Design a Beautiful Fall Garden That Pollinators Will Love
Consider using these design principles and wildlife-friendly practices in your landscape
Benjamin Vogt
5 September 2021
Houzz Contributor. I'm a big advocate for bringing the tallgrass prairie into our urban lives -- only 1% remains, making it more threatened than the Amazon rainforest yet also as effective at sequestering CO2. I own Monarch Gardens LLC, a prairie garden design firm based in Nebraska and working with clients across the Midwest. I also speak nationally on native plants, sustainable design, and landscape ethics while hosting online classes. I'm the author of A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future. In the coming years we want to restore a 40+ acre prairie and host an artist residency program.
Houzz Contributor. I'm a big advocate for bringing the tallgrass prairie into our... More
I don’t know about you, but I live for fall — with its cool mornings, crisp air and quiet evenings. Plus, at least one-third of my plants bloom after August, and the trees, shrubs, grasses and perennial flowers bring a rainbow of colors to the garden until early November, long after summer flowers have faded.
There’s always so much going on in a fall garden, from changing colors and plants’ going dormant to wildlife’s preparing for winter. Here are some design strategies you can use to create beauty and function for humans and animals this fall, and every year after.
There’s always so much going on in a fall garden, from changing colors and plants’ going dormant to wildlife’s preparing for winter. Here are some design strategies you can use to create beauty and function for humans and animals this fall, and every year after.
Aromatic aster and ‘Purple Dome’ New England aster attract masses of butterflies.
1. Plant Late-Summer and Fall Bloomers to Support Pollinators
Lots of insects are at their highest population numbers in fall, and many have just emerged to complete their life cycle, migrate or even hibernate. When designing a fall garden to support pollinators, your first goal is to get the flowers pollinators thrive on. You can’t go wrong with asters and goldenrods, two fall staples visited by pollinators, as well as sunflowers.
Consider how these plants reproduce and spread before planting them in your garden. For example, Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) has a tendency to spread and take over in the home landscape, but there are many other more well-behaved goldenrod species. Asters tend to spread by seed, especially in open spots in garden beds, so create thicker plantings where seedlings will have a harder time sprouting, if that is something you are concerned about. While plants started this year won’t bloom this fall, now is the perfect time to put them in the ground for next year.
Work with a landscape designer near you
1. Plant Late-Summer and Fall Bloomers to Support Pollinators
Lots of insects are at their highest population numbers in fall, and many have just emerged to complete their life cycle, migrate or even hibernate. When designing a fall garden to support pollinators, your first goal is to get the flowers pollinators thrive on. You can’t go wrong with asters and goldenrods, two fall staples visited by pollinators, as well as sunflowers.
Consider how these plants reproduce and spread before planting them in your garden. For example, Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) has a tendency to spread and take over in the home landscape, but there are many other more well-behaved goldenrod species. Asters tend to spread by seed, especially in open spots in garden beds, so create thicker plantings where seedlings will have a harder time sprouting, if that is something you are concerned about. While plants started this year won’t bloom this fall, now is the perfect time to put them in the ground for next year.
Work with a landscape designer near you
2. Cluster Plants in Groups of Three or Five
Repeating plants throughout the landscape also lends a subtle cohesiveness for the eye to follow. Groups of flowers are appealing to both humans and pollinators, with massing making the flowers easier for pollinators flying above to see.
Aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) is a neat little shrub-like perennial native to the East Coast that looks nice dotted throughout beds and borders. For more vertical interest and early-fall blooms that are dark purple to magenta, try ironweed (Vernonia fasciculata). For a lower-growing plant that does well in wetter conditions, look to blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum).
20 Favorite Flowers for the Fall Landscape
Repeating plants throughout the landscape also lends a subtle cohesiveness for the eye to follow. Groups of flowers are appealing to both humans and pollinators, with massing making the flowers easier for pollinators flying above to see.
Aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) is a neat little shrub-like perennial native to the East Coast that looks nice dotted throughout beds and borders. For more vertical interest and early-fall blooms that are dark purple to magenta, try ironweed (Vernonia fasciculata). For a lower-growing plant that does well in wetter conditions, look to blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum).
20 Favorite Flowers for the Fall Landscape
3. Reconsider Mums
Mums are probably already for sale at local garden centers and in grocery store parking lots; they are desired for their fall color as well as for their ability to make stellar container plants. While most are bred hybrids from East Asia and aren’t of much use to wildlife like generalist bees and butterflies, some offer ecological benefits to pollinators.
