October brings an unmissable opportunity to stock up your garden with flowering plants in time for them to grow strong root systems to support abundant blooms next year. While you’ll have to wait a few months for your reward, plants will be far more robust and resilient than if planted in spring, so you can be sure they'll thrive as well as simply survive. Not all plants appreciate a fall planting, however, so here we bring you the very best flowers to plant in fall to fill your yard with plentiful petals for years to come.

Garden centres rely on instant gratification for peak sales in spring and summer. But add a blooming or about-to-bloom plant to your backyard then and it will have to deal with the double stress of producing flowers as well as settling roots into its new home. The more stressed a plant gets, the more it prioritizes blooms over roots; the fewer roots it grows, the less it can fuel this flower growth. So, once the additional stress of summer heat hits, this loop can quickly prove fatal. And we’ve all dug up a dead plant with its root system still in the shape of the pot it was bought in.

Choose flowers to plant in fall, however, and you give them a far better start to life in your yard. The soil is warm and moist enough to allow roots to reach into the ground, where they’ll be able to source nutrients and water. Waking early in spring, plants will get busy growing those roots some more so, when it’s time to flower, they'll have strong systems to support and fuel the blooming process. And while you’ll still need to keep your plant watered, it will cope with the stress of heat and drought far better.

Not only are you protecting your investment – and goodness knows, plants aren’t cheap! – but you’ll often find many popular perennial plants are far cheaper to buy in fall. Here's what to plant in October, for a garden brimming with blooms next year.

1. Peonies

(Image credit: Walter Erhardt / Shutterstock)

October is the ideal time to plant peonies because the plant will focus on growing roots rather than stems, setting up a robust system for a strong start next spring. Fall is also peak time for harvesting peony bare roots, which is a much cheaper way to buy these beautiful plants. Simply plant the bare root with the eyes (buds) uppermost, no more than 2 inches below the soil surface and water in.

Typically hardy in zones 3-8, peonies are incredibly long-lived plants so are a great garden investment. Dutch Grown has a vast selection of peony varieties to choose from, including many new Itoh peony cultivars (that combine the best features of bush and tree peonies for a longer blooming period) such as Itoh Peony ‘Lollipop’. Or start a full-on love affair with peonies and get great value for money with a value pack of varieties such as this Peony Sweet Caroline Collection, also from Dutch Grown.

2. Azalea

(Image credit: Dave MacVean / Getty Images)

Another favorite on our list of flowers to plant in October is azalea, one of the finest shrubs for a front yard. Fall brings the best conditions for this shrub to make itself at home in your garden, ready for a showstopper display next year. Shorter days trigger the plant to grow roots rather than pushing out new stems, and more evenly moist conditions make it easier for them to get a good hold.

Azaleas have remarkably shallow root systems, making them vulnerable to heat and drought stress, making a fall planting a particularly smart move. Make sure you add a 2-inch layer of mulch over the soil once planted to protect the soil from temperature extremes though, and prevent winter’s freeze-thaw action heaving these shallow roots from the ground. A pine bark mulch such as Timberline All Natural Pine Mulch, available from Lowe’s, gives azaleas the acidic conditions they adore.

For a showstopper azalea, you won’t do better than Autumn Royalty Encore Azalea, available from trees.com (formerly Fast Growing Trees). Despite its name, it's been bred to bloom from spring, all through summer into fall in zones 6-10, rewarding your investment richly with beautifully vibrant flowers month after month.

3. Wisteria

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Wisteria needs consistent moisture when first planted to reduce transplant shock, so planting in fall means you’re not spending hours battling quick-drying soil. The plant also directs all its growing efforts underground in fall, so it’ll set up a strong root system far more quickly than if you planted in spring.

These beautiful vines are well-known for taking their time to bloom, too, so buying in fall when they’re usually heavily discounted means you can afford a more mature plant that flowers fast. One of the best perennial plants to plant in fall, once you have added a wisteria to your yard, you can expect it to bloom for decades to come.

Amethyst Falls Wisteria Vine, currently on sale at Nature Hills, is a native American that brings heaps of blooms without the invasive tendencies of asian varieties in zones 5-9. Blue Moon Wisteria, also available from Nature Hills, is another excellent choice as it reblooms up to three times a year for lots more flowers and is particularly hardy, thriving in zones 3-9.

4. Alliums

(Image credit: Alex Manders / Shutterstock)

Alliums are a great asset to any border, and one of the best set-and-forget bulbs to buy in fall. October is the very best time of year to get allium bulbs into the ground and there are varieties that will bring blooms from May all through summer, from the tiny drumsticks of Allium Sphaerocephalon to the spectacularly big spheres of Allium Globemaster, in zones 3-9.

Dutch Grown stocks a super selection at sensible prices. And if you thought all alliums were violet, think again! Dutch Grown’s Allium Tropical Tides Collection features warm-hued pinks and reds, while the Allium Ice and Sky Collection has elegantly cool blue and white hues.

Alliums are such a cheap and easy way to add year-after-year color to your garden, and these are plants that practically grow themselves. Just bury the bulbs, pointed side up, at a depth that’s equal to 2-4 times the height of the bulbs and wait for blooms the following year. If the ground is already damp from fall rain, you don’t even need to bother watering them in.

5. Yarrow

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Achillea is an exceptionally resilient plant that deserves a spot in every garden, and quickly establishes itself in the still-warm soil following a fall planting in zones 4-9. As long as the ground isn’t fully frozen, root growth will continue through winter so once warm weather returns, you can expect a burst of fern-like foliage and flat-topped flower clusters, packed with nectar to feed hungry pollinators – far more than if you’d added the plant in spring.

Yarrow likes fast-draining soil so while you should give it a water after planting to settle the soil around its roots, and irrigate if it doesn't rain, natural moisture will typically see this tough-cookie plant through the winter.

Take a look at the New Vintage series if you want long-lasting, fuss-free color in lean soil like that tricky strip of ground alongside your driveway or curb. New Vintage Red Yarrow, available from trees.com boasts ruby-red flowers from early summer through fall, while New Vintage Terracotta Yarrow, also available from trees.com has color-shifting blooms that morph from a vibrant terracotta to champagne-yellow.

Russian Sage

(Image credit: Patsy Davies / Alamy)

This incredibly drought-tolerant beauty is seeing a huge surge in popularity, thanks to it being one of those showy accent plants that landscape designers love but anyone can grow. Fall is an excellent month to add Perovskia to your garden as without the pressure to produce its beautiful blue flower spikes, the plant will put all its energy into growing a good root system. There is one exception, however: the flip side of this plant's high drought tolerance is that it hates to have its roots sitting in soggy soil – so if you have heavy clay ground that sits wet over the winter, it’s better to wait until spring.

There are all sorts of varieties to choose from but Denim ‘n Lace Russian Sage, available from Plant Addicts is a favorite with landscapers as it brings an exquisite pairing of lavender blooms and lacy, silvery leaves to zones 4-9. If you’re pushed for space, Baby Jean Baby Russian Sage, also available from Plant Addicts, is a compact, neat-growing variety that still delivers abundant blooms in zones 4-8.

Leaving Russian sage stems in place over winter and giving your new plant a gravel mulch to keep the crown dry will help it settle in. Pea gravel like this Landscape Rock from The Home Depot is perfect and the small pebbles will naturally work their way down into the soil to give this plant the fast-draining soil it loves.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Plant all these popular perennials in fall and you’ll have strong, healthy plants for plenty of lush growth and vibrant flowers next year. And we do mean plant them all, because they all deserve a place in every garden! Adding these flowering plants in fall means you’ll cut the time you need to spend watering them next summer (though you will still need to water them some!) and save money to boot. So, if you want a yard with a backbone of plants that reliably bring color, year in, year out, take advantage of this October planting window and steal a head start on summer.

As fall arrives and trees begin shedding, millions of gardeners head out to the shed to grab their lawn rakes. Most of us were taught early on that if we leave a heavy blanket of oak and maple leaves on grass, it leads to yellowed, patchy grass come spring. Because a neglected pile of wet leaves can indeed cause damage, it is easy to see how this warning gained traction. However, claiming every fallen leaf must be raked or your lawn will die asks far more of the evidence than is strictly needed.

Standard lawn care advice moved past this blanket rule decades ago, replacing the need for endless weekend raking with a far smarter, less back-breaking alternative: mulch-mowing. Instead of spending hours bagging and hauling leaves away to sit in plastic sacks, you simply run your regular lawn mower over them. A couple of steady passes with a sharp mower blade chops dry fallen leaves into manageable flakes.

Rather than sitting on top of the grass as a thick, airtight mat, these leaf fragments can go to work in the layers below. Beneficial earthworms and soil microbes pull the rich organic bits underground, breaking them down over the winter months. By the time spring arrives, the nitrogen and potassium trapped inside those leaves will be feeding your lawn for zero extra cost. Sound too good to be true? Here’s the reality of leaving leaves on the lawn in the same state as they left the tree – and how easy it can be to harness this leaf fall for good.

Meet the Fall Leaf Myth

It helps to recognize that one variation of the myth is rooted in fact. A thick, wet carpet of heavy leaves sitting on dormant grass will block sunlight and trap excessive moisture around plant crowns in cold months. Extension specialists (such as the University of Maryland Extension) advise clearing heavy leaf mats for this reason. In these cases, it’s a good idea to grab some yard waste bags, such as Durasack Heavy Duty Yard Bags, available from Amazon, to get things tidy. Just as long as you aren’t just doing this every time because you are terrified of a lawn spoiling.

Yes, prolonged dark, wet conditions do create the perfect breeding ground for destructive cool-season fungal diseases, particularly gray snow mold (Typhula incarnata) and pink snow mold (Microchrochium nivale). Both of these can damage turf grass at temperatures just above freezing. Where the “always remove leaves” rule overreaches is in using the word “always” in recommendations about clearing.

(Image credit: Somnuk Krobkum / Getty Images)

In the 1990s, when the state of Michigan banned yard waste from municipal landfills, turf scientists at Michigan State University (MSU) set out to test exactly how much leaf debris established grass could tolerate. Their findings surprised even experienced agronomists. Researchers discovered that up to six inches (15cm) of oak and maple leaves could be mulched directly into established Kentucky bluegrass with no adverse effects on turf health or density. This is way past ankle deep, far more leaf volume than most suburban lawns ever see at once. Decades of university field trials proved that leaf survival doesn't depend on clearing the lawn, but on one crucial detail which the old rule completely ignores…

Why the Myth Sticks

(Image credit: Somnuk Krobkum / Getty Images)

The main reason this fall cleanup myth remains so embedded in lawn care culture comes down to visibility: lawn damage is obvious, while soil improvement is invisible. Anyone who has left a pile of leaves on the grass through winter has probably witnessed the yellow patch left behind in April. That stark visual sticks in our minds and does all the persuading on its own. Conversely, a lawn that has been properly mulch-mowed looks like nothing happened. By spring, the fine leaf fragments have disappeared into the soil, leaving no visible trace behind. One outcome makes an argument, and the other leaves behind a thriving lawn.

The key factor that people might overlook is that particle size matters far more than the sheer presence of leaves. A whole broad oak leaf and a dime-sized fragment of that exact same leaf behave like two different materials once they hit the grass. A whole leaf acts like a shingle, sealing out air and trapping standing water. A tiny fragment of that leaf drops between the blades and starts rotting, exposed to beneficial soil microbes.

Many gardeners may fear that mulching oak leaves will sour soil acidity. However, soil testing by MSU scientists in 1998 confirmed that decades of mulching oak leaves into turf caused no discernible shift in soil pH, but it did increase the presence of rich, beneficial, organic matter. If in doubt, you can always check your soil pH with a diagnostic tool to be on the safe side. The highly rated Luster Leaf Rapitest Soil Test Kits from The Home Depot are an easy, reliable way to get a preliminary read on health underground, and one kit includes 40 tests.

Problems with the Myth

(Image credit: Maksym Belchenko / Getty Images)

Following the old "rake every leaf" rule to the letter isn't just unnecessary labor: it also means paying money to haul natural fertility away, only to pay again for fertilizers to replace it. Research from the University of Connecticut Extension highlights that mulching a 2-inch (5cm) layer of fall leaves into your lawn returns approximately 3.4 pounds (1.5kg) of pure nitrogen per 1,000 square feet (93sqm) over a season, alongside a generous dose of plant-available potassium. Sure, leaf residue contains lower nitrogen levels than grass clippings, and none of this should replace a full lawn fertility program – but this free organic boost can easily form part of your early spring feeding on established turf.

Beyond free nutrients, mulching leaves provides a surprisingly powerful natural defense against spring weed outbreaks. Fine leaf residue settling into the base of the turf canopy covers exposed soil patches. Because bare, sunlit soil is precisely where annual weed seeds germinate, this gentle organic blanket of leaf fragments suppresses weed growth before it can start. Field trials published by MSU researchers showed that regularly mulching maple and oak leaves led to lower common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) numbers in Kentucky bluegrass. Over three consecutive seasons, gardeners who switch to mulch-mowing could see significantly lower dandelion and crabgrass pressure in their lawns (though of course any given lawn could respond differently).

Beyond the Myth

(Image credit: Philippe Gerber / Getty Images)

Successfully mulching leaves into your lawn comes down to a couple of things: timing and lawn mower deck height. Crisp, dry leaves chop cleanly and effortlessly, whereas a waterlogged, soaked layer of foliage will smear, clump, and clog up your mower deck. For the best results, raise your lawnmower deck to its highest setting and drive at a slow, steady pace, overlapping each pass so the leaves are cut twice.

You can get a Universal 3-in-1 Mulching Blade from The Home Depot that fits most 21-inch (53cm) walk-behind decks. A light leaf drop usually requires two passes, while tough, leathery oak foliage might need three. After leaf shredding, you should see green grass poking through, with fine leaf bits settled comfortably at soil level.

