English Emma Blooms

🌸 Early Fall (September – early October)

Goal: Tidy, plan, and enjoy the late blooms.

• ✅ Deadhead spent flowers (especially day lilies and irises) to tidy up beds.

• ✅ Divide and transplant perennials like day lilies, hostas, and irises while the soil is still warm.

• ✅ Check for areas that now get more sunlight after limb trimming—plan new plantings accordingly.

• ✅ Start planning bulb combinations for spring:

  • Daffodils, alliums, Dutch iris, gladiolus, day lilies, etc.

• ✅ Remove fading annuals and replace with cool-weather plants (mums, pansies, ornamental kale).

• ✅ Lightly trim back leggy growth but save heavy pruning for late fall or early spring.

🍂 Mid Fall (mid-October – early November)

Goal: Transition from growing to resting.

• ✅ Dig up tender bulbs and rhizomes after the first frost:

  • Canna lilies: Wait for frost to blacken leaves, then dig, dry, and store indoors.

  • Gladiolus: Dig when leaves yellow; cure in a warm, dry place for a week before storing.

• ✅ Plant spring bulbs like tulips, daffodils, and alliums (before ground freezes).

• ✅ Continue weeding—Creeping Charlie and other invaders are easier to spot now.

• ✅ Rake leaves and use them as mulch or compost—your beds will thank you in spring.

• ✅ Cut back perennials as they die back naturally, leaving seed heads for birds if you like.

• ✅ Move any potted plants you want to overwinter indoors before temps drop below 40°F.

🌾 Late Fall (mid-November – early December)

Goal: Protect, store, and reflect.

• ✅ Cover garden beds with mulch or shredded leaves to insulate roots.

• ✅ Store canna and gladiolus bulbs in a cool, dark, dry spot (40–50°F).

• ✅ Clean and oil garden tools before storing.

• ✅ Make notes in your garden journal about what worked, what didn’t, and what to try next.

• ✅ Sketch or plan next year’s garden while sipping tea and letting your soil rest.

🌱 Creative Connection

💚 Keep observing the small changes—how the garden softens into rest, how the air smells different, how Peanut watches the leaves fall.
🎨 This is also a lovely time to paint your garden’s fading colors or make cards inspired by autumn textures.
✨ As you put the garden to bed, think of it as clearing space not just for spring growth—but for your own creative renewal too.

My new bulbs arrived, and I’m so excited to plant them! I think I’ll wait until after October 4 to put them in the ground. For now, they’re tucked safely in a box in the refrigerator, just waiting for their time.

One evening this week, I also need to head over to Dr. Cho’s to trim the lilacs and do a bit more work in his garden. I’m leaning toward Friday night—there’s nothing else going on then. It will be nice to spend some quiet time outside, get the work done, then come home, take a long shower, and settle in with a good movie.

There’s something comforting about this rhythm—gardening, caring for plants, making plans, and then rewarding myself with rest. It feels like a reminder that balance is possible: a little work, a little care for others, and then time to recharge in my own cozy space.