Thoughts of the garden naturally lead to images of spring and summer. Fall is relegated to clean-up, saying goodbye and buying few potted mums. Not only is this unfair to a fair season, but it causes us to lose a super opportunity to create anew, divide and re-do the garden. Fall is a great time to plant!

Spring will always be gardener's heaven; after all, we spend 273 days waiting for it and we love it. But compare the newly planted plant's experiences contrasting spring and fall planting.

In the spring, perennials and shrubs are waking up and energetically pushing out new growth, using the stored energy in their roots. That's job one, but being in new ground, the plant has another, equally important job, establishing a root system. As it works at this, days are getting warmer, and the sun is getting stronger, quickly pulling moisture out of the tender leaves. The plant must feel like Lucy Ricardo on the candy conveyor belt.

The soil is cold and inhospitable to the expanding root system at first, but improves quickly. In the Pittsburgh area rain may or may not be consistent in spring. Doesn't it seem that we always have a stretch of those 88 degree dry days somewhere in May? Eventually the roots settle in and the leaves get large enough to efficiently do their work of replenishing energy faster than it gets used up, and everybody's happy.

Now look at the fall planted perennial. After actively growing for months, the plant is at it's peak of vigor. It gets plopped into warm, welcoming soil, and the roots rapidly begin to move into new territory. The leaves are getting a little old and tired, but every day the temperatures are a bit cooler and water loss is reduced. Being in Pittsburgh, the poor plant still can't count on consistent weather, but hopefully it rains or the gardener waters well. There's no pressure to create new leaves, just get that root system established and take a rest. After that's accomplished, the plant is rewarded with a good, long nap.

Quite a difference, isn't it? In both situations, perennials and shrubs end up doing well in the long run, but the point remains, don't discount the benefits of fall planting. Buying perennials when they're starting to go into dormancy can be unnerving to novice gardeners. Leaves are slightly frayed and may be developing brown edges and tips. Remember this fall buying rule: you are buying a root system, not an above ground display. Planting a whole perennial garden in the fall is a true act of faith. The gardener essentially invests a great deal of time, work and money into something that appears to die within weeks. The payoff comes in the spring, when a fully established perennial garden blasts out of the ground, ready to bloom, no waiting required.

For transplanting or dividing existing perennials, fall works well, because there's no worry about whether the plant will look messy with disarrayed or broken leaves; they are about to die anyway, so they can usually be cut back.

In Pittsburgh, October 15 is designated as the unofficial cut off for planting. This allows enough time for roots to establish before the ground freezes, which is usually about the end of December. Of course, it's not a hard and fast deadline.

So get out into the fall garden, enjoy the crisp temperatures and plant perennials. Cider will be served afterwards.

Credit for above photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/muffinman71xx/ / CC BY-SA 2.0