Give your garden a showstopping finale. Soak up warm October afternoons outdoors in your glorious fall garden. Practical design ideas, plant advice, and ten complete garden plans from Nancy J. Ondra and Stephanie Cohen will have you puttering in the dirt later than you ever thought possible. Here are the vines, trees, shrubs, and flowers that you'll love to tend through September and even into November—plants that thrive in early autumn's mild temperatures and gentle rainfall, and contribute color, texture, and beauty well past summer's peak.

Bring late-season appeal to your yard with vines, shrubs, trees, and flowers that retain their good looks through the sweet, golden days of autumn. Nancy J. Ondra and Stephanie Cohen identify all the key fall-specific players and explain how to combine them with multiseason workhorse plants to create gardens that move gracefully from spring through the riotous days of summer and into the last hurrah of autumn.

Beautiful blooms, rich foliage, and dramatic seed heads all have their roles to play in long-lasting fallscapes. Ondra and Cohen discuss dozens of their favorites in each cateogry and offer extensive advice on how best to integrate them into landscapes that give as much pleasure in October as they do in July. Ten complete garden plans pull everything together. Particularly stunning in the fall but designed to deliver three-season appeal, they cover a range of growing conditions and color themes, and will satisfy even the most intense post-summer gardening urges.

Why should the joys of puttering in the garden be relegated to spring and summer when autumn has so much to offer? Enjoyable temperatures and more dependable rainfall in much of the country extend the growing season and allow the gardener to spend more time enjoying the garden and less time watering. Those final splendid months before winter's chill offer hospitable conditions for an impressive array of flowers, foliage, berries, and seedheads.

Nancy J. Ondra and Stephanie Cohen, two top garden writers and teachers, team up to show readers how to achieve three-season garden color. Join them on a detailed tour through dozens of plants that bring life and color to late-season gardens. Ondra and Cohen identify all the key fall-specific players and explain how to combine them with multiseason workhorse plants to create gardens that move gracefully from spring through the riotous days of summer and into autumn's golden weeks.

Ten complete garden plans put everything together for autumn-loving gardeners. Particularly stunning in the fall but designed to deliver multiseason appeal, they cover a range of growing conditions and color themes. The authors wrap up the season (and the book) with a garden care calendar featuring tips and techniques on how to plant, prune, and maintain gardens all season long so they remain glorious throughout the fall, as well as dozens of suggestions for how to prepare gardens for winter.

"Nancy J. Ondra and Stephanie Cohen have found an easy, breezy way to convey fun, fresh ideas."
—Country Living Gardener

Nancy J. Ondra is the author of seven books, including Foliage and Grasses. She has worked with Stephanie Cohen before, on the award-winning Perennial Gardener's Design Primer. Ondra lives in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, where she operated Pendragon Perennials for six years.

Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
Distributor: Workman Publishing Company
Publication Date: 09-12-2007
Pages: 240
Measurements: 10.0in X 9.25in X .63in X 2.00lb