Cider donuts, pumpkins and plants

With the rich colors of the fall season, a visit to your local garden center makes it easy to add autumnal whimsy to your home's entryway, porch, patio or deck and seasonal touches indoors.

Piles of gourds and pumpkins along with corn stalks, hay bales and more are typically found at this time of year.

Ornamental grasses juxtaposed against textured orange and white pumpkins and colorful gourds, along with garden sculptures and paintings add seasonal interest.

Create containers of mini pumpkins and gourds. Try grouping by color for a monochromatic look that surprises when placed alongside a splash of vibrant mums.

Easy to grow herbs add color and a seasonal touch indoors and out.

Achillea Millefolium is a pretty yarrow that is a perfect "companion" plant in your garden with pink flowering heads that look wonderful when dried out and displayed in an arrangement or tucked in a wreath. Festoon your wreath with other dried herbs and leaves, berries, apples and  pine cones; the possibilities are endless as the acres of pumpkins, gourds and mums.

Beside picking up plants, pumpkins, apples and cider, many garden centers carry a wide array of specialty products. I confess to a secret addiction to crunchy, still warm-from-the-oven fresh baked apple cider donuts that can only be found this time of the year.

My annual pilgrimage to the temple of  apple heaven is rewarded with bags of apples, donuts, and apple and pumpkin butter that I share with friends and family. 

As you're meandering through corn mazes and enjoying haunted hayrides with your kids, don't forget to ask the garden center experts what shrubs, trees and bulbs are perfect for fall planting in your landscape. After the heat and drought many states experienced this year, cool weather is an ideal time to plant.

Share your favorite find at your local garden center along with your creative decorating tips. We'd love to see your images.

~Lynne

Garden Media Group

photos: Linvilla Orchard, GMG

Apples! Apples! Apples!

Fall is a wondrous season. Flaming leaves, gourds and pumpkins, hayrides and harvest festivals, and my favorite...apple season. Loads of sweet, juicy, crunchy varieties are brimming over displays in supermarkets and farmers markets tempting us with their apple allure.

We eat them off the vine and transform them into heavenly apple torts, crisps, muffins, pies and pastries.
From Abermarle Pippin to Yellow Transparent there are well over 75 varieties to explore and experience, like 'Jonagold' - a cross of Jonathan and Golden Delicious.

Last weekend, as I was shopping for produce, I finally broke out of my comfort zone of automatically reaching for McIntosh, Granny Smith and Honeycrisp apples to recognize I was stuck in an apple rut.

Yes, I love the crisp sweet/tart taste of McIntosh and the tang of Fuji but 'Sheep Nose' "Seek No Further' or 'Wealthy'? Hmm. Admittedly, I'm stumped. Never tried 'em. 'Wealthy' is described as a "superb all purpose apple with perfect texture and complex flavors." Sounds like a fine wine.

Yes, friends, it's apple season, and this year I vow to discover new varieties of the Biblical "forbidden fruit" and share my thoughts on what new apple was divine or "fell far from the tree." Let me know your little-known apple favorites and why you love 'em! And don't forget to share your best apple recipes!

~Lynne GMG

Photos credits Wikipedia Commons