By selecting the right plants for fall, you can create a garden that continues to thrive well beyond the summer months, bringing inspiration and abundance through the autumn and beyond.
As summer gives way to fall, the changing seasons bring a wealth of opportunities to enrich our outdoor spaces with more plants. While it may seem strange to plant as the weather continues to cool, fall is an ideal time to grow cool-season vegetables and add new perennials, trees, shrubs, and groundcovers to your yard. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the range of options you have this season to bring fall colors into your space, create a delicious harvest, and enhance the overall beauty of your garden!
Planting Fall Vegetables in Illinois
Chicago’s climate lends itself well to fall vegetable gardening; the cooler temperatures and reduced insect activity create favorable conditions for many delectable crops. Here are a few of our personal favorites:
- Lettuce and Greens: These nutritious greens appreciate the milder weather and can even tolerate light frost. Varieties like spinach, kale, arugula, and Swiss chard can be sown in early fall for a late-season harvest. You can also harvest them earlier as baby greens.
- Radishes: These fast-growing root vegetables are perfect for quick, satisfying harvests and can be planted until about four weeks before the first expected frost.
- Carrots: The cooler temperatures of late summer and early fall allow late-season carrots to develop a sweeter flavor., but be sure to choose a variety with a shorter maturity time to ensure a successful harvest.
- Peas: Snap and snow peas can both be planted in late summer for a fall harvest. They appreciate the cooler weather and can be guided onto trellises or supports for efficient use of space.
As you plant in preparation for your Autumn harvest, keep in mind that the first frost doesn’t have to spell the end of your vegetable garden; you can easily outsmart the frost by covering your plants overnight or by building cold frames and row covers to extend your growing season well into November.
A Guide for Fall Perennials in Chicagoland
With its cooler weather and increased moisture, autumn is an ideal time for planting new perennials in the garden; better yet, you won’t even have to wait for them to bloom! These incredible perennials will bring bursts of colorful blooms to your garden all fall long:
- Sedum: Also known as stonecrop, sedums are hardy perennials that provide a beautiful array of fall colors to any yard. Their succulent leaves and late-season blooms guide pollinators to your garden while adding unique textures to your beds.
- Hardy Asters: With their daisy-like flowers, asters offer a pop of purple, pink, blue, or white hues to your fall landscape and are excellent choices for borders. Their nectar-rich blooms also support late-season butterflies, making them win-win fall additions to your garden!
- Black-Eyed Susan: Also known as rudbeckia, these flowers boast warm yellow petals and dark centers that complement the fall leaves. Their tall stems and striking blooms make them stand out in any garden setting.
- Japanese Anemone: These elegant perennials feature delicate, daisy-like flowers that appear in shades of pink and white. They bloom in late summer and continue throughout the fall, adding a touch of sophistication to your borders.
Trees and Shrubs for Fall Foliage in Illinois
Planting carefully selected trees and shrubs is an easy way to instantly enhance your garden’s structure and add a few more interesting textures come fall. Like perennials, trees and shrubs have an easier, stress-free beginning when planted during the cool fall months. Here are some top tree and shrub picks with brilliant fall foliage for Chicagoland gardens:
- Sugar Maple: Sugar maples are known for their stunning foliage, which turns bright shades of red, orange, and yellow in the fall, creating a breathtaking canopy. They grow to mature heights of 60-75′, becoming a lifelong shade tree on your property.
- Eastern Redbud: This small tree boasts a unique branching structure with stunning heart-shaped leaves that turn golden-yellow in the fall. They’re also famous for the lavender-pink flowers that cover the canopy in early spring, providing your space with a year-round feast for the eyes.
- Virginia Sweetspire: A native shrub, Virginia Sweetspire showcases vibrant red foliage in the fall and fragrant white flowers in the spring, enhancing its multi-season appeal. At 3-5′ in maturity, it forms an attractive mounded shape that can work well as a focal point or as part of a mixed border.
- Oakleaf Hydrangea: With large, oak-like leaves and cone-shaped flower clusters, this hydrangea provides a stunning display in the summer and fall. As temperatures get frosty, their leaves turn bold hues of burgundy and purple.
A Guide for Colorful Groundcovers in Autumn
Although they’re close to the ground, we can’t overlook the importance of groundcovers in creating a beautiful fall garden. Whether you’re after bright fall foliage or stunning late-season blooms, the right groundcover might just be the piece your landscape’s missing this autumn. Here are a few favorites to help guide your plantings this season:
- Creeping Jenny: Creeping Jenny’s chartreuse leaves provide a luminous understory to your canopy of fall leaves. The golden-green leaves seem to glow in the autumn sunlight, creating a dynamic contrast against the darker shades of fall. Note: to be perennial, it needs to be planted right in the ground, not in planters.
- Perennial Vinca: Known for its delicate purple flowers, vinca is a charming groundcover that brightens up shady corners. As fall arrives, it’s likely to put out a fall rebloom, making it one of the latest blooming groundcovers!
- Creeping Thyme: This easy-to-grow groundcover offers a soft carpet of fine green leaves and purple-pink flowers. They benefit from skipping the heat of summer, making fall an ideal time to add these to your garden.
What Month is Best to Plant in Fall?
Ultimately, the best time to plant your fall garden depends on what you’re growing. It’s best to start your vegetables as soon as possible, ideally in mid-September or earlier. The same can be said about your fall perennials; however, you can plant any new additions to your perennial garden throughout the fall months as long as the soil is still workable. The same goes for trees and shrubs, which can be planted anytime before the ground freezes.
By selecting the right plants for fall, you can create a garden that continues to thrive well beyond the summer months, bringing inspiration and abundance through the autumn and beyond. For more tips, tricks, and plant recommendations to help guide your fall planting, come visit our garden centers in Carpentersville and Bloomingdale!
Platt Hill Nursery is Chicago’s premier garden center and nursery.
