November doesn’t necessarily mark the end of the vegetable growing season. While warm-season crops are definitely done for the year, you may still be able to sow and grow some of your cold-hardy favorites.

Knowing how and when to plant a vegetable garden so late in the season depends on your USDA hardiness zone, climate, and local weather. If you have milder winters, you can likely sow seeds directly in outdoor beds. In colder climates, you’ll need to provide some protection against frost and snow.

Here, I offer pro tips on late veggie growing, along with eight vegetables you may be able to start now for a winter or spring harvest. If you’re unsure about whether or not you can grow any of these in November, contact your extension office for more location-specific guidance.

Tips for Planting Vegetables in November

Planting veggies now takes more effort than simply sowing seeds. Beyond knowing your climate and hardiness zone, you need to pay attention to the weather. For example, avoid seeding when the soil is frozen or soggy.

Prepare the soil by clearing out weeds, raking out any stones or remaining summer plant debris, and mixing in fresh compost. Seed planting depth and spacing depend on the crop you are sowing, so do check the seed packet information.

Manage your expectations for this project. Less sunlight and colder temperatures mean germination and growth will be slow. Be patient.

Although these veggies are either cold-tolerant or good at overwintering, they still will not tolerate very cold weather. If you have cold winters, you’ll need to protect your efforts. An old milk jug can give seeds some protection and act as a mini greenhouse for a few seeds. If you want to start more seeds, use a cold frame, like the Giantex wooden cold frame, which has a flip top for easy access.

As plants develop, row covers will protect winter veggies from frost, snow, harsh winds, and flying pests. This Plant Covers Freeze Protection Kit on Amazon includes hoops, clips, and a roll of frost blanket.

Apply straw, shredded leaves, or other loose, organic mulch over and around new crops or overwintering veggies. Just take care not to drown delicate seedlings in mulch.

Take care with watering, as letting soil get soggy is easy to do in winter. Check the soil before watering plants.

8 Vegetables to Plant in November

These are some of our favorite vegetables that many gardeners can start in November, including those that could be ready in winter and others that you’ll harvest in spring or summer.

1. Garlic

Garlic is an example of a crop that will overwinter and provide you with a harvest next summer. As long as your soil is workable and not waterlogged, garlic is a dependable crop for planting now. Plant individual garlic cloves with the pointy ends up. Use mulch to protect the cloves from winter freezes. If successful, your cloves will grow roots over winter, foliage in spring, and bulbs in the summer.

You can plant garlic from the grocery store, though it’s usually a softneck variety grown in milder climates and may struggle in colder regions. Hardneck garlic is often a better choice for those areas. Botanical Interests offers an organic garlic flavor sampler bundle featuring two hardneck varieties and elephant garlic.

2. Shallots

Shallots can also be overwintered and will reward you with a harvest in late spring or early summer. Plant shallot sets or individual shallot bulbs with the pointy ends up, just slightly above the soil surface. French Red Shallots from Burpee are a delicious culinary variety worth trying.

You should mulch lightly to protect shallots in colder climates. However, fall planting is best suited to milder regions, and if you have very cold winters, the planting window may already have passed. Check with your local extension office for exact dates.

3. Spinach

Spinach is remarkably cold-hardy. The seeds will be slow to germinate in the cold, though. This Sow Right Seeds Spinach Seed Collection contains three tasty varieties. Unless you have very mild winters, use cold frames or other protections. Once spinach plants get established, they should produce leaves you can pick throughout the winter. Harvest from the outside edge of the plants, leaving the center intact.

4. Kale

Kale is another very cold-hardy vegetable that many gardeners can grow now for winter harvests. It’s also hard to grow from seed in the cold, so unless you have mild weather in November, consider using transplants, like these Bonnie Plants Lacinato Kale Plants from Lowe's. Use cold frames or row covers as needed, especially during hard freezes. For warmer zones, Burpee sells a four-variety kale blend.

5. Arugula

Arugula is a mildly cold-tolerant green that is best for growing in November in milder climates. If conditions are right, it will germinate and grow rapidly, giving you a winter harvest. If you want to grow arugula in colder regions, use frames or a greenhouse and be prepared for growth to be slower. You can pick up a pack of arugula seeds for less than $5 from Sow Right Seeds.

6. Radishes

Like arugula, radishes grow rapidly, so if the weather and soil conditions are right, you can start plants now and get a quick winter harvest. Burpee's Cooks Custom Blend Radish Seeds Collection contains red, pink, purple, and white radishes. For the best results, the soil should be workable, and November temperatures should be cool or mild. For colder areas, plant the most cold-tolerant varieties and use cold frames.

7. Carrots

Plant carrots now for a sweet treat in early spring. Carrots generally overwinter well, but choose the more cold-tolerant varieties for the best results. Scarlet Nantes, included in this Gardeners Basics 5-Variety Pack on Amazon, can be harvested through winter with protection. It’s also important to make sure the soil is loose and free of stones, so the roots can grow deep. Use a generous layer of mulch to keep the soil warmer over winter.

8. Peas

Peas can also generally be overwintered for a spring harvest. Peas grow best in cooler weather, but they still need some warmth to establish. Alaska peas, available from Eden Brothers, tolerate chilly conditions, but if your November is very cold, it might be too late. In milder growing regions, this can be a good time to start peas. Be sure to plant your peas near a trellis or other vertical structure so the plants can climb in spring.

November doesn’t have to mean the end of growing veggies for the year. Depending on your region and local weather, you may be able to grow or overwinter some or all of these cold-tolerant vegetables. Choose the plants most suited to your conditions and be patient. Colder weather means slower growth.

The first few days of November bring a familiar sorry sight, as pumpkins start piling up beside the trash cans, a few of them still grinning. Millions end up in landfills every year, where they break down without much air and give off greenhouse gases. That's a poor end for leftover Halloween pumpkins. In a garden, all that soft tissue could be breaking down into organic matter and feeding soil life – and that’s just the start.

If you took the time to grow pumpkins for Halloween, you know how much space, moisture, and fertilizer a single vine demands. All summer long, its leaves absorbed sunlight and pumped nutrients directly into its swollen fruit. Letting those nutrients leave your yard in a trash bag deprives your yard of valuable goodness that could be benefiting vegetable beds, feeding organisms and helping beneficial creatures. Even a carved pumpkin can have a second life as long as it hasn't been painted or coated.

Giving your post-Halloween gourds a productive second act is simple, fun, and satisfying. The only rule is that your fruit needs to be clean and free of contaminants. Any sections coated in craft paints, glitter, chemical sealants, or fake snow must be removed and tossed into the trash. Pull out any burnt candle stubs, melted wax, and battery-powered tea lights, and you are ready to put this fall bounty to work!

Give Your Pumpkins a Second Life

Turning post-holiday pumpkins into garden assets is a real no-brainer. Standard carving pumpkin varieties like Howden and Jack O' Lantern work especially well for the soil, because their flesh is tender and relatively easy to slice. Thicker, denser culinary and heirloom varieties (such as ribbed Cinderella, dusty-blue Jarrahdale, or warty Marina di Chioggia) offer firmer rinds that hold their shape for weeks, making them ideal where shape and rigidity are useful.

These fall projects work across every USDA hardiness zone, though local temperatures will determine how quickly your gourd decomposes. In cold northern regions (zones 3-5), freezing nights preserve carved pumpkins on porches longer, but freeze-thaw cycles eventually cause cell walls to collapse into watery slop, making early November the best time to act. In warm southern places (zones 8-10), elevated daytime temperatures accelerate mold and fruit flies, requiring immediate conversion into ground-based or wildlife-specific benefits.

Before tackling these projects, you need the right hand tools. A heavy-duty hori-hori knife is an excellent investment if you don’t have one, and can be used to simplify all kinds of cutting work. The Nisaku Hori-Hori from Amazon is great value and makes slicing through thick rinds a joy, and levers drainage holes through thick base walls without snapping. So find out exactly why your grinning pumpkin still has lots of goodness to give…

1. Enrich Your Soil with Clever Composting

Tossing an intact pumpkin onto your compost heap can lead to disappointment. Its waxy rind acts like a raincoat, and depending on the variety and the weather, it could sit there for a long time with its skin intact. It needs breaking up first. Take a sharp spade or round-point shovel, and break the fruit down into fist-sized chunks to expose the flesh to soil bacteria and fungi.

Because the tissue is roughly 90% water, this green compost source needs plenty of dry browns mixed in. Balance every bucket of chopped pumpkin with two buckets of carbon-rich browns, such as shredded leaves, straw, or torn cardboard to keep the pile aerated. Turn the heap now and then. If space is tight, a single-chamber tumbler like the Vivosun Outdoor Dual Chamber Tumbling Composter, available from Amazon speeds up heat decomposition in a more compact way.

If your compost heap is overflowing, try direct trench composting in an empty veg bed. Dig a trench 18-24 inches (45-61cm) deep, in a bed reserved for heavy-feeding spring crops like sweet corn, squash, or tomatoes. Fill the bottom with chopped chunks and stomp them down. Backfill with 12 inches (30cm) of clean soil. Don’t go shallower, or neighborhood raccoons may smell it and dig it back up. Loose, well-drained soil can break it down in 2-3 months, but if you have heavy clay soil, you may still hit chunks of pumpkin a year from now, so be patient.

2. Harvest the Seeds for Planting

A healthy, mature Halloween pumpkin contains hundreds of plump seeds loaded with goodness. If your pumpkin grew with vibrant color and a firm rind, these seeds are prime candidates for saving for next year. Strain the tangled seed mass in a colander and massage it under a stream of cold running tap water to strip away the pulp. Spread the cleaned seeds in a single layer over non-stick parchment paper, a fine metal screen, or a ceramic plate. Let them dry in a warm, well-ventilated room out of direct sunlight for 2-3 weeks.

To test for dryness, try bending one: if it flexes, it still retains moisture, but if it snaps in half, your seeds are ready to store. Slide your dried seeds into breathable kraft paper seed envelopes. Pour them into paper seed envelopes, like the Seed Packet Kraft Envelopes, available from Walmart in packs of 100. Write the variety and date on the front, and store in a cool, dark drawer. Word to the wise, though: modern carving pumpkins are typically hybrids that won’t go true to type. Also, bees can cross-pollinate squash varieties across neighborhood zucchinis, so next spring’s seedlings may produce some wacky, unpredictable gourds.

3. Turn Your Pumpkin into a Bird Feeder

Songbirds burn through vital fat stores as November temperatures drop, and a firm pumpkin makes a wonderful natural feeding bowl (although it’s best to stick to uncarved porch pumpkins for this project). Cut your pumpkin in half across the middle, or slice the top third off. Using a sturdy spoon or hori-hori to scrape out the inner pulp and seeds, until the interior walls are clean. Poke 3-4 half-inch (1.25cm) drainage holes through the base using a large screwdriver.

Punch 3 evenly spaced holes along the thick top rim, thread some sturdy jute twine through, and hang the bowl from a sturdy tree limb or pergola beam. Alternatively, set the flat shell on a low wall, tree stump, or deck railing. Fill with black-oil sunflower seeds or a good seed blend, such as Pennington Wild Bird Food from The Home Depot. You can also use some of your rinsed and dried pumpkin seeds as extra treats. These nutritious kitchen scraps make a nourishing treat for cardinals, blue jays and titmice. Just inspect every few days: when the inner walls turn squishy or develop fuzz, take the feeder down and consign it to the compost heap.

4. Repurpose as a Biodegradable Planter

If you have a solid (again, uncarved) ornamental pumpkin on your porch, you can turn it into a temporary planter. Carve a generous opening around the stem and scoop out the pulp and seeds. Using a long screwdriver, puncture 4-5 generous drainage holes through the bottom crust. If you need a good screwdriver, Black Canyon’s Phillips Extended Length Screwdriver with Soft Grip Ergonomic Handle from Walmart is an efficient way to punch through thick rinds. Elevate the pumpkin on some stone or a trivet for drainage, as sitting water will rot the base rapidly.

Fill the lower half of the pumpkin with light, free-draining potting soil, then tuck in your choice of cold-tolerant fall ornamentals. Some great options include dwarf flowering kales, ruffled ornamental cabbages, winter violas, pansies, and trailing English ivy. These cold-hardy choices will look fresh and colorful for 2-4 weeks. With wet soil sitting inside it, the pumpkin starts softening from the inside out, and a few freeze-thaw nights will hurry it along. When yours starts to sag, move the plants to a bed or regular pot, and compost the gourd.

5. Set Out Rinds as a Slug Trap

Slugs and garden snails are a persistent menace in fall, but at night they seek shelter in dark, damp, sheltered crevices to conserve moisture. A curved chunk of pumpkin rind provides a perfect natural decoy. Take sections of rind, including leftover pieces from carving or scraps that have softened too much for bird feeders. Place them skin-side up on the soil, beside vulnerable vegetable rows, hosta crowns, or mulched borders. The sweet scent of decaying squash flesh will attract slugs from several feet away, luring them under the hollowed domes.

Early the following morning, flip the rinds over. You should find dozens of slugs, snails, and earwigs clinging to the flesh. Scrape them off into a bucket of warm soapy water, or feed them to backyard chickens. Reset the traps for several nights in a row. Every slug removed now is one fewer laying eggs. Once the rind collapses, compost it. Dust a little Harris Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth Powder, available from Amazon, around your traps to stop slugs escaping back into your beds.

