Trees & Shrubs:

For Their Fruit (Practical or Aesthetic):

• Apple Tree: It’s a harvest garden for a reason! Adding some actual fruit to your yard not only cements your theme, but gives you your own ‘pick-your-own’ orchard in your yard. Plant two different varieties for these trees to cross pollinate and provide fruit.
• Crabapple: If you wrote off crabapples 20 years ago, it’s time to revisit them. Modern crabapple varieties have tiny fruit that cling to the branches after the leaves have fallen. Enjoy vibrant pink flowers in the spring, shade in the summer, and the fruits to add to your harvest theme. Ornamental crabapples are lower maintenance than traditional apple trees.
• Viburnum: Viburnums become heavy with berries in the fall. As the foliage transitions to red, the berries will transition from red to blue. There are both native and non-native options with many sizes to act as specimens in your beds or even privacy bushes along your property line.
• Winterberry Holly: Winterberry hollies become laden with berries during the fall. These red berries along the stems are revealed as the shrub sheds its leaves into the winter. This native shrub provides food for birds through the winter. Please note that only female winterberry hollies bear fruit and they must be paired with an appropriate male. Find a wet spot in your yard where this plant can flourish.

For Their Foliage:

• Japanese Maples: For smaller spaces, consider Japanese maples. While many species have some color to their leaves throughout the growing season, the color tends to intensify in the fall. ‘Bloodgood’ Japanese maples run on the larger end of this species, growing twenty to thirty feet.
• Sugar Maple or Red Maple: These native maples provide lots of benefits for wildlife throughout the year and provide shade. These trees are outstanding in the yard, but give them plenty of space as they do not play well with others, taking up lots of water with their shallow roots.
• Black Gum Tree: Add some shade with a native tree with vibrant red, star-shaped leaves. This tree tolerates wet conditions.
• Nandina: This broad-leaf evergreen gains a red hue in the fall. Choose a variety like Gulfstream or Firepower for a sterile variety.
• ‘Candy Corn Spirea’: The name says it all! This deciduous shrub maintains a manageable size with eye-catching orange tips to its branches.
• ‘Fire Chief’ Arborvitae: Evergreens are an essential part of a long-lasting design, providing the backbone of the garden throughout the season. You could go a bit more traditional with boxwoods, or you can try something like a ‘Fire Chief’ arborvitae which features bronze foliage tips with red undertones that intensify in the fall.

Perennials:

Fall-Blooming Natives

• Goldenrod: Goldenrod dominates prairie landscapes in September, its golden fronds of flowers reaching out over the rest of the plants. Don’t worry about your allergies; goldenrod gets a bad reputation, but you can attribute your allergies to ragweed, which blooms at the same time. By including it, you’ll be adding a host plant for dozens of moths and caterpillars.
• Asters: Asters buck the color palette, but it wouldn’t be fall without there. Asters are often touted as a native alternative to classic mums. Asters can certainly provide a dense globe of blooms year after year, typically in blues and purples rather than the warm colors of mums. They will also provide much needed nectar and food for bees, butterflies, and caterpillars. Asters tend to be larger plants than mums. It’s a good idea to chop them back earlier in the season to encourage more compact growth.
• Helenium: Also known as sneezeweed, helenium comes in yellows, oranges, and deep reds. It’s a great nectar plant for bees and butterflies.
• Willow-Leaf Sunflower: This narrow-leafed helianthus is one of the latest blooms to emerge in the garden and they are worth the wait. This perennial enjoys full sun and brings needed brightness as other flowers fade.

Natives that Keep Fall Interest

• Joe-Pye Weed: Joe-Pye weed is a substantial American wildflower. It blooms in huge clusters of fluffy, light purple flowers in the mid to late summer. By fall, the seed heads have browned, but leave an interesting texture for the garden.
• Echinacea: Echinacea, or purple coneflower, has its season of glory in the mid-summer, but will have seed heads that persist into the fall, attracting goldfinches to your garden.
• Amsonia: Amsonia is known as bluestar for its blue flowers in the spring. In the fall, the narrow foliage turns a bright yellow.
• Heuchera: Coral bells come in SO many different colors. You can go with a red or orange for a permanent fall feel or dive into a deep purple or black for a spookier feel. Many varieties are evergreen, giving you color in the garden year round.
• Ornamental Grasses: Many ornamental grasses form seed heads in the fall or gain rich fall colors like Little BlueStem. As they catch the fall breeze, they bring movement and texture to the garden. Most ornamental grasses do great in poor soil and are drought tolerant.

• Mums: Nothing gives fall color quite like a mum. This globe of color is a low-commitment add to your garden. Keep it for a season or plant it in the ground for repeat blooms.
• Corn: Yes, you can grow your own corn. Corn is wind pollinated, so it’s important to plant a patch together to get the corn itself. If you have a small space, rely on corn for its aesthetic elements rather than expecting a large harvest.
• Peppers: Many hot peppers maintain a small stature with interesting fruit shapes. Ornamental peppers persist well into the fall and feature peppers that change colors. Because they rely on fruit rather than flowers for interest, they tend to have a long season.
• Cabbages, Kale, and Lettuce: Cabbages, kale, and lettuce thrive in the “shoulder” months of the growing season. That means that you can remove summer-loving plants and replace them with these greens for color into the late fall. You can plant varieties meant for straight consumption, or you can plant ornamental varieties for more vibrant
• Pumpkins: Pumpkins will eat up much more space than you think, so reserve them for a corner of the yard that you’re comfortable leaving them to ramble in.