Want To Add Brilliant Color To Your Fall Garden? This Is The Plant For You

About This Episode

A reader has a burning question about raking leaves. Plus, Grumpy’s plant of the week that will add sunshine to your garden.

Question Of The Week

« I’ve heard there’s a movement in England to let trees leaves lie all winter where they fall because they provide shelter for beneficial insects. Should we, in the states, follow their lead and put away our rakes until spring? » – Keith

Grumpy’s Response:

Leaving the leaves on your lawn during the winter protects

butterflies

and moss and other pollinating insects from cold, but they do bad things too. If you leave a thick mat of moldy leaves, they’ll also protect insects that you don’t want. Like,

stink bugs

and cockroaches, scorpions, ticks, bees, beetles and borers and aphids, snails and mice and voles. So, do you really want that? I do not. What I do is, I make quick work of all the leaves on my lawn using a mulching mower, then I chop some of the tiny bits that feeds the soil. Yeah, I probably execute a couple of moths every time I do this, but I have about a billion leaves in my wooded backyard that make up for it and are good for wildlife.

Plant Of The Week

Florida Sunshine Yellow Anise

Are you looking to illuminate a dingy spot in the garden that’s dominated by nondescript, boring bushes? Well, I’ve got a plant for you. It’s called

Florida Sunshine Yellow Anise.

And anise is spelled just the way the spice that you use in cooking is, a-n-i-s-e. And this is a plant that was introduced by Plants Delights Nursery in North Carolina and it’s both really pretty to look at and it’s easy, easy, easy to grow. It has upright bright red stems that hold this aromatic, anise scented leaves and they change from chartreuse in summer to really bright yellow in fall. It doesn’t grow that big, it gets about six feet tall and wide. It doesn’t need, hardly, any pruning. It has no serious pests, and the deer don’t munch it. So, now, Grumpy suggests growing this in light shade and consistently moist soil in front of a dark green background to bring out its color the best. And you can shop for this plant at garden centers that carry our Southern living plant collection, because it’s in it.

About Ask Grumpy

Ask Grumpy

is a podcast featuring Steve Bender, also known as

Southern Living’s

Grumpy Gardener. For more than 30 years, Grumpy has been sharing advice on what to grow, when to plant, and how to manage just about anything in your garden. Tune in for short episodes every Wednesday and Saturday as Grumpy answers reader questions, solves seasonal conundrums, and provides need-to-know advice for gardeners with his very Grumpy sense of humor. Be sure to follow



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Editor’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.