Wildlife-Friendly Fall Gardens

There are two kinds of Minnesotans: people whose favorite season is autumn, and people who are wrong.

We are now entering the most glorious time of the year, with warm days and cool nights, football, apple orchards, and endless opportunities to wear plaid flannel shirts. In your yard, you may be noticing the changes already. Late blooming flowers such as aster, zigzag goldenrod, and blue-bottle gentian are awash in color, while most of the other flowers are losing their petals. Trees and shrubs are beginning to yellow and there are flashes of scarlet from the top-most, sun-kissed branches of maple trees around town. Every squirrel crossing every street has a walnut in its mouth.