Right about now, you should put down the margarita and sunscreen (for a moment) and consider fall planting. While there are a wealth of vegetables to consider so you can continue to harvest into fall—and even have some that will be ready in early spring—it won’t change the fact that the garden looks sad most of winter. All the pops of color from flowers, the greenery, the lawns is largely gone; everything just starts to look really brown.
One way to combat this is fall ornamentals. What I'm saying is that you should grow a ton of kale and cabbage you have no intention of eating—specifically, flowering kale and cabbage, which I suspect you’ve seen in the beds at commercial buildings and not thought much of. I was with you on that until recently.
A few years ago, fed up with the way my yard looked in winter, I endeavored to fill the space with whatever would survive the winter and was shocked by how much color and variety there was in the flowering cabbage and kale world. I placed the starts into the same planters that hold tulips and petunias in summer, and lined the paths of my yard with them. They kept the birds happy, and gave my yard a completely new perspective for the coldest months, tolerating snow, sleet, and ice.
What is shocking to me is the diversity in these ornamentals available now, which allow you to achieve a wide variety of colors across your yard:
Ornamental Kale Pigeon Pink, Red and Purple F1 Seed, $4.35
Ornamental Kale Flat Leaf Collection F1 Seed $11.09
Ornamental Kale Glamour Red F1 Seed $8.56
Ornamental Kale Crane Feather King F1 Seed, $13.81
Flowering Cabbage Seeds - Osaka Series $3.99
A word of warning: A yard full of brassicas is a calling card for slugs and snails. You’ll want to be sure you are treating the yard with Sluggo, a slug and snail treatment.