6. Create a Friendly Bug and Beetle Shelter

This last one is a lovely eco-friendly bonus for anyone keen to support overwintering beneficial insects in their yard. As fall frosts intensify, beneficial predatory insects and pollinators seek sheltered crevices. Ground beetles, centipedes, roving rove beetles, lacewings, lady bugs, and solitary native bees are valuable allies in the organic garden, consuming thousands of aphids, slug eggs, and weed seeds. You can turn a hollowed pumpkin shell into a cozy winter sanctuary. Take an uncarved or cleanly carved pumpkin. Slice a wide entryway near the base (or prop the shell upside-down on a couple of flat stones to leave an open gap underneath).

Stuff the cavity with natural textural materials that create micro-tunnels and air pockets. Use bundles of dry hollow plant stems, bamboo canes, small pine cones, crumpled dry leaves, and coarse straw. You can buy Bell Nursery Mini Straw Bales from The Home Depot which can also be used as mulch for strawberries and other overwintering plants. Tuck your bug hotel beneath a thick hedge, under a quiet shrub border, or along a perennial bed out of wind and rain. The shell will slowly soften, insulating the center. By spring, it will return harmlessly to the soil, leaving your beneficial guardians safely in the mulch bed, ready to go to work.

Before you drag your hollowed Halloween pumpkins down to the street corner, hopefully these ideas show you that they could be working hard for your yard. These seasonal gourds are far more than short-lived porch decorations. By turning into a rich soil ingredient, feeding wild birds, constructing cozy shelters for beneficial beetles and stocking up on seeds to plant next year’s pumpkins, you keep valuable resources out of landfills and grab a head start on next year's growth. Once winter sets in, those leftover gourds may already be enriching your soil: a true win-win!

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

Celebrity pumpkin portraits? You'd better believe it, folks! Unlike the traditional triangle eyes and crooked grins, some extra-talented pumpkin carvers are transforming ordinary gourds into remarkably lifelike tributes to some of the world's biggest stars.

Now, we already offered you a way to up the ante on your Halloween decorations in the form of your birth month pumpkin carving design. For those who want to take things beyond even that, though, celebrity portraits (which recently made headlines thanks to Kim Kardashian's attempt at the trend) offer a particularly ambitious challenge... especially when the goal is to make a recognizable face emerge from the pumpkin's flesh.

From country music icons to Hollywood legends, the aim of these intricate creations is to lean into that 'devil is in the detail' vibe; think facial features, expressions, and more. Honestly, if you've ever wondered just how far you can push the art of pumpkin carving, these celebrity portraits might make you rethink your own Halloween plans.

10 Brilliant Celebrity Pumpkin Portraits

If you want eerily accurate celebrity pumpkin portraits, that's where Maniac Pumpkins comes in. Rather than simply carving a spooky face, the nimble-fingered people at the award-winning pumpkin art studio treat their pumpkins as a canvas, turning familiar celebrity features into intricate works of Halloween art.

Shop Pumpkin Carving Essentials:

Don't believe us? Well, these eight celebrity pumpkin portraits show what's possible when Halloween creativity meets serious carving skills. So, if you're looking for inspiration before picking up your carving tools this year, take a look at these spookily accurate creations from Maniac Pumpkins.

Fair warning, though, that you might want to set aside a little more time than usual if you're hoping to recreate them yourself.

1. Harry Styles

Harry Styles might sing about watermelons, but there's no denying the musician makes for a truly mesmerizing celebrity pumpkin portrait.

2. Shania Twain

Shania Twain? As a pumpkin? Don't you dare say that don't impress you much; it's spectacular!

3. James Earl Jones

James Earl Jones had one of the most recognisable voices in Hollywood, but this tribute proves his iconic presence can make an impression without saying a word. It's a fitting nod to the legendary actor, whose unmistakable legacy deserves a place in the Halloween spotlight.

4. Megan Moroney

Country star Megan Moroney has plenty of star power, but who knew she could look this good carved into a pumpkin? This clever creation is a real treat for fans of the singer – and proof that Halloween decorations don't have to be all tricks and no treats.

5. Meghan Markle

Move over, royal portraits – there's a new contender for the most unexpected royal-inspired artwork. Meghan Markle gets the celebrity pumpkin portrait treatment here, and this is one Halloween carving that's certainly fit for a palace display!

6. Lin-Manuel Miranda

He gave the world Hamilton, but could Lin-Manuel Miranda inspire a hit on the Halloween carving scene, too? This pumpkin portrait brings a little Broadway magic to spooky season, and the accuracy has left us feeling (to quote Angelica Schuyler) satisfied!

7. Taylor Swift

It's a love story, baby, just say... pumpkin! Taylor Swift is no stranger to having fans celebrate her in creative ways, but this carved tribute might be one of the more unexpected. Swifties, consider this your sign to swap the friendship bracelets for a pumpkin carving kit...

8. Ozzy Osbourne

The Prince of Darkness was practically made for Halloween, so a pumpkin portrait of the late Ozzy Osbourne feels like a match made in spooky heaven. Forget the usual grinning jack-o'-lantern – this rock legend brings a whole new meaning to a killer Halloween look. We reckon it's a fitting tribute to the one and only Ozzy.

9. Bette Midler

It's just a bunch of hocus pocus – until you see this incredible celebrity pumpkin carving! Bette Midler's Winifred Sanderson is all but synonymous with Halloween, and this pumpkin portrait brings the wicked witch to life in wonderfully spooky fashion. Just try not to let it loose on your other jack-o'-lanterns.

10. Nasir Jones (Nas)

If you thought pumpkin carving was an Illmatic art form, just wait until you see this! Rap legend Nas gets the spooky-season treatment in this striking celebrity pumpkin portrait – and proof that Maniac Pumpkins knows how to create a real masterpiece.

Feeling inspired to give your own pumpkin the celebrity treatment? By all means, grab a carving kit and get creative. Just don't be too hard on yourself if yours ends up looking more like Jack Skellington than Jack Nicholson, okay? There's a reason the people behind Maniac Pumpkins are considered artists...

As fall edges forward, strawberry patches can often look like they have finished their seasonal duties. The berries are long gone, creeping runners have tangled across walkways, and older foliage is beginning to bronze. It is tempting to simply walk away and leave the beds until spring. However, neglecting your patch in late autumn is one of the most common reasons for more disappointing crops the following year.

What happens to your strawberry plants in October has a massive impact on next year's crop. A few simple fall tasks now can help them get through winter in good shape, which directly leads to more berries that taste yummy next summer. Anyone who grows strawberries knows how much rides on the crown – the thick stem at the center of each plant, where new leaves and flowers start. It sits at the soil line, which makes it easy to damage in winter. Most of these fall jobs come back to protecting it.

Whether you cultivate June-bearers like Honeoye or Jewel, everbearing varieties like Ozark Beauty, or continuous day-neutral types like Albion, this next week is a critical window to protect strawbs. Time is short before the ground freezes solid. By taking a few quick steps now, you protect those delicate crowns and lay the foundation for a riot of sweet, juicy fruit next year. So don't skip these fall care essentials…

Best Strawberry Care in October

These strawberry tasks bridge the gap between active growing and total winter dormancy. Because strawberries have shallow root systems that rarely penetrate deeper than 6 inches (15cm) into soil, it’s good to check in with conditions both on and in the ground. Checking your patch's moisture, ambient temperature, and foliage health this month ensures plants enter dormancy with maximum energy reserves.

A steady cold at this time of year isn't always the biggest problem for strawberries. A sunny thaw followed by a hard freeze can heave plants right out of the soil and tear their roots. So where you live changes the following strawberry game plan a little bit. In colder USDA hardiness zones (zones 3-6), October is mostly about getting ready for winter and priming beds and containers before freezes strike. In warmer southern regions (zones 8-10) it can be a great time to plant new runners.

Strawberry care this month also varies according to whether you are growing in the ground or in containers. In-ground matted rows benefit from the relative continued warmth of surrounding earth, while strawberries grown in raised beds, terracotta jars, or vertical planting towers may face a tougher time now. Performing targeted checks on both border beds and container plants ensures that every strawberry crown remains healthy and protected through the cold months ahead.

Before you start these strawberry jobs, quickly check the soil with a good diagnostic tool like the budget-friendly Raintrip 4-in-1 Soil Meter from Amazon. This will help you to get a good sense of current root moisture and temperature levels ahead of any extra soil treatments or mulching extras. With that in hand, follow these simple steps…

1. Clean Up Foliage and Clear Weeds

One of the simplest ways to prime your strawberry plants is to quickly check for weathered, damaged or diseased foliage. This will eliminate overwintering pests and fungal pathogens before cold weather sets in. Walk your rows with sharp snips and trim away foliage that looks brown, decayed, or has reddish-purple spots (the telltale sign of strawberry leaf spot). Use spring-action snips like Fiskars Micro-Tip Pruning Snips, available from Amazon, or Fiskars SoftGrip Handle Bypass Floral Hand Pruning Shears, from The Home Depot, to make any smaller targeted cuts.

Don’t leave the clippings on the ground, as pests can still overwinter in the old growth. Rake up the trimmings and get them off the bed, placing them in the trash rather than your compost heap. However, avoid aggressive cutbacks. The healthy green leaves are still feeding the crown, and June-bearing plants set next year's flower buds as the days get shorter. Save hard shearing for post-harvest renovation.

Another part of tidying up strawberry beds involves timely weeding. Weeds that get settled in during fall are usually harder to get rid of in spring, and they will actively compete with strawberries for water and nutrients. Remember, your strawbs have shallow roots, so avoid deep hoeing or aggressive tilling. After a spell of rain, pull the weeds by hand. Damp soil lets go of roots more easily. Work methodically around each crown, taking care not to accidentally loosen or heave plants from the soil.

2. Prune or Root Trailing Runners

Strawberry plants continue producing runners right up until the first hard frost. This can be exciting in terms of the potential for new plants, However, left unchecked, excessive runners can drain energy away from the mother plant. In established rows of June-bearers, you can keep a few runners and direct select healthy daughter plants into bare gaps. Pin them down using landscape staples or small soil mounds. Once the daughter roots, snip the connection with the mother.

Keep an eye on plant density, though. Thin any excess plants so that the crowns sit roughly 6-8 inches (15-20cm) apart. For everbearing and day-neutral varieties, it’s best to snip off all fall runners completely. Repeat-blooming cultivars produce higher spring yields when all that late-season energy stays focused inside the crowns. Day-neutral types make far fewer runners, and in cold regions a lot of them won't survive winter, though mulching them might give them a chance.

In warmer zones 8-10, October can be a good time to plant bare-root crowns and plugs. Work a balanced feed into well-drained, slightly acidic soil. A good organic option is Espoma Organic Berry-tone Fertilizer, available in budget-friendly packs from The Home Depot to condition your beds. Set new plants 12 inches (30cm) apart. Make sure the crown is at soil level, as a buried crown can rot. Keep a frost cloth handy for vicious cold snaps. In colder zones, it’s best to plant in spring.

3. Water Deeply Until the Ground Freezes

Fall weather often brings more rainfall, prompting many of us to abandon our watering cans. However, rain is rarely sufficient for shallow-rooted strawberry patches. Because strawberry roots are shallow, they can dry out rapidly during crisp, windy afternoons. Keeping strawberry crowns in dehydrated soil as they enter winter can stress plants and invite winter kill. New plants are especially vulnerable, since their roots haven’t spread far yet. This task is so easy to keep tabs on. Your plants just need one deep weekly soaking, roughly an inch (2.5cm) of water per week.

Water your strawberries early in the day so the foliage can dry before nighttime chills. Use a soaker hose or watering wand if you can, and aim for the base of the plants. Moist soil holds thermal heat better than bone-dry earth. Keep watering until the ground freezes. For a light nutrient boost, add a diluted seaweed drench every 2 weeks until the ground is frozen solid. A splash of Neptune’s Harvest Fish & Seaweed Organic 2-3-1 Fertilizer, available from Walmart, is a great root tonic to help see your strawbs through winter.

4. Apply Mulch After the Ground Chills

Winter mulching is vital for strawberry survival, but timing is everything. Mulching strawberries too early in October, while daytime temperatures remain mild, can trap warmth and moisture against the crowns. This seeming act of kindness can create more problems, preventing plants from hardening off and inviting crown rots. So wait until the plants have been through several hard frosts and the leaves start to look gray or red, which usually lines up with a few nights around 20-25°F (-4 to -7°C). This signals that plants are dormant.

Once the ground begins freezing, spread a loose, airy 3 to 4-inch (8-10cm) blanket of clean, weed-free straw (such as oat, wheat, or barley) or clean pine needles over the entire planting bed. Straw bales cover plenty of ground. You can grab some Bell Nursery Straw Bales from The Home Depot for an airy yet cozy blanket over wintering strawberry beds. Skip fallen leaves, which can mat down into a soggy blanket and trap moisture. Unprotected crowns can die at around 15°F (-9C). Just wait for a real cold snap before tucking everything under straw.

5. Protect Container-Grown Plants

Container-grown strawberries face higher winter risks than those in beds. Pots don't give the roots much protection, and in a hard freeze the soil inside can get nearly as cold as the air. This can expose roots to brutal freeze-thaw cycles that can crack containers and kill sleeping strawberry crowns. So once your container plants enter full dormancy in late October, extra protection is necessary in zones 7 and colder.

