Gardening Tips

February

From The Garden Girls

Don't be caught off guard this month with Mother Nature sending us a few blossoms, winter is not over yet!

Shrubs and trees

• Deciduous shrubs and trees are still dormant enough to transplant this month. Once the buds have begun to swell, I would recommend waiting until fall.
• Plant new roses, or move old roses soon after February 15.
• Mid to late February is a good time to fertilize trees, shrubs and evergreens. Use an acid type fertilizer to feed evergreens, conifers, broad leaf evergreens, rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias. Use an all_purpose fertilizer to feed roses and other deciduous trees and shrubs. If you use dry type fertilizers, be sure to water it in thoroughly.
• You can prune evergreens for size and shape. Prune hydrangeas during the last week of the month.
• Avoid pruning flowering shrubs such as forsythia, quince, spirea, azalea and other early spring flowering shrubs since they have already produced their buds last fall, and pruning them now will result in the loss of flowers. After pruning, dispose of clippings to prevent disease or insect spread.  

Perennials, annuals, and bulbs

• If exceptionally cold weather is forecast, provide protection to early flowering or tender plants by covering them with some type of cloth material. Remove the covering as soon as the weather moderates again.
• Plan your summer flower garden and peruse books, magazines, and catalogs for ideas and inspiration.
• Plant cold weather annuals Nasturtiums, Pansies, Violas, Snapdragons, English Daisies, Sweet William, Gazanias, and Calendulas.
• If you plan to grow your own annuals such as ageratum, verbena, petunia, vinca, or other slowing plants, the seeds should be started indoors this month.

Fruits and veggies

• Rhubarb, horseradish, asparagus and artichokes can be planted this month.
• Start cold weather vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, onion sets, English peas, kale, carrots, collards, beets, radishes, kohlrabi, and Chinese cabbage in cold frames.
• Like your flower garden, plan your vegetable garden and try growing some new things.
• Start seeds of herbs indoors for transplant outdoors.
• The vegetable garden should get its first tilling (if weather permits) to allow the weather to aid you in breaking up the dirt clods.

Lawn care

• February through April is an ideal time to apply a combination of slow-release fertilizer and preemergent herbicide for crabgrass control to your lawn. Apply this combination before dandelions reach the puff-ball stage. Be sure to follow label directions.

Indoor house plants

• House plants may notice the longer days, and begin growing. You can begin feeding them again, but use a dilute 50% fertilizer mix until the growth is robust.
• If you haven’t given your plants a warm shower lately to rinse off foliage dust and dirt and flush excess fertilizer salts from their roots, now would be a good time.

Equipment

• Check your gardening tools for rust. Clean rust from spades and hoes. Prevent future rust by coating tool heads with mineral oil or used motor oil.
• Inspect your pruning saws, clippers, and shovels and sharpen if needed.

March

March is a time of renewal. March often brings good planting weather for trees and shrubs. Look for a day when the soil is moist, but not wet and the temperature is above freezing.

Veggies

• Plant asparagus and feed existing asparagus beds early in March before the spears begin to grow. Just before the spears begin to emerge from the ground, broadcast from two to five pounds of a complete fertilizer such as 5-10-10 over each 100 square feet of the bed. You can use 10-10-10 but cut the application rate in half.

Lawn care

• If you grow cool season lawn grasses like fescue, bluegrass or perennial ryegrass, March is a good time fro aerification to reduce soil compaction.
• March is also a good time to de-thatch those lawns with a thatch layer more than one-inch deep. Thatch is seldom a problem on cool season grasses, but if a deep thatch layer develops, the thatch can affect the health of the grass.
• This is the time of year to apply pre-emergent herbicides to lawns to control annual weeds. The herbicide must be applied prior to weed germination.

April

There’s no shortage of work to be done for your lawn and garden in April. Here’s a checklist of a few chores:

• Prune spring-flowering shrubs like forsythia, weigela, Japanese quince, and lilac within 2 to 3 weeks after the last petals have dropped. Prune these shrubs near the ground to help rejuvenate growth and flowering.
• Fertilize shrubs and trees. Use an acid-type fertilizer to feed evergreens, conifers, broad leaf evergreens, rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias. Use an all-purpose fertilizer to feed roses and other deciduous trees and shrubs.
• Prepare planting beds for your annuals. Planting annuals before April 15 is risky because of the danger of a late frost.
• Deadhead or remove spent flowers from spring-blooming bulbs. Don’t remove foliage until it yellows or pulls loose when slightly tugged. Fertilize bulbs just after blooming. Use a complete fertilizer such as 5-10-10 at a rate of 2 pounds per 100 sq. ft.
• Stake perennials that will fall over (lodge) from the weight of their blooms in late spring or summer. Staking now will allow time for new growth to hide support structures that can mar the beauty of your perennials. Stake clematis and any other vines that need support as new growth emerges and they begin to flower.
• After petal drop, spray peach, plum, and cherry trees to protect against fungal diseases like brown rot, rust, and leaf spots.
• After April 15th, plant warm-season veggies like tomatoes, peppers, and corn. Don’t plant “high sugar” or sweet corn varieties until May 1, however, as the seeds do not germinate in cold soils.
• For warm-season grasses such as zoysia or Bermuda grass, April 15 marks the date of your first application of fertilizer. Use 1 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 sq. ft.
• Apply a combination of slow-release fertilizer and pre-emergent herbicide for crabgrass control to your cool-season (fescue) lawn by April 15. You want to apply this combination before dandelions reach the puff-ball stage. The fertilizer will boost the growth of your lawn and have it looking great for summer, and the herbicide will prevent crabgrass. Numerous brands are on the market. Be sure to follow label directions.

May

From The Garden Girls

May is an important month for establishing your summer garden. For a lush display, gardening experts with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture recommend performing these tasks:

• Keep an eye on watering everything that is newly planted. It doesn’t take much for new little transplants to dry out and die before they have a chance to get established. Check everyday for adequate moisture until plants take-off and start to grow.
• Be sure to mow you lawn at the correct height. For turf-type fescues and bluegrass, have your mowing height to 2 1/2 “. The higher you cut your lawn the deeper the roots will grow helping it survive dry spells. Do not lime or fertilize your fescue or bluegrass lawns until late summer.
• Deadhead or prune back spent flowers on your perennials. This will manicure your garden and can stimulate reblooming of delphinum and columbine as well as other perennials.
• You can selectively prune spring-flowering shrubs such as azalea, forsythia, weigela, lilac, beauty bush, and mockorange to control their growth or improve their shape as well as increase their bloom next year.
• May is strawberry-picking month. Stock up on ice cream and whipped cream. Fertilize strawberry plants after their fruit has been harvested with 2 lbs. of 10-10-10 per 100 sq. ft.
• Spray fruit trees and grapes early in the month with preventative fungicides. Do not use insecticides until all blooms have disappeared so not to harm the natural bee population.
• May is the month for iris and peonies. Enjoy their cutflowers in vases in your home.
• Thin (pick off) excess fruits from apple, pear and peach trees to a ratio of one fruit per 6-8 inches of branch.
• Stake tall growing perennials such as foxglove and true lilies to prevent them from lodging.
• If your peonies fail to flower this month, it could be that they are planted too deep. They should be planted 2" deep and receive at least 6 hrs. of sunlight.
• Direct seed sunflowers in your garden and stagger their planting by every week or two through July so you have flowers until frost.
• As the days get hotter and your pansies show stress, remove them and replace with summer annuals.
• When planting summer annuals, consider pinching and removing the flowers to stimulate branching and the production of many more flowers.
• Be sure to train new vines onto trellis or posts with the aid of twine. Plastic twine should be used to support the weight of the vine throughout the growing season.
• Don’t forget to apply pre-emergent herbicides such as Preen to newly planted flower and vegetable gardens to prevent weeds. Be sure to follow label directions.
• Stalks of bearded, Siberian, and Japanese iris should be removed as flower fade.
• If you have had a grub problem or other insects in your lawn, now is an ideal time to apply either a grub-controlling insecticide or one labeled for the insects you want to control.

June

From The Garden Girls

June is the month when your garden really gets established and takes off. The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture suggests you take the following steps to make the most of your June garden.

