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Community Corner

Fall Back, Spring Forward: One Last Look at Autumn's Colors While Planning Ahead for Spring

Our columnist looks back at the best of the fall scenery and offers some suggestions for some seasonal "housekeeping."

Did you get a chance to enjoy the beautiful fall colors? The leaves turning bright red, orange, yellow and burgundy, the fall decorations featured in yards, with colorful chrysanthemums, pumpkins and gourds, straw bales, corn stalks and not-so-scary scarecrows?

I hope you did get that chance and took a drive and enjoy the colorful fall foliage, or just took a walk around your neighborhood. The blustery wind the last few days has, unfortunately, brought an end to the riot of colors.

Have you been thinking about all the leaves you’ll have to be raking in the next few weeks? If you have mulched gardens, ground-up leaves make a good winter covering around your plants, so don’t get rid of them. Rake them out into the lawn area, run the lawnmower over them a few times to chop them up and then put them back around the perennials to protect them from cold winter winds.

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If you have gravel in your beds, the ground-up leaves take up less room in a lawn waste bag for recycling pick-up. If you are fortunate enough to have a compost pile, add the ground-up leaves to that. Rotate the pile a few times over winter, sprinkle with water occasionally and by spring you might have free compost to add to your gardens.

Now is a great time to plant next year’s spring bulbs like tulips, daffodils, hyacinth, crocus and many others.

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If you have daffodils planted on the outside edge of your garden and always hate the look of the fading foliage come late spring/early summer, now is a good time to dig them up and replant them in a better location. Plant these from the middle to the back of your gardens so that in spring after the flowers have faded, the foliage can be kept alive and growing, creating the necessary nutrients for next year’s blooms. You should never cut the foliage back but instead plant the bulbs behind summer perennials and annuals so that the new summer growth hides the fading bulb foliage.

Now that your bulbs have been planted, you can relax knowing that springtime is just around the corner.

If you are interested in gardening, learning about gardening or joining a garden club, stop by the Community Association Clubhouse, the second Monday morning of each month and sit in on a meeting of the Jardin du Lac Garden Club.  Meetings start at 9:30 a.m.

If you have a beautifully landscaped yard or have unique garden ornaments that you are proud of and would like to see featured on Patch.com, or have any gardening questions, contact Peggy at Bahrmasel@msn.com.

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