Fall in love with your garden this autumn

Those of us who call the Midwest home joke that there are two reasons we love the nation's heartland: fall and spring. This time of year, the weather is so sublime that it's easy to forget about our freezing winters and blazing summers.

After the grueling dog days of August are over, I can't wait to spend time in my courtyard, under the brilliant canopy of red, yellow and orange leaves. But if it were left up to me, there would be only one color in my flower beds each fall: brown. I kill just about everything I try to grow.

Luckily, my friends Gloria and Lynda, master gardeners extraordinaire, took pity on me several years ago and adopted my poor, neglected garden, turning this little plot of dirt into a paradise. Now, every spring and fall, these divas of dirt give my garden a sensational seasonal makeover.

If you'd like to transform your garden this autumn, here are some fall gardening tips from Gloria and Lynda:

Tidy up: In the last days of summer, almost everyone's garden starts to sag. So Gloria and Lynda suggest doing a thorough garden cleanup in early September. At my house they canvass the beds, raking leaves, pruning shrubs, adding decorative top dressing and deadheading tired flowers.

Freshen up: Once the garden is back in order, add a splash of fall color with new plantings. Your garden should include a variety of shrubs and flowers that look great all four seasons, not just during the summer. Visit your local nursery and pick out plants with colorful fall foliage, berries and interesting branches that will look good even in winter.

Gloria and Lynda suggest a shrub called Itea (Virginia Sweetspire), especially the Henry's Garnet and Little Henry varieties, because it tolerates both sun and shade and looks great all year long. In the spring, Itea's cascading branches provide a lush background for flowers. But in fall, this bush takes center stage when its leaves turn a bronzy-burgundy color. In winter, its red branches look amazing dusted with snow.

With such showy bushes as a backdrop, each fall Gloria and Lynda need to add only a few pops of seasonal color to my garden. Their favorite autumn picks are seasonal grasses and burgundy sedums. And I'm crazy about ornamental kales, with their resemblance to big cabbages, because they are easy to maintain and always catch people's attention.

Since winters can be harsh here in Kansas, Gloria and Lynda prefer to install shrubs in the spring so the plants have time to get established before the mercury plummets. If you install new plants in the fall, keep them well-watered throughout the fall and winter.

Spice up: Once your garden looks renewed, finish off the scene by filling your garden urns with head-turning displays.

In early September, Gloria and Lynda remake my planters by removing the scraggly and spent summer flowers and replacing them with seasonal plants. One of their favorite picks for my urns is purple fountain grass, with its fluffy tassels that wave in the autumn wind. You also can select a perennial grass, then transplant it to your garden in the spring.

Because I'm an abject failure when it comes to watering plants, Gloria and Lynda sometimes fill my urns with low-care shrubs like boxwoods, evergreens or Iteas. To spruce up these planters for fall, tuck some gourds around the plant, twist some berries or grapevine around the branches or tie a fall ribbon around the urn. You also can place a fall wreath around the mouth of the urn so it encircles the plants, adding a rim of color and texture.

Or skip the plants entirely and fill your urns with a medley of little pumpkins. Put a mound of colorful gourds in your birdbath. Or cluster pumpkins and gourds on the steps leading to your door.

Mary Carol Garrity owns three home furnishings stores in Atchison, Kan., and wrote several books on home decorating. Write to Mary Carol at nellhills@mail.lvnworth.com. Her column is syndicated by Scripps Howard News Service.