The easiest fix is to carry the pots into an unheated garage or shed for the winter. As long as temperatures remain around 25-40°F (-4 to 4°C), they will be fine. If indoor shelter is unavailable, push the pots together against a sheltered, south-facing wall. Surround the outside pots with some burlap or insulating bubble wrap, and mound loose straw over the crowns.

Before tucking pots away for winter, water and refresh the upper layer of potting soil with some organic compost. For a simple soil refresher, add a sprinkle of Espoma Natural Mushroom Blend Compost, available from Walmart, to your containers. Top-dressing winterized containers will help to prime your strawbs for spring growth.

October strawberry care is all about thoughtful, timely preservation. By cutting away the worst of the leaves, managing trailing runners, keeping roots well watered, adding a timely straw mulch, and protecting container-based strawbs, you can shield your plants from the harshest winter weather. Tackle these simple tasks today, and you look forward to an abundance of homegrown berries next year.

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

Fall is a great time to start a vegetable garden if you’ve never grown your own before, and these compact crops will bring an abundant harvest in a small space. Sow in October and growing vegetables is so easy as you don’t have to worry about pests or remembering to water your plants every day, and you can still raise plenty of tasty crops at this time of the year. You won’t have to wait long to enjoy your very first harvest, either, and just wait till you taste the difference between homegrown and shop-bought!

The secret to start growing your own vegetables in October is to use a raised bed or planter. Gardening in raised beds is so much more straightforward than growing veggies in the ground as it doesn’t matter a jot what your soil is like as you can instantly create perfect conditions with a tailored potting mix like Miracle-Gro Organic Raised Bed Soil, available from Lowe's.

Another big advantage to growing fall-sown veggies in a raised bed is that you can position the planter in a sheltered, sunny spot to help plants grow well in shorter days and cooler temperatures. You could even place it right up against a house wall to take advantage of your home's heat, and this also makes it simple to throw a layer of horticultural fleece over the top if you need to keep young seedlings cozy through a cold snap.

There are plenty of small-space veggies that thrive in a container, but here's my pick of the best vegetables to sow in October – all compact enough to flourish in a raised bed – if you want to grow your own this fall. So don’t keep dreaming about doing it done day – do it today!

Veggies to Sow in October

All these vegetable varieties are cold-tolerant, but tailor your choice to your zone. Position your raised bed in a warm, sheltered area of your garden and you can absolutely cheat zone recommendations to successfully grow winter crops. I would happily grow all these varieties in Zone 7 and above, and if you live in a colder zone simply choose a covered raised bed (you'll find my recommendations below) or be ready with a duvet of horticultural fleece (ditto!) when temperatures plummet, and give it a go: for the price of a packet of seeds, it’s well worth the risk.

1. Meteor Peas

Think you can’t grow peas through winter? Think again! ‘Meteor’ is an exceptionally hardy variety that’s been bred to withstand freezing temperatures so is one of the best vegetables to sow in fall, with seeds that are smooth and round so resist rot in cool wet soil far better than traditional wrinkled types. What’s more, this variety only grows to a bushy 18 inches high (rather than the wild tangle of 6-feet-high stems of many pea cultivars) so it’s a great choice for a small space. Just push some twiggy sticks into the soil when you sow and the plants will look after themselves.

While you’ll have to wait until May to enjoy the fresh peapods, the plants will get busy through fall growing a strong root system, ready to burst into growth in early spring for an early harvest. And the big advantage of a fall sowing is that you won’t have to net your plants against the pea moth, a pest notorious for ruining summer pea crops. Meteor pea seeds are available from Mr Fothergills USA.

2. Atomic Red Carrots

Carrot crops are normally sown in spring and summer but ‘Atomic Red’ is a cool-season specialist that flourishes in low temperatures. And just look at that color! Atomic Red is fully frost-tolerant and fast to grow so in milder zones you could be harvesting around 80 days after an October sowing. In colder climates, plants won’t crop until spring but the harvest will be well worth the wait: cool temperatures make the plant convert its starches into sugars to act as a protective antifreeze, so the carrots taste beautifully sweet.

As well as great flavor, Atomic Red carrots also keep their striking coral-scarlet color through cooking. With roots growing up to 11 inches long, this variety is the perfect size for a raised bed, where the loose soil will favour long, straight carrots. A fall sowing means there’s zero threat from pesky carrot flies, too. Atomic Red carrot seeds are available from Botanical Interests.

3. Dwarf Siberian Kale

The name tells you everything you need to know about this small but hardy veggie! While standard kale varieties can reach up to 3 feet tall, Dwarf Siberian kale stays at a tidy 15 inches high so it’s a smart choice for a raised planter. It survives freezing temperatures and is super-tasty too, staying tender and mild (unlike some of its curly-kale cousins that can grow tough and bitter) and becoming sweetener when exposed to fall frosts.

Young leaves can be eaten raw in salads and smoothies and if you sow in October you'll be enjoying these by late November or December – or wait a few more weeks for mature leaves to sauté with a little garlic and oil. Just be sure to only harvest the outer leaves, leaving the central crown intact, so the plants keep producing as a cut-and-come-again crop. Dwarf Siberian kale seeds are available from Eden Brothers.

4. California Early Garlic

Homegrown garlic is a delight so you should definitely find room in your raised bed to plant some cloves. Softneck garlic is best in a small space and the incredibly reliable ‘California Early’ is a perfect choice if you're at the start of your veggie-growing journey. It's very easy to grow and has a highly compact, vertical habit so you can pack plenty into your bed. California Early matures around June, too, clearing your veggie bed in time for mid-summer sowings of other crops.

Because it’s a softneck variety, California Early garlic doesn’t need the long period of freezing weather that hardneck varieties do to form cloves, which means it’ll still form plump bulbs in the warmer conditions of a sheltered raised bed. A raised bed also means you can plant a little deeper than usual, which is the expert secret to growing garlic with the plumpest cloves, even if this your first time growing this crop. California Early garlic bulbs are available from Walmart.

5. Vit Corn Salad

Being able to pick fresh greens for a winter salad is such a joy, and the taste is a far cry from the disinfected leaves sold in many grocery stores. Also known as lambs lettuce and mache, corn salad is the easiest to grow through fall and winter and ‘Vit’ is my pick for glossy, tender leaves with a gourmet nutty flavor.

This French variety is so easy to grow as it’s vigorous and naturally resistant to mildew and, as it only grows to 6 inches high in upright rosettes, it’s a great crop to squeeze in between bigger plants. Vit is incredibly resilient in cold temperatures and quick to crop too, ready to eat in around 50 days. As well as eating mache raw, you can cook the leaves as you would spinach. Organic Vit corn salad seeds are available from Burpee.

6. Purple Plum Radish

Before you brush off the idea of growing radishes, hold up! Have you ever tasted a homegrown radish? Because it’s nothing short of amazing! ‘Purple Plum’ is my pick for an October sowing because this cool-season specialist crops incredibly quickly and, in a warm, sunny spot, you could be harvesting these little heirloom beauties within a month.

Purple Plum radishes are a super choice for a small space because their roots reach peak crunch when they’re just 1½ inches wide. As they’re so quick to crop, you can squeeze them in around slower-maturing crops, too. Another good reason to choose Purple Plum for an October sowing is that – unlike most other radish varieties – they don’t become woody or pithy in damp fall soil if you don’t get round to picking them at the perfect moment.

This is another vegetable that gets sweeter when touched by fall frosts, too, and you can also eat the radish tops, raw in salads or tossed into winter stir fries. Purple Plum radish seeds are available from Botanical Interests.

7. Astro Arugula

Another must for a fall sowing is arugula. One packet of seeds will provide a wealth of peppery leaves for salads and garnishes, or try making a zingy spring-is-coming pesto by swapping out basil for arugula. ‘Astro’ is the variety to reach for when sowing in October as it still germinates quickly in cool fall soil and, unlike many other arugula, keeps producing its flavorful green leaves once daylight hours drop below 10 hours a day. It tastes good, too, with a smooth, nutty flavor and a mild peppery bite.

While Astro arugula can tolerate light frosts, growth will slow and speed as temperatures lower and rise, or you can keep a steady supply coming by popping a clear plastic cloche or horticultural fleece over your crop. While you can leave foliage to grow up to 18 inches high, a big advantage to growing your own is that you can pick oh-so tender and tasty leaves when they’re around 4 inches high, and the plant will quickly grow more of this cut-and-come-again crop. Astro arugula seeds are available from Botanical Interests.

Which is the Right Raised Bed for Me?

To successfully grow veggies in a raised bed, the planter needs to be at least 8 inches deep, and ideally a little deeper. However, few crops need more than an 18-inch depth of soil to grow well, and it's expensive to fill a very deep planter with potting soil. If you want to grow deep-rooting crops such as potatoes and heavy feeders like zucchini, it’s much more cost-effective to grow these separately in deep fabric planters, or choose an open-based planter that allows roots to grow into the ground.

If You Live in a Cooler Zone

Choose a raised planter with a built-in cover that makes it easy to keep fall-sown seeds warm for fast germination and shield plants from plummeting temperatures.

If You’re Growing Veg on a Patio or Deck

Growing veggies on your patio means you can use the warmth and shelter of your house to keep plants cozy through winter. Dark-toned paving also absorbs the sun’s heat during the day then releases it later, so a patio often escapes frost, too. If you need to shelter plants during cold snaps, simply throw a lightweight plant cover or horticultural fleece over the planter. Choose one that allows sunlight and air to pass through, like this Harvest-Guard Cover from Walmart, and you can leave it on day and night.

If You’re on a Budget

Starting a veggie bed needn’t be expensive if you opt for an open-base raised metal planter that allows plants to grow down into the soil. There are all sorts of shapes and sizes available, of varying quality, so shop smart: only buy galvanised steel (and it’s a bonus if it’s powder-coated), check for central support strips that span the planter for added strength, and look for a protective strip running around the top edge for your own comfort.

You can buy drawstring frost covers to fit most sizes of these raised beds, such as this Raised Bed Frost Cover with Insulating Aluminium Liner from Walmart, that are quick and easy to pop on and off during cold snaps.

From classic spooky faces to floral designs and pop culture-inspired creations, there are so many options when it comes to choosing your Halloween vibe – but what if your birth month pumpkin could help you narrow things down?

That's right, folks! Halloween is just around the corner, and if you’re still deciding what to do with your pumpkin, there’s a pumpkin style written in the stars for you.

Of course, if you're anything like this author, then you likely already know your birth month bird, birth month animal, birth month tree, and birth month bug, but 'tis the season to be spooky, after all! (Which, you know, explains why we're suddenly so obsessed with our birth month owls and birth month spiders). Jack-o'-lanterns, then, feel like the natural next step.

All 12 Birth Month Pumpkins

Whether you’re a fan of traditional spooky decorations or prefer something a little more creative, there’s a birth month pumpkin to match every personality.

So, grab your carving tools (or a paintbrush) and discover which carving design you should be using this Halloween...

January – The Classic Spooky Face

If you're a January baby, then your birth month pumpkin is a classic for a reason! You like to keep things traditional, and when it comes to Halloween, you know you can’t go wrong with the classics. A sinister grin, triangular eyes and a flickering candle inside? Why, they're all you need to create the ultimate Halloween pumpkin.

Your practical nature means you’d rather perfect a timeless design than follow every passing trend. After all, some things never go out of style.

Shop Pumpkin Carving Essentials:

February – The Spider

Unconventional, a little mysterious and never afraid to stand out, those born in February need a pumpkin with a twist. A spider design, complete with long spindly legs stretching across the pumpkin, is just the thing! After all, you’ve never been one to settle for ordinary.

Bonus points if you add a few smaller carved spiders or faux cobwebs around the base of your birth month pumpkin. And don't forget to smear some Vaseline to the carved edges to keep it looking its best for longer!

March – The Floral Pumpkin

Born in March? You have a creative, imaginative side, so a birth month pumpkin covered in carved flowers, swirling vines and delicate leaves is right up your street. Think intricate patterns that let candlelight shine through, creating a soft and magical glow.

I know, I know, but who says Halloween decorations have to be scary, right? Equal parts autumnal and enchanting, this is guaranteed to hold its own among all the neighborhood decorations.

Shop Pumpkin Seeds To Plant For Next Year:

April – The Monster Face

Bold, playful and a little unpredictable, you’re not afraid to have fun with Halloween. A monster-inspired design, complete with jagged teeth, wonky eyes and an exaggerated expression, is the birth month pumpkin, then, that perfectly captures your energetic personality.

Honestly, the messier and more mischievous the grin, the better. You're here to make an impression, not play it safe (and extra points if you can have your monster chomping on a smaller pumpkin, in the style of the image above!).

May – The Painted Pumpkin

Why carve when you can paint? You appreciate the finer details, so a beautifully painted pumpkin is your ideal Halloween party project. Think elegant black-and-white patterns, metallic gold accents or a rich autumnal colour palette.

If this is your birth month pumpkin, then you like things that look considered and stylish, and a painted pumpkin lets you create something special without covering your hands in pumpkin guts. Just be sure to pick up something like this Caliart Acrylic Paint Set of 24 Colors with 12 Brushes, as some other paints will just slide right off.

June – The Pop Culture Pumpkin

Born in June? Figured as much! You love a conversation starter, so why not turn your pumpkin into a tribute to your favourite film, TV show or character? From a recognisable character silhouette to an iconic symbol, there are endless ways to bring your fandom to life (although we're quite partial to the above tribute to Obsession!).

