Snap Outta Summer Doldrums and Fall Into Flower Magic!

Yay...Saturday is the first day of Autumn! What better way to celebrate than to plant some beautiful fall color that will last you into the spring.  This is perfect  planting time here in our zone 7b Georgia area. Fall annuals are a snap to plant. You can actually throw down a bag of soil mix on the top of the ground in a nice little mound and plug your little darlins right in. Mix in some slow release fertilizer and cover the whole mound of beauty with some pine bark nuggets and viola voila, instant garden magic.

I am particularly fond of placing snapdragons behind my pansies and viola and I am going to tell you my super secret why. They are my favorite to share with my grandchildren, but you gotta be careful with showing them how to pull them off and make them open their cute little blooms to look like a dragon biting at you or they will pull all your blooms off! So here is the secret, I don't care if they do pull them all off. I am going to cut them down to about 4-6 inches to hide them behind the pansies through the winter because they really don't look so hot anyway. Then in Spring...more flower magic! They grow up twice as beautiful and strong with a million blooms. ..well maybe a few more than that but they are totally awesome. And for giggles and glory try some Bright Lights Swiss chard in a pot surrounded by some sweet little blueberry sorbet violas. It will make you smile every day when they are there to greet you home. And not only that if your are feeling desperate or frolicky with your meal plan, you can slip the blooms of the viola into your salad and parboil the chard for an anti-oxidant healthy meal.  

You have now become a bonafide vegetable grower! Wow, how can you go wrong here? Enjoy and Happy fall planting. If you have any question call me anytime.