(Image credit: JJ Gouin / Alamy)

Of course, common sense still applies. Heavy leaf drifts that pile up deep against fence lines, dense shade corners, or foundation walls are too thick for any mower deck to process cleanly. Newly seeded lawns are another exception; fragile young grass seedlings need maximum sunlight and cannot push through leaf residue.

In these situations, use a wide, lightweight poly rake. The GreatBuddy Adjustable Lawn Rake with 53-Gallon Bag from Amazon has an adjustable 25-tine rake with a wide 18-inch (45cm) head, and comes with a massive 53-gallon cleanup bag. Remember, any excess leaves you rake off the lawn don't need to go to waste. They make a phenomenal moisture-locking winter mulch for vegetable beds and flower borders.

Get Ahead of the Leaf Drop

(Image credit: BanksPhotos / Getty Images)

Although September is relatively quiet on the leaf drop front across most regions, it is actually the most critical month to get started with your leaf fall. Mulch-mowing works best when you stay ahead of leaf accumulation, and can become a struggle if you wait until a thick, wet mat has formed. The best habit to build in early fall is mowing your lawn every week with the deck set high, whether a massive amount of foliage has fallen or not. Cool-season grasses are putting their energy into roots through fall anyway. So keeping the turf canopy open and active is vital.

Taking 20 minutes to sharpen your mower blades before autumn hits makes a world of difference. A dull blade tears leaves into large, unsightly rags that sit on top of the grass, whereas a sharp blade pulverizes them into fine dust. It’s worth investing in a good sharpener. You can pick up Smith's 50603 Handheld Lawn Mower Blade Sharpener from Walmart for an inexpensive way to keep mower blades razor-sharp so they cleanly slice dry fallen leaves.

Finally, if you find yourself with an abundance of raked leaves, sweep them into your flower beds or vegetable plots. Shredded leaves act as a great winter blanket over exposed soil, preventing winter erosion and breaking down into rich humus by spring. Keep up your weekly mowing schedule until cool weather halts grass growth entirely for the season.

Shop Lawn Care in Fall

Great lawn care is about time savers that make your biggest living plant look better and work harder. Combine efficient leaf raking with smart mulch-mowing and lawn feeding to keep your lawn healthy while saving you hours of labor later. This trio can help you make more of your fall debris while keeping things tidy and in good shape.

Lawn Care Trio

Handheld Blade Care

Smith's Smith's Handheld 50603 Lawn Mower Blade Sharpeners, Orange

This nifty sharpener keeps mower blades razor-sharp so they cleanly slice dry fallen leaves into fine flakes rather than tearing them into clunky strips. It has enhanced safety features and replaceable blades, and its compact size means it fits in even modest tool boxes.

Winter Protection

Scotts Scotts Turf Builder

Supplement your leaf mulch: this formula can deliver essential nutrients that repair summer heat damage and build strong, deep root systems before winter freezes set in. Applying this fall lawn food ensures your grass greens up faster and grows back thicker, stronger, and more disease-resistant come early spring.

Cleanup Combo

GreatBuddy GreatBuddy Adjustable Rake and 2 Pack 53 Gallon Yard Waste Bags

Featuring an adjustable 25-tine rake with a wide 18-inch (45cm) head, this cleanup set lets you quickly clear heavy leaf drifts out of borders and low corners without scraping up turf crowns. Use the 53-gallon pop-up bag to move dry foliage to your compost pile or flower beds.

The traditional lawn care rule was never actually that leaves must be gone: it was simply that they need to be small. Whoever wrote the old rule about clearing every single fall leaf was guessing at the most obvious solution available at the time, and homeowners have suffered through long, exhausting Octobers ever since. By replacing your heavy rake with a weekly pass of the lawnmower, you can stop fighting against fall leaves and start using them to nurture a healthier lawn for spring.

More Garden Mythbusters

• Does the Pointy End of a Bulb Really Need to Be Facing Up When You Plant It?
• Vegetable Companion Planting Myths – Plus, the Planting Pairs that Really Work
• Does Gravel in the Base of Pots Really Help with Drainage?
• Do Pine Needles Make Your Soil Dangerously Acidic?

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) coast through summer on very little attention. Fall asks a bit more. The trailing stems that eventually carry flowers and baby plantlets usually form once nights run long and stay dark for several weeks straight. By late September, nights across the country are already longer than days.

Standard spider plant care covers the basics all year. September adds a short list on top of it, mostly aimed at plants coming back in from a porch or patio, plus a couple of jobs that shape how the plant looks come winter.

1. Bring It Back Inside Ahead of Cold Nights

(Image credit: Westend61 / Getty Images)

Cold is one thing spider plants don't shrug off. Most guidance puts the safe floor somewhere around 45–50F (7–10C), and tropical houseplants in general should head indoors once nights settle near 50F (10C). In parts of the Midwest, that can mean mid-September. A first frost warning is the deadline, not the cue – by then the plant has likely sat through several chilly nights already.

The move goes smoother in stages. Shift the pot into light shade for a few days, followed by deeper shade, and only after that bring it into a bright spot out of direct sun. A few yellow leaves after the switch are normal. Once it's settled, keep it a few feet back from drafty windows as the weather cools.

2. Check Every Leaf for Hitchhikers

(Image credit: Dima Berlin / Getty Images)

Pests that barely register outdoors can build up fast once a plant is inside for the winter. Spider mites (Tetranychus urticae) are a common one on spider plants, leaving fine pale stippling on the leaves and sometimes faint webbing. Whiteflies (Trialeurodes vaporariorum) turn up as well. So does soft brown scale (Coccus hesperidum). Tip the pot sideways and look at the undersides of the arching leaves, then slide the root ball out and check the drainage holes, too.

A hard rinse with the hose knocks back light infestations. For anything heavier, Amazon carries Garden Safe insecticidal soap, a ready-to-use spray that only kills what it touches – so both sides of every leaf need a thorough coat. Test a few leaves first and give it about a week before treating the whole plant. Soap injury can be slow to show.

3. Give It Long, Dark Nights

(Image credit: Esin Deniz / Shutterstock)

Plenty of houseplants don't care much how long the night is. Spider plants do. Spider plant flowers (and the plantlets that follow) typically appear after at least three weeks of short days and long nights without interruption. A plant parked beside a lamp that stays on until midnight might keep making leaves and not much else.

Indoor plants don't always stick to that pattern, and some throw runners at odd times of year. Still, fall is when they produce most of their offshoots. A room that goes dark after sunset helps. Bright, indirect light during the day is still the goal, though midday sun through glass can scorch the leaves.

4. Pot Up the Plantlets

(Image credit: Nick Daly / Getty Images)

You can propagate spiderettes that already have little root nubs – just snip them off and set them into moist mix. The ones without roots do better staying attached for now. Set a small pot beside the mother plant, rest the plantlet on the soil surface, and pin it down with a bent paper clip until it roots, then cut the runner. These nursery pots from Amazon make it easy to spot when roots have filled out.

A soilless medium is the usual pick for rooting. Amazon stocks Espoma Organic Seed Starter, a peat and perlite blend made for seedlings and cuttings. Keep it evenly damp but not soggy. Wait four to six months before feeding newly potted plantlets.

5. Stop Feeding and Flush the Soil

(Image credit: Olga Rolenko / Getty Images)

Spider plant feeding can taper off now. Growth slows as the light fades, and heavily fertilized spider plants tend to produce fewer plantlets anyway. Leftover fertilizer salts are also a common cause of brown, crispy leaf tips.

Before the plant settles in for winter, pour a generous amount of plain water through the pot and let it drain out completely. It rinses away some of that buildup. Tap water can cause the same browning on its own, since spider plants are sensitive to fluoride and chlorine – rainwater or distilled water sidesteps that problem. Water a little less often as the house cools, letting the soil dry slightly between waterings.

By late fall, the difference usually shows up in the runners. A plant that came in clean and spent its evenings in the dark has a good shot at trailing a fresh set of plantlets over the edge of the pot before winter is out, and each of those can become another spider plant.

A trip to the garden center can quickly become an expensive day of shopping. Most high-quality plants aren’t cheap and buying enough to fill an entire landscape can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

That’s why I asked our Digital Community Manager and in-house plant shopping expert, Amy Draiss, about the best time to buy plants. She’s a former garden center manager with 20 years experience, so she knows when to buy plants and essential gardening tools if you’re looking for the best deals.

This is the latest installment in our series Garden Center Secrets, where we share insider tips only garden center employees know in order to help you shop smarter at the nursery. Here’s the best time to buy plants and garden tools, according to a former garden center manager.

Best Time to Buy Plants

Draiss reveals the secret behind sale times at the garden center. “The best time to shop for bargains is when we need to move older stock to clear space for what’s coming next.” You can even find sales on plants online from sources like High Country Gardens.

Gardening is a seasonal hobby, so of course nurseries function seasonally as well to meet gardeners’ needs. Draiss says, “Garden centers operate in seasons: inventory comes in waves, demand rises and falls, and eventually we need to make room for new merchandise, whether that’s bulbs, mums, or holiday plants.”

As you may have been able to guess, the end of the growing season is the best time to buy plants at a discount. Draiss says, “Usually the lowest price on plants comes after the peak selling season.”

But this can vary depending on the type of plant. “Shop for annuals after the initial spring rush, shop for perennials in late summer into fall.” She reveals other good times to buy popular types of plants, “Spring-flowering bulbs can usually be found on clearance very late in the fall or early winter, when there is still plenty of time to plant. Seeds can often be found on sale starting in August, depending on your area.”

If you’re looking for trees and shrubs, fall is a good time to head to the nursery. But Draiss warns not to wait too late. “Just be sure to plant early enough to give the roots time to establish before winter arrives.” Take a look at Trees.com (formerly Fast Growing Trees) for great sales on trees, shrubs, and an assortment of perennials online.

(Image credit: Stefania Pelfini la Waziya / Getty Images)

Draiss also shares another surprising tip, “Even if a plant simply goes out of bloom, it may end up on the sale rack.” But don’t be scared off by the way these dormant plants may appear. Draiss says that even if a plant looks unimpressive when it’s marked down, if the root system is solid, it will bounce back the next spring.

But Draiss also warns gardeners not to wait all season in hopes that your favorite plant will go on sale. “If you’re looking for something particular or fulfilling a landscape design, buy as soon as you see it available. If there is a specific variety you need, don’t assume it will be sitting there when the clearance stickers come out.”

Best Time to Buy Garden Tools

As you might expect, Draiss shares that deals on garden equipment like hand tools, mowers, blowers, and hoses follows a more predictable sales cycle. She says these sales are usually aligned with major retail events, holidays, and Prime Day.

She recommends, “If you need a new lawn mower, trimmer, or pressure washer, shop during late fall and holiday sales when discounts are deeper and demand is lower.” So keep an eye out in the coming weeks and months as we enter the big shopping season for garden tools and equipment.

(Image credit: Lucy Ryan / Getty Images)More Plant Shopping Tips

There are a few basic tips to follow when shopping that ensure you buy plants that will thrive. Draiss says, “While any time can be a good time to buy plants, your best move is to choose healthy specimens suited for your hardiness zone.

“Plants that have just finished blooming are often great steals, but pass on anything with diseased or broken branches. After all, if a bargain plant doesn't survive after you plant it, it isn't really a bargain.” So don’t waste your money on plants that won’t last a full season, no matter how much the price is marked down.

Draiss revealed one final tip that’s easy to forget: ask the employees. They are the ones who know exactly what’s going on at your specific local garden center. So Draiss tells gardeners, “Don’t be afraid to ask! While they might not reveal everything, garden center employees usually know which plants are about to go on sale and when fresh shipments are arriving.”

Gardening Deals Calendar

• Early Spring: This is the absolute best time for the best selection of many plants and gardening products including fertilizers and soil amendments. This isn’t the best time for pricing but if selection is more important, this is the time.
• Late Spring: Watch for sales of spring-blooming plants and annuals that may begin appearing at reduced prices.
• Summer: Watch for seeds, annuals, summer-flowering bulbs and other seasonal product markdowns.
• Late Summer: Start watching closely for clearance prices or buy more, save more deals.
• Fall: Fall is potentially the best time to find bargains along with seasonal equipment markdowns as the demand is now low.
• Late Fall: Watch for major retail events such as Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; I love a lavender dupe!

Don't get me wrong; I love lavender, too. It's fragrant, romantic, wonderfully purple and somehow manages to make even the most ordinary garden path feel like it belongs somewhere in Provence. But there's a problem with having a garden full of lavender: eventually, the flowers fade, the stems get a little woody, and you're left waiting for next year's display.

Which is why I've become rather fascinated by the plants that can give us that same cottage garden feeling while keeping the show going for a little longer, whether that's salvia or catmint. And right now, in September, one particularly fragrant lavender dupe is still flowering away across the country while plenty of our summer favorites are beginning to look... well, look really tired.

Meet The Lavender Dupe That Flowers All Fall

I have become increasingly convinced that anise hyssop might just be my favorite lavender dupe of all!

It might sound as though I've wandered into the herb section by mistake, but bear with me. Anise hyssop (available to buy via Nature Hills) is a North American native perennial with upright spikes of purple-blue flowers and wonderfully aromatic foliage.

Despite the misleading name, it isn't actually a true hyssop... and it isn't lavender either. Still, it has enough of that soft, vertical flower-spike effect to make it a very convincing garden dupe. Especially as, much like lavender, it has its own distinct scent (a little like anise or licorice, actually, when you brush against it).

(Image credit: Mauricio Acosta/Getty Images)

The first thing you'll notice about anise hyssop is the shape; its upright flower spikes look very like lavender, but they tend to to be taller, with the flowers held above aromatic green foliage rather than forming the woody mound we associate with many lavenders.

Where it really earns its place, though, is as a late-season lavender dupe. Depending on the plant and growing conditions, anise hyssop can flower from midsummer into autumn. Indeed, some USDA Zones may find that this one keeps on going until the end of October (especially if you deadhead spent flowers).