Whether you opt for a nostalgic favourite or the latest pop culture obsession, your birth month pumpkin is guaranteed to get people talking. it may be a little fiddly, though, so I recommend sketching it out properly before you get cracking.

July – The Smiling Pumpkin

Warm, sociable and full of personality, you need a birth month pumpkin that makes people smile. For you, then, the goal is a big cheerful grin, rounded eyes and perhaps a few quirky details (like the teeth seen above), all of which will give your creation a welcoming and playful feel.

Hey, it makes a lot of sense! You are, after all, all about bringing people together, so your pumpkin should be just as inviting as your Halloween gathering.

August – The Sugar Skull Pumpkin

Hardworking, ambitious and never one to shy away from a challenge, August babies need a birth month pumpkin that makes a statement. Inspired by the colorful sugar skulls associated with Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), this design features intricate floral patterns, decorative swirls and bold colours that transform an ordinary pumpkin into a work of art.

Take your time with the details, experimenting with vibrant paints, symmetrical patterns and marigold-inspired flowers. The more elaborate the design, the better – this is your chance to show off your creativity and create a pumpkin that's guaranteed to turn heads.

September – The Cat Pumpkin

Intelligent, organized and with an eye for detail, you appreciate a design that requires a little patience. A pumpkin carved with the silhouette of a sleek black cat, complete with pointed ears, an elegant curled tail and carefully cut-out whiskers, is the perfect way to put your precision to the test (or, failing that, a cute cat face as per the above!).

Take your time mapping out the design before you start carving, making sure every line is just right. You could even add a crescent moon or tiny stars for an extra decorative touch.

October – The Celestial Pumpkin

Halloween falls in October, so it makes sense that your birth month pumpkin is a real doozy! Charming, sociable and naturally drawn to beautiful things, you need crescent moons, delicate stars and intricate celestial patterns, painted in gold and silver against a midnight-black background, or carefully carved to let the candlelight shine through.

The result? A sophisticated and eye-catching design that's guaranteed to be a conversation starter at any Halloween gathering.

November – The Pumpkin Fairy House

Empathetic, passionate and with a mysterious side, you love the idea of a little magic hiding just beneath the surface. Enter stage left, then, a birth month pumpkin pumpkin transformed into a tiny fairy cottage, complete with a carved doorway, glowing windows and a winding trail of vines.

Take your design a step further with miniature details, such as a tiny chimney, a moss-covered roof or little mushrooms (you could even copy your birth month mushroom!) nestled around the base. Add a flickering LED light inside to make the windows glow, creating an enchanting scene that looks as though a woodland fairy might appear at any moment.

Shop Pumpkin Fairy House Essentials:

December – The Ghost Pumpkin

Generous, optimistic and always up for an adventure, December babies are never afraid to try something a little different. Which means (obviously) that a cheeky ghost pumpkin, complete with a wavy silhouette, playful eyes and a mischievous grin, is the perfect way to bring some fun to your Halloween display.

Don't be afraid to experiment with an unusual shape or a more elaborate design. After all, you like to take risks, and Halloween is the perfect excuse to let your creative side run wild.

So, which birth month pumpkin design will you be trying? Whether you stick to a classic jack-o'-lantern or try something a little more adventurous this year, the honest truth of the matter is this: the very best Halloween pumpkin is the one that lets your personality shine through.

Happy carving!

Garlic is such a satisfying home crop to grow, and switching up one simple element will bring you bigger bulbs. It's such a no-brainer, yet it takes most gardeners a few years of growing garlic to realise this easy trick at planting time makes a huge difference to the size of harvested bulbs.

Traditional advice tells us to plant cloves knuckle-deep when we grow garlic, which equates to 1-2 inches. However, this rule-of-thumb hails from times when we all gardened in the ground, often in soil that sat wet through winter, so rotting cloves were a real risk. Today, in the loose, well-draining soil of a raised bed or in ground much-improved with compost, you can afford to plant cloves a little deeper, and that results in plumper bulbs.

Why? With a couple more inches of soil above them, the cloves are better insulated from the weather above, allowing roots to carry on growing for far longer before they’re halted by freezing temperatures. This big root system will power strong growth in spring, resulting in fatter bulbs. A deeply-planted clove will resist frost heaving which can pop a shallow-planted clove right out of the ground, too. Ready to grow garlic with bigger bulbs? Here’s exactly what to do.

1. Prep the Soil for Great Drainage

If you want to know how to grow garlic with bigger cloves, it's important to realise that you can only plant garlic cloves deeply in soil that's loose and well-drained. Try this trick in heavy, wet soil and if the cloves don’t rot over winter, the plants will waste energy pushing shoots through the dense ground that they could have ploughed into bulb expansion. So, only plant garlic this way if you have a raised bed which naturally gives good drainage, or you’re lucky enough to have loamy, free-draining soil.

Either way, improve the soil’s structure and drainage some more by digging in compost. If you make your own garden compost, great. If not, use a manure-free plant-derived compost like Back to the Roots Organic Compost, available from Walmart.

If you have already-fertile soil, the compost will also supply all the nutrients the garlic needs to grow plump bulbs. In poorer soil, or if you’re growing in a veg bed that’s been full of crops all summer, replenish nutrients before you plant with a slow-release fertilizer that’s high in phosphorous to boost root growth: Down to Earth Fish Bone Meal from Amazon is ideal.

2. Time Planting Just Right

To get the biggest bulbs, you want to get your cloves planted early enough to allow them plenty of time to grow a strong root system before winter, but not so soon that they move onto sending lots of shoots above ground that may be hit by freezing weather. The sweet spot to plant garlic cloves for big bulbs is around three weeks after your first frost, depending on your USDA zone.

So, tailor the time you plant garlic in fall to the conditions in your garden. In zones 1-6, you’ll want to plant garlic in October; in zones 7-8 you may need to wait till the end of October; and in zones 9-10, you’re perhaps looking at November.

Most garlic varieties need an 8-10 week period below 45°C to trigger cloves to split and form bulbs, a process known as vernalization. So, in zones 10+, you’ll need to pop your garlic into the fridge, in a paper bag or a lidded jar, for a couple of months to mimic this cold period before planting.

3. Only Plant the Biggest Cloves

When you split open your garlic bulbs, discard any smaller cloves as research shows bigger cloves grow bigger bulbs. Now your soil is loose and fast-draining, you can safely plant the cloves around 4 inches deep, using a dibber such as this Hand Hole Digger from Amazon to create planting holes.

Space holes 6 inches apart, because good airflow around the leaves will help prevent fungal diseases such as rust that can slow bulb growth. Then drop a single clove into each hole, pointy end up, and push that lovely loose soil over the top.

And that’s all you need to do to double the size of your homegrown garlic bulbs! You see, the expert secret to growing big garlic bulbs is to grow big root systems. Kept cosy beneath that extra couple of inches of soil, with all the nutrients they need, the cloves you planted will quickly get busy growing deep roots through fall. While root growth will pause in frozen soil, as soon as temperatures creep back above 41°F it will resume, off and on, all through winter.

When spring arrives, that strong root network gives plants access to plenty of moisture and nutrients to grow lots of foliage. And because you’ve planted your garlic in a sunny spot, all those leaves act as solar panels to generate energy to fuel plumper bulbs. The loose soil you created will also allow bulbs to easily expand to their full potential.

Make sure you water the soil through any dry spells in spring and early summer when bulbs are swelling, then slow once the bulbs are fully formed – you’ll know when to stop because the foliage will start to yellow – and you’ll be harvesting garlic that's grown into showstopper bulbs.

Which Garlic is Best for Home Growing?

If You Garden in a Colder Zone

In zones 1-8, opt for hardneck garlic varieties as they're much hardier and won't mind sub-zero temperatures a jot. Hardneck garlic bulbs have fewer but bigger cloves, strong flavor and store for 4-6 months.

If You Garden in a Warmer Zone

Choose softneck garlic in zones 6 and above, because it copes far better in warmer temperatures. Softneck garlic tastes milder, typically has lots of smaller cloves, and stores well for up to a year.

By mid-October, many tomato plants look pretty rough, with yellowing leaves, a few stubborn green fruits, and stems flopping over their cages. The easy move is to yank the whole mess out and drag it to the trash or the compost pile. Before you do, though, there’s some useful work hiding in those tired plants.

Good end-of-season tomato plant care starts with a close look at what you’re pulling. Some vines can feed next year’s garden as compost, and the best fruit can give you free seed. Others may carry diseases you don’t want to spread around the yard or carry over into next summer.

That’s the main thing to keep in mind as you work. Healthy tomato plants can usually go in the compost, while diseased ones should be bagged and disposed of according to your local guidance. Nearly every other job, from saving seeds to cleaning cages, depends on knowing which kind of plants you have.

1. Check Plants Carefully for Disease

Walk the row slowly and look at leaves, stems, and fruit before a single plant comes out. A few problems should never go into a typical home compost pile. Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) is one, and the bacterial tomato diseases are others, including bacterial spot (Xanthomonas spp.) and bacterial canker (Clavibacter michiganensis), which can survive in plant debris. Mosaic viruses are worse still – tobacco and tomato mosaic viruses can hang on in dried plant debris for years. Most backyard piles never get hot enough, evenly enough, to kill these organisms. Bag those plants and get rid of them according to your local rules, and do the same with any plant that’s heavily infested with pests.

2. Save Seeds from Your Best Tomatoes

Seed saving only works with open-pollinated or heirloom varieties – hybrids won’t come true to type, so an F1 tomato’s seeds can give you something quite different next year. Pick fully ripe fruit from your healthiest, best-tasting plants and scoop the seeds and gel into a glass jar with a little water. Stir it twice a day for up to about five days, until it ferments and the good seeds sink. Pour off the floaters, rinse what’s left in something like the Farberware fine mesh strainers from Walmart, and dry the seeds on a coffee filter or paper plate.

Once a fingernail can’t dent them, they’re ready for labeled paper envelopes; the Lotmer seed-saving envelopes from Amazon are printed with seed name, variety, date collected, and growing notes. Kept cool, dry, and dark, tomato seed usually stays good for about four years.

3. Take Healthy Cuttings Before Frost

This one’s optional, but if there’s a variety you loved this year, you can carry it through the winter indoors. Pick a few healthy side shoots about 3–4 inches (8–10 cm) long and snip them off with clean pruners – Fiskars' bypass pruning shears, available on Amazon, are a great budget-friendly pick if you need a new pair.

Cuttings will usually root in a plain jar of water, as long as the cut ends sit 1–2 inches (2.5–5 cm) under the surface and the jar stays somewhere cool and bright. Once roots show up, pot them and give them all the light you can. Don’t put this off until after a hard frost has already hit the garden.

Leave out any plant that had disease problems, and viruses in particular, since a cutting can carry them along from the parent.

4. Compost Healthy Plants the Right Way

Healthy vines are worth composting, but toss them on the pile whole, and they’ll take ages to rot. Chop them into short lengths first – 8–12 inches (20–30cm) or so – because smaller pieces break down faster. It also pays to strip off any leftover tomatoes. Seeds can make it through a backyard pile in one piece, and you may find volunteers popping up next summer.

Layer the chopped vines with dry leaves or other brown material. A compost bin like the Redmon 65-gallon compost bin from Walmart keeps it all corralled.

If you’re on the fence about whether a plant was healthy, use that compost away from where tomatoes will grow. Healthy potting mix from containers can go on the pile, too, so dump those pots before you stack them for winter.

5. Remove the Roots (or Leave Them?)

For plants that stayed healthy all season, there’s a good case for leaving the roots in the ground. Just cut the stems off at the soil line, and the roots will break down in place, adding organic matter without much soil disturbance. A plant that wilted, stunted, or yellowed for no clear reason is another story. Loosen the root ball with a spading fork, like Home Depot’s Ames 4-tine forged spading fork. You’re looking for knotty swellings on the roots, a sign of root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.).

Remove infested roots soon after harvest and leave them out of the garden. The same goes for plants with Fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici), which can persist in soil for many years. In containers, tip the root ball out and check it the same way.

6. Clean and Disinfect Cages, Stakes and Supports

Some disease organisms ride along on tomato supports. Bacterial canker can persist on stakes, and mosaic viruses can last weeks to months on stakes and trellises. Knock off the dirt first, then scrub or hose them down, since soil blocks disinfectants. Then soak them fully in a 10% bleach solution (1 part bleach to 9 parts water) for at least 20 minutes.

Rather skip the bleach? ZeroTol 2.0, an OMRI-listed hydrogen peroxide product sold on Amazon, is labeled for hard, nonporous surfaces like metal cages and tools. Wooden stakes are trickier – bacteria can hide in the wood – so toss any that held canker-infected plants. Plastic pots can get the same bleach soak, followed by a good rinse.

7. Recharge the Bed for Next Year

Bare soil over winter is a missed opportunity. Winter rye is very cold-tolerant and grows in cool weather. In mid-October, it’s still an option in many areas, as long as you sow it at least four weeks before steady cold sets in. You’ll find Mountain Valley Seed winter rye on Amazon in a 5-pound bag on Amazon. Mow it in spring before it sets seed, then turn it under two to four weeks before planting.

