Fall is the most colorful time of the year. The right plants can completely transform a landscape into a feast for the eyes! Find the perfect addition to a fall landscape at our garden supply store in Harrisburg, PA, and enact a natural splendor as the landscape transitions from the hot, lazy days of summer to the crisp days of fall.

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Ground Covers

Let’s begin at ground level, with evergreen ground covers. This is a way to keep greenery alive all year! Wall germander, flowering thyme, sedum, candytuft, creeping phlox, bugleweed, creeping juniper, and hens and chicks are great evergreen ground covers to “plug in” to bare spots between shrubs, between stepping stones, along the tops of a retaining wall, or along a walkway. 

Fall-flowering ground covers such as Golden Creeping Jenny, Birdsfoot Trefoil, Scotch Moss, Purple New Zealand Burr, and Coral Carpet Stonecrop will offer plenty of color throughout the fall.

Perennials and Annuals

Black Eyed Susans, flowering kale, chrysanthemums, pansies, asters, dianthus, and Viola offer wonderful pops of color in fall: any purple flowers, especially, offer a delightful contrast to the yellows, oranges, reds, and purples of shrubs and trees. 

As you deadhead spent annuals, keep them around if their foliage is still attractive. Otherwise, fill in the spaces between perennials with a fresh layer of attractive mulch. A chocolatey-brown mulch can act like a blank canvas onto which you can “paint” with nature’s splendid colors.

Ornamental Grasses 

Ornamental grasses offer more subtle colors during the growing season and beyond. Switchgrass, Sweet Flag, Silver Feather Maiden Grass, Feather Reed, Blue Oat Grass, Foxtail Grass, Big Bluestem, Bottlebrush Grass, and Indian Grass are great choices that will add dynamic interest to a landscape and balance the weight of dense evergreens.

Shrubs 

Choose a variety of evergreen and deciduous shrubs for the most interesting landscape. Evergreen shrubs include Boxwood, Holly, Mountain Laurel, Arborvitae, Barberry, and Junipers. Deciduous shrubs with wonderful fall color include American Witch Hazel, Smoke Bush, Sumac, Viburnum, Chokecherry, Bayberry, Oakleaf Hydrangea, Red Twig Dogwood, and Winterberry. And once their foliage is spent, some shrubs like the Red Twig Dogwood will continue to brighten the landscape with its gorgeous reddish bark.

Trees

Most people automatically think about trees when they talk about fall color. Choose trees in a variety of colors for the most interest. Washington Hawthorn, Apple Serviceberry, Red Oak, Dogwood, Quaking Aspen, Sassafras, Bitternut Hickory, Sugar Maple, Japanese Maple, and Franklin Tree are a few deciduous trees with spectacular fall colors.

Balance deciduous trees with a backdrop of evergreens such as spruces or pines. The rich colors of deciduous trees and shrubs will really pop against a deep green background!

Layers

Layer plants so that there is always something putting on a show. In general, you want a progression to occur in the landscape with larger/denser plants toward the back (the perimeter of the backyard, for example) with gradually smaller plants toward the front. But you don’t necessarily want the progression to be perfect. A variety of plant heights in the middle section can be the most interesting. Stagger plants that flower and/or show off colorful foliage in different times of year so that the whole garden area doesn’t “go to sleep” all at once.

A Surprise: An Edible Garden

Squash, pumpkin, and zucchini are very easy to grow even for novice gardeners. While they don’t add colorful foliage to a landscape, they do add deliciousness! Pumpkins and colorful squashes (gourds) do add a pop of color that hints of fun afternoons spent carving pumpkins for Halloween.

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