As an added bonus, its flowers are attractive to bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects, and hummingbirds can also visit the blooms, making it a must for wildlife gardens. Just give it full sun and well-drained soil; much like actual lavender, you'll find it very tolerant of relatively dry conditions once it's established.

Shop The Best Lavender Dupes:

CATMINT

Sacred Roots Nursery Anise Hyssop

Anise hyssop is a brilliant wildlife-friendly plant that keeps blooming all fall.

CATMINT

EKT Nursery Purrsian Blue Catmint

Catmint blooms forever, looks beautiful, and doesn't go woody!

SALVIA

WAROON Purple Salvia Plant Live for Planting, Blue Purple Salvia Plant for Home Garden in Half Gal Pot - No Ship Ca

Another fragrant perennial, salvia is an absolute pollinator magnet.

You'll also want to give this lavender dupe some room, as anise hyssop can reach around 3 to 5 feet tall, depending on conditions and variety; stick it in the middle or back of a border, then, rather than somewhere you're trying to keep everything low and compact.

Look, lavender isn't going anywhere in my garden. It still has that gorgeous scent, that silvery foliage and that unmistakable Mediterranean charm that makes it such a perennial favorite.

That being said... well, anise hyssop gives me the purple flower spikes I love, keeps flowering well into the later part of the season, smells unexpectedly delicious when I brush past it and brings a steady stream of pollinators into the garden when I really don't want the wildlife buffet to close for the year. Who am I to say no to all of that?

Fall is a good time to plant many different shrubs and trees. The hedge shrubs establish well during the period that the soil remains warm and the air is cooler. Fall planting means the shrubs will grow strong roots before winter.

Why not get off to a good start by heading out into the yard in September? Growing hedges starts with choosing appropriate plants. Pick native shrubs if you can since this means less water, less issues, and less maintenance needed.

Do you want a hedge all year long? In that case, look for evergreen shrubs. Deciduous shrubs will be gorgeous in summer, but bare in winter. In either case, keep your sun exposure and growing zone in mind. Here are my top native hedge picks for instant privacy.

1. Manzanita

(Image credit: Scotty Brown / Getty Images)

Botanical Name

Arctostaphylos manzanita

Hardiness

Zones 7-10

Why pick some picky shrub from a far away land when this gorgeous California native offers so much in a hedge plant? My favorite manzanita called 'Fort Bragg' is an evergreen, as dense and compact as you will find, growing to 3 feet (1m) tall and wide. Its round leaves are small and shiny, a deep green. The new spring stems are an incredible pink-red that deepens into Christmas green by summer.

Best of all? The flowers. Yes, this manzanita produces utterly magical clusters of bell-shaped spring flowers in the softest shade of pink. These develop into late-summer berries. Both flowers and berries are appreciated by wildlife. This native is almost immune to pest damage and deeply drought tolerant.

If you can't find Fort Bragg at your local nursery, try 'Dr. Hurd' manzanita from Etsy for stunning red bark.

2. American Witch Hazel

(Image credit: Alamy)

Botanical Name

Hamamelis virginiana

Hardiness

Zones 3-9

Not all native plants look alike and American witch hazel makes a very different hedge than manzanita does. This multi-stemmed shrub typically grows up to 15 feet (5 m) tall with spreading branches and an open crown.

It offers amazing fall foliage as the leaves turn brilliant yellow. But it is toward the end of fall that the real show starts. Fringed yellow flowers appear ribbon-like and hang on the branches long after the foliage has fallen.

The flowers offer nectar for insects and bees foraging late in the season, along with several species of Eupsilia moths. When the blossoms are pollinated, they go dormant for the cold season to mature the following year. The fruit provides food for the birds.

Get an American witch hazel shrub online from Garden Goods Direct.

3. Flannel Bush

(Image credit: David Madison / Getty Images)

Botanical Name

Fremontodendron californicum

Hardiness

Zones 7-10

Flannel bush fans will be thrilled to discover my favorite cultivar, ‘Ken Taylor’, a daintier version that only grows to 6 feet (2 m) tall and wide. Although it is smaller, it is totally lovely with the same showy egg-yolk yellow flowers hanging on arching branches most of the summer.

Like many native plants, flannel bush needs soil that drains well. It doesn’t need much water, however, often thriving without any extra water. It loves sun as well, making it a top choice for sunny areas that are far from the garden hose.

Flannel bush can be hard to find, but you can get it online from Cistus Nursery.

4. American Holly

(Image credit: Bonnie Taylor Barry / Shutterstock)

Botanical Name

Ilex opaca

Hardiness

Zones 5-9

If you are looking for a dense, tall evergreen hedge that offers privacy in winter as well as summer, consider American holly. This native American tree makes a wonderful hedge, growing best in full sun to partial shade. But note when I say tall, I mean tall. Holly can eventually mature into a tree 30-40 feet (10 m) tall. It is flammable, so keep it away from the home.

The size doesn’t disqualify it as a hedge plant, if your landscape is large. But you’ll have to keep on top of the pruning. If you are ready to take on American holly, you’ll find it ideal for privacy screens, barriers, and hedges. In addition to its natural beauty, holly is a great wildlife food source too.

Get American holly shrubs to start your hedge from Trees.com (formerly Fast Growing Trees).

5. California Lilac

(Image credit: I. Glory / Alamy)

Botanical Name

Ceanothus spp.

Hardiness

Zones 8-10

Every gardener has her favorites, and I have to say that ceanothus, also known as California lilac, is one of mine. I have a ‘Dark Star’ ceanothus (which you can buy on Etsy) in my backyard in San Francisco and totally love it. These shrubs grow to 6 feet (2 m) tall and 8 feet (3 m) wide in full sun.

It’s a tough, but gorgeous evergreen with deep-green leaves on arching branches. This shrub fills with stunning, cobalt blue flowers in spring that last all summer. Right now in late September, my Dark Star still looks like a gorgeous blue umbrella.

This tree is as easy to care for as a tree can be. This is a tree that needs no special treatment. I never water it. I leave the country for three months at a time and return to a vibrant, healthy ceanothus. It needs well-drained soil, a sunny location, and then you are set!

6. Arrowwood Viburnum

(Image credit: Rumxde / Shutterstock)

Botanical Name

Viburnum dentatum

Hardiness

Zones 3-9

Arrowwood viburnum is a tough native plant that's resilient and undemanding. Despite it's tough exterior, it is a lovely sight to see in springtime with creamy white spring blossoms. These mature into dark blue fruit in autumn, which provides a feast for local wildlife.

The fiery red-purple fall leaves are the final act of this deciduous shrub. It makes an excellent dense native hedge or privacy screen, topping out at 12 feet (4 m) tall and wide.

You can find arrowwood viburnum shrubs for sale at the Home Depot.

The end of summer doesn’t have to mean the end of color, texture, and visual interest in the garden. Fall is a great time to showcase late-blooming flowers, changing foliage, and certain ornamental grasses that add unique shades contrasting textures to beds.

The types of ornamental grasses listed here can add interest all year-round, but they look especially attractive in fall. Many grasses change color this time of year and develop beautiful seedheads. Most ornamental grasses are good additions to fall beds, but these six really shine.

1. Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)

(Image credit: Pangeacat / Shutterstock)

Little bluestem is a native grass whose name describes its summer color. Come fall, this grass turns festive shades of red, copper, mauve, and burgundy. The colorful stems are topped by purplish seed heads that sway in the breeze. The striking colors of little bluestem persist into winter in many regions.

You can grow little bluestem in zones 3 through 9 in full sun and soil that drains well. Once established, this grass will reward you with minimal needs and good drought tolerance. Let the leaves stand in winter, cutting them back late in the season or early spring.

Twilight Zone Little Bluestem Grass

2. Pink Muhly Grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris)

(Image credit: Donna Bollenbach / Shutterstock)

For one of the showiest of all grasses, grow pink muhly grass in groups, along borders, or in native gardens and in between fall-blooming perennials. It grows in clumps two to three feet (0.6 to 0.9 m) tall and wide with soft, feathery flowers that bloom in late summer and fall. Especially when grown together, the effect is like a soft pink cloud or pile of cotton candy.

Pink muhly grass is hardy in zones 6 through 9 and is native to the eastern and southeastern states. Grow it in full sun and well-drained soil. Once established, muhly grass tolerates poor soil, drought, heat, humidity, and even salt. The grass clumps look good in winter, so don’t cut them back until early spring.

Pink Muhly Grass

3. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum)

(Image credit: Crystaldream / Shutterstock)

Another native option, switchgrass is striking at any time of year for its height (up to 6 feet or 1.8 m). In fall, you get the height along with changing color in the foliage topped by feathery seedheads. Choose your color by selecting certain varieties. For example, ‘Shenandoah’ turns deep red in fall and develops pinkish flowers, while ‘Northwind’ has yellow stems and seedheads.

Switchgrass grows best in zones 3 through 9 and in full sun. It adapts well to a variety of soils and will be drought tolerant once established. Leave the stems in place over winter, cutting back in early spring. Switchgrass’s height makes it a great option for a tall border or backdrop for other plants.

Prairie Winds® Cheyenne Sky Red Switch Grass

4. Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis)

(Image credit: Manfred Ruckszio / Shutterstock)

Prairie dropseed is a native grass that grows in zones 3 through 9. It grows in clumps with arching stems that give it a fountain-like appearance. The green foliage shifts to shades of yellow-orange and bronze in fall. The delicate seedheads also form in fall, giving it an airy appearance.

Plant prairie dropseeds near broadleaved perennials to provide contrast with its fine texture. It prefers full sun and well-drained soil. Don’t crowd this grass. Adequate space allows for its full, graceful form to take shape.

Prairie Dropseed Grass

5. Northern Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium)

(Image credit: Billy_Fam / Getty Images)

Another native, this grass is prized for its unique seed heads. They form flattened discs (resembling oats) and dangle from the blades of grass. As the flowers of summer fade, the seeds flutter in the breeze, creating unique movement. The stems and seedheads change color in fall, too, giving you shades of bronze, gold, and purple that last into winter.

Grow northern sea oats in zones 5 through 9, or possibly 3 and 4 with some winter protection. Unlike many other native grasses, this one can grow in partial or even deeper shade. It does like water, though, so plant in an area where the soil stays moist. Sea oats are great for rain gardens, natural areas, and woodland gardens.

Northern Sea Oats Grass

6. Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa macra)

(Image credit: ImageBroker McPhoto / Getty Images)

The only other shade-tolerant grass on our list, Japanese forest grass is also the only non-native species. Native to Asia, you can grow it here in zones 4 through 9. It is low growing compared to other grasses and grows in attractive clumps with wide, cascading blades in shades of yellow-green or even variegated.

In fall, most varieties of Japanese forest grass turn shades of copper, gold, or bronze. You can also find varieties, like ‘Naomi,’ that turn purplish-red. Some other varieties turn brighter shades of red. Unlike most of the native grasses, this one dies back in winter, so you can cut it back well before spring.

All Gold Japanese Forest Grass

Ornamental grasses offer unique structures, shapes, and textures in the garden throughout most of the year, but really come into their own in fall. Autumn colors aren’t just for leaves on trees. These grasses offer their own rainbows of color as well as feathery flowers and unique seedheads. If you grow ornamental grasses, resist the urge to cut them back at the end of summer. Instead, leave them in place and enjoy the show.

Nicole Kidman rarely sets a foot wrong in whatever she does, whether it's an onscreen performance or a red carpet appearance. it stands to reason, then, that her brightly-colored garden borders are making waves on social media, too.

Honestly, posing with an exceptionally photogenic black cat on the set of Practical Magic 2, the actor's wonderfully abundant flower border makes for a pretty perfect backdrop – and it's full of ideas I want to steal for my own garden.

Better still? It's all pretty achievable and low maintenance, not to mention brimming with whimsical cottage garden vibes, making it wholly fitting for the return of the Owens sisters... and for my own personal approach to gardening, too.

Nicole Kidman’s Bewitching Border Plants

As seen in Nicole Kidman's photo, the borders flanking the Owens house in Practical Magic 2 are filled with billowing mophead hydrangeas in shades of green, blue and violet, tall pink foxgloves and blue delphiniums, while darker purple foliage fills the gaps underneath.

Garden phlox adds another splash of pink, creating a border that feels almost overflowing with flowers without looking messy. And, for anyone who wants that same wonderfully full, slightly magical cottage-garden look, I think this scene provides a surprisingly useful planting lesson.

Check it out:

A post shared by Nicole Kidman (@nicolekidman)

A photo posted by

Are you ready for this? The trick is to think vertically rather than simply choosing lots of different flowers. As you can see in Nicole Kidman's photo, the delphiniums and foxgloves provide height, while the hydrangeas occupy the middle of the border with their large flowerheads.

Lower down, the purple coral bells provides foliage interest and helps prevent the planting from becoming a wall of flowers. Basically, then, rather than planting everything at roughly the same height, combine tall, medium and low-growing plants so that the eye moves through the garden.

Shop Your Practical Magic 2 Border Plants List:

• Hydrangeas: try something like the Endless Summer® BloomStruck® Bigleaf Hydrangea from Nature Hills
• Foxgloves: give the Giant Shirley Foxglove from Spring Hill Nurseries a go.
• Delphiniums: we rate these bright Blue Delphinium Flower Seeds from CZ GRain Store.
• Garden Phlox: something like the Flame® Pro Baby Doll Garden Phlox.
• Coral Bells: go for the Amethyst Myst Heuchera from the Daylily Nursery for that same effect.

Opting for a layered border planting scheme like the one in Nicole Kidman's photo means that there's something to enjoy even when one plant isn't flowering. The hydrangeas may provide the biggest blooms, but the delphinium stems, foxglove spires and heuchera foliage all contribute to the overall effect.

And this isn't simply movie-set magic; the production team went to considerable lengths to make the Owens' garden feel genuinely established. In fact, Architectural Digest's behind-the-scenes tour of the set reveals that much of the greenery is real, with the greens department bringing in mature plants and trees and maintaining real vegetables through what was described as a very hot summer. The wider set reportedly incorporated thousands of real plants.