If it’s too late for a cover crop, spread compost such as Back to the Roots organic compost, available from Home Depot, or a blanket of shredded leaves, instead. Next year’s tomatoes should go somewhere else, too – keep tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes out of that spot for three to four years. For containers, reuse potting mix only if the plants stayed healthy, and replace the top 6 inches (15 cm) in big pots with fresh mix.

Your Post-Harvest Tomato Checklist

Once the last tomatoes are picked, here’s the whole job in short form. Pin it somewhere you’ll see it, because October tends to get busy.

• Look over every plant for disease before anything gets pulled.
• Bag blighted, bacterial or virus-infected plants, and compost only the healthy ones.
• Save seed from your best open-pollinated or heirloom tomatoes.
• If you want a head start, root a few healthy side shoots indoors before frost.
• Chop healthy vines and pick off leftover fruit before they hit the compost.
• Dig up and check the roots of any plant that wilted or struggled.
• Scrub and disinfect cages, stakes and pots before storing them.
• Sow winter rye, add compost or mulch the bed with leaves.
• Pick a new spot for next year’s tomatoes.

There are two types of people in this world: those who put one pumpkin outside in October and feel good about it, and those who aspire to be like Martha Stewart. Every autumn, her entire staircase is lined with pumpkins and gourds that look like they were grown by expert garden design fairies. And, as usual, her comment section collectively decides to give up and beg for a tutorial on how to create a fall porch display.

Well, I consulted with a couple of experts to give you that tutorial, so just call me a younger, dark-haired Martha Stewart. If you squint, you won’t even see the difference.

The Design Principles Behind It

Before you even think about raiding a pumpkin patch, you’ll need to understand what makes this display look planned rather than like Halloween decorations set out at HomeGoods in July.

Preeti Shah, founder of Spotlight Style and luxury event producer of over 20 years, is clear on this: "A pumpkin display looks designed when it has a plan. Choose a tight palette, such as creamy whites, soft sage and one deep orange, and repeat it from the bottom step to the door. Vary the sizes, but group them in odd numbers, with the biggest pieces anchoring the corners and the smallest at the front edge. Leave breathing room between groups so the stairs still read as stairs. Then step back and squint. If one spot grabs your eye, move it."

According to Heidi Grasman, gardening expert and co-owner of Garden Crossings, the difference between an autumnal display that looks well-planned and one that looks thrown together on a whim comes down to one thing. She says, "Just throwing pumpkins on a porch is very Halloween-looking – adding in flowers and foliage makes it look decorated." Pumpkins are the supporting cast, not the main event.

Which Varieties to Choose

If you’re new to decorating and gardening in autumn, you might be surprised to know there are actually different varieties of pumpkins you can choose from. If you're interested in growing your own, you can even buy a Spooky Pumpkin Seed Mix from Seed Needs on Amazon.

The cream and white pumpkins that really anchor Martha’s display are usually Casper, Lumina, or Baby Boo. These all have smooth skin, clean color, and look exceptionally striking against a dark door or stone step.

If you prefer the classic deep orange, Howden or Cinderella (Rouge Vif d'Etampes) will give you that saturation that looks beautiful in fall photos and holds on to its color for several weeks. If you like things to be a little more unique, Galeux d'Eysines has tiny little wart-like skin, while Jarrahdale is a flat, bluish-gray variety. And if you love a good gourd mix as I do, these quirky, unique shapes will fill in the gaps in your display and can add extra interest to the front of each step edge.

Adding Flowers and Foliage

If you're trying to get a similar display to Martha Stewart’s, think outside the box (or pumpkin) with some fall foliage. Grasman recommends using chrysanthemums as the focal point, with foliage doing the structural work. She says, “I like to use coral bells for foliage color, ornamental grass as a thriller or spiller, and then mix the mums in for flower color."

On choosing the right mum: "It's not so much about what variety to choose but where it is at in its bud or bloom stage. If they are looking for instant color, choose one that is more in bloom. If they are looking for the color to last a while, choose one that is just in bud."

Her advice on pumpkins within a planting scheme is useful too. She adds, "Let the pumpkins and vegetables be an accent, not the main show of color. Tucking some ornamental peppers, kale, cabbage into your fall combination planters can add a pretty touch. Let the mums be the focal point."

Shop Pumpkin Planters

Grow Your Own for Next Year

If you’re a purist and want to grow your own pumpkins and gourds for next year, sow them outdoors in late May or early June, or indoors 4 to 6 weeks before your last frost. They need a lot of space (at least 6 feet in each direction for most varieties), but even a small patch can give you enough for a full stair display.

Sow two seeds per station, and once both have germinated, remove the weaker seedling by snipping it at soil level so only the strongest plant remains; then keep it well-watered once the fruits start to develop.

They are ready to harvest when the skin is hard and the stem is dry. Then leave them to dry in a warm spot for 10-14 days. This helps harden the skin, make the orange even orangier, and extend how long they’ll last in your display.

Remember this TL;DR version from Martha Stewart when creating your own autumnal porch display: Same palette, odd numbers, a little foliage, and enough breathing room between the pumpkins.

If you’ve been growing productive pepper plants outdoors this summer, fall usually signals a sad goodbye. Because peppers are tropical perennials that cannot tolerate frost, autumn’s temperature drops generally mean it’s time to let them go. They aren’t hardy in most growing climates, so they tend to succumb soon after the first frost. However, there is a brilliant, creative indoor alternative: turning your favorite summer chili into a bonchi: a miniature bonsai chili tree.

This style of growing chilil peppers is about more than just overwintering. Bonchi (short for bonchili, aka bonsai chili) culture transforms your productive outdoor plants into stunning, living indoor sculptures that sit comfortably on a sunny windowsill. By hard-pruning the top growth and trimming the root mass to fit a shallow bonsai pot, you reduce the size to create a mini tree form.

So, not only does this fun project save your hard-earned plants from freezing weather, but it also gives you a fascinating head start for next year. Come spring, it's possible for your established bonchi to be kept as a productive, fruit-bearing indoor houseplant for years to come. This step by step guide shows you how to create your own pretty miniature chili tree. So grab your pruning snips, clear a spot on the windowsill, and let’s turn this season’s harvest into a lasting masterpiece.

1. Choose the Best Pepper

While all peppers (Capsicum spp.) are tender perennials, certain varieties adapt much better to bonsai cultivation. Capsicum chinense species (such as habanero, Scotch bonnet and ghost peppers) and Capsicum frutescens (like tabasco) naturally develop thick, gnarled, woody main stems early in their growth cycles, giving them an instant ancient tree aesthetic. Compact Capsicum annuum varieties like jalapeño and cayenne, plus ornamental varieties like 'Black Pearl' or 'Numex Twilight' are also stellar candidates thanks to their small leaves and abundant, colorful pods.

When selecting a candidate, look for a plant that has demonstrated outstanding vigor and heavy fruit production throughout summer. Choose a specimen with a thick main stem (at least thumb-width) near the soil line and balanced lower branching. Avoid weak, leggy plants or those showing signs of viral infections, such as mottled leaves or stunted stems. Healthy roots are important, too.

Remember, smaller-fruited varieties look much more proportionate on a miniature tree than massive bell peppers, creating a far more harmonious visual balance once your bonchi starts setting fruit indoors. It’s also worth grabbing a soil meter, such as the Raintrip Soil 4-in-1 Meter from Amazon, to give the soil a quick read as you assess the healthiest candidates.

2. Prep and Lift Before First Frost

Timing is everything when transitioning outdoor peppers indoors. You must lift your chosen plant before the first hard frost, and ideally before night temperatures consistently dip below 50°F (10°C). Chilly winds slow down the plant’s metabolism, making root recovery much harder once brought inside. Water your pepper plant deeply 24 hours before digging. Damp soil clings to the root ball, reducing transplant shock and making extraction easier. Just make sure it is damp, not soggy.

Cut a wide circle roughly 6-8 inches (15-20cm) away from the main stem, slicing down deep to free the root ball. Lift the plant gently, shaking away excess soil to expose the roots. Before taking your plant inside, conduct a strict pest inspection. Outdoor peppers frequently harbor aphids, whiteflies, or spider mites under leaves. To help with pest inspection, grab a magnifying glass or loupe such as the Carson LumiLoupe 10x Stand Magnifier, available from Walmart. This handy pocket magnifier lets you inspect leaf undersides for tiny aphid eggs or spider mites before bringing plants inside (and they are really good value to have around the house).

Rinse the plant with a gentle spray, or apply a mild insecticidal soap drench to prevent unwelcome hitchhikers from invading your indoor setup.

3. Trim Stems and Roots

Now comes the bit that might scare you if you are a beginner grower, but it is important: severe pruning. Don’t panic, peppers are resilient, and aggressive pruning is essential to force the plant into its compact bonsai habit. For this, you need the sharpest snips or scissors you can find. One team favorite is a set of Fiskars Micro-Tip Pruning Snips,available from Amazon. Alternatively, dedicated bonsai shears such as Garden Guru Professional Butterfly Bonsai Shears, available from Walmart, give precise cuts without harming the plant.

You need to cut the main trunk back to a height of just 4-8 inches (10-20 cm) above the soil line. Strip off all remaining large leaves and thin out weak or crossing side branches, leaving just 2-3 short, structural branch stubs to serve as your new tree framework. You’ll need to leave a few side stems in place to become branches.

Next, turn your attention to the roots. You’ll need to be able to see the taproot and side feeder roots. Trim the root ball down. reducing the volume by around 60-70 percent. Prune away thick taproots and long, straggly roots, preserving a compact, dense pad of fine feeder roots close to the base. This might seem drastic, but it balances the root volume with reduced top growth, preparing the plant for effective bonsai container gardening and allowing the plant to easily fit into a shallow dish.

4. Pot Your Bonchi

Selecting the right container can transform your pruned pepper into living art. Traditional bonsai containers are shallow, ceramic dishes featuring generous drainage holes. Choose a pot that can comfortably house your trimmed root mass with an inch of clearance around the sides. Ensure the container has adequate drainage, as standing water will rot pruned roots rapidly. Position the plant so the primary root flares sit slightly above the soil line, exposing the top of the root system to give your mini tree an established, aged appearance.

Soil choice is vital for long-term health. Avoid dense potting mixes, which retain too much water in shallow pots. Instead, use a free-draining bonsai mix, or mix 60% high-quality potting soil with 40% perlite or horticultural sand. If you need perlite, lightweight Legigo Organic Perlite from Amazon is an excellent choice, helping to prevent compaction in shallow bonsai potting mixes. Pack the substrate firmly around the roots, using a chopstick to eliminate hidden air pockets. Water thoroughly until water streams freely from the drainage holes.

5. Bonchi Care

After the shock of severe pruning and repotting, your new bonchi needs a bit of time to rest and recuperate. Place in a warm, sheltered spot, away from direct, scorching sunlight and leave for one week to recover. Once new green buds begin pushing out along the trunk, move to your sunniest south-facing windowsill, where it can receive at least 6 hours of bright light daily. If winter light is weak in your region, supplement with a grow light.

Watering requires a careful touch during dormancy. Allow the top inch (2.5cm) of soil to dry out between waterings, as overwatering cold roots is the fastest way to cause root rot. Skip heavy feeds for the first month. Once active leaf growth is established, you can feed bi-weekly with a gentle seaweed drench diluted to half-strength. I recommend TPS Seaweed Fertilizer, available from Amazon, to encourage healthy root recovery. As fresh shoots expand, lightly pinch back overly long stems to encourage dense branching and maintain a mini tree silhouette.

6. Pollinate for Peppers

One of the most rewarding moments of bonchi cultivation is watching delicate white or purple flowers blossom during the depths of winter. However, because your living room lacks natural outdoor pollinators, like bumblebees and wind breezes, you’ll need to step in as chief pollinator to help set fruit. Fortunately, pepper flowers are self-fertile, meaning each bloom contains both male and female reproductive parts.

Once flowers open fully, gently tap the trunk or flick the flower stems with your finger to release pollen. For higher success rates, use a small, soft watercolor paintbrush to gently swirl inside each flower, transferring pollen from the outer anthers to the sticky stigma. You can pick up Royal & Langnickel Taklon Art Brushes from Walmart for just a few dollars. These fine-tipped brushes are ideal for delicate pollination. Within a week, the petals will drop away, revealing tiny green pepper pods. You can then enjoy seeing fresh peppers ripening indoors while snow falls outside your window.

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

Winter squash is so easy to grow but dark or soft patches around the fruit’s base is a common challenge in October, indicating end rot. Rotting bases are such a disappointment in fall, just as you’re looking forward to a harvest of butternut, acorn, honeynut and other winter squashes like spaghetti and delicata squash.

Don’t fear the worst, though. End rot on winter squash in October is easily fixed, so great work getting here to Garden ER where you'll find straightforward solutions to treat this season’s biggest planty problems. Act fast and you don’t have to lose your entire harvest. Identify and fix the issue, sand you'll save the rest of your homegrown gourds from a similar fate.

If you’re growing winter squash this season, it’s useful to know the signs to look out for, and what they indicate, even if you haven't noticed any dark patches on fruit bases, so you can take swift action at the very first whisper of a rotting bottom. Come on in to Garden ER and let’s diagnose and treat those ugly patches on the bases of your winter squash.

Triage: Take a Closer Look at That Base Patch

A winter squash rotting from the base up is easily spotted. A discolored patch on the bottom of the gourd appears: it may look darker, bruised or as if it’s been soaked in water. The spot will gradually grow larger and turn black or brown, and often becomes flat or slightly sunken. Press it and it’ll feel a little softer or spongier than the rest of the squash’s firm skin.

