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Add a splash of color to your fall garden with a few fresh containers.

You can purchase some ready made planters from your local garden center or create a bit of fall floral beauty of your own.

Select plants that love the cooler fall temperatures or reach their peak floral display in fall.

Use plants like Swiss chard, rudbeckia or spike for vertical accents. Boost the color with asters, mums and frost tolerant annuals like ornamental cabbage, dianthus and pansies.

Add some interest with ornamental peppers and a bit of flavor with bok choy and decorative mustard.

I am using rudbeckia for a vertical accent. Popping in ornamental mustard and kale for filler and finishing off with pansies.

Or just perk up some of your weather weary containers like I am by adding a dianthus and aster for a fresh splash of color.
A bit more information: Once fall has passed consider trying a few winter containers. All the ingredients you need just might be outside your backdoor. So get out the pruners and take a walk through your yard and look for nature's ornaments. Fruits like rose hips, winterberries, crabapples and other's add color to the container. And the fluffy seedheads of ornamental grasses make a nice vertical accent and add a bit of motion to the arrangement. And if you have no backyard, take a trip to the garden center they will have plenty of items for your winter containers.

For more gardening tips, podcasts and more, visit www.melindamyers.com

About Melinda Myers
Melinda Myers, best known for her gardener friendly and practical approach to gardening, has more than 30 years of horticulture experience in both hands-on and instructional settings. She has a bachelor's degree in horticulture from The Ohio State University and a master's degree in horticulture from University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a certified arborist, and was a horticulture instructor with tenure.

Outside the classroom, Melinda shares her expertise through a variety of media outlets. She has written over 20 books, including Can't Miss Small Space Gardening. She hosts "Great Lakes Gardener," seen on PBS stations throughout the United States, and "Melinda's Garden Moments", which air on network television stations throughout the country. She appears regularly as a guest expert on various national and local television and radio shows. She also writes the twice monthly "Gardeners' Questions" newspaper column and is a contributing editor and columnist for Birds & Blooms magazine. In addition, she hosted "The Plant Doctor" radio program for over 20 years and was a columnist and contributing editor for Backyard Living magazine.

For her work, community service and media presence, Melinda has received recognition and numerous awards, including the 2003 Garden Globe Award for radio talent and the Quill and Trowel Award for her television work, both from the Garden Writers Association. She has also received the Garden Communicator's Award from the American Nursery and Landscape Association and the Gold Leaf Award for Arbor Day from the International Society of Arboriculture.

For more information, visit Myers' website www.melindamyers.com