1. Harvest pumpkins and winter squashes. They are ripe when the shell hardens enough so you cannot easily puncture it with your fingernail. Leave a couple of inches of stem for best effect and longest keeping quality. Store in a cool, dry place with good air circulation. Be sure to laugh a lot as you and your kids make jack-o-lanterns with the pumpkins.
2. Take time now to clean up your garden by removing any fallen fruit, old vegetables, plant debris, and weeds. Many weeds are releasing seeds now, so timely removal will greatly reduce the threat of weeds, and your efforts now will help to prevent problems from pests and diseases in your garden next season.
3. Plant Iceland Poppies in sunny spots for a delightful display of crepe-paper-like blooms in a wide array of festive colors. Feed lightly until the fluff of feathery gray-green leaves becomes a mounded rosette. Hairy, wiry flower stems will emerge about a foot in length with one bud each. Pick flowers for bouquets, or remove old blooms when petals fall, and they will last until hot weather comes again late next spring.
4. Plant onion and garlic sets from now until January. In our locale onions do well whether started from seed, plantlets or sets (little bulbs), and you can plant additional starts every month for a successive harvest of green onions all winter long. Feed and water regularly, and keep weeds away. Let some mature into bulbs for harvesting next summer.
5. Aspidistra is a good evergreen ornamental to put in very dark, shady areas. It does not produce noticeable flowers, but it is always attractive and stays under two feet tall. Its wide arching leaves look rather tropical. Called the “cast-iron plant,” it grows happily in conditions that would kill many other plants – including in containers indoors. And once established, it is nearly drought-resistant. A rich-looking variegated form is also available.
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