(Image credit: Sharon Talson / Getty Images)

You don't need to copy the planting exactly; you don't even need to reproduce every plant in the film set if you borrow the formula. Just choose a few taller plants – such as delphiniums and foxgloves – and position them towards the back or middle of the border. Then, add fuller plants such as hydrangeas beneath them, and use lower-growing foliage plants such as heuchera towards the front.

You can also repeat colors throughout the border rather than assigning each colour to a separate section. Pink foxgloves alongside pink phlox, for example, help make the planting feel cohesive, while blue flowers echo the cooler shades of the hydrangeas. And remember, the magic of this style comes from allowing plants to knit together over time; you want to avoid perfection, instead aiming for a border where the plants appear to overlap and mingle.

Think about it; the Practical Magic garden has been designed to feel as though it has existed for generations rather than being freshly planted for a film, and it has been created with that sense of history in mind, using mature greenery and real plants to make the set feel lived-in.

So while Nicole Kidman's Instagram photo might initially catch your attention because of the actor – and, admittedly, that extremely handsome cat – it's the border behind her that deserves a closer look.

It proves that you don't need rare or unusual plants to create a garden with real atmosphere; with a mixture of tall flower spikes, generous blooms and dramatic foliage, even familiar garden favorites can combine to create something that feels truly whimsical and enchanting.

Fall is the prime time for feeding cool-season grasses because, as the temperatures drop, they’re actively growing and able to take up and use nutrients. Proper feeding now will allow the grass to grow and recover from the stress of a hot, dry summer, while also building strong roots to get them through the winter.

You might know it’s best to fertilize grass in fall, but do you know how to do it properly? Fall turf feeding is more than sprinkling some product on the grass and forgetting about it. Successful fall feeding means timing it right, using the right product, applying the right amount of fertilizer, and supporting feeding with other care tasks.

Here, we outline some common mistakes homeowners make, so you can avoid them.

1. Using the Wrong Fertilizer

(Image credit: groveb / Getty Images)

First, you need to choose the right product. Spring is another good time to fertilize cool-season grasses, but it’s a different type of feeding requiring a different product. Look for a fertilizer designed for fall feeding, which typically has nitrogen and potassium but little to no phosphorus. You’ll use this in early fall to support growth as the grass comes out of summer dormancy.

Ideally, you’ll also apply a product in late fall to get the grass ready for winter dormancy. This is a different fertilizer, though. It will have more potassium and less nitrogen (still no phosphorus). The extra potassium regulates water in plants and helps grass tolerate cold better and resist disease. A product like Scotts Turf Builder Fall Weed & Feed from the Home Depot does double duty so your lawn will look great next spring.

So, why no phosphorus? Phosphorus is unnecessary on established turf, and it can be harmful to local water supplies. Some cities even restrict its use on established lawns. If you are overseeding in fall, you might consider using a product with phosphorus to help the young grass establish roots. However, most lawns don’t need it. You can do a soil test before deciding if you need phosphorus to establish new grass.

2. Applying Fertilizer Too Early or Too Late

(Image credit: Getty Images)

In a perfect world, you’ll fertilize your lawn twice this season: earlier to support new growth after summer and later to prepare grass for winter. This second application is often called winterizing grass, and many products designed for this step are labeled as winterizer fertilizers.

Even if you know to give your lawn two fall feedings, it’s still easy to make mistakes with the timing. The most common error to make with the first application is doing it too early. Feeding the grass while the weather is still hot and dry can burn it and promote weed growth. Wait until mid to late September when the grass is growing but temperatures have cooled.

For the second feeding, it’s easy to mistakenly apply lawn fertilizer too late. If the ground is already freezing, the fertilizer will be wasted, as the grass won’t take up the nutrients. Aim for a second application around the end of October or early November, weather dependent.

3. Using the Wrong Amount of Fertilizer

(Image credit: Iamporpla / Getty Images)

It’s easy to use too much fertilizer. Remember that more does not always correlate with a healthier, greener lawn. Excessive fertilizer can cause too much growth, nutrient runoff, and even root damage and plant stress. In hot or dry weather, it can actually burn your turf.

Instead of guessing at application rates or being heavy-handed, read the instructions on the fertilizer you choose and apply it correctly. An adjustable spreader is the easiest way to broadcast the right amount of fertilizer and to do it evenly. You can find a Scotts brand push broadcast spreader from Home Depot to make fertilizer application super easy. Another option is to use a slow-release fertilizer. It’s harder to overfeed with these products.

4. Ignoring Water Needs

(Image credit: Kinga Krzeminska / Getty Images)

Water is an important element in properly fertilizing your lawn. If the grass is wet when you apply granular fertilizer, it will stick to the blades. This can result in burning and damage. It can also cause fertilizer to clump in some areas, resulting in uneven distribution. If there is no water, the fertilizer will remain on the top of the soil, doing nothing.

The solution is to apply fertilizer to dry grass and then water the grass. Or, if you can manage to time it just right, you can apply the fertilizer just before it rains and save yourself some effort. If you’re overseeding the lawn, water daily if it’s not raining. For established lawns, water deeply and less frequently as the fertilizer does its work.

Fertilizing your lawn in fall serves two purposes: greening it up for the rest of the season and ensuring it’s healthy going into winter and as it breaks dormancy next spring. To get these results, be sure you avoid these common mistakes. Get the timing, amounts, watering, and product right, and your grass will thank you later.

Shop Fall Lawn Essentials

Scotts Winterguard Fall Lawn Food

A classic for a reason. Apply in fall and get ready for a fuller lawn next spring.

Scotts Mini Broadcast Spreader

Quickly and evenly apply lawn fertilizer with ease. It also works well for spreading salt in winter!

Scotts Fall Weed & Feed

This fertilizer pulls double duty and takes care of pesky weeds for a better lawn.

At the risk of sounding nosy, I love seeing what's in other people's gardens. It's always exciting to discover the crops they've chosen, what's looking plentiful, and how they've laid out their growing space.

Sir David and Lady Beckham are certainly no strangers to a bit of yard work. David regularly shares glimpses of their vegetable garden on Instagram, while Victoria often films him as he tends the beds, harvests produce, and shows off what they're growing. Their posts offer a fascinating running look at how their garden develops throughout the year.

So, if you're thinking about starting your own vegetable garden, the Beckhams' growing space is a great place to find inspiration. Here's a closer look at what they're growing and discover the easiest vegetables you can plant in your own garden this fall.

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A photo posted by

1. Onions

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The Beckhams appear to grow several types of onions. In David’s Instagram video, he is seen harvesting a Shakespeare onion, while another video shows red onions harvested elsewhere in the garden.

Shakespeare is a fall-planted variety that can establish before winter and continue growing when temperatures rise again in spring. However, onion planting times vary across the US, so check that any variety you buy is suitable for overwintering in your USDA zone.

If you’re a beginner, onion sets are usually easier than growing onions from seed. Small, partially developed bulbs, they establish more quickly than seeds and make things easier. A mixed pack, such as the TomorrowSeeds 3 Colors Mix Onion Sets from Walmart, gives you red, white, and yellow onions in one planting, making it an easy way to create a colorful crop similar to the Beckhams’.

Plant onion sets in full sun, in loose, well-drained soil, with the pointed tip just above the surface.

2. Lettuce

(Image credit: Getty Images)

David and Victoria are also fans of growing their own lettuce, and in his video, David highlights the variety Black Seeded Simpson, a loose-leaf lettuce with light green leaves that is well suited to cooler growing conditions.

That makes it a good option to plant in September. Lettuce can be sown directly into the soil in many areas, although the best timing depends on your first frost date. Choose a sunny spot with well-drained soil, and keep the soil consistently moist while the seeds germinate and the young plants establish.

You can find Black Seeded Simpson lettuce seeds from RDR Seeds on Amazon. When harvesting, leaving the center intact allows the lettuce to keep producing new leaves rather than pulling up the entire plant at once.

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3. Strawberries

(Image credit: Westend61 / Getty Images)

In a video from earlier this summer, David shows off his healthy cluster of strawberry plants. The plants are surrounded by borage, whose blue flowers can help attract pollinators while adding extra color to the vegetable garden.

Strawberries are another crop worth considering adding in the fall, to give roots time to establish before winter and get off to a productive start next year. The exact timing varies by region, but aim for roughly 4 to 6 weeks before your first expected hard frost. You can pick up a pack of Bonnie strawberry plants from Walmart.

Check that the types of strawberries are suitable for your area, plant them in full sun, in fertile, well-drained soil, and make sure the crown sits level with the soil surface rather than being buried.

Shop Vegetable Growing Supplies

Gardeners Basics Survival Seed Vault Kit, Vegetable Seeds for Planting

Miracle-Gro All-Purpose Garden Soil for In-Ground Use

Vego Garden 17-Inch-Tall 6-in-1 Modular Metal Raised Planter Bed

You don’t need the Beckhams’ space – or their gardening experience – to make a start. Lettuce, strawberries, and onions are all useful crops for beginners, and with the right varieties and planting times for your area, they can help turn even a small garden bed into a productive growing space this fall.

If you're wondering how to ripen green tomatoes on the vine for maximum flavor, this quick trick will force tomato plants to put all their energy into producing red fruit, fast. It’s been a fantastic year for growing tomatoes and finishing the season will be all the better if you’re picking juicy ripe tomatoes rather than green hard-as-a-bullet fruit that fill your windowsills for weeks.

Tomato plants are driven by an incredibly strong survival instinct, and this simple gardening hack flips this force of nature into panic mode, hoodwinking plants to crack on with ripening fruit that’s already formed. You’ll enjoy far more flavorful late-season tomatoes, and have a free windowsill to boot!

Part of the Weekend Win series, persuading a tomato plant to ripen its last fruits fast is one of those easy jobs that brings a big reward, and guess what? All you need is a pair of hand pruners.

How to Trick Tomato Plants into Ripening the Last Fruits1. Understand How a Tomato Plant’s Survival Instinct Works

Tomato plants have stronger survival instincts than humans – and that’s a fact. With around 25% more genes than we do, many of a tomato plant's genes come in pairs: one to look after the necessary day-to-day basics of life, and one that only comes into play when the plant is stressed. That means tomato plants adapt incredibly quickly to growing conditions, and we gardeners can use that to our advantage to ripen those precious last fruits.

In late September, days are still warm enough that a tomato plant thinks there’s time to grow more fruit, and so produce more seeds for survival. However, nights are cold enough to halt the ripening process on its already-formed green tomatoes. So while the tomatoes are still ripening, it's a very slow process. This simple task, however, will trick the plant into panic mode so it puts all its energy into ripening tomatoes, pronto.

(Image credit: Getty Images)2. Halt All New Growth

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Before you perform the magic trick to focus tomato plants on ripening fruit, you need to prevent it wasting energy on new growth. You may well have done this already as it’s a regular part of September tomato care, but if not, use hand pruners such as these Fiskars Bypass Pruners from Lowe’s to snip off the main growing tip at the top of the vine. Cut off any yellow flowers and newly-formed tiny green tomatoes, too, and keep checking leaf joints and removing any fresh sucker shoots.

3. Strip Away Lower Leaves

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Now you’ve got your tomato plant’s attention, you need to strip off all the leaves on the bottom third of the plant. Cut stems flush with the vine so the base is completely bare apart from any lingering fruit trusses. This stresses the plant, which now thinks winter has arrived early, so it puts all its efforts into ripening fruit to ensure the seeds it's already produced survive.

Pruning tomato plants in this way looks harsh but it's common practice in commercial tomato-growing operations, so don't worry a jot! The plants now only need enough energy to finish ripening already-formed fruit rather than fuelling new growth, so they'll be just fine.

(Image credit: Getty Images)4. Cut Watering

The next step to trigger your tomato plants to move into full emergency mode is to cut the water supply to stress them a little more. The plant will think it's about to die and, when a plant goes into this survival-at-all-costs state, it physically releases a heap of ethylene gas, the ripening hormone, as a last-ditch measure. This surge sends a strong signal to green fruit to rush seeds to maturity, so tomatoes ripen far more quickly.

To ripen tomatoes growing in the ground, you should stop irrigating completely, as plants will still be able to source some moisture from the ground. In containers, grow bags or a greenhouse, drastically reduce watering to the bare minimum to trigger this survival mode and accelerate the ripening process. A light watering once a week if it doesn't rain at all, or if you see the main stem starting to droop, is all a plant needs to stay alive at this late point in its life.

5. Keep Plants Warm

(Image credit: Getty Images)

It’s not sunshine hitting the skin that ripens toms, but the warmth of its rays. We all know what it’s like to bask in the warmth of late-season sunshine so, in all zones, cut off any foliage that’s directly shading fruit trusses higher up the vine. This lets sunlight – and levels are getting lower all the time as fall approaches – hit the fruit directly for maximum warmth.

The ripening process shuts down as soon as air temperatures drop below 50°F (10°C) so, depending on your zone, you may need to take additional steps to keep tomato plants warm. Having a garden thermometer – whether it’s a handsome analog thermometer like this from Amazon or a weatherproof digital thermometer such as this, also from Amazon, takes out the guesswork and helps you make good decisions.

If you want to ripen tomatoes in a greenhouse, then the simple task of closing the door and vents in late afternoon, then opening them in the morning, traps warm air inside.

Having some horticultural fleece ready to throw over plants when a cold night is forecast is a smart move if you’re growing tomatoes outdoors. A breathable plant cover like this from Walmart is cheap, light enough not to damage plants and is easily pegged to tomato supports, and will help to keep the ripening process on track.

(Image credit: PhotoJuli86 / Shutterstock)

Try this simple fall trick and you'll have rapidly ripening tomatoes, and I'll wager you’ll be surprised how fast it works, and how strong a tomato plant's survival instinct is. And that's just as well as, depending on your USDA zone, you may not have much ripening time left. Tomato plants have zero frost tolerance and, with such a high water content, fruit that freezes is immediately ruined. Keep an eye out for your impending first frost so you can cut unripe fruit beforehand and ripen any remaining tomatoes indoors – but you won't have many, if any, green tomatoes left if you tried this simple fall trick.

