Written by: Melody Davis
I truly love a fall drive. I’m really disappointed when things happen and we can’t get away at peak season OR when we miss it all together! A fall mountain drive takes schedule coordination, planning, and possibly picnic preparation depending on where you’re going; but I’m proposing a different kind of fall drive with a different purpose. This drive can be done with friends or alone, it can be as long or short as you like, there is very little planning or coordination that is required, it doesn’t require arranging a day off and… you don’t even need to leave town! The purpose of this fall drive is to see some beautiful fall colors, but its primary purpose is to observe, collect ideas, and get a vision for fall color in your very own yard.
I haven’t always appreciated those early spring and fall blooming flowers. Like many others in our area, we built our home in the middle of raw prairie. When I first began putting in plants, my goal was simply to plant things that started blooming early and kept blooming until frost. I had no vision for those other plants that gave only short-lived flashes of color. That slowly changed when in early spring, I would see bulbs and bushes blooming around town declaring the winter to be over, but my yard was simply brown making no such declarations. Then in the fall when my colors were becoming more muted and some of my flowers and shrubs were getting sleepy and slowing down, I’d see fresh and new flashes of color springing up in other people’s yards!
My very first fall planting was a piece of simple upright stonecrop that a friend broke off for me after I admired it in her yard. Just stick it in the ground when you get home. It’ll grow, she said. I did and to my surprise, I had my first fall bloomer! I was delighted and I started paying more attention to seasonal plants, started driving more slowly as I perused lovely gardens, and along came the idea of a different kind of fall drive.
You don’t need a lot before you head out, but make sure you have a fully charged phone or camera, a paper and pen, and being a serious coffee lover, I’d suggest a nice hot beverage of choice to make this a festive event!
TIMING. You can head out any time you want but try to wait at least a couple of weeks after you start noticing some of those fall bloomers. You don’t want to just catch the first wave of fall color; you want to get to see a nice variety of what blooms or shows off in the landscape as the weather cools and the days shorten.
WHERE TO DRIVE. You can take this fall drive anywhere, but it will be most helpful if you stick pretty close to home. What you see in your area is what has survived and done well in your climate. The farther you drive from where you live, the more variables will be present.
You might think the best place to take this drive is where the larger homes and more manicured landscapes exist, but personally I have found that absolutely lovely gardens with beautiful colors and combinations of colors can be found everywhere, even in neighborhoods with small homes, because gardeners and lovers of plants can be found in all socioeconomic groups. Gardeners are artistic with colorful plants and combinations of plants just like an artist is with a palette of paints on canvas, so don’t miss out on some really beautiful gardens by restricting your drive. If you really love a yard, write down that address: don’t trust yourself to remember where it was.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR. Jot down everything that draws your attention, both what you love and what you really didn’t love and want to avoid. Maybe you really loved the sedum, but you noticed that fifteen plants of it in one yard actually detracted from its beauty. If something really catches your eye, take a picture. It may not be a single plant, but a combination of colors that is so eye-catching, or it could be both the cascading plant and the rock it’s flowing over that is so pleasing. If the homeowner happens to be in the yard, ask if they mind you taking a picture of their beautiful garden, most gardeners will be flattered, and you might even get some really helpful information about that plant you’re admiring.
There was a beautiful shrub I drove past and admired for years. In the late summer it would develop the most beautiful bright orange berries that held on for months. One day I saw a man working around the bush and stopped to ask about it. He told me it was a Firethorn bush, hardy as could be, required almost no irrigation, and grew huge thorns, and had a tendency to spread and was a real challenge to keep pruned back because of the thorns. Now, I still want one of those bushes, but I’m also thinking long and hard about where I could plant it without long-term regret. Conversations with experienced gardeners are priceless!
If you see a lot of one plant growing around town, chances are that you’ll be able to grow it too. If you only see a plant in a couple of yards, you may want to research a little depending on the time and effort you’ll be investing. Planting a few seeds is a low-risk investment; ordering a live plant, digging a large hole, and diligently watering is a greater investment.
As you drive, pay attention to undeveloped land also. A treasure lies there. You will spot beautiful shrubs and flowers that will eventually perform with no assistance from you whatsoever. DON’T DIG THEM UP but snap that picture and do a little research to learn how you can purchase or propagate these beauties that are so well adapted to your area.
When you have completed your drive, leave yourself a functional record of your observations where you can access them easily and add to them as necessary so your vision for your fall garden can bloom and grow with each successive fall drive.