Autumn's Hidden Delights

Autumn's Hidden Delights

As the light recedes and the air cools, it's easy to feel that the show is over in the garden. Fall, however, can be a time where some of the quieter elements of the landscape come to the fore. Foliage which has taken a backseat to flowers in the summer months now stands out bold and striking while the understory asserts itself with cyclamen and autumn crocus. If you were overzealous when you planted your garden in the spring, don't worry if you don't have time to make it pristine before winter. Leave seed heads and dried flower stalks to invite birds into your yard. Let your unpruned roses delight you with their colourful hips. Enjoy the sway and rustle of ornamental grasses and let them linger into winter. Remember, a messy garden is a wildlife garden. Even a small patch of weeds can be a healthy part of your small ecosystem, providing overwintering habitat for beneficial insects. An idea is to clean up the most visible and high-traffic areas of your yard then let the rest go a little wild. What nature does with it might surprise you.

When your fall foliage starts to fade, contact us to put your garden beds to rest for the winter.

Mushrooms

If you have mushrooms sprouting in your yard take it as a sign of a healthy soil ecosystem. That said, many people worry about the dangers mushrooms can pose to children and pets. Fortunately, 99% of mushrooms are harmless to people and animals, and even harmful mushrooms have to be injested to pose a risk. If you have a young child or a pet that's an indiscrimate eater, you can destroy mushrooms with a rake. Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies, so the main part of the plant will survive and continue its important work as a decomposer underground.