Do remember to save tomato seeds for free plants next year before the end of the season, too, selecting good-sized toms from your strongest plants.

If you do have a few left to ripen, it’s good to know that popping green tomatoes in a brown paper bag with a banana or simply putting them inside a closed kitchen cupboard is a far better method than a sunny windowsill, and cuts ripening time down to a week.

More Weekend Wins

This feature is part of the Weekend Wins series, packed with quick and easy 10-minute tasks and gardening tips and tricks that bring a big reward.

Make a Christmas Cactus Flower

Christmas cactus blooms are a delightful part of holiday decor, and there’s a very easy way to persuade your plant to flower on time.

Plant Pansies

Tuck cold-hardy pansies into pots and hanging baskets for months of easy-breezy fall-to-winter blooms.

Add lawn bulbs

Plant fast-growing bulbs in your lawn and enjoy drifts of lavender-hued blooms in a few weeks.

Revive Pots

Treat tired plants in pots to some tomato feed and fuel another flush of fresh flowers.

Boost Roses

Remove suckers that are stealing energy from your rose shrubs and enjoy bigger blooms next summer.

Groom Grasses

Use a $4 dog comb to give ornamental grasses a quick groom and save yourself hours weeding in spring.

Trim Lavender

Prune spent lavender stems so your plant has time to grow a duvet of dense foliage to survive winter well.

As summer blooms begin to fade, autumn flowers and plants are ready to shine and take center stage in the cooler weather. Traditional fall borders are typically dominated by classic fall perennials like hardy chrysanthemums (aka mums), late-season asters, goldenrod, and sedums. However, limiting your displays strictly to conventional ornamentals means you are missing out on an incredible opportunity for creative texture, vivid color contrast, and dual-purpose productivity.

Why not add in some edible fall border fillers that thrive in the gentler weather of the season? Key edible plants showcase a surprising spectrum of jewel-toned colors and architectural foliage. From ruffled, crimson-stemmed leafy greens to intricate, lace-like herbs and blue-hued upright brassicas, cooler-weather crops offer striking visual interest that easily rivals traditional bedding plants. Tucking these edible gems in between your late-season flowers elevates the overall aesthetic of your beds and borders, while offering a continuous harvest for seasonal meal times.

Integrating edibles directly into ornamental borders is also a clever space-saver for home gardeners with limited plot space. Rather than isolating your veg in rigid rows, you can enjoy them in a unique way as part of your seasonal displays. Make more of these dynamic edibles before you have to clip them for soups, salads, and stir-fries. Here’s how to give your fall flower borders a very tasty visual upgrade.

Growing Veg in Fall Borders

Conventionally, a fall border is built around late-season floral heavyweights like mums and asters, with the seedheads left for winter bird foraging. While these classics deliver reliable fall color, they often leave awkward, leggy gaps as lower foliage dies back in cooler weather. Incorporating cool-season edible plants for flower beds fills gaps in spectacular fashion, using jewel-tones and ruffled frills to create depth and dimension, so borders look lush and hearty through first frosts.

From a practical perspective, integrating crops into flower beds offers a brilliant dual-purpose solution if you have limited plot space. Key edible greens and herbs thrive in autumn, provided you can give them full sun or light partial shade and free-draining soil. You just have to make sure you can maintain good drainage through fall, adding coarse sand or perlite where necessary.

(Image credit: Hank Erdmann / Alamy)

Zonal considerations play a major role in fall border success. In northern regions (USDA hardiness zones 3-6), cool-season edibles perform as vibrant annuals that withstand light frosts before winter sets in. In warmer southern climates (zones 7-10), many of these crops will happily overwinter, providing continuous color and harvests straight into spring. Just check packs carefully before sowing direct outdoors

Before tucking young transplants or sowing seeds between fading perennials, take time to prep the soil. Clear away fallen leaf debris, gently aerate the top few inches of earth, and work in a generous layer of organic compost. Give your plant roots a helping hand with the mycorrhizal fungi present in Espoma’s Organic Bio-Tone Starter Plus from Amazon, for faster establishing plants with stronger roots. Prepping now enriches the soil for both these spectacular edibles and any spring-flowering bulbs sleeping beneath the surface. Let's meet our dazzling edible stars…

1. Rainbow Chard

(Image credit: Stanislav Ostranitsa / Getty Images)

Rainbow chard (Beta vulgaris) gets its name from the neon hues that run through its central stalks. Growing it directly in your flower borders creates an extraordinary display. Featuring glossy leaves supported by stems in fiery crimson, hot pink, vivid yellow, and bright orange, chard cultivars like Bright Lights and Celebration provide a lively backdrop to lower-growing sweet alyssum, violas, or trailing pansies.

Hardy in zones 3-10, chard is typically grown in fall as a cool-season annual. Just aim to set out transplants or sow seeds 6-8 weeks before your region's average first hard frost. Chard prefers rich, fertile, well-draining soil and a location with full sun or partial shade. You can harvest individual outer leaves continuously through autumn without disrupting the plant's stunning upright rosette. If heavy frost threatens, mulch around the base with straw to protect the crown for continued late-fall harvests.

You can currently get a luminous crop of orange, yellow, pink, white and red stalks with a single packet of Rainbow Mix Swiss Chard Seeds from Eden Brothers to add some bargain-friendly razzle-dazzle to borders.

2. Ornamental Kale and Cabbage

(Image credit: Bildagentur Online McPhoto / Alamy)

Ornamental kale and cabbage (Brassica oleracea) are cultivated specifically for their visual appeal. While technically 100% edible, their leaves tend to be tough and bitter compared to standard culinary varieties. However, what they lack in raw flavor, they more than compensate for in lush fall color and dramatic geometric forms. Popular cultivars like Peacock Red, Chidori, and Nagoya offer feathered, ruffled, or tightly wavy leaves arranged in dense, low-growing rosettes.

These ornamental brassicas form tight, low-growing rosettes featuring tightly ruffled, feathered, or wavy leaves. As temperatures drop below 50°F (10°C), the centers of these plants transform into vibrant shades of cream, royal purple, coral, and magenta. Set near the front edge of a fall border, they really pop near dark-leaved sedums or autumn crocuses. Extremely cold-hardy, they hold their color well into late winter, frequently surviving light snow cover.

Plant in mid-fall in a full-sun location with sharp, fast-draining soil. Don’t overwater once established, though. Soggy soil leads to yellowing lower leaves and root rot. If you fancy experimenting with purple rosettes, you can pick up a packet of Tomorrow Seeds Smooth Mix Ornamental Cabbage Seeds from Walmart for just a few dollars.

3. Tuscan Kale

(Image credit: Katrin Ray Shumakov / Getty Images)

Also known as Lacinato kale, dinosaur kale, or Cavolo Nero, Tuscan kale (Brassica oleracea var. palmifolia) offers exceptional culinary value and sophisticated beauty. This heirloom variety produces dramatic, upright leaves that curve outward like tiny palm trees. The foliage features a deep bluish-charcoal green hue with a pebbled texture that catches morning light and frost beautifully. All this makes it a real looker.

Tucking Tuscan kale alongside fine-textured fall flowers, golden marigolds, or orange mums creates an immediate, high-contrast focal point. Hardy in zones 7-10, it thrives as a fall annual in cooler northern regions. Plant Tuscan kale in a sunny garden spot with rich, well-drained soil. Wait until after your area experiences its first frost before harvesting, as the cold snap will make these leaves sweet and tender.

If you’ve missed the boat for direct sowing, plant nursery starts in a sunny location with rich, well-drained soil. Oh, and when harvesting, leave at least 6-8 top leaves intact so the plant continues growing upward like a small palm. Bring a dash of ruffled structure with a packet of Lacinato Kale Seeds from Burpee. Or for readymade plants, buy Clovers Garden Dinosaur Kale Live Plants from Amazon.

4. Red Veined Sorrel

(Image credit: Westend61 / Getty Images)

Red-veined sorrel (Rumex sanguineus) is a hardy perennial herb that deserves a prominent place in every fall border. Hardy in zones 4-9, this striking plant forms neat, compact rosettes of vibrant apple-green, lance-shaped leaves with rich burgundy vein patterns. This bold contrast makes it a satisfying ornamental edging plant along pathways or beneath taller, leggy perennials.

Beyond its obvious beauty, red-veined sorrel offers a delightful, tangy lemon flavor. Harvest young leaves continuously to add a citrus bite to fall salads, or cook older leaves into soups and sauces. Red-veined sorrel grows happily in full sun to partial shade and prefers moist, well-drained soil. Because it is a true perennial, it will return every spring, offering long-term beauty and flavor. Just ensure clay soils are amended with coarse sand or perlite. Buy Ohio Heirloom Seeds Store Blood Veined Sorrel Seeds from Amazon, for striking heirloom leaves with a zingy twist.

5. Mizuna

(Image credit: Seven75 / Getty Images)

Mizuna (Brassica rapa var. nipposinica) is a rapid-growing Japanese mustard green that can add a feathery, fern-like texture to fall beds. Its serrated leaves contrast beautifully with broad-leaved perennials like coral bells or densely packed mums. To maximize visual impact, seek out colorful cultivars like Beni Houshi or Rubra. Mizuna flourishes in full sun or partial shade with moisture-retentive yet well-drained soil.

Hardy in zones 4-9, mizuna thrives in the crisp, cool air of fall. Sow seeds or set out young transplants at least 4 weeks before your first frost date. Because it matures quickly, you can begin harvesting outer leaves using the cut-and-come-again method just a few weeks after planting. Snip outer leaves an inch (2cm) above the soil line to encourage rapid regrowth. Don’t let the soil dry out completely, though, as moisture stress causes the leaves to become excessively tough.

You can buy Mountain Valley Seed Company Red Leaf Mizuna Mustard Seeds from Walmart for a quick-developing color that adds a feathery splash of fire to cool season borders and hungry bellies!

6. Curly and Flat Leaf Parsley

(Image credit: Karina Matvejeva / Getty Images)

Never overlook cool-season herbs when styling your autumn borders! Parsley is one of the most versatile foliage fillers you can add to late-season beds. Whether you choose the tightly ruffled, cloud-like texture of curly-leaf parsley (P. crispum var. crispum) or fern-like Italian flat-leaf parsley (P. crispum var. neapolitanum), this humble herb adds delicate visual softness around the bases of leggy fall flowers.

Parsley is a hardy biennial grown primarily as a cool-season annual in zones 4-9. Because parsley grows quite slowly from seed in cold soil, using established nursery transplants is the best way to get an immediate fall effect. Plant it in full sun or partial shade within rich, organic, well-draining soil. You can harvest several fresh stems from the outer edge for cooking without disrupting the bushy accents of your border. Grab a pack of The Seed Plant’s Triple Curled Parsley Seeds from Amazon for just a couple of dollars for a lush, fluffy border statement.

(Image credit: Bildagentur Online McPhoto / Alamy)

Mixing fall-blooming perennials with edible foliage plants is a lovely way to increase texture, color, and productivity in beds and borders as the new season gets underway. The vibrant hues of autumn flowers pop when framed against unique vegetable foliage, rewarding you with a gorgeous display and a fresh harvest. So don’t be afraid to mix and match for spectacular fall ensembles that will have all the local tongues wagging!

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

Old towels, in my house, have traditionally had a pretty short life once they stop being soft. I prefer mine fluffy, so as soon as they start resembling sandpaper-rough rags, I’d either gift them to my greyhound-cross (he’s not fussy) or, I’m ashamed to admit, chuck them.

My husband, though? He’s been a professional gardener for well over two decades, and apparently sees potential where I see an old towel. According to him, there are several surprisingly useful ways to reuse old towels in the garden – and, annoyingly, he’s got a point.

Usually, I’m the recycling queen in our house, turning old teacups into bird feeders and milk cartons into bird houses (birds, it seems, do rather well out of my craftiness). So it was a bit of a kick in the teeth to discover I’d been bested by the same man who can cook up a storm in the kitchen and coax even my most stubborn houseplants back to life after I’ve neglected them. Leave something for the rest of us, sir!

7 Ways To Reuse Old Towels In The Garden

All that being said, I wasn’t convinced. How on earth could an old towel possibly be useful in a garden?

“Think about it,” my husband told me when I put this question to him one weekend. “A towel is designed to deal with water, it’s hard-wearing, and it’s easy to cut or fold. Why throw it away when you can give it another job?”

Annoyingly, the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. And so, with that in mind, here are his tried-and-tested methods for putting old towels to use in the garden..

1. Keep One Handy For A Surprise Frost

(Image credit: JSvideos / Shutterstock)

This was the first suggestion that made me realise my husband might actually be onto something. “I always keep a couple of old towels somewhere in the shed,” he suggested to me. “You never know when you’re going to get one of those unexpected frosty nights.”

An old towel can be used as temporary protection for a vulnerable plant when frost is forecast, the idea being to cover the plant and trap some of the heat coming from the soil around it. However, there is a small but important caveat here: he wouldn’t simply dump a heavy towel over delicate foliage and leave it there. "It's not breathable and it doesn't let light in," he says, "and it should be supported so it isn’t pressing down on the plant. Make sure, too, to remove it once temperatures rise above freezing."

It’s a useful emergency measure rather than a replacement for proper winter protection, basically; something like these Plant Covers Freeze Protection from Amazon will be far more effective. But, if your delivery isn't due until the day after the first frost snap, then trust me: you’d much rather have a slightly tatty old towel ready to hand than let your favorite plant spend the night looking like it’s been left in a freezer.

2. Create A Water Wick

(Image credit: DimaBerlin / Shutterstock)

Yes, you can use old towels as a slow watering hack, and it's a particularly clever trick if you have container plants that dry out quickly. “This is a good one if you’re going away for a few days,” says my husband. “You can use a strip of old cotton towel to move water from a container into the compost.”