If the rotting base has been developing for a while, the patch may have collapsed into a hole, become moldy or emit a foul smell.

A healthy squash will have a base that's firm, with the spot where the blossom once grew having developed into a dry, pale, roughly circular patch.

Diagnosis: What’s Causing the Rot?

While you can’t help the affected squash’s rotting bottom, it’s vital to diagnose what caused it so you can save the rest of your harvest. While plants grown at ground level are vulnerable, end rot is also a common issue when growing winter squash vertically up a trellis.

Blossom End Rot

Blossom end rot is the most common reason, caused by a lack of calcium in the fruit which leads to weak cell walls. The problem isn’t typically a lack of calcium in the soil, but the plant's ability to take up and use the calcium. And the underlying cause of this is typically acidic soil, drought or inconsistent watering.

If blossom end rot is the problem, the rotting patch at the base of the fruit will look even and will have a brown, leathery, sunken appearance. Because calcium is used to build cell walls as the gourd grows from its base, deformed fruit formation is another clue that you’re dealing with blossom end rot.

Wet Ground

Contact with wet ground is the next most likely cause of end rot on your squashes. With more rain and cooler temperatures, it’s common at this time of year for the soil to remain moist. Contact softens the rinds where fruits are resting on permanently damp ground, giving pathogens like soil-borne fungi and bacteria a chance to start rotting the fruit.

Distinguishing between wet ground and blossom end rot being the cause is simple. Look at where the rot occurs: if wet ground is the cause, the fruit will likely look healthy except for the portion in contact with the soil; blossom end rot causes more even rotting, though it’s likely to be worse at the base.

Pest Damage

Pests are the least likely source of rot in squash ends in October, but it's a possibility. If pests start gnawing on the end of a fruit, the open wound can quickly become infected and start to rot. Signs of pest damage such as bites and holes will be clear, and these wounds are very likely to start rotting if they’re in contact with wet ground.

Treatment: Protect Your Current and Future Winter Squash Harvests

1. Remove Rotting Winter Squash

Squash already affected with rotting bases cannot be saved, and rot can spread and contribute to worsening conditions for the rest of the plant. Cut fruit from the plant with a sharp pair of hand pruners, as soon as you spot the first signs of a rotting bottom.

If you’ve caught the problem early and the problem is wet ground or pest damage, the squash is still safe to eat – just cut away the affected part with a safety margin of a good inch of healthy flesh. Inspect the flesh and if it’s firm, hard, smells sweet and has its usual color, it’s safe to cook.

If blossom end rot is the cause, dispose of the squash even if the patch is still tiny. Because the calcium deficiency affects the fruit’s growth, the flesh is likely to be less sweet.

Regardless of cause, throw out any fruit that has a lot of rot, is very soft or leaking, or has a bad smell.

2. Check Soil pH

As acidic soil is a common cause of blossom end rot, check pH levels. A comprehensive soil meter such as this from Amazon tests pH along with moisture levels, temperature, sunlight intensity and soil fertility so is a really handy helper when you’re growing vegetables. If you simply want a fast answer to whether your soil is acidic or not, test strips such as Rapitest Soil Test Kit, also from Amazon, is a quick and cheap method. Testing your soil is a smart move, however you choose to do it, as it'll alert you to any deficiencies that may be affecting others crops too.

Your local extension office can provide guidance on how to lower the acidity of your soil if results reveal a low pH level.

3. Water Consistently

Good watering practices lowers the risk that remaining fruit will develop blossom end rot. Aim to keep soil consistently moist rather than letting it dry out completely and then soaking it. Water at the soil line low to the ground near the stem, keeping leaves and fruits dry as excess moisture on squashes can contribute to rot, especially in cooler fall temperatures.

A soaker hose such as this Kink-Free Flat Soaker Hose from Walmart is a simple solution, or you’ll find some great deals on drip irrigation starter kits now summer’s over, like this Garden Irrigation System, also from Walmart.

4. Lift Squashes Off the Ground

Elevating developing fruits off the ground is a great way to prevent rot, keeping them off damp soil. It can be as simple as placing individual fruits on top of rocks or wood planks, or lay straw under the lot. A wheat cover straw such as CleanStraw mulch, available from Walmart, is ideal. Don’t worry about a few seeds being left among the threshed straw – wheat seedlings are shallow-rooted and very easy to pull up.

Move young fruits carefully so you don’t damage the stems.

5. Improve Airflow

Good airflow around plants will also reduce localized moisture and the risk of rotting. Adding a layer of straw over the soil will do the job of improving airflow as well as lifting fruit off the soil, but general care will help, too. Squash plants tend to get very dense with vegetation as they grow so regularly remove any yellow, damaged or mildewed leaves, being careful not to prune healthy leaves too aggressively as plants need these to make energy.

You can also boost airflow by removing debris under and around the plants, especially around the fruits. A small hand rake like Fiskars Xact Hand Rake, available from Lowe's, makes the job easier.

6. Harvest Sooner

Keep a closer eye on your squashes once October arrives, and harvest them as soon as they’re ready. The longer they sit outside, the more likely they are to rot. Signs they’re ripe and ready include a full, mature color, a hard rind that resists your fingernail, and a dried or hardened stem.

The hard rind of winter squashes mean they store well, so even if you have a glut, harvest what you can, as soon as you can.

Patient Notes: How Zone Affects End Rot

If You Garden in a Cold Zone

In colder growing zones, early cold snaps, shorter daylight hours, and damp fall weather in October can slow down root activity, making it harder for plants to transport calcium efficiently to developing fruit, making this a likely cause behind blossom end rot.

If You Garden in a Warmer Zone

In warmer zones, late-season heat and drier soil accelerates plant growth and transpiration, which can cause severe moisture fluctuations, making inconsistent watering a likely trigger for blossom end rot.

More Garden ER Help

Every week, the Garden ER series brings you simple solutions to this season's most pressing problems, for happy and healthy plants without any hassle.

Kristin Davis has long been beloved (how many of us have referred to ourselves, unironically, as 'a Charlotte' based on her performance in Sex And The City? Thought so!), but her latest plant update has cemented her place in our hearts forever.

Now, celebrity homes usually have a funny way of making gardening look effortless. The gardens are immaculate, the houseplants are enormous, glossy and seemingly incapable of dropping a single leaf, and somehow every corner looks like it belongs in a magazine.

It can all feel a little unattainable if you (like so many people, whether they care to admit it or not) spend your life googling the easiest and hardest-to-kill houseplants, which is why Kristin's latest plant update is so strangely reassuring.

Meet Theo, Kristin Davis's Fiddle Leaf Fig

Kristin Davis recently posted an Instagram video – not the actor, but her fiddle-leaf fig, which she named after him. Objectively, it's an excellent name for a plant this dramatic, and Kristin clearly has a soft spot for her leafy namesake.

Unfortunately, Theo isn't doing so well. Indeed, in the video, Kristin asks her followers for advice after noticing that the ends of his leaves have started to turn yellow and brown. She has a couple of theories of her own, wondering whether he might have overheated during the summer or whether it's time to move him into a bigger pot, but (as so many people have rushed to reassure her in the comments) the good news is that Theo is almost certainly not dying.

The less good news? Those yellowing leaves and brown tips could be signs of more than one problem, and with fiddle-leaf figs – a plant famous for being a little dramatic – that's perhaps not entirely surprising. So, if your own fiddle-leaf fig is looking less than fabulous, don't panic. Here's how to work out what's causing yellowing leaves and brown tips, and what you can do to get your plant looking healthy again.

What the Brown and Yellow Leaf Tips Are Telling You

One of the most common complaints about fiddle leaf figs is brown and yellow leaf edges. Unfortunately, this can mean several things have gone wrong all at the same time, and that’s just one part of what can make this plant as difficult as a two-year-old. In Theo’s case (the plant, not the actor), based on Kristin’s own diagnosis, the most likely culprit is a combination of underwatering, heat stress, and possibly being root-bound in a pot that’s too small.

That’s a lot of issues, but here’s how to tell them apart. Yellowing that spreads from the edges toward the center, combined with browning tips, usually points to inconsistent watering. Either the fiddle leaf fig has dried out too much between waterings or got way too much water after not getting enough for a while.

Heat stress can cause similar symptoms: If the plant sat in a hot spot all summer, especially near a south-facing window or close to a heat source, the leaf margins are often the first thing to show it. A root-bound plant (one where the roots have filled the whole pot with nowhere to go) will show this stress across the whole plant.

Shop Fiddle Leaf Fig Essentials:

This can include yellowing leaves, stunted growth, and soil that dries out unusually fast, and all three of these things can be happening at the same time.

We guess Theo leans toward being slightly dramatic and complicated, like most actors.

So, Should Kristin Repot?

So, should Kristin repot that fiddle-leaf fig? Probably yes, but very carefully. It’s one of those plants that does better slightly root-bound rather than freshly repotted in a pot that’s too large. Too much soil can mean too much moisture retention, which in turn increases the risk of roots rotting. The best thing to do would be to go up in pot size, but just by one. For example, if Theo is currently in a 10-inch pot, a 12-inch pot would be your target, not 14.

Use a well-draining potting mix, and do it when the plant is in an active growth phase rather than when it’s already in distress. Leave it completely alone for at least 4 weeks while it gets adjusted.

If repotting isn’t an option at the moment, lift the plant out of its pot gently and check the roots. If they’re circling around the bottom too tightly, or poking out of the drainage holes, that’s your confirmation that the pot is too small, and it’s worth repotting sooner rather than later.

Fixing the Watering

When it comes to a fiddle leaf fig, the golden rule is consistency. Stick your finger 2 inches into the soil, and if it still feels damp, leave it. Water it well when it’s dry, and let the excess drain out completely without letting the pot sit in standing water.

The plant’s water needs drop significantly in fall and winter as the growing phase becomes slower, so adjust your schedule accordingly.

Dealing With the Heat Damage

Once the leaves become brown and yellow on the edges, they won’t recover, and the damage has been done. But once you fix the underlying cause and the plant is otherwise healthy, new growth should come in nice and clean. Kristin should move Theo away from any direct sun or heat source and consider how dry the indoor air is in fall and winter: central heating can lower humidity, and it’s one of the fastest ways to get crispy leaf edges on a fiddle leaf fig. A low-maintenance fix for this is a pebble tray filled with water underneath the pot.

The brown and yellow tips won’t disappear, but Kristin’s fiddle leaf fig will certainly recover. With a slightly bigger pot, consistent watering, and being kept away from the radiator, he should be in good shape... a general rule of thumb which kind of applies to a lot of things, actually.

It’s easy to think cold weather is what kills off your lavender. Soggy roots and soft late growth in cold winds tend to cause the real trouble, and a few changes in early fall can get you ahead of both.

Lavender is native to dry, stony hillsides around the Mediterranean, and a long, wet winter in a garden bed is not even close to those conditions. Winterizing lavender plants doesn’t take a whole lot of effort, though. Most of your work will take place in late summer and early fall, well before the first real freeze shows up.

The year-round lavender care already covers the biggest factor. That is, soil that drains fast in a spot with full sun. Heavy clay or low, soggy ground starts winter at a disadvantage. Beyond that, fall prep mostly comes down to doing things a bit earlier and doing less with them.

Start with a Green Sweep

The first thing to do is a "green sweep" pruning. This is a light trim that stays inside the leafy part of the plant. Gather a loose handful of stems and cut away about one-third of their length. Leave an inch or two (2.5–5 cm) of this year’s green growth above where the wood starts. Lavender rarely produces new shoots from bare wood, so stems cut into the woody base may not regrow. What you trim off is fragrant and can be tied in bundles and dried.

Always use clean, sharp blades. They cut more smoothly and reduce damage to the remaining stems. Hand pruners are plenty for one or two plants, but remember that a rounded plant shape sheds snow better than a flat top. For a long row, hedge shears like Fiskars' Power-Lever Garden Hedge Shears save time and come in different sizes on Amazon.

Four to six weeks before the first hard freeze is the usual window, but a later trim can produce soft growth that has no time to harden off. Many gardeners limit fall work in the coldest regions to deadheading and leave shaping until spring. Spanish and French lavender are less cold-hardy and are usually only deadheaded in fall.

Stop Fertilizing by Late Summer

Lavender fertilizer applied in September often produces dead stem tips by spring. Late nitrogen encourages new growth when the plant should be slowing down, and that growth is usually the first to show cold damage. Lavender does fine in soil of low to moderate fertility.

Early August is the practical cutoff in most regions for liquid feeds and slow-release granules, which can reach the root zone when spread around nearby perennials. Don’t feed until new growth appears at the base in spring. Established plants in reasonable soil rarely need more than a light application even then. A light compost mulch in spring is enough for the season.

Taper Off the Watering

Lavender in winter is more often killed by wet soil than by low temperatures, especially in regions with rainy winters. Water less often and let the soil dry a few inches (5–8 cm) down as the days shorten. Rainfall can be enough for established plants in the ground. Bark and wood chip mulch should be pulled back from the crown, and pea gravel, like this one from The Mighty 109 Store via Amazon, is better if the base needs covering.

That doesn’t mean to stop watering altogether. Plants under drought stress tend to handle cold less well, so a final deep soak before a cold snap is worthwhile if you haven’t gotten rain in a while.

