Garden tip: Ways to add fall color to your garden

Perhaps you have a patch of purple-black blackberries near your home. Or maybe you’ve seen the dangerous poison oak leaves in bright red-orange. These are signs of fall color in nature.

Of course, if you’re looking for fall color in your garden, you may not want these plants. In your garden, you can plant Japanese maple, Virginia creeper, liquidambar, berberis and ginkgo. All will bring wonderful scarlet red, bright orange and amazing yellow to your garden landscape.

Western redbud is also a good choice. It is considered a small tree (12 to 25 feet) and is popular for small gardens. This California native is drought tolerant and attractive in all seasons. It has pink pea-like flowers in spring, fall leaves in yellow and orange, and maroon seed pods in late fall.

— Katie Martin, UC Marin master gardener