It works through capillary action; just cut a narrow strip of absorbent cotton towel, soak it thoroughly, then put one end into a container of water and the other into the potting mix. As the compost dries, the towel can draw water from the reservoir towards the plant.

It's not going to be as effective as, say, a Back to the Roots Self-Watering Terracotta Olla Pot (which promises a week of watering), but it'll do in a pinch. Just remember to test it out before you go away, as different towels wick water at different rates, and you don’t want to return home to either a parched plant or a pot that’s been turned into a swamp.

3. Use It As A Potting Mat

(Image credit: Nicola Stockden / Gardenpix Ltd)

Oh sure, this may not be the most exciting use of an old towel, but it’s one I can see myself adopting immediately.

“This is less about helping the plant and more about saving yourself a mess,” my husband says. "Lay an old towel underneath your pots when you’re repotting, dividing plants or filling containers. It'll catch loose compost, spilled water and all those tiny bits of soil that somehow manage to travel several feet away from where you’re actually gardening."

When you’re finished, you can shake the towel outside and give it a wash if necessary, making this hack particularly handy if, like me, you occasionally attempt to repot a plant indoors and then spend the next hour discovering compost in increasingly unlikely places.

4. Give Weeds A Blackout

(Image credit: Yackers1 / Getty Images)

For particularly stubborn weeds, an old natural-fiber towel can also be used as a temporary light-blocking layer. “If you’ve got an area you’re clearing, you can cover it for a while and stop the weeds getting any light,” says my husband.

The principle is the same as other forms of weed-smothering: block the light and you make life considerably harder for the plants underneath. Still, I’d use this as a short-term tactic rather than burying towels permanently beneath a border. Choose a 100% cotton towel, weigh it down so it stays put and remove it once you’re ready to deal with the area (or use something like Amazon's Biodegradable Weed Barrier).

And, as ever, check what the towel is actually made from before putting it in the garden. (Synthetic fibers aren’t what we’re after here).

5. Make A Free Kneeling Pad

(Image credit: Grace Cary / Getty Images)

“This one’s obvious,” my husband says. “Why buy something when you’ve already got a perfectly good piece of padding?”

Take an old towel, fold it several times and you’ve got a surprisingly comfortable kneeling pad for weeding, planting bulbs or doing those jobs that require you to spend far too long with your knees on the ground.

The beauty is that it can simply go in the washing machine afterwards. If the soil is particularly wet, I’d put something waterproof underneath it rather than expecting the towel to keep you completely dry. Still, for ordinary gardening jobs, it’s a wonderfully simple way to give an old towel another lease of life.

6. Keep A 'Mud Towel’ In The Shed

(Image credit: JohnnyGreig / Getty Images)

If you have an old towel that nobody is particularly precious about, relegate it to the shed for muddy moments. “Have one in the shed for your tools,” my husband suggests. “You can wipe the mud and moisture off them before you put them away.”

This is less glamorous than some of the other ideas, but it’s exactly the sort of habit that makes sense when you’re gardening regularly. A quick wipe helps keep soil from drying onto tools and removes excess moisture before they go back into storage. And because you’ve deliberately designated one towel as the garden towel, nobody is going to accidentally grab it after a shower.

At least, I hope not.

7. And Let It Go To Compost

(Image credit: hopsalka / Getty Images)

Eventually, even the most dedicated garden towel will reach the end of its useful life, but if it’s made from a compostable natural fiber such as cotton, wool or linen, that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to go straight in the bin.

“Once it’s completely worn out, check what it’s made from,” my husband says. “If it’s natural fiber, cut it up and it can go into the compost.”

I’d check the label first and remove anything synthetic, such as polyester-rich sections, decorative trims or labels. Cutting the towel into smaller pieces will also help it break down more readily.

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And there we have it: my old towels have gone from unwanted household clutter to emergency frost protection, watering aids, kneeling pads and compost material.

I’m not sure I’ll ever look at a threadbare bath towel in quite the same way again... although I’m drawing the line at letting my husband keep the good fluffy ones.

Every week, our gardening experts at Gardening Know How scour the shopping aisles to bring you the very best garden deals we can find. These aren't simply the cheapest or most discounted garden deals, but worthy products with a minimum 4-star review that offer excellent value for money.

This week, heading up our top 10 garden deals of the week is lavender Phenomenal, better than half price at Trees.com. This modern hybrid variety is widely regarded as the longest-blooming and toughest lavender of all, coping with both humidity and cold in zones 5-9. With a neat habit, silvery evergreen foliage and plenty of sturdy stems that don’t tend to splay like other varieties can, this modern hybrid deserves a place in every yard and is a mainstay of our best lavender recommendations to grow in every zone.

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Phenomenal Lavender in 1 Gallon Container

Older lavender varieties tend to have the sweetest fragrance but can be finicky about their living conditions: English lavenders faint as temperatures climb while French lavenders fail as temperatures fall. Modern hybrid varieties have been bred to be far more resilient, but the cost is usually a harsh, camphorous edge to their scent. Not so lavender Phenomenal! It boasts the best of both worlds, being incredibly resilient and forgiving to grow while having a high concentration of essential oils for a fabulous fragrance. Tuck a stem under your pillow and you'll discover just how soothing its scent is.

Fall is a great time to add lavender to your garden and you'll enjoy plentiful, beautifully perfumed blooms early next summer. It’s one of those sun-loving plants that do better in a terracotta pot as it appreciates fast-draining soil and, especially when planting in fall, treat lavender to a gravel mulch to help it thrive.

Best of the Rest: More Great Garden Deals

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We'll be back with some great October garden deals next week – see you then!

Watch a feeder for ten minutes in fall and the pecking order sorts itself out fast. Grackles drop in as a group and the tray stays occupied. A mourning dove settles onto one spot and stays put. The chickadees and titmice wait it out in the shrubs, darting in between rounds, often leaving with nothing.

Most of the fix sits in the gear and the menu, not in shooing anything away. The usual bird feeding essentials still hold, but the station itself gets built so a bird past a certain size can't reach the food. Nothing about it is aggressive. It just narrows the door.

Here’s how to solve this common bird feeding problem and protect small birds at your feeding station from bigger bullies who may be flying by.

1. Cage the Feeder

(Image credit: Alphotographic / Getty Images)

A wire cage around a bird feeder is the bluntest version of this and probably the most dependable. Openings around 1.5 inches (4 cm) are wide enough for chickadees, titmice, nuthatches and goldfinches to slip through, but too tight for grackles and starlings. Jays can't get into them either.

Cage diameter is as important as the mesh, though. Anything under 11 inches (28 cm) across and a grackle can perch on the outside, stretch its neck through the bars, and reach the ports anyway. Skimping on width undoes the whole point of the cage. Makers describe mesh spacing in slightly different ways, so measure the gaps if the listing doesn't say.

Cages come two ways: as an add-on that drops over a feeder that's already hanging or built into the feeder from the start. This covered cage feeder from Amazon keeps the seed dry and gives the small birds some shelter while they eat. Hang it clear of fence rails and low branches.

Anything a heavier bird can brace a foot against turns into a foothold and makes the cage useless. Whichever version you buy, pick one where the container lifts out. Cages make cleaning bird feeders awkward at the best of times and forgotten feeders can turn grimy fast.

2. Change Up the Menu

(Image credit: Sacit Bulut / 500px / Getty Images)

Choosing the right bird seed for the birds you want to attract is vital. Safflower has a hard shell and an awkward shape for a heavy bill and blackbirds tend to leave it alone, but cardinals and house finches take to it without much fuss. Striped sunflower seeds work on a similar principle: the thicker shell means more effort than a starling's softer bill can expend.

Some local flocks do acquire the taste over time, so bird seed type alone isn't a permanent answer everywhere. Shortening the perches on a tube feeder you already own works along the same lines. A chickadee lands on a stub perch without trouble, while a grackle can cling to one for a few seconds before giving up.

Pulling cracked corn and millet out of the mix helps too, since those are the ingredients drawing in blackbirds and house sparrows. For the smallest birds, nyjer in a fine-port feeder is about as exclusive as backyard bird feeding gets.

A Perky-Pet finch tube feeder from Walmart holds a pound and a half of nyjer seed and has flexible covers that keep the seed from pouring out in the wind. Goldfinches and siskins take to it quickly. Most of the bigger birds don't bother trying.

3. Rethink the Suet & Location

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Suet can cause trouble between different bird species sometimes. A starling can settle on top of a standard wire cage and work through a cake without shifting position and it can keep that up for a long stretch.

Woodpeckers and nuthatches, on the other hand, feed upside down without complaint and so do chickadees. Move the access to the underside of the feeder to prevent problems. Starlings can still reach it if they commit, but they dislike hanging inverted and rarely stay long. Home Depot stocks a recycled composite upside-down suet feeder built around that idea, with the cake loaded so birds reach it from below.

Where you locate your bird feeder matters, too. Small birds feed more confidently near cover, roughly 10 feet (3 m) out from a hedge or shrub, close enough to bolt for and far enough that a cat has nowhere useful to wait. Pole-mounting the feeder with a baffle underneath beats hanging it from a branch, where squirrels and heavier birds have a route in from above.

What goes in the feeder counts as well. Plain rendered suet draws less starling attention than the peanut and seed blends do, since it is the added bits they come for.

Give these switches a couple of weeks before judging any of them. Bigger bully birds that are used to easy pickings will test the new arrangement, decide it isn't worth the effort, and go bother someone else's yard instead.

Most houseplants make their needs obvious. Snake plants don’t, and that toughness is a big reason they end up in so many homes – right up until a cool snap or one watering too many catches up with them in October. September sits at the turn between summer growth and a much slower winter stretch, so the changes made now carry right through to spring.

Good snake plant care in fall mostly comes down to easing off. Growth slows as the days shorten, and the roots pull far less water than they did back in July. A couple of September’s jobs are time-sensitive, though, especially for plants that spent the summer out on a porch or patio.

6 Snake Plant Tasks to Tackle in September

Temperatures still swing quite a bit this month across much of the country. Warm afternoons make it tempting to keep the same routine going, but the shorter days have already changed how much moisture and fertilizer a snake plant can put to use.

1. Bring Outdoor Plants in before Nights Turn Cold

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Watch the overnight lows more than the afternoon highs. Snake plants tolerate cool nights around 50F (10C), but longer stretches below that can damage the leaves, and frost will kill the plant outright. Many people wait for the first chilly forecast – the trouble is that a late-September cold snap can show up with hardly any warning. Aim to bring your plant inside while nights still sit in the mid-50s (about 13C), with some margin to spare. It should sit somewhere away from drafty doors, ideally.

2. Inspect Every Leaf before It Comes Inside

(Image credit: Alexandr Kolesnikov / Getty Images)

Pests are rarely a big issue on snake plants, so this step gets skipped a lot. A summer outdoors gives citrus mealybugs (Planococcus citri) and two-spotted spider mites (Tetranychus urticae) plenty of chances to move in, and either one can spread to other houseplants once the plant is back on a windowsill. Peer into the tight leaf bases, where mealybugs tend to tuck their cottony clusters. A spray bottle of ready-to-use insect killing soap, stocked at Home Depot, takes care of light infestations while the plant is still outdoors – both faces of every leaf need a good soaking.

3. Stretch Out the Time between Waterings

(Image credit: Westend61 / Getty Images)

Overwatering is behind a large share of snake plant losses, and fall is when it often creeps in. The schedule that worked in August can leave the mix wet for weeks once growth slows in September. Let the pot dry out completely before watering again. A finger pushed 2 inches (5cm) into the soil gives a decent read, and a battery-free soil moisture meter from Amazon reaches well past fingertip depth in tall pots. Through the coldest months, many snake plants need water only every month or two. A dry pot is rarely an emergency; a soggy one in October can be.

4. Give One Last Light Feeding, Or Just Skip It

(Image credit: boonchai wedmakawand / Getty Images)

Snake plant fertilizer needs are low at the best of times, and plenty of growers have stopped entirely by September. For a plant that hasn’t been fed in months, one dose early this month at half the label rate seems reasonable. Amazon has a liquid cactus and succulent plant food that mixes straight into a watering can. After that, hold off until new growth appears again. Fertilizer left in soil that stays damp for weeks mostly builds up salts the plant has no real use for anyway.

5. Move the Pot Closer to a Window

(Image credit: Victoriia Ihnatovets / Getty Images)

By late September, a corner that felt bright in June might only get a few hours of weak light. Snake plants tolerate dim rooms, though they produce very little new foliage there, and some variegated types may lose a bit of their contrast over a long, dark winter. An east- or west-facing window works well, as long as the leaves aren’t pressed against cold glass. Wipe down each leaf during the move, too – dust dulls those broad, leathery blades and can block a fair share of light. If the leaves start leaning toward the window, a quarter turn every few weeks helps keep new ones growing straight.

6. Check the Roots, but Save Repotting for Spring

(Image credit: Byakkaya / Getty Images)

Roots poking out of the drainage hole send a lot of people reaching for a bigger pot. It can wait. Snake plants grow fine when a little crowded, and a roomy container full of moist mix heading into the cool season is a setup for rot. Snug roots aren’t a problem to solve before winter – soggy ones are. The exception is a pot that’s cracked open or a plant top-heavy enough to tip over. In that case, it's okay to repot a snake plant. Go up only one size, roughly 2 inches (5cm) wider, and water sparingly afterward.

Once September’s work is out of the way, a snake plant needs very little until spring, which is a big part of the appeal. A quick finger test now and then, plus the odd dust-off, should carry it through the darker months without much fuss.

We all want low maintenance plants, and those that bloom in the fall are twice as nice. Summer blooming plants are fading fast and our gardens need an autumn revival. Making sure a few perennials are just coming into their own will guarantee a fresh look for fall that lasts till the first hard freeze.