Container lavender plants dry out faster and can freeze through, so push a finger an inch (2.5 cm) into the mix to check them, and water if it comes out dry. Pots raised on feet, like Bosmere Pot Toes, drain faster than pots set flat on a hard surface. On the coldest nights, moving pots against a house wall or under a covered porch helps.

Protect Plants from Winter Wind

Wind is a significant cause of winter damage. Lavender keeps its gray-green foliage all season. On cold, windy days, those leaves lose moisture, and roots in frozen ground can’t replace it. Exposed plants usually brown on the windward side first. Reduce some of that exposure by siting it next to a wall or fence.

A screen is one of the most practical ways to winterize lavender plants in an open yard. Drive several fir wood garden stakes, like these from Walmart, into the ground on the windward side, then stretch a natural jute burlap roll across them. Home Depot sells a 63-inch (160 cm) roll with enough length for a full row. Keep the fabric several inches (8–10 cm) away from the foliage so air can move through. You don’t need to envelop the whole plant. Just use it as a windbreak.

In the coldest zones, a breathable cover placed over plants after the first hard frost adds extra protection. Remove it once spring warms up, though.

Lavender Winterizing Essentials

Plants can often look gray and untidy in early spring, but browning in March doesn’t always mean the plant is dead. Knowing how to overwinter lavender includes waiting for visible signs of recovery. Once new green growth appears near the base, cut away any stems that snap rather than bend.

Your lemon tree is heaving with juicy fruit just as the weather is starting to cool, but take the right steps to look after your lemon tree in October and it'll all still ripen very nicely, thankyou very much! Regular lemon tree care such as full sun and good drainage doesn't change in fall, but you'll need to give your tree some extra TLC if you're to enjoy all those lemons at their plumpest, and it's time to start preparing your tree for winter, too.

Lemons are among the least cold-hardy citrus trees, which means the first cold nights of fall can damage leaves, fruit and new growth, so it's vital to know what to do with lemon trees in fall. But primed and protected from plummeting temperatures, your tree will survive perfectly well through winter, ready to grow another bumper crop next year. And if you're planning on bringing your lemon tree indoors over winter, the right care means you won't move a heap of pests inside with it!

Whatever zone you garden in, and whether you're planning on keeping your lemon tree indoors or outdoors over winter, here's exactly what to do in October.

1. Pick Ripe Lemons

In October, lemon trees will be holding fruit at several stages from hard green lemons that won't be ready for months to ripe ones that should be picked now.

Color isn't a good way to tell if a lemon is ripe: a lemon can be completely yellow before the juice is ready, and a ripe lemon can still have a little green on it. The only way to know for sure that it's truly ripe is to cut it open and taste it, but there are plenty of indicators to guide you. Ripe lemons will feel heavy for their size as they're full of juice, and will still feel firm but yield slightly to your touch. Scratch the peel lightly with a thumbnail near the stem and a ripe lemon will smell fresh and sweet.

Cut lemons from your tree with hand pruners rather than pulling, as this can tear the skin and fruit with torn skin rots faster. Lemons don't keep ripening after they're picked so a sour lemon is going to stay sour, so leave any that aren't ready on the tree. Follow the other steps to care for lemon trees in fall, and you'll keep lemons ripening a treat.

2. Cut Back on Watering

Reduce the amount of water you give your tree now, since cool soil stays wet a lot longer than it did in summer. Now fruit is formed, your lemon tree will use up less moisture, too. In rainy areas, you can probably stop irrigating altogether and a long-probe soil moisture meter such as this from Amazon takes out the guesswork.

3. Prune Suckers

While you shouldn't prune a lemon tree in fall as this can cause it to put out tender new growth that'll be vunerable to winter cold, you can get rid of suckers. These are shoots that grow from the rootstock below the graft union (the bulge near the bottom of the trunk) and are often thorny and fast-growing, stealing valuable energy from the tree. Any fruit they make is usually sour and seedy, so prune lemon tree suckers by cutting them off flush with the trunk, using a sharp pair or hand pruners such as these Fiskars pruners from Lowe's.

4. Check for Pests

Of course, it's always a smart move to keep an eye out for pests but if you're planning to move a lemon tree indoors, it's especially important. Common lemon tree pests that were kept in check outside by rain, wind and predators can quickly take over a lemon tree once it's sheltered indoors.

Look for sticky leaves which are a sign of brown soft scale (Coccus hesperidum) and citrus mealybugs (Planococcus citri, above), as are ants crawling up and down the trunk. Scale look like small flat bumps on stems and leaf veins. To check for two-spotted spider mites (Tetranychus urticae), tap a branch while holding a sheet of white paper beneath, then watch for specks that start moving.

As you're going to be eating fruit from the tree, use a plant-derived solution such as Bonide Captain Jack's Neem Oil, available from Amazon. Neem oil is effective against scale, mealybygs and spider mites, but be specific. For scale, scrub with a toothbrush or scrape with a fingernail before spraying. Before spraying for mealybug, dab a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol on the pest clusters first to break through their repellent coating. If you suspect spider mites, use a strong hose jet to rinse off most of the mites, then spray the undersides of the leaves with neem oil.

Repeat once a week to break the pest's lifecycle.

5. Move Potted Trees Inside

Roots in a pot are a lot more exposed to cold than roots in the ground, so don't wait until frost is forecast before moving your lemon tree indoors. Instead, when nighttime temperatures start dropping to around 40°F (4°C), it's time to take action. A waterproof thermometer that alerts you when a set temperature threshold is breached, like this the nifty GoveeLife Thermo-Hygrometer, available via Amazon, takes any worry away.

Big pots are heavy so use a heavy-duty plant caddy such as the Vigoro Metal Plant Caddy, available from The Home Depot, which holds up to 119 pounds (54kg). Position your lemon tree in a south-facing window where it will get at least six hours of sun a day, well away from heating vents. Don't be alarmed if the tree drops some leaves after it's moved inside as this is a common reaction. Water less than you did outside, and only when the soil is dry about 2 inches (5cm) down.

6. Get Frost Covers Ready for Outdoor Trees

If you're planning on leaving your lemon tree outdoors for the winter, you should have a frost cover ready, well before cold weather shows up in the forecast. One option is to use a heavy-duty cover like this DeWitt Ultimate Plant Winter Blanket from Walmart that you can cut to size. Push a few stakes around the tree so the blanket doesn't touch the leaves, and let the cover hang all the way to the ground so it traps heat coming up from the soil.

Another option if you're growing a tree in a pot is to cut a regular frost blanket like this Cover Protection, also from Walmart to size and leave permanently wrapped around the pot to protect the roots, then pop a plant protection bag on the tree itself when cold weather is forecast. Breathable plant protection bags such as these Frost Jackets from Walmart have a zipper and drawstring that means they're simple to slip on and off when needed.

Don't use plastic, because leaves that touch it are more likely to freeze, and take the blanket off the next morning once the air warms up. Before a forecasted freeze, water the soil and pick any ripe lemons.

If you've seen folk adorning their lemon trees with a string of Christmas fairy lights to bring a little protective heat over winter, then it's good to know that only old-school incandescent bulbs release warmth, and modern LED lights don't.

Look after your lemon tree in October and there will be fruit on the tree for months that'll keep ripening all through late fall and winter. Protected from falling temperatures, your tree will survive through winter, ready to grow another crop of juicy lemons next year.

Plenty of gardeners treat October as cleanup month. The tomato cages come down and the squash vines get yanked, then the beds sit bare until spring. That ground still has plenty of use left in it, though. Cooler nights and a lower sun happen to suit a whole group of crops that bolt or turn bitter in summer heat, and quite a few can go in this month for harvests running from late fall into next spring.

Timing is where it gets tricky. Anyone starting a vegetable garden this late in the year still has options, but much depends on USDA zones (or your equivalent growing zone for non-Americans) and first frost dates. A gardener in mild zone 9 has months of planting weather ahead, while someone in cooler zone 5 might see the soil freeze solid by Thanksgiving – pretty different situations.

The solution is to choose crops that are suited to shorter days and chillier evenings. From leafy greens that thrive with fewer pests in fall to root vegetables that overwinter underground, and even hardy herbs that normally bolt in the high heat of summer. Plenty of options are available for anyone who wants to keep planting seeds in October and enjoy a home-grown seasonal bounty.

How USDA Zones Shape October Planting

One detail catches a lot of people off guard. USDA zones are built on average extreme winter lows, not frost dates, so two towns sharing a zone can see their first frost weeks apart – elevation and coastal influence skew things quite a bit. Zones still work as a rough guide to what can sit in the ground over winter. Frost dates tell when to stop sowing; zones hint at what survives after that.

Count back from the average first frost date using the days to maturity on the seed packet, then add a week or two. Growth slows as fall days shorten, and packet numbers usually assume summer conditions. Overwintering crops are a different story – they only need roots down before the soil freezes.

Cool-Season Vegetables to Sow in October

A few of these work across most of the country this month. Others only pay off where winters stay mild, so it helps to know the zone before buying seed.

1. Garlic

October is prime time for growing garlic, with cloves going in a few weeks before the ground freezes in zones 3–8. However, planting times for garlic vary slightly by region. Down in zones 9 and 10, there's no rush – November or December works fine.

Break the bulb apart and set individual cloves pointed end up, roughly 2 inches (5 cm) deep and 4–6 inches (10–15 cm) apart.

You can plant grocery store garlic, but it is usually a softneck variety grown in mild winters, and it can struggle in colder regions, unlike hardneck garlic types. A garden center or seed catalog is the better source – you can pick up a flavor sampler organic garlic bundle from Botanical Interests, which includes two hardneck varieties and elephant garlic.

Up north, pile on straw mulch once the soil cools – 4–6 inches (10–15 cm) is typical. Freeze-thaw cycles can heave bare cloves right out of the ground otherwise. Harvest comes next summer as the lower leaves brown.

2. Spinach

Spinach sown in early October across zones 5–7 often overwinters as small rosettes. Come spring, those plants are usually ready to cut weeks before anything sown in March. Zones 8–10 get the easier deal, with steady cutting straight through winter.

Bloomsdale Long Standing, available from Eden Brothers, is a lovely, rich heirloom spinach that performs well with fall planting, while Noble Giant produces huge sweet leaves that do not turn bitter as temperatures drop.

Plant seed ½ inch (1 cm) deep. Germination tends to suffer in warm soil, roughly 75°F (24°C) and up, and a warm spell in early October can push beds into that range. In colder spots, row covers, like these Agfabric ones on Amazon, or loose straw help young plants through hard freezes.

3. Radishes

Small round radishes rank among the quickest crops around, going from seed to harvest in three to four weeks. That speed makes them a safe October sowing in zones 6–10, while zone 5 gardeners can sometimes squeeze in a crop during the first week or so.

The big winter types are another matter – most need closer to two months, so they're better started in late summer outside the South.

If the idea of classic white and red radishes bores you, then try black radishes. This resilient variety thrives in cool seasons across USDA Zones 3–9 when planted in well-draining soil and full sun. Pick up a pack of Round Black Spanish Radish Seeds at Botanical Interests.

When planting radishes, sow seed ½ inch (1 cm) deep. Crowded radishes tend to put everything into leaves, so thin seedlings to 1–2 inches (2.5–5 cm) apart.

4. Lettuce

Lettuce tends to get filed under spring crops. Through much of zones 8–10, though, October is when its best stretch begins. Loose-leaf types may be ready to cut in six or seven weeks, and light frost rarely does much damage. A hard freeze is another matter – expect mushy leaves.

Zones 6 and 7 can pull it off with shelter – a cold frame similar to the Zenport folding cold frame at Lowe's can trap enough daytime warmth to keep leaves coming into early winter. Crack the lid on sunny days, though. It gets hot in there fast.

There are so many varieties of lettuce to choose from, and so it's worth getting a mix pack of seeds, like this Survival Seeds 10 Heirloom Lettuces Collection, from Amazon. Many can be harvested as cut-and-come-again.

Scatter seed thinly with barely any soil on top; often lettuces germinate better when a little light reaches them.

5. Fava Beans

Snap beans rarely survive a frost. Fava beans are a different animal, a cool-season legume that can take a fair amount of cold. Gardeners in zones 8–10 can sow them anytime from October to December, and growth crawls along all winter before pods show up in spring. Zone 7 is more of a gamble – seed labeled for overwintering helps, but a rough winter can still set plants back.

Windsor fava beans from Botanical Interests are tasty and look pretty in beds. You can eat the young pods like snap peas.

Plant 1–2 inches (2.5–5 cm) deep with about 6 inches (15 cm) between seeds. By spring, the stems may be tall enough to need a stake. After the last pods come off, cut plants at the soil line and leave the roots where they are. They return some nitrogen to the bed for whatever goes in next.

6. Carrots

This one mostly belongs to Southern gardeners. October-sown carrots in zones 8–10 typically need two to three months to size up, and a carrot pulled in January often tastes noticeably sweeter than a summer one. Cold soil pushes roots to turn some starch into sugar. Farther north, there usually isn't enough time before the ground freezes.

Organo Republic sells a 10 Unique Carrot Seeds Variety Pack on Amazon, which offers all the flavor variety you could want.

Seed goes in ¼ inch (6 mm) deep, and it's slow – sometimes two weeks or more to sprout. Keeping that top layer moist is honestly the hard part. A strip of burlap laid over the row helps, as long as it comes off the moment seedlings appear.

