With fall approaching, now is the time to plant fall vegetables.  You want to plant your fall vegetables in far enough in advance of the first killing frost, but most fall vegetables are pretty quick growers and only take 10-12 weeks.  Some vegetables that are good in the fall are broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, green beans, kale, beets, turnips, and radishes.  Lettuce and peas love cool weather and will thrive in a fall garden.  Brussels sprouts usually hold up and live through the early frost, and parsnips and collards taste much better after they are exposed to frost, so make sure not to harvest it until then.  And make sure you plant your pumpkins, what would fall be without pumpkins!

Now that spring flowers have stopped blooming and the new growth has come out, it’s time to trim back the shrubs. This is mostly for aesthetics, but it also helps the plant to rejuvenate and grow stronger. Tree trimming is also okay to do now, but oak trees should not be pruned between April and October.  This is when the beetle that carries the oak wilt disease is active; pruning oaks exposes them to the beetles and leaves them vulnerable to infection.

This is also a good time to dead head perennials and flowering plants.  Dead heading is taking off the dried, old flower stems. Some perennials will rebloom if you do this right after they are done flowering. Otherwise it makes your perennials look more attractive to take the dead growth off.