Perennials, Annuals, & Bulbs

• Don't forget to water newly planted plants. It can still be critical. Also, as temperatures increase and plants mature, keep a close eye on watering containerized plants. If any of the foliage of your annuals or newly planted perennials looks pale or yellow, and you have watered adequately, consider giving them a boost with a fertilizer labeled for flowers.
• Caladiums are heavy feeders so make sure you fertilize them regularly.
• Japanese beetles can be a problem this month. Look for them on hibiscus and roses.
• Many perennials will keep flowering if cut back after their first bloom period. Such plants include garden phlox, heliopsis, veronica, echinacea, and platycodon.
• Don't forget to stake tall-growing perennials such as goldenrod, boltonia, rudbeckia, tansy, helianthus, and Joe pye weed to prevent them from lodging once in bloom. They may not look like they need it now, but a hard rain or high wind will bend them over when they are in bloom.
• You can still direct-seed sunflowers in your garden. Stagger their planting by every week or two through July, and you will have flowers until frost.
• Fall-flowering plants such as asters, mums, goldenrod, sedum, and Joe-pye weed can be cut back to make them shorter and stockier when they bloom. Cut their current growth three-quarter of the way back this month to have them looking great and in bloom this fall.
• Deadheading is a must this month. Many annuals and perennials need to be deadheaded to keep plants looking good and blooming all season. Such plants include geraniums, certain petunias, marigolds, salvia, and roses.
• Bearded iris should be divided soon after flowering. By dividing now, the plants have time to get established, increasing the chance of flowers next year.

Shrubs & Trees

• Keep newly planted trees and shrubs well watered during periods of drought.
• Azaleas, pieris, mountain laurel and other ericaceous (acid loving) species need to be fertilized one more time before August 15 using an acid-based soluble fertilizer containing iron.
• Spray monthly against sap-feeding lacebugs. Target the underside of leaves with an appropriate insecticide, insecticidal soap or summer oil. Be sure to follow label directions.
• Watch for fall web-worms with their webbing at the ends of branches. Prune out the webs that can be reached. Various insecticides are available if chemical control is desired.

Fruits & Veggies

• Traditional strawberries go semi-dormant after harvest, and this is an ideal time to fertilize them with a complete fertilizer.
• Continue to spray a multi-purpose fruit tree spray consisting of an insecticide and fungicide to prevent any insect and disease problems. Spray until 10 days before harvest.
• Remove all root suckers at the base of all fruit trees, particularly apple and pear, and all thick water sprouts shooting up straight on the branches. Also remove any diseased, dying or insect riddled wood.
• Keep tomatoes pruned and staked or in cages.
• Prevent blossom-end rot of tomato by providing deep and regular watering with drip irrigation or soaker hoses in addition to mulching for water conservation. Fertilizing with calcium nitrate rather than agricultural grade 10-10-10 fertilizer also helps. Varieties resistant to blossom-end rot include 'Celebrity', 'Goliath' and 'Mountain Pride'.
• Harvest cucumbers, green beans and summer squash when they are ready. If you stop picking, production will halt.

Lawn Care

• June is an ideal month to seed, sod or plant plugs of Bermuda grass or other warm-season grasses like zoysia.
• Fertilize and dethatch warm-season lawns.

July

The summer garden is pretty much our reward for all the hard work from March through June. During these lazy warm days the perennial and annual gardens are strutting their colors and the harvest of the first tomatoes and cucumbers means BLT's, thick juicy sandwiches and robust salads...hmm. The following are some tips for your July gardening calendar.

Perennials, Annuals, & Bulbs

• This is a great month to watch for cutflowers to enjoy inside your home as well as those to dry for everlastings.
• Continue to deadhead (remove dead flowers) various annuals and perennials to encourage profuse blooming.
• Start perusing bulb catalogs and get your order in soon to ensure you get your selections.
• Tall, fall-flowering perennials such as swamp sunflower, joe-pye weed, iron weed, mums, and asters can be cut back by one-third to one-half to reduce their ultimate height and prevent them from lodging (falling over).
• Watch for crabgrass and other weeds that easily can invade your summer garden.
• July typically will be drier than any month so far in the gardening season so be sure to keep plants watered, especially container gardens.
• Purchase fall blooming perennials for this year's garden such as anemone, hardy sunflowers (Helianthus spp.), goldenrod (Solidago), sedums, and toad lily (Tricyrtis). There are some fantastic sales on unsold perennials in July and August which can beautify your garden this year and next. Take advantage of price cuts and shop early for the best selection. Again, be sure to water these plants well until they become established in your garden.
• You can still direct seed sunflowers in your garden to ensure their colorful show until frost.

Shrubs & Trees

• Prune hydrangeas right after bloom if you need to cut them back. Flower buds are formed in late summer and early fall, so late fall and winter pruning removes these buds and eliminates next year's flowers.
• Prune Clematis and Wisteria when they are finished flowering.

