KAREN WIGHT -- No Place Like Home

If your summer garden is beginning to look a little shaggy, it’s time

to prepare for the deep, warm colors of fall’s harvest. Russet, gold,

wine, red and bronze are the spectacular colors of the season and with

some planning this month your garden can be ready to greet October and

November’s crisp, cool days with a blaze of warm tones.

The first order of business is to deadhead -- remove old flowers --

from your perennials. Cut the faded flowers and stems down to the first

leaf. If the plant looks leggy, cut the stem back to the side branch.

Eliminating old growth from your spent plants will encourage a new

bloom cycle and help your plants to store energy for the dormant months.

Old annuals that have performed their duties for the summer should be

removed, and new soil added in their absence to prepare for new plants.

If you’re a garden novice, here’s a short list of plants that thrive

during the fall season: chrysanthemums, black-eyed Susans, tuberous

begonias, dahlias, zinnias and cannas.

For beautiful fall foliage, add ginkos, Boston ivy, heavenly bamboo

and pyracantha to your garden staples. These plants provide a blaze of

red and gold in your garden.

If you have the patience to wait weeks or months for new color in your

garden, add crocuses for quick bulb color and plant late winter-blooming

bulbs such as anemone, freesia and narcissus. If you have a vegetable

garden, you can start cool-season plants such as beets and spinach.

Fall is the best time to fertilize everything in your garden: flowers,

trees and shrubs. Incorporating fertilizer into the soil two weeks before

planting fall color will insure prolific blooms.

Feed established trees and ground covers now and again in another

month. Wait a month before feeding recent transplants.

Cut roses and prune away twiggy growth. Feeding roses in September

encourages another bloom cycle for October.

Any plants that are showing signs of mildew should be treated or

removed to discourage the spread of disease.

As the days grow shorter and the weather cools, adjust your

irrigation. Plants need less water as the weather cools.

Color combinations that provide maximum impact include yellow, orange

and purple. Adding plants with a specific color scheme can have a

dramatic “wow” factor in your garden. The cool purples and the bright

yellows are great opposites that add visual appeal in your flower beds.

Lavenders and salvias for purples, zinnias and gaillardia for oranges

and black-eyed Susans for yellow and brown tones create a beautiful

landscape for October and November celebrations.

If you planted pumpkins this summer, be sure that they get enough

water through a bubbler or drip system. Overhead water encourages mildew

and your plants will wither prematurely.

If your pumpkins ripen before you are ready to use them, put them in a

cool, dry place. Pumpkins can be stored for several weeks under the right

conditions.

Planting bold fall colors will guarantee a beautiful display in time

for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Time spent in the September garden pays

huge dividends in immediate visual appeal and in preparation for spring’s

new growth.

* KAREN WIGHT is a Newport Beach resident. Her column runs Sundays.