by Fall is the perfect time to add something new to your Baldwin County backyard. Here’s why: the weather is cooler, you can plant for spring and add an outdoor room that you’ll enjoy with your family and friends.
Installing a New Landscape
Are you longing for a space where you can entertain family and friends during the fall? Do you have children and teens who enjoy sitting by a campfire? Then it’s time to add an outdoor feature.
Depending on how you entertain and spend your free time, you may want a large outdoor space that mimics your indoor interiors. Conversely, if you like it quieter, you may only want an enclosed porch or a small outdoor kitchen.
Here are 10 ideas to consider for your new backyard living space:
- Fire features: Firepits, fire tables, and fireplaces are favorites with folks who love to entertain outside. Even though Baldwin and Mobile Counties don’t dip below freezing until after Thanksgiving, you can still make s’mores in front of a fire pit.Add a fire feature in an outdoor living space as a focal point to keep you and your friends warm on a chilly evening. And if you love a fireplace, why not have one built in your outdoor living room?
Learn more: Are grubs eating your lawn grass alive? Then, you need to read this blog post.
- Water features: Ah, the soothing sound of water. You can add a pond with koi to your backyard living space that entertains the grandkids when they come to visit you.To add a water feature, hire a landscaping contractor to build one including waterfalls, dry streambeds, flowing fountainscapes, and pondless waterfalls into your outdoor space.
- Seat walls: Seat walls are more than, well, seats. You can use a seat wall to add curves and dimensions as well as boundaries separating one part of your outdoor living space from another. For example, you can separate a dining area from your living area with a crescent-shaped seat wall.
- Patios: Did you know that you can have more than one patio on your property? Indeed, if you have some space that doesn’t get used—such as a cozy nook at one side of your house—you can transform it into the perfect patio space. And you don’t always get a patio with a newly built home. So, you can add a patio in the best spot that meets your family and entertaining needs.
- Outdoor kitchens and dining areas: Eating al fresco during the warm fall months creates memories and a place to unwind after a busy day. You can add lights, pizza ovens, grills, refrigeration, sinks and so much more in your outdoor kitchen.If you love hosting formal dinners, you can add a formal outdoor dining area. Conversely, if you like a more casual get-together, your outdoor dining area can consist of a weather-resistant coffee table with an outdoor sofa, chairs, and cushions.
- Outdoor living room decked out with an outdoor TV and furniture: Do you love football and the outdoors at the same time? You can tailgate from the comfort of your backyard.An outdoor living room that comes with a big screen TV allows you to invite your friends and family over for Sunday afternoon football. You can also cheer your favorite football team on Sunday afternoon from the comfort of your outdoor recliner.
- Landscape lighting: Add safety as well as visual interest with outdoor lighting. You can get up lighting, down lighting, as well as create a moonscape right in your backyard. Add some fun and color by adding outdoor lights to your swimming pool or pond.
- Garden structures: You can get away from your TV and your mobile devices when you create outdoor rooms with your flowerbeds and gardens. Arbors serve as great doorways into your backyard retreat. Benches, pebble walkways and evergreens create a quiet space to meditate or read a book.
- Outdoor fans, speakers and other accessories: You can dress up your outdoor rooms, too, by adding ceiling fans, audio systems, and curtains. You bring the indoors out with today’s possibilities.
- Pool and spa area: Since Lower Alabama stays warm well into the fall, you can continue to enjoy your pool and spa. Why don’t you add a pool deck with a pergola or a swim-up bar?You can make your pool area a focal point of your outdoor space with a cabana, a pool house, and so much more.
Plant and Transplant Perennials, Trees and Shrubs
Fall is the perfect time to break up perennials, plant new trees, and replace old shrubs. The cooler temperatures help your plants get settled in their new spot before winter.
Since Lower Alabama is in plant zones 8 and 9, you trust that the following plants will do well in your landscape. Here are 10 trees and shrubs to add to your Southern Alabama property:
- Arborvitae
- Boxwood
- California Bay Laurel
- Sycamore
- Cypress
- Ginkgo
- Crape Myrtle
- Windmill Palm
- Holly
- Ponytail Palm.
Perennials for zones 8 and 9 provide pops of color and varying leaf textures year after year. Biennials last for two years while perennials can stick around for five or more years. Here are 19 perennials to consider for your Alabama flowerbeds:
- Asiatic Lilies
- Baptisia
- Catmint
- Coneflower
- Coreopsis
- Cranesbill
- Culver’s Root
- Daylilies
- Epimedium
- Garden Phlox
- Hellebore
- Hosta
- Liatris
- Japanese Anemone
- Moss Phlox
- Oriental Lilies
- Peonies
- Russian Sage
- Sedum
Since many of these plants live for years, you’ll find that you can transplant them to other areas of your property. When you divide perennials, you must do the following steps for success:
- Make sure that you transplant six weeks before frost, so the plants have time to connect their roots to the soil.
- Dig around the entire root zone including soil, rocks, and stones.
- Gently lift the plant and root cluster up and out of its spot.
- Remove as much soil and other debris as you can from the roots.
- If you can’t transplant your perennials right away, you can put them in a five-gallon bucket of water and place them in the shade.
- When you move your perennials to their new spot, dig an 8” hole. Then, remove all debris, including rocks, roots, weeds, and stones from the area. Next, add compost and organic matter into the hole.
- Pat the soil into a mound and place the transplanted plant on that mound. Spread out the roots so the crown to lies at or just below the soil line.
- Cover the root zone as well around the plant’s crown. Don’t bury the crown in the dirt. Make sure the crown is peeping through the soil for sunlight and oxygen.
- Water your transplanted perennials every day. Allow the water to percolate through the soil.
If Your Lawn Needs Fall Care, You Need Us at Xtreme Turf Lawn Care
At Xtreme Turf Lawn Care, we don’t do any landscaping. However, we specialize in lawn care for homeowners in Daphne, Fairhope, and Spanish Fort, AL. We provide the following lawn care services:
- Lawn Fertilization
- Lawn Weed Control
- Fire Ant Control
- Turf Pest Control.
If your lawn needs some care, call us today at 251-648-9947 or fill out our contact form.
Xtreme Turf Lawn Care serves homeowners in Daphne, Fairhope, Foley, Gulf Shore, Loxley, Mobile, Saraland, and Spanish Fort, AL.