Fruits & Veggies

• Harvest vegetables regularly from your garden to keep it productive. Letting squash turn as big as baseball bats will cause production to go down. Harvest vegetables at their peak of maturity for maximum nutrition and quality.
• If your garden is overflowing with zucchini and cucumbers, and you've made all the pickles you can stand, consider taking your extra produce to our local food pantry, Second Harvest, and participate in the ‘Plant a Row for the Hungry’ campaign. You can contact them at 521-0000.
• July 10th is the last planting date for green beans to be sown in the garden.
• It may become necessary to cover fruit trees with netting to protect fruit from the birds.
• Blackberries need to be pruned after their harvest is ended. Remove the dying fruiting canes and tip back the vigorous, new growth two or three times to form a dense hedge for greater fruit production.
• Begin preparing for the fall garden in July. That's right! It may seem odd to start a fall garden in the summertime, but you need to get plants started in time for harvests before first freeze. Late July or early August set out broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower transplants. Also sow seed of lettuce, collards, kale, spinach.

Lawn Care

• Its okay to not water your lawn and let it go dormant. As cooler weather and rainfall return, it will be revived.
• If you desire your lawn to be green and lush through summer, mow at a higher height and water deeply. Applying water in early morning is best.

Miscellaneous

• This is an ideal time to visit the University of Tennessee Gardens located on UT’s Agriculture Campus along Neyland Drive . Bring a notebook to jot down the top performers that you may want to include in your garden next year.
• Keep bird baths clean and filled with water through the hot weather.
• Clean out cold frames for use in the fall.
• You should be receiving fall nursery catalogues in the mail soon. Now would be the time to begin planning a new garden.

August

Sweet corn has never been sweeter, watermelon never so refreshing as those eaten in August. This is the month to sit back and enjoy the bounty of your garden. Being the beginning of the harvest season, it’s a time to "put things up" for the coming cold months. Don’t forget to harvest cutflowers and herbs as well. However, it’s a hot month too and you will most likely have to work at keeping things watered. Following are some tips for your August gardening calendar:

Perennials, Annuals, & Bulbs

• Keep after the crabgrass and other weeds that want to invade your lawn and garden. Avoid letting weeds go to seed letting them be an even bigger problem next year. If you want to use chemical control, be sure to select the appropriate herbicide for the location of your weeds and always follow label directions.
• Purchase fall blooming perennials for this year's garden such as anemone, sunflowers (Helianthus spp.), goldenrod (Solidago), sedums and toad lily (Tricyrtis). There are some fantastic sales on unsold perennials in August which can beautify your garden this year and next. Take advantage of price cuts and shop early for the best selection.
• If you have the space, sweet autumn clematis will brighten up any landscape from mid August to frost. The perennial vine grows on a trellis or covers a large ground area in full sun.
• Plant some fall blooming crocus bulbs and if you haven’t already, order your spring flowering bulbs now to be planted this October-November.
• If using liquid fertilizer, continue to fertilize annuals and container plants.
• Be sure to keep garden mums well fertilized until buds show color.
• Sow Wildflower seeds.

Shrubs & Trees

• Avoid pruning trees and shrubs, particularly hedging plants such as boxwood, hemlock and hollies since doing so this late in the season can stimulate new growth that will not harden off in time for the cold winter weather ahead. Delay pruning until the end of the dormant season early next spring.
• Azaleas, pieris, mountain laurel and other ericaceous (acid loving) species need to be fertilized one more time before the end of August using an acid based soluble fertilizer containing iron.
• Spray against sap feeding lacebugs. Spray the underside of leaves with an appropriate insecticide, insecticidal soap or summer oil.
• Fertilize roses to encourage last new growth and hardening off before frost.
• Fruits & Veggies
• Dig potatoes after the tops have died down.
• For late crops of beets, bush beans, cabbage, carrots, collards, kale, lettuce, peas, spinach, turnips, kohlrabi, and onion, continue sowing seeds until August 15th. Transplants can still be planted of broccoli, early cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale and onions as well.
• Make the second application of fertilizer on new plantings of June bearing strawberries. Apply 3 lbs. of 10-10-10 per 100 feet of row.
• After the last raspberry harvest for the year, prepare for next year while also avoiding diseases by pruning out old flowering canes leaving only 3-4 young canes per foot of row. Wait until spring to prune back shoot tips.