Low maintenance plants generally do not need a lot of water, fertilizer, or trimming. By this time of year, many people’s thoughts are turning to cooler days and fall events. If you don’t want to spend a lot of time tending to your fall garden plants, install some of these beauties in autumn or spring. If planting in fall, be sure they are planted four-to-six weeks before the first hard frost so the roots have time to establish before winter.

These plants boast other attributes, too. They provide nectar for pollinators seeking end of the season sustenance. Migrating monarch butterflies and hummingbirds need energy to power their flights, and bees are collecting what’s left of the nectar and pollen before winter.

1. Bluebeard

(Image credit: Sankha Basu / 500px / Getty Images)

Bluebeard (Caryopteris) is a late-summer-to-fall-blooming perennial with vibrant color that attracts butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Also called blue mist, it can grow 3 to 13 feet (0.9 to 4 m) tall but usually dies to the ground in colder winter areas of its USDA hardiness zones 5-9. Most hybrid selections stay much shorter. Its fragrant blue, purple, pink, or white flowers grow in clusters around the stems and are a beacon for pollinators but not deer and rabbits.

Foliage is silvery green, yellow, dark, or variegated. Provide good drainage and sandy loam soil in full sun for this drought-tolerant small shrub. ’Blue Empire’ has large violet-blue flowers and tolerates heat and humidity. Another striking and fragrant variety called 'Dark Knight' bluebeard can be found at your local Home Depot. Works well in a border, hedge, xeriscape garden, mass planting or in containers.

2. Tall Sedum

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Succulent sedums (Hylotelephium) such as ‘Autumn Joy’ and ‘Autumn Fire’ thrive on neglect. They are pretty much foolproof as long as the soil is well drained. They like hot, dry sites in full sun in USDA hardiness zones 3-9. This perennial pollinator favorite should be a mainstay in every garden for its easy care and long lasting clusters of pink, white, yellow, or red star-shaped flowers that start blooming in late summer and continue through fall.

Leaving the flowers to dry on the stems provides winter interest. Foliage colors vary in gray-green, maroon, bluish, or variegated on 12 to 24 inch (30 to 61 cm) stems. Works well in perennial borders, rock gardens, pollinator gardens, and containers. 'Autumn Joy' sedum is currently on sale from American Meadows and will pair well with ornamental grasses or other perennial plants.

3. Helen's Flower

(Image credit: Jacky Parker Photography / Getty Images)

Helen's flower (Helenium autumnale) is a North American native perennial that blooms in fall with yellow, daisy-like, velvety flowers with domed centers. Also called "sneezeweed," its hybrids give more color choices such as gold, orange, red, copper, and bicolor. Pollinators are frequent visitors, so it is an important late season wildlife plant. It prefers full sun and moist to average soil in USDA hardiness zones 3-9. Clumps reach 2 to 5 feet tall (0.6 to 1.5 m).

Deadhead to increase flowering. Helenium works well in mixed beds and borders, rain gardens, cottage gardens, and meadows. Deer and rabbits avoid its bitter foliage, which can be toxic if eaten in large quantities. Foliage also may irritate the skin of some people. ‘El Dorado’ sports yellow flowers with red streaks. ‘Mardi Gras’ features orange flowers enhanced with yellow and red. ‘Hot Lava’ has orange-red flowers. Cheerful sneezeweed plants can be purchased from Walmart or you local nursery.

4. Russian Sage

(Image credit: Anmbph / Getty Images)

Russian sage (Salvia yangii) is an upright, fragrant perennial with tubular, lavender-blue flowers on tall spikes (2 to 4 feet, 0.6 to 1.2 m) that starts blooming in summer and continues through fall. It makes a bold statement in borders, cottage gardens, drought tolerant gardens, or along walkways. Deer and rabbits avoid its silvery foliage due to its pungent scent and bitter taste.

However, it attracts butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Native to Asia, grow Russian sage in well-draining soil in full sun in USDA hardiness zones 5-9. Leave the foliage intact over winter, but cut it down to about 12 inches (30 cm) in spring. Recommended cultivars include ‘Blue Spire,’ ‘Denim ‘n Lace,’ and ‘Little Spire,’ a shorter, compact plant. Proven Winners' Denim 'n Lace Russian sage is available from Walmart.

5. New England Aster

(Image credit: AlpamayoPhoto / Getty Images)

Fall-blooming New England asters (Aster novae-angliae) provide color for us and nectar for many insects, as well as seeds for songbirds. Asters also are a host plant for the pearly crescent butterfly. There are so many native plants as well as cultivars to choose from. Asters are perfect for containers, borders, rain gardens, and pollinator gardens.

A popular New England aster variety, ‘Purple Dome,’ has purple flowers and stays about 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 m) tall. ‘Grape Crush’ has dark purple flowers and a compact habit, up to 30 inches (76 cm) and blooms a little earlier than ‘Purple Dome.’ Asters are easy to care for in sun to part sun and well-draining, moist soil, and acclimate better if planted in spring in their USDA zones 4-8.

The asters that show up in stores with the potted mums are typically treated as annuals like mums. They put on a colorful show in fall but seldom return the next spring. Brilliant and compact 'Purple Dome' asters can be purchased from Garden Goods Direct and shipped straight to your door (plus they have a sitewide fall sale!)

6. Aromatic Aster

(Image credit: Tom Meaker / Getty Images)

Aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) is a type of U.S. native aster that is drought tolerant and very popular with the pollinators. One of the varieties, 'Raydon's Favorite,' doesn’t bloom till late fall but provides oodles of violet-blue daisy-type flowers. Another variety, ‘October Skies,’ blooms a little earlier with light blue daisy-like flowers, providing a succession of blooms for all of autumn if you grow both. ‘October Skies’ stays about 2 feet (0.6 m) tall and ‘Raydon’s Favorite’ about 3 feet (0.9 m) tall.

Plant aromatic aster in full sun and well-drained soil in USDA zones 4-8. If you can’t find them in garden centers and nurseries, they are available from online native plant or wildflower nurseries. You can find 'Rayon's Favorite' and 'October Skies' from Garden Goods Direct.

7. Mexican Sage

(Image credit: Getty Images)

If you like salvias, Mexican sage (Salvia leucantha) is a perfect addition for fall color and feeding late season pollinators, especially butterflies and hummingbirds. Hardy in USDA zones 7-11, it produces long spires of velvety purple flowers with white tongues, set off by soft, greenish-silver foliage. Those in colder zones can grow Mexican sage as an annual in containers.

It also works well in pollinator or butterfly gardens, cottage gardens, and in borders. It prefers rich, moist, well-drained soil in full sun, but tolerates some drought once established. Mexican sage grows 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 m) tall and wide. Cultivars include ‘All Purple,’ an all purple selection (no white), and ‘Danielle’s Dream,’ with pink and white flowers, and ‘White Mischief,’ an all-white flowered selection. Dwarf selections are also available. A 3-pack of Mexican sage plants can be purchased from Walmart.

By September, lavender plants that flowered heavily through early and mid-summer are often looking a bit scraggly. Lingering faded flower stalks might be poking up like spent toothpicks, and the center of the mound may be splaying open under its own weight. So it’s very tempting to grab the shears and start pruning lavender back hard right about now to make your border look neat and tidy ahead of winter.

But fall is where lavender care can become a little counterintuitive. Lavender is not an herbaceous perennial that can be cut to the dirt. It is a woody subshrub, which means that its older, lower stems harden into wood over time. Once you slice deep into that leafless wood, it rarely pushes out fresh shoots again. Making aggressive cuts in fall is one of the quickest ways to ruin an established lavender plant.

Three lavender pruning cuts in particular tend to go wrong if attempted in fall. But that doesn’t mean you have to dodge cutting altogether – it just means you have to adapt your approach, and respect your plant’s needs in the approach to the cooler, damper months ahead. Understanding this will help to keep your plant healthy and resilient ahead of the new year. Do the right thing this fall, so you don’t ruin future blooms. Here are the risky cuts to avoid – and the one safe snip to try before winter.

Why Fall Cuts Hit Lavender Harder

Plenty of soft-stemmed perennials can be sheared nearly down to the ground in fall and will return without a hitch next spring. Lavender works differently: its active growth buds sit almost entirely within the soft, leafy green growth at the top. The older, woody lower stems lack the buds needed to sprout new foliage once they are trimmed down. Cut too far into those stems and you wave goodbye to future blooms.

Different lavender species react with varying degrees of drama, but late-season cutting puts them all at risk. Cold-hardy English lavenders (L. angustifolia) like Hidcote and Munstead tolerate light shaping, but deep cuts expose their woody cores to severe winter frost-cracking. Hybrid lavandins (L. x intermedia) such as Grosso hold onto heavy, sap-rich stems that bleed energy if clipped late. Meanwhile, tender French (L. dentata) and Spanish (L. stoechas) lavenders struggle to recover from any major structural disturbance as temperatures drop.

(Image credit: Wita Design / Getty Images)

Furthermore, cutting lavender coaxes out a fresh flush of tender growth. In early June, encouraging fresh shoots is exactly what you want. Late in the season, though, soft new shoots won’t have time to harden off before the first freeze hits. Extreme cold can damage that new growth easily, and frost can turn tender tips into black stumps, opening the plant up to fungal infection in USDA growing zones 4-7.

That’s a tough price to pay for a slightly neater shrub, and yards with an early freeze can feel it the most. Keeping a thermometer handy, like the budget-friendly Serundo Mini Digital Thermometer from Amazon, can help you pinpoint where temperatures are at on a particular day for your lavender. But what do you do about straggly plants in fall? Read on to find out about the cuts that hurt, and the one that can help…

The 3 Risky Cuts to Skip

(Image credit: Andrii Tatarynov / Alamy)

Each of the following fall cutting mistakes seems sensible and well-intentioned enough in the moment, especially when you’re having a backyard cleanup spree. The trouble is that the damage rarely shows up immediately: it hides quietly through the chilly months, only revealing itself in spring when dead, brown gaps appear.

By the time warm spring weather arrives, there’s little you can do to repair fall pruning damage, except wait and hope a few stray buds green up. Understanding how different varieties react to late-season trimming can help to ensure your plants survive the winter unscathed. But you’ll be doing your lavender a massive favor if you dodge the following cuts now.

1. The Hard Scalp

(Image credit: Almaje / Getty Images)

Picture a lavender mound sheared down to a few inches of brown, leafless stubs, the same way someone might cut back spent daylilies. Bare lavender wood is a one-way street: cut into that brown bark without leaves attached, and that branch almost certainly stays bare forever.

Some scalped plants recover in patchy, uneven tufts, and sit lopsided for 2-3 seasons, while older specimens don’t come back at all. Even an aged, leggy specimen that desperately needs reshaping is better renewed gradually over a couple of years, with gentle cuts in early spring rather than a tragic fall slaughter. Container-grown lavender is especially vulnerable to hard scalping, as pot-bound roots cannot recover from total foliage loss.

2. The Late Month Flush

(Image credit: Westend61 / Getty Images)

Here, the cut itself might be perfectly gentle, but it’s the timing that trips things up. Trimming lavender stems too close to your local first frost date will trigger the plant to push out a quick flush of tender, sap-rich green tips that have zero chance of toughening up before those freezing temperatures arrive.

A common rule for pruning lavender is to wrap up trimming 6-8 weeks before your region's average first hard frost date. In colder northern zones (4-6), the seasonal window can be closing as early as mid-August. In warmer southern climates (8-10), light trimming can be extended into late September, but that’s about it. Checking your local frost dates removes all the guesswork before your shears get busy.

3. The Flat Top Box Cut

(Image credit: Dorling Kindersley Ltd / Alamy)

A crisp, squared-off lavender hedge cut like a formal boxwood might look sharp – at least along a sunny brick walkway. But by February, however, maybe not so much. In fact, that box cut can wind up becoming a structural liability for your fragrant hedge as winter rolls in. A flat top can collect wet snow and hold heavy rain instead of shedding it naturally.

Under the weight of winter snowdrifts, a flat-topped lavender mound can also split down the center, exposing the interior to frost damage. Straight, vertical box cuts can also drag the blades down deeper into bare wood along the sides. Instead, lavender hedges stay healthier over winter when maintained as a continuous series of soft, rounded mounds that allow snow to slide off effortlessly.

The Fall Cut That Works

(Image credit: Ekaterina Varnakova / Getty Images)

As you can see, quite a few of the cuts we might embrace earlier in the year become liabilities in fall. The Hard Scalp and Late Month Flush cuts can directly endanger the plant's survival, while the Flat Top Box Cut does its structural harm more slowly over a snowy winter. But there is one type of cut you can safely carry out in fall: the green tip sweep. As the name suggests, this fall snip is focused on a gentle tidy-up.

Grab your sharpest pruners or snips. If you don’t have any, I can recommend the nimble Fiskars Micro-Tip Pruning Snips with Softgrip Handles, available at The Home Depot. They give you precision cuts that slide easily between crowded shoots and won’t gouge surrounding shoots. Start with the spent flower stalks, snipping each one down to where the top cluster of green leaves begins.

(Image credit: Toni Jardon / Getty Images)

Once the dead stalks are cleared, gather a loose handful of leafy stems in one hand and clip an inch (2.5 cm) off the soft green leafy tips. Work your way around the plant so the outer growth ends up slightly shorter than the central crown. This creates a gentle dome shape that snow can glide off rather than pile on. As a basic guide, always leave 2-3 inches (5-8 cm) of green foliage above the woody part of every stem. If a stem looks thin on leaves or a bit stressed, skip it.

For individual specimen plants, precision snips work best to slip between crowded shoots. For walkway hedges, hedge shears speed up the job, provided you follow the curved contours of each plant rather than cutting flat lines. Whichever tool comes out, keep the edge sharp, as dull blades tend to crush stems. If you haven’t got a sharpener, it’s worth investing in the Orange Ninja 7-in-1 Knife Sharpener from Amazon, for razor-sharp cuts that slice cleanly through stems. Do this right, and you’ll create healthy evergreen mounds that retain their shape through winter.

