One thing that is so nice about living in the south is that we are able to have grow beautiful flowers in containers throughout the fall and even into the winter! Now that the cooler temperatures are moving in, my backyard patio planters needed some sprucing up. I hit the internet to start looking for fall planter ideas.
I checked out a site by Miracle-Gro and Home Depot called Gardenieres. It is full of video gardening tips and tricks for every area of the country. I found the Containers 101 video very helpful and informative.
I headed out to Home Depot and picked up a few bags of my favorite Miracle-Gro potting mix. I like it because it already has the Miracle-Gro® Continuous Release plant food in it, feeding my plants for 6 months, and resulting in more blooms and good root growth. Always use a potting mix in containers vs. garden soil. It is lighter and allows for better drainage and oxygen to reach to the roots. I headed out to Home Depot and picked up a few bags of my favorite Miracle-Gro potting mix.
Let’s talk about ideas on what to plant in our fall planters. Now, I live along the southern coast of Virginia so I’m actually in Zone 8. Be sure to find out which planting zone you live in before choosing your flowers. For one of my planters I chose to combine purple plum shades together. Ornamental grasses are always a good choice for fall. This purple spike plant has lived through 2 winters so far! It’s a gorgeous eggplant color and is one of my favorites. Pair the spiky plant with purple kale, mums, pansies and violas for a cool toned monochromatic theme.
A tip to keep your pansies and mums blooming is to dead head old flowers. This means to simply pinch off old, spent blooms. It will also keep your pansies from getting too leggy as the season progresses.
What is you want to heat things up a bit? Then choose flowering plants in bright crimsons, oranges and yellows. For this fall planter I used another purple spike and surrounded it with fiery red mums and begonias, and a chartreuse sweet potato vine complements the color scheme. This planter will last through fall until a hard frost and then the vine and begonia will have to be replaced with pansies.
Always check your planters to make sure they are moist and water as needed. And keep these planters in full sun during the fall and winter.
For more gardening ideas check out the Miracle-Gro Facebook page
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