Lawn Care

• Fertilize your tall fescue and bermuda lawns in late August using a high nitrogen fertilizer of a 5:1:1 ratio. If the lawn needs extensive renovation and aeration, wait until early September when the “springtime of lawn care” has arrived.
• As Japanese beetles return to the soil late in the month, treat again for grubs with milky spore disease or beneficial nematodes. This will reduce winter mole destruction on your lawn.
• During dry spells, continue to mow high.

Miscellaneous

• Hummingbirds migrate in August so keep feeders full.
• Photograph your garden to help yourself remember what you did and did not like this year. See what works, what doesn't, and when the time comes to add or remove plants, you will be able to see what needs to be done when you analyze the photos this Winter. You will know what plants you need to mover, remove, or add.
• Change the water in your bird bath regularly, and keep it filled. Standing water is less healthy for the birds, and may become a breeding ground for mosquito larvae.
• Continue to aerate and moisten compost pile to speed decomposition.
  
  

From Southern Living Magazine
Mums

• Buy mums this month when buds are still tight. Start early for long-lasting color blooming.

Veggies

• Plant the fall garden – turnips, collards, mustard greens, broccoli, lettuce, English peas, garlic and carrots.

Roses

• Fertilize those hybrid tea roses! Apply 1/2 of 5-10-10 granular or similar product per plant. Water each week if it doesn’t rain.

Replanting

• Pull out old herbs that are past their prime to assess what you have left. Fill in with a few new summer annuals or fall veggies

Compost

• If preparing beds, don’t forget to compost!

Weeds

• Control winter weeds in your lawn. Apply a pre-emergence herbicide to stop problems before they start.
  

September

From Southern Living Magazine

Vegetables

• You still have time to plant a fall garden. Set out transplants of cabbage, broccoli, collards and cauliflower. Sow seeds of lettuce, spinach and greens. Pull radishes before they get too big — or they’ll be hot and tough.

Herbs

• Sow seeds of dill and coriander in a sunny spot.

Birds

• Good time to put up feeders. Many species will migrate.

Prune

• Globe amaranth — for flowers of summer all winter long, cut stems. Hang in bunches to dry.

Roses

• Continue deadheading hybrids and old fashioned repeat bloomers. Cut the spent stems to a point above the 5 leaflet leaf.

Lawns

• Fertilize all except centipede with a slow release 30%.
  

October

October is typically the driest month in Tennessee so be sure to keep your garden watered. Here are some tips from the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture for fall garden maintenance:

Shrubs and trees

You’ll find a good supply of trees and shrubs at local suppliers and October is just the beginning of the ideal season to install such plants in your garden. If you do plant in October, definitely water plants well until rainfall picks up in November and December.

Perennials, annuals, and bulbs

• One last effort at weeding will help to improve the appearance of your garden throughout the winter. Any weed which you can eliminate from the garden this fall will possibly prevent thousands of weed seeds from sprouting in the garden next spring!
• Garden centers and nurseries are well stocked with spring flowering bulbs and late October and early November is the ideal time to get them planted.
• Collect and save seeds of wildflowers to sow either right now allowing the seeds to over- winter in your garden or wait and sow early next spring.
• Now is an ideal time to plant winter annuals in your garden for a great show of color from now until spring. Great plants to include in your winter garden are pansies, violas, snapdragons, and Dianthus. They can be planted in mass for a major splash of color in your landscape or use them in containers to add color in different strategic spots. Such winter hardy herbs as parsley, thyme, and rosemary make great container companions with winter annuals.
• Also, consider interplanting your winter annuals with bulbs of daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths. Planting bulbs between such hardy annuals will bring a surprise burst of color in the spring. And when the fading bulb’s foliage begins to wither, the winter annuals are so colorful that one barely notices the bulbs’ yellowing foliage.
• It’s a good time to spruce up your garden by cutting-back withering perennial blooms and adding a fresh layer of mulch. If you do add new mulch, be sure to follow-up with a pre-emergent herbicide to prevent an invasion of winter weeds. 
• Mums are here. A variety of sizes and colors await your garden. Some people grow mums as year-round perennials, often enjoying two seasons of blooms–a light display in late spring, and another show in the fall. Others opt for treating them as fall annuals, sinking pots in the ground or among their other garden plants. Either way, mums are a great way to add extra color to the fall garden.
• Keep your garden and lawn raked clean of a heavy layer of leaves and debris. Fallen leaves, old plant parts and grass clippings should be added to the compost pile.

