Are you looking for yet another reason to love this glorious autumn season and the beautiful new home you’ve moved into? Then check out the Cape Gazette’s 2024 Fall Home & Garden Guide https://www.capegazette.com/article/fall-home-garden-2024/280903. This is an especially robust edition thanks to Delaware’s booming economy and to the many folks who are moving here for low taxes, beautifully-preserved natural spaces, and lovely new homes, many of which are in amenity-rich communities https://www.activeadultsdelaware.com/neighborhood/.
As soon as you start scrolling you’ll see all kinds of options for furnishing, decorating and upgrading your home, along with lots of practical advice on creating your perfect outdoor space. There are also some awesome recipes for creamy pumpkin soup (page 8), apple crisp (page 40) and roasted butternut squash (page 72).
You’ll also find advertisements from dozens of companies with offerings that will beautify your home even if you don’t live down near the beach. And there are some very interesting articles with practical tips for making your home sturdy and welcoming for years to come. Here are some highlights:
Select the Right Roof and Maintain it Well
Page 10 of the guide offers the ins and outs of repairing or replacing your roof. One of its key recommendations is to get roofs inspected now, before the onset of winter weather, which is likely to be a lot rainier this season. It notes that treatments for damaging moss and lichen can take more than 100 days to be fully effective, and reminds about the dangers posed by snow and ice to roofs that aren’t stable.
Embrace Some Good News if You Don’t Like Raking Leaves
Everyone loves the burgundy, gold and orange leaves that mark the fall season but I don’t know too many people who are as enthusiastic about raking them up once they fall. Page 16 has good news on that front, encouraging you to “leave those leaves alone.” It reveals how fallen leaves provide good shelter for butterflies and other pollinators that do their magic with flowers, shrubs and vegetables. It also suggests moving fallen leaves to cover garden beds for insulation, mulching leaves instead of mowing them to create natural fertilizer, and covering large areas where weeds are proliferating with leaves to suffocate those areas during the winter months.
Insulate Your Home from Cold Weather Problems
If you want to save money and stay warmer, check out the tips for insulating your home on page 24. It notes that a lot of the gaps that allow cold air into your house are around windows, and recommends foam tape and weatherstripping as potential solutions. It also helps you trouble-shoot insulation problems around soffits, gable vents and ridges. One recommendation – from me, as opposed to the guide – is to enlist a roofing and insulation professional to assist with this trouble-shooting and any repairs that need to be made so you’re not climbing ladders.
Plant the Right Stuff
Autumn is prime time for planting bulbs, especially if you do it early enough to establish strong roots before the ground freezes. Page 30 spotlights the viability of tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, snowdrops and crocuses and states that, ideally, you should plant them six weeks before the first big frost. So the time to get out there with the shovel is now. The article also advises on how to clear the planting bed of weeds and rocks, and the importance of planting bulbs at the right depth – which is generally two or three times deeper than their height when they fully bloom.
The magazine also challenges the conventional wisdom that gardens can only be colorful during the warm months by listing several types of flowers that remain colorful well into the fall, including asters, cosmos, stonecrop and boltonias. Several shrubs and trees also remain colorful through the autumn months, including hydrangeas, American yellowwood, white fringe tree, red pillar, amur maple and kousa dogwood.
These are just a few of the helpful tips in this guide. Check it out for more advice on fall cleaning, pressure washing, renovating for sustainability, canning and jarring of your vegetables and fruits, and perfect fall-themed centerpieces for your Thanksgiving table.