Look for pollen-producing and single-ray flowers, or those that look more like asters. These mums will add function as well as beauty to the fall garden.
Mums are probably already for sale at local garden centers and in grocery store parking lots; they are desired for their fall color as well as for their ability to make stellar container plants. While most are bred hybrids from East Asia and aren’t of much use to wildlife like generalist bees and butterflies, some offer ecological benefits to pollinators.
Look for pollen-producing and single-ray flowers, or those that look more like asters. These mums will add function as well as beauty to the fall garden.
4. Think About Fall Foliage Differently
Does your landscape lack colorful autumn foliage? This is the perfect time to plant new trees and shrubs, as cooler temperatures and increased rain will help them take root and become established with less transplant shock. For shrubs with attractive fall color, chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) and viburnum species are solid choices. Native trees to plant include serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.), elm (Ulmus spp.) and sweetgum (Liquidambar spp.). Many native perennial flowers and grasses, including bluestar (Amsonia spp.), blazing star (Liatris spp.), American senna (Senna hebecarpa) and little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), feature attractive fall color.
11 Trees for Brilliant Fall Color
Does your landscape lack colorful autumn foliage? This is the perfect time to plant new trees and shrubs, as cooler temperatures and increased rain will help them take root and become established with less transplant shock. For shrubs with attractive fall color, chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) and viburnum species are solid choices. Native trees to plant include serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.), elm (Ulmus spp.) and sweetgum (Liquidambar spp.). Many native perennial flowers and grasses, including bluestar (Amsonia spp.), blazing star (Liatris spp.), American senna (Senna hebecarpa) and little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), feature attractive fall color.
11 Trees for Brilliant Fall Color
Giant coneflower (Rudbeckia maxima) holds on to its seed heads through most of the winter.
5. Don’t Clean Up Your Garden
Sure, this sounds like the opposite of creating an attractive fall garden, because everyone wants a neat and tidy landscape heading into winter. However, you’re missing two important details: 1. Many plants look fantastic in winter, including rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium), roundhead lespedeza (Lespedeza capitata), Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum), coneflowers (Echinacea spp.), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) and various grasses; and 2. wildlife needs shelter, and plants left standing with a carpet of leaves are critical habitat for hibernating insects and birds looking for a winter snack.
7 Reasons Not to ‘Clean Up’ Your Fall Garden
5. Don’t Clean Up Your Garden
Sure, this sounds like the opposite of creating an attractive fall garden, because everyone wants a neat and tidy landscape heading into winter. However, you’re missing two important details: 1. Many plants look fantastic in winter, including rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium), roundhead lespedeza (Lespedeza capitata), Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum), coneflowers (Echinacea spp.), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) and various grasses; and 2. wildlife needs shelter, and plants left standing with a carpet of leaves are critical habitat for hibernating insects and birds looking for a winter snack.
7 Reasons Not to ‘Clean Up’ Your Fall Garden
Little bluestem glows in the late summer sun, creating an attractive and environmentally friendly front yard.
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A tip for people living in the south - take note of the Monarch migration. Make sure when it reaches your area that the Tropical milkweed ( aka common milkweed) is cut or at least does not have any flowers. Migrating Monarchs only have enough energy to migrate or mate. Not both. If they spot milkweed flowers they will mate, lay eggs and not be able to continue their migration. Also, due to the lateness of the season any caterpillars and/ or Butterflies that emerge will not have enough food or be able to survive the cold winter months. :( However, Monarchs that migrate to Mexico for the winter will have enough energy to mate in the Spring when they migrate north again - thus securing the next generation of Monarch butterflies.
After learning this, I was sad to realize all the milkweed I left blooming in the Fall (SE TX) was not helping, but actually hurting the long-term survival of the Monarch! Also, Tropical Milkweed can harbor a parasite which kills the Monarch if left in the ground over the winter. It should be pulled out each Fall & disposed of. Save their seeds for the next Spring. This does not apply to native milkweeds in your area. They die back and therefore do not harbor the parasite.
@mamazuz and anyone else interested: here is a article that lists Plants Tolerant of Black Walnut. Ideally you start by improving the soil with compost and minerals that may be lacking, but you also do your best to remove BW leaves and twigs when they fall.
Lantana orange and yellow is the best for sweet fragrances. It gives a vibrant display a great, unique charming look for humans. These plants need Sun (4-6 hours) to thrive. Also, it is heat and drought-tolerant.