Lawn care

• Fall is an ideal time to renew tall fescue lawns that have suffered during hot, dry summer months. Fertilizing with nitrogen-containing fertilizers will speed lawngrass growth, thicken the lawn and improve its’ color.
• Seeding and mulching bare areas will provide erosion control and reduce the potential for weed problems.
• Core aerifying will help water and nutrients move into hard soils. If your lawn is weak and thin and you intend to seed, a power rake can be used to lift thatch and expose soil before planting. Now may be the time to introduce a new, improved variety or tall fescue blend. It is best to be done with seeding your lawn by mid-October but fertilizer can be applied as late as mid-December.
• Its not too late to prepare your bermudagrass or Zoysia lawn for winter this fall. By increasing the cutting height now, you can help buffer these lawngrasses from extreme low temperatures in winter. The application of a potassium-containing fertilizer may also improve your lawns’ lowtemperature hardiness and drought tolerance. Several fertilizers are specially formulated to help “winterize” bermudagrass and Zoysia. Some may also contain a pre-emergence herbicide to prevent seeds of annual bluegrass and other winter annual weeds from germinating and competing with lawn grasses for light, nutrients and water.

Fruits and veggies

• Pumpkins, summer squashes, and gourds to be stored should be harvested before the first frost. Pumpkins that have begun showing color will continue to ripen after harvest. Use great care not to nick the rind during harvest since this will lead to more rapid deterioration.
• Dig and divide congested clumps of rhubarb.
• Apple varieties are showing up at fresh markets and roadside stands. Seek out some new varieties to eat fresh or create delicious desserts with. Apple trees can be planted now, too. Select disease resistant ones such as Redfree, Prima, Priscilla, Jonafree, Nova Easygro, and Liberty .
• Keep harvesting second plantings of the cool season vegetables including radishes, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, chard, spinach, broccoli, and the other cole crops. Some such as parsnips, Brussels sprouts, and kale actually have enhanced flavor after a frost.
• Plant individual cloves of garlic now for a crop of garlic bulbs next summer. Select very large cloves to produce the largest bulbs. Plant them 6" deep and at least 6" apart. Mulch them after the ground freezes for winter protection.
• Some root crops, such as carrots, onions, and parsnips can be left in the ground and dug up as needed. Apply enough mulch to keep the ground from freezing, and the crop will be kept fresh until it is needed.
• If diseases or insects wiped out your peach or other fruit crop this year, cleanup is definitely called for. Destroy any fallen fruit from under your trees, and remove any that have mummified on the tree. These fruits will be loaded with problems, and cause an early attack next year. Consider getting a home fruit spray schedule from your local extension office now, so you are prepared next year.
• After you have finished harvesting your summer vegetables, plant a cover crop of clovers, cow peas, soybeans, or vetches for the purpose of plowing under next spring. These nitrogen producing plants will provide good organic matter and food for your garden crops next year, as well as helping to control weeds over the winter.

Odds and ends

• Now is a great time to do fall decorating in your garden which works well all season long, from the first hint of cool air and autumn color to late November and Thanksgiving. The key is making displays that use the traditional icons of fall - hay bales, scarecrows, corn-stalks - as supporting cast for the lead players - pumpkins, gourds, Indian corn, garden or pot mums, fall pansies, asters, ornamental kale and other blooming plants. Hay bales are especially useful “benches” for building versatile displays, while corn-stalks add height and definition. Such displays can add a festive touch to a front porch or the landscape in strategic places like a light post or the entrance to a driveway or walk.
• Place amaryllis in storage for a 2 month rest before re-flowering. Select a cool (40-50 degree) spot and stop all watering. Plan to begin watering again 9-12 weeks before you want it to flower.
• Thanksgiving and Christmas cactus should be placed in an east or north window, watered and fertilized one last time. Start letting them dry out more between waterings. This plus cooler night temperatures will stimulate blossom production.
• Compost has been compared to black gold, and will made quite a difference in your soil. Fall is the ideal time to start a compost pile, since there is such a ready supply of materials–from falling leaves, to the gleanings from our vegetable and flower gardens. Your local extension office has loads of material on composting, from building the compost structure, to how to compost.
• The birds will soon begin their winter migrations so give them a helping hand by providing them with some food for their long journey. You might persuade a few of them to stick around for the winter, if they know they have a reliable food source!
  

November