins, and twigs for your season’s garden décor.

Dramatic Prairie Grasses

When you think of fall colour, you usually wouldn’t have prairie grasses in mind; but native prairie grasses are at their best come October. With colours ranging from orange, purple, yellow, and red, they’d look great at your pocket garden, lawn, or even in pots!

Perennials to the Rescue!

Whatever you garden with need not be restricted to seasonal blooms and greeneries. Perennials such as hosta, Echinacea, and Penstemon ‘Dark Towers’ can provide you with a blaze of beautiful autumn shades especially this month.

Mums are for Autumn!

Either go for florists’ mums that you’ll have to replace every year, or go for Chrysanthemum x rubellum (a type of Korean mum) for years of beautiful autumn blooms. If you’re lucky, they’ll be in bloom until December!

Choose Frost-Tolerant Blooms

In our area (The Great Lakes), the first hard frost typically rolls in around the end of October. This means that opting for flowers that tolerate frost well would be the smart choice. You can go for frost-tolerant annuals like petunias and snapdragons, small ones like Alliumthunbergii ‘Ozawa’ or go big with the stately monkshood – a plant that can grow up to 6 feet!

Go Beyond Blooms

October happens to be the month for ripening seed heads and berries of some plants; so go ahead and take advantage of that! Seven son’s flower or Heptacodium miconioides can bring colour to your gardens as the other blooms fade. As for other plants, crab apples, rose hips, and plants of the Viburnum species continue to colourful fruits and pods until late in the month.

Plan and Plant Ahead

This month is the perfect time to plan and plant some of your spring blooms such as wildflowers and ephemerals. You can go ahead and start your bulbs indoors so they’d be in full bloom at the first glimpse of spring. As for your perennials, October is the perfect time to plant the hardy ones in the ground so they’d have time to acclimate before winter and also to move the sensitive ones indoors to protect them from the cold.

Don’t Forget to Manage Pests

Just because the weather is cooling and everything seems to be cooling down does not mean pests are taking a vacation too. If left on their own, destructive insects can damage your plants. Daily hand picking can dramatically decrease any damage from pests so go ahead and do it!

Make Things Pretty for the Holidays!

Make use of seasonal offerings such as pumpkins, vines, and colourful leaves to decorate for the upcoming holidays. You’d be surprised at how pretty berries and twigs can be when arranged in a wreath!

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