When to Skip the Sweep

(Image credit: Aninka Bongers-Sutherland / Getty Images)

Depending on your lavender variety and late-season conditions, you may need to skip pruning until spring. Tall, vigorous lavandin hybrids (such as Grosso and Phenomenal) bloom later in summer. Their framework handles winter best when left intact until early April. Similarly, tender Spanish lavenders should only receive a very light deadheading in fall, as heavy pruning in colder climates frequently proves fatal.

Whatever gets cut, make sure you give your tools a quick wipe with Equate 70% Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol from Walmart to prevent any disease from traveling plant to plant. However, if frost is already creeping into your local 10-day forecast, just snip off the dry flower stalks and leave all the foliage intact to shelter the crown.

After completing any light trimming, rake fallen stems away from the base of the plant. Damp, decaying leaf litter packed against the plant all winter can trap moisture and invite fatal root rot. Happily, those fragrant trimmings need not go to waste. Dry the aromatic leaves and tuck them into muslin sachets for your linen drawers.

Best Lavender Care for Fall

(Image credit: Paul Hanson / Alamy)

Beyond pruning, good fall lavender care needs to focus on water management and root insulation. Soggy soil kills far more lavender plants than freezing temperatures ever will. Reduce watering significantly as the days shorten, allowing the top couple of inches (5cm) of soil to dry out completely between rains.

Where your lavender is growing in heavy clay soil, work some coarse sand, pea gravel, or crushed horticultural grit into the surface around the plant to help improve drainage. For ground-based lavenders, a sprinkling of Vigoro Mini Marble Chip from The Home Depot can help to protect crowns and enhance drainage as the weather deteriorates. For container-based lavenders, top-dressing a little Back to the Roots Organic Perlite from Amazon with some coarse sand can help with drainage. Also, elevate the pots onto terracotta pot feet to further improve pot drainage.

If you act fast, you can take a few cuttings from your parent plant. Plant into a fast growing coarse growing medium, or even try starting a couple in water. Cuttings will form strong root systems within 4-6 weeks, ready to overwinter in a protected frame or cold greenhouse. Then sit back and wait for spring, when your parent plant will hopefully start to grow again after your gentle green tip sweep. Come June, those same leafy stems are where the next round of flower spikes will come from.

Shop Lavender Essentials

Transforming your fall lavender routine from a risky seasonal chore into a rewarding ritual is easy with the right kit. Precision cutting tools and targeted soil amendments make all the difference to vascular health and good drainage in damper weather. Whether you are maintaining a formal walkway hedge or tending a few container pots, these curated essentials will keep your lavender healthy through to next year.

Cheeky Cut and Care Trio

Sanitizing Maintenance

Equate Equate 70% Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol, 32 Fl Oz

An often-overlooked biosecurity step for every gardener is giving your pruning tools a quick wipe with rubbing alcohol. Use this excellent money-saver between plants to prevent the spread of fungal spores, wood rot, and bacterial blights.

Soil Alkalizer

Jobe's Organics Jobe's Organics Garden Lime Soil Amendment, 6 Lbs

Lavender demands gritty, highly alkaline soil to flourish. A light top-dressing of this fast-acting hydrated lime neutralizes any acidic rainfall, improves soil structure, and strengthens subterranean root resistance against winter dieback.

Drainage Enhancer

Back to the Roots Back to the Roots Organic Perlite, 8 Qt

Cold, waterlogged soil is the primary killer of lavender from fall into winter. Blending this lightweight, coarse volcanic glass into planting holes or pot mixes boosts aeration, allowing heavy rains to drain freely so roots never drown.

(Image credit: Nicola-K Photos / Alamy)

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that Zooey Deschanel has had something of an iron-grip on our hearts ever since she starred in (500) Days of Summer. So, when she shared a recent snapshot into her home, it's little wonder that many of us sat up and paid attention.

I know, I know; at first glance, it's Zooey's cat (and rather fabulous cat tree) that steal the show in the Instagram photo. But look beyond the window? Why, then you'll find that there's another detail worth noticing: a tall black trellis, partly hidden by greenery, that adds a lovely vertical element to the terrace.

It's the sort of garden feature that's easy to overlook, but I think it's a particularly clever addition to a space that's viewed from indoors. Rather than simply providing support for a climbing plant, this particular type of trellis creates a focal point outside the window, giving the eye something interesting to land on beyond the glass.

Zooey Deschanel's Black Trellis

The benefits to Zooey Deschanel's black trellis (very similar in style to this trellis obelisk from Amazon) aren't purely aesthetic, either; as the climber grows, it creates a little more privacy, softens the view from the window, and provides some welcome shade from strong summer sunshine.

Better still? For those of us with distinctly smaller gardens or terraces than a celebrity, a well-placed trellis can make an outdoor space feel greener and more enclosed... all without taking up the floor space that a hedge would require.

Check it out:

A post shared by Zooey Deschanel (@zooeydeschanel)

A photo posted by

It's an approach that seems particularly fitting for Zooey Deschanel. When she and Jonathan Scott opened up about their home to Architectural Digest, the New Girl star explained that they wanted their terraces to capture the cottage garden feel they love about their Los Angeles garden, and noted that they incorporated “a lot of trellis” into the design.

Now, a trellis is often treated as a purely practical garden accessory: put it against a wall, give a climber something to cling to and let nature take over, right? Wrong! Because positioning one where it can be seen from a window changes its role, allowing it to become part of the garden's architecture. The dark framework provides structure, while foliage and flowers gradually soften its lines.

Viewed from inside, that can create the impression of a much greener outlook (without requiring any major landscaping!). And this could be particularly useful on a terrace or small patio, where there may not be room for mature trees or a traditional hedge.

(Image credit: Maryviolet/Getty Images)

You don't need to find an exact match for Zooey Deschanel's trellis. Instead, look for a tall black metal obelisk (like this 100% Metal Garden Obelisk Trellis from LeJoy Garden) or open-frame trellis with enough height to create a noticeable feature from the window. (Honestly, using something like Amazon's Spiral Frame Trellis for Climbing Plants in a pot would do the trick).

The key is positioning. If your main reason for installing one is to improve the view from inside, don't automatically put it at the back of the border. Think about where you'll see it most often, and consider placing it where the framework and foliage will sit naturally within the sightline of a window.

Then, choose a climber suited to the conditions; clematis, climbing roses, honeysuckle and jasmine can all provide an attractive leafy screen, while sweet peas offer a faster-growing seasonal option.

Shop Climbing Roses:

Gertrude Jekyll

David Austin® Gertrude Jekyll® Rose

Zephirine Drouhin

Zephirine Drouhin Climbing Rose

Lavender Crush

Lavender Crush Climbing Rose

Sometimes the best garden ideas are the ones that improve what you see from inside the house, and Zooey Deschanel's trellis is a brilliant reminder that a climbing plant doesn't just need something to grow on – the support itself can become part of the view.

And just like that, I'm off to buy myself a trellis. Race you to the checkouts!

Following a hot, dry summer, lawn-destroying chafer grubs are a big problem this year so if your yard has any patches of brown or discolored grass, check these common garden pests aren't the cause. The sweltering El Niño weather followed by late-season rain has led to a sharp surge in numbers of these plump white C-shaped grubs that feed on grass roots, spelling disaster for many gardens. While grub worms are easy to treat right now, by mid-October the larvae will begin burrowing deeper into the ground, making them far harder to eradicate.

But don’t fret: as part of our Garden ER series, we’re here with straightforward solutions to treat this season’s biggest backyard problems, including this common lawn pest.

Take swift action with this straightforward five-minute test and the prognosis for your lawn is excellent. Ignore those dead patches of grass, however, and your lawn could be in serious trouble, so this quick check is a vital part of September lawn care. Come on in to Garden ER and let’s diagnose and treat your lawn.

(Image credit: Getty Images)Why Chafer Grubs are a Big Problem This Year

In a typical summer, you probably won’t even notice that chafer grubs are living in the soil beneath your lawn. Healthy grass will grow new roots just as fast as a small population of grubs eat them, so all’s well.

However, a hot, dry summer changes everything. For a start, drought-stressed grass struggles to grow roots at a pace to keep up with damage, which means a lawn can fail with far fewer grubs per square foot. During drought conditions, gardeners’ lawns can become magnets for chafer grubs, leading to higher concentrations, too. The adult beetles who lay the eggs that hatch into these larvae need soft, moist soil to burrow into, which means they prefer irrigated lawns – and even if you didn’t routinely water grass through summer, keeping borders hydrated inevitably means some lawn areas get more moisture than in many of your neighbors' less looked-after yards.

Brown, drought-stressed or dormant grass also masks the damage caused by white grubs. If your lawn is already looking pretty crispy, you’re unlikely to spot the discoloration that's an early sign of a grub worm infestation. And now late-season rain has arrived, grubs that burrowed deeper to find moisture in summer have all migrated upwards to feast on roots, causing catastrophic damage to grass.

(Image credit: Getty Images)Triage: Carry Out a Simple Test for Grub Worms

In a typical year, the tell-tale signs of a white grub infestation are patches of dead, brown grass in your lawn. Grass that has discolored because it’s gone dormant during a drought period will quickly bounce back to green once rain returns. Grass that's discolored because it's had its roots gobbled up by grubs won't recover, so if you’ve still got any bare or brown patches in your lawn in September, you should test for chafer grubs.

First, grab a good handful of discolored grass and tug. If grub worms have eaten the roots, the blades will easily pull away from the ground.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

If that’s the case, use a spade to peel back a square of affected turf. Use the sharp edge of the spade to slice a U-shape in the grass, then fold this section of turf back on itself. With a trowel, have a look for fat, C-shaped grubs that are a creamy-white color. Their bottom half is usually plumper than the top, and they can measure over half an inch long. If you find some, take a closer look. If the larvae has a slightly darker head and three pairs of front legs, you can confirm the diagnosis: your lawn has a grub worm infestation.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Another clue is that the damaged areas of lawn feel slightly soft and spongy when walked on, and you may find crows, skunks and racoons have further destroyed the grass as they hunt for juicy larvae.

Treatment: How to Get Rid of White Grubs in a Lawn

Diagnosis complete? Let's crack on and cure your lawn…

1. Use Nematodes to Treat the Problem Safely

There’s no need to use an insecticide as you’ll eradicate all sorts of beneficial insects as well as the grubs. Far better to use microscopic worm-like animals called nematodes that will kill lawn grubs and some other soil-dwelling pests. Beneficial nematodes are natural, effective and safe for use around people, pets and pollinators. They're a sustainable, environmentally-friendly option and all you need do is water them into your lawn.

Nematodes work by hunting down their prey, entering its body and infecting it with a harmless-to-humans bacteria that kills the grub. Once all the grubs are gone, the nematodes naturally die down to normal soil levels.

The species most commonly used as a biological pest control for grub worms is Heterohabditis bacteriophora and these beneficial nematodes are available from Bug Sales via Amazon. While the nematodes themselves are cheap, do expect to pay for postage as these are live creatures and need to be kept refrigerated. You’ll need to store the packet in the fridge until use, too, and only buy as much as you need now as once opened, nematodes can't be stored.

(Image credit: Getty Images)2. Keep Soil Moist

Nematodes need moist soil to survive and travel to hunt down the grubs, so saturate your lawn and for best results, apply the nematodes in the evening or on a cloudy day. Follow package instructions to mix the nematodes with water, and then apply evenly to your lawn. Treat the discolored patch plus a four-foot area all around it, and if you’re dealing with several patches, it’s best to treat the whole lawn. You can use a watering can, or attach a dispensing sprayer such as this Hose-End Sprayer from Walmart to your hose to speed the job up.

After treating, immediately irrigate lightly with fresh water to ensure the nematodes are washed down into the soil. It’s vital to keep the soil moist for the next two weeks, watering if it doesn’t rain, as the nematodes will only survive to do their job if conditions stay damp. Beneficial nematodes are a very effective form of natural pest control, but only if the soil is consistently moist enough. A cheap rotating sprinkler with a lawn spike such as this from The Home Depot and a basic programmable hose faucet timer like this from Walmart will save you a ton of time for very little outlay.

If your lawn infestation is severe, it's a smart move to keep your lawn moist a little longer. From the moment those original nematodes infected the grub worms, it takes around 12-15 days for a new generation to hatch so, as long as you keep the soil moist, a fresh army of beneficial nematodes will hunt down any remaining grubs.

(Image credit: Kinga Krzeminska / Getty Images)3. Treat in September or Early October

To deal effectively with grub worms, it helps to understand their lifecycle. Part of the Scarabaeidae family, beetles lay eggs in lawn soil in early summer, which hatch into larvae July to August that gobble up grass roots for a couple of months before lying dormant for the winter; in late spring they transform into pupae then hatch into adults to start the process all over again.

So right now, grub worms are actively feeding on grass roots so they’re just beneath the soil surface and within easy reach of the nematodes. However, as soon as the temperature starts to dip, chafer larvae begin burrowing deeper into the ground to lie dormant beneath the frost line, and it becomes impossible to eradicate them. Use a simple soil thermometer such as this from Amazon to check: as long as the soil temperature is above 54°F, those white grubs will still be busy eating so it’s ok to go ahead with the treatment.

Patient Notes

Don’t worry if you spot grub worms elsewhere in the garden. It’s only the chafer grub species that target lawns that are destructive enough to create problems for gardeners, and need to be controlled. If you find white grubs in border soil or a compost heap, leave them be as they do a useful job breaking down decaying material and don't cause significant damage to plants.

More Garden ER Help

Every week, the Garden ER series brings you simple solutions to this season's most pressing problems, for happy and healthy plants without any hassle.

Peace Lily Flowers Turning Brown?

Work out what your peace lily needs to recover if spathes develop brown patches or look dry and crispy around the edges.

Leaves turning white?

Here's everything you need to know to prevent common fungal disease, powdery mildew, starving your plants of nutrients.

(Image credit: Getty Images)