09/22/2025
Fall is the time of the year when most people put their gardens and farms to bed. However, it is also the perfect time to rethink and re-envision your landscape for upcoming growing seasons.
There are several practices that can be incorporated into your growing spaces during this glorious time of the year that will improve many aspects of your landscape. Starting with rethinking how you would like your growing spaces to look next year, deciding what you will plant, where you will plant it and , of course, how much you will plant.
You will also have time to rethink the structure of your garden - do you want to incorporate more open spaces or container spaces, more flowers, more vegetables and/or ornamentals?
Utilizing this precious time of the year, along with enjoying the splendor of fall and its full capacity of magical transformation,. You will be able to not only look forward to a new season of growing, but also to a new season of potentially more time to enjoy what you are growing. Additionally, you'll be able to take time out of gardening and farming chores and doing some of the things to ease your mind, body and soul.
So let's get started. What are we going do first? Decide what you don't want in your garden anymore and take it out. Donate it or replant it someplace else.
Also you may opt to sell it- if you're into marketing your products. Save your seeds for later and sow them into other places in your garden that you've never used before
Whatever you do, always think of maximizing your growing spaces through vertical structures to create beautiful and eye-catching aspects of your garden.
Climbing vines are always great features in any landscape as they create varying dimensions of height, texture, and beauty throughout and within your container spaces, open spaces, fences and trellises as well as areas where you can create the look of more space without using more land.
Throughout my decades of growing, I have developed and implemented many styles of gardening and landscaping starting first with mostly blank spaces, looking at the land as it was presented to me and incorporating ways to take full advantage of any deficient areas such as those that are to prone to flooding or extreme dryness.
Areas that are uneven or sloping or rocky, as well as areas that are awkward to reach and to work within can be redesigned into beautiful, yet functional, spaces that discourage foot traffic.
Fall is also the perfect time to start a native plant strip in your garden( You can use pots snd other containers also. The Prince George County Soil Conservation District offers a pack of native and wildflower seeds that are perfect for this region. If you're out and about and happen to see the Soil Conservation District's display table at local events at please make sure you get a packet of the seeds and spread them all around your garden. The pollinators will love you and you will help to enrich the environment of your garden by inviting all of the necessary, butterflies, bees, wasps, and other pollinators to visit your garden and increase the vitality of the various mini ecosystems within your landscape that support food possibilities for you and the pollinators as well.
So, as you go out into your garden or onto your farm, look at the possibilities, not the limitations or the things that cause distraction. The big picture is always what you are after. You should be able to create the space that you love and a space that is captivating, enjoyable, relaxing as well as functional. If you do all of these things, I'm sure that you would be extremely pleased with the outcome and be able to go into the next growing season ahead of the curve from where you were in previous years.
Photo credits Linda Jones, Elements of Nature Urban Farm
Photo 1 - Jerusalem Artichokes in my Clinton, Md garden September 2024. Peak bloom time is mid-September through mid-October. Oh what a beautiful sight against a majestic September clear blue sky.
Photo 2 - Celosia in my garden September 2025
Photo 3 - Autumn Joy in my garden September 2025
Photo 4 - Autumn Clematis
in my garden September 2025
Fall Clematis in my garden 2025
So, in closing. I challenge you to get out there, be creative and let the creative juices flow- You've Got This!