7. Herbs

From parsley to cilantro, starting an herb garden is a great way to fill your life with fragrance and flavor in the months to come. Get started with Home Grown's 15-Variety Herb Pack on Amazon; if you're worried about cooler temperatures, you can always keep them in pots on a sunny windowsill. Most, however, should cope in zones 5–10, making them ideal crops to plant in October.

October is best for planting cool-season herbs such as parsley, cilantro, chives, dill, and chervil, which can handle lower temperatures and may keep producing into fall. You can also plant hardy perennial herbs like thyme, sage, oregano, and mint in many areas while the soil is still workable. Some herbs will need winter protection in colder regions.

8. Snow Peas

Snow peas are cool-season vegetables that are quite frost-hardy, but don’t worry; they require no more work than growing other varieties of peas, making them one of our favorite low-maintenance vegetables to plant in October (particularly if you’re based in USDA zones 8 and 9).

Just make sure you get them in the ground about 6 to 8 weeks before your area's first fall frost to allow the roots to establish before a hard freeze – and mulch well, too. We’re fans of the Dwarf Grey Sugar heirloom snow peas, available from Eden Brothers.

Plant snow pea seeds directly into loose, well-drained soil about 1 inch deep and 2 inches apart, ideally beside a trellis or other support for the vines to climb. Choose a spot with full sun and keep the soil consistently moist. Harvest the flat pods once they reach a useful size, before the peas inside begin to swell.

9. Shallots

One of the easiest vegetables to plant in October, shallots are very similar to garlic in lots of ways; all you need to do is sow sets or seeds, like the sweet, mild Zebrune Shallots from Botanical Interests, in loose, well-drained soil amended with organic matter, then wait until June or July to harvest.

Fall planting is generally most successful in USDA Zones 4–10, although gardeners in colder Zones 3–5 may need to add a thick layer of mulch or plant in raised beds for extra drainage and protection. In the coldest areas, spring planting may be more reliable.

10. Beets

Of course, beets are on our list of vegetables to plant in October; these tasty red crops can be grown all winter long in many southern states (though you’ll need a soil temperature of at least 40°F in the north).

Sow beet seeds directly into loose, well-drained soil around ½ inch deep, spacing them roughly 1–2 inches apart. Once seedlings emerge, thin them so the remaining plants have room to swell, or harvest the thinnings as baby greens. In warmer Zones 7–10, October sowings can provide a steady winter crop, while gardeners in colder areas may need to use row cover or a cold frame.

Most will be ready for harvesting after seven to eight weeks, although beet greens can be picked earlier. And, if you want to up the ante, try something like Organo Republic's 10 Rare Beet Seeds Variety Pack from Walmart; it should make for a truly spectacular display!

Kevin Bacon might be better known for his acting than his gardening, but that might all change thanks to the Footloose star's latest Instagram photo.

When it comes to growing our own food, many of us tend to eschew the not-so-humble apple tree in favor of raised beds and a vegetable garden. Kevin, however, has an enviable orchard's worth of fruit at his disposal, and the actor shared a picture of himself balanced atop a teetering ladder as he harvested it.

And, while I was initially distracted by the sheer abundance of apples hanging from those branches (it's enough to make you rush off and buy a Honeycrisp Apple Tree from Nature Hills of your very own, right?), it was the message accompanying the photo that really caught my attention.

Why Kevin Bacon's Apple Tree Is So Inspiring

“I love September,” read the caption beneath Kevin Bacon's carousel of photos, which also included shots of the apples in his wheelbarrow, and then bagged and ready to go in the trunk of his car.

"Always good to remember no matter where you live , you probably have neighbors who are hungry."

His advice was simple: support your local food banks.

"Oh my goodness just when I think I couldn’t love you anymore!! what an amazing human being! The world needs more of that," read one comment beneath the picture.

"You’re good souls," added another amid the flurry of positive feedback from Kevin Bacon fans everywhere. "Nothing like fresh apples right in season, people will be grateful."

They're not wrong; the picture has served as a reminder of something I think we gardeners sometimes forget when we're busy admiring our tomatoes, filling baskets with courgettes or wondering what on earth we're going to do with yet another bowl of apples: a productive garden can give us much more than food for our own kitchens.

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Yes, growing your own food is often talked about as a wonderfully self-sufficient hobby, and it absolutely can be. But there's another side to growing that I find just as satisfying: having enough to share.

Fall is a brilliant time for this; fruit trees can be laden with apples and pears, blackberry bushes are still offering up handfuls of berries, and vegetable plots can suddenly produce considerably more food than one household can reasonably eat.

And fruit trees are an appealing addition to a garden because, unlike an annual vegetable that gives you one season of produce, they can become a long-term part of the garden, providing blossom in spring and fruit later in the year.

Unlike an annual vegetable that gives you one season of produce, a healthy apple tree can become a long-term part of the garden, providing blossom in spring and fruit later in the year. There are varieties to suit different garden sizes, too, including more compact trees that make fruit growing possible without needing a huge backyard.

Mind you, it's important to remember that not every food bank can accept homegrown produce, and their rules vary considerably, so try contacting your local organization first to find out what they accept and how they would like donations handled. (And remember, there are plenty of other ways to share with neighbors, friends, community groups and local food-sharing schemes).

I don't think Kevin Bacon intended to deliver a profound lesson in horticulture when he posted his apple harvest. But, without really trying all that hard, he's reminded us that perhaps one of the nicest things you can grow is... well, a little more than you need.

At the risk of sounding nosy, I love seeing what's in other people's gardens. It's always exciting to discover the crops they've chosen, what's looking plentiful, and how they've laid out their growing space.

Sir David and Lady Beckham are certainly no strangers to a bit of yard work. David regularly shares glimpses of their vegetable garden on Instagram, while Victoria often films him as he tends the beds, harvests produce, and shows off what they're growing. Their posts offer a fascinating running look at how their garden develops throughout the year.

So, if you're thinking about starting your own vegetable garden, the Beckhams' growing space is a great place to find inspiration. Here's a closer look at what they're growing and discover the easiest vegetables you can plant in your own garden this fall.

1. Onions

The Beckhams appear to grow several types of onions. In David’s Instagram video, he is seen harvesting a Shakespeare onion, while another video shows red onions harvested elsewhere in the garden.

Shakespeare is a fall-planted variety that can establish before winter and continue growing when temperatures rise again in spring. However, onion planting times vary across the US, so check that any variety you buy is suitable for overwintering in your USDA zone.

If you’re a beginner, onion sets are usually easier than growing onions from seed. Small, partially developed bulbs, they establish more quickly than seeds and make things easier. A mixed pack, such as the TomorrowSeeds 3 Colors Mix Onion Sets from Walmart, gives you red, white, and yellow onions in one planting, making it an easy way to create a colorful crop similar to the Beckhams’.

Plant onion sets in full sun, in loose, well-drained soil, with the pointed tip just above the surface.

2. Lettuce

David and Victoria are also fans of growing their own lettuce, and in his video, David highlights the variety Black Seeded Simpson, a loose-leaf lettuce with light green leaves that is well suited to cooler growing conditions.

That makes it a good option to plant in September. Lettuce can be sown directly into the soil in many areas, although the best timing depends on your first frost date. Choose a sunny spot with well-drained soil, and keep the soil consistently moist while the seeds germinate and the young plants establish.

You can find Black Seeded Simpson lettuce seeds from RDR Seeds on Amazon. When harvesting, leaving the center intact allows the lettuce to keep producing new leaves rather than pulling up the entire plant at once.

3. Strawberries

In a video from earlier this summer, David shows off his healthy cluster of strawberry plants. The plants are surrounded by borage, whose blue flowers can help attract pollinators while adding extra color to the vegetable garden.

Strawberries are another crop worth considering adding in the fall, to give roots time to establish before winter and get off to a productive start next year. The exact timing varies by region, but aim for roughly 4 to 6 weeks before your first expected hard frost. You can pick up a pack of Bonnie strawberry plants from Walmart.

Check that the types of strawberries are suitable for your area, plant them in full sun, in fertile, well-drained soil, and make sure the crown sits level with the soil surface rather than being buried.

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You don’t need the Beckhams’ space – or their gardening experience – to make a start. Lettuce, strawberries, and onions are all useful crops for beginners, and with the right varieties and planting times for your area, they can help turn even a small garden bed into a productive growing space this fall.

If you're wondering how to ripen green tomatoes on the vine for maximum flavor, this quick trick will force tomato plants to put all their energy into producing red fruit, fast. It’s been a fantastic year for growing tomatoes and finishing the season will be all the better if you’re picking juicy ripe tomatoes rather than green hard-as-a-bullet fruit that fill your windowsills for weeks.

Tomato plants are driven by an incredibly strong survival instinct, and this simple gardening hack flips this force of nature into panic mode, hoodwinking plants to crack on with ripening fruit that’s already formed. You’ll enjoy far more flavorful late-season tomatoes, and have a free windowsill to boot!

Part of the Weekend Win series, persuading a tomato plant to ripen its last fruits fast is one of those easy jobs that brings a big reward, and guess what? All you need is a pair of hand pruners.

How to Trick Tomato Plants into Ripening the Last Fruits

1. Understand How a Tomato Plant’s Survival Instinct Works

Tomato plants have stronger survival instincts than humans – and that’s a fact. With around 25% more genes than we do, many of a tomato plant's genes come in pairs: one to look after the necessary day-to-day basics of life, and one that only comes into play when the plant is stressed. That means tomato plants adapt incredibly quickly to growing conditions, and we gardeners can use that to our advantage to ripen those precious last fruits.

In late September, days are still warm enough that a tomato plant thinks there’s time to grow more fruit, and so produce more seeds for survival. However, nights are cold enough to halt the ripening process on its already-formed green tomatoes. So while the tomatoes are still ripening, it's a very slow process. This simple task, however, will trick the plant into panic mode so it puts all its energy into ripening tomatoes, pronto.

2. Halt All New Growth

Before you perform the magic trick to focus tomato plants on ripening fruit, you need to prevent it wasting energy on new growth. You may well have done this already as it’s a regular part of September tomato care, but if not, use hand pruners such as these Fiskars Bypass Pruners from Lowe’s to snip off the main growing tip at the top of the vine. Cut off any yellow flowers and newly-formed tiny green tomatoes, too, and keep checking leaf joints and removing any fresh sucker shoots.

3. Strip Away Lower Leaves

Now you’ve got your tomato plant’s attention, you need to strip off all the leaves on the bottom third of the plant. Cut stems flush with the vine so the base is completely bare apart from any lingering fruit trusses. This stresses the plant, which now thinks winter has arrived early, so it puts all its efforts into ripening fruit to ensure the seeds it's already produced survive.

Pruning tomato plants in this way looks harsh but it's common practice in commercial tomato-growing operations, so don't worry a jot! The plants now only need enough energy to finish ripening already-formed fruit rather than fuelling new growth, so they'll be just fine.

4. Cut Watering

The next step to trigger your tomato plants to move into full emergency mode is to cut the water supply to stress them a little more. The plant will think it's about to die and, when a plant goes into this survival-at-all-costs state, it physically releases a heap of ethylene gas, the ripening hormone, as a last-ditch measure. This surge sends a strong signal to green fruit to rush seeds to maturity, so tomatoes ripen far more quickly.

To ripen tomatoes growing in the ground, you should stop irrigating completely, as plants will still be able to source some moisture from the ground. In containers, grow bags or a greenhouse, drastically reduce watering to the bare minimum to trigger this survival mode and accelerate the ripening process. A light watering once a week if it doesn't rain at all, or if you see the main stem starting to droop, is all a plant needs to stay alive at this late point in its life.

5. Keep Plants Warm

It’s not sunshine hitting the skin that ripens toms, but the warmth of its rays. We all know what it’s like to bask in the warmth of late-season sunshine so, in all zones, cut off any foliage that’s directly shading fruit trusses higher up the vine. This lets sunlight – and levels are getting lower all the time as fall approaches – hit the fruit directly for maximum warmth.

The ripening process shuts down as soon as air temperatures drop below 50°F (10°C) so, depending on your zone, you may need to take additional steps to keep tomato plants warm. Having a garden thermometer – whether it’s a handsome analog thermometer like this from Amazon or a weatherproof digital thermometer such as this, also from Amazon, takes out the guesswork and helps you make good decisions.

If you want to ripen tomatoes in a greenhouse, then the simple task of closing the door and vents in late afternoon, then opening them in the morning, traps warm air inside.

Having some horticultural fleece ready to throw over plants when a cold night is forecast is a smart move if you’re growing tomatoes outdoors. A breathable plant cover like this from Walmart is cheap, light enough not to damage plants and is easily pegged to tomato supports, and will help to keep the ripening process on track.

Try this simple fall trick and you'll have rapidly ripening tomatoes, and I'll wager you’ll be surprised how fast it works, and how strong a tomato plant's survival instinct is. And that's just as well as, depending on your USDA zone, you may not have much ripening time left. Tomato plants have zero frost tolerance and, with such a high water content, fruit that freezes is immediately ruined. Keep an eye out for your impending first frost so you can cut unripe fruit beforehand and ripen any remaining tomatoes indoors – but you won't have many, if any, green tomatoes left if you tried this simple fall trick.

Do remember to save tomato seeds for free plants next year before the end of the season, too, selecting good-sized toms from your strongest plants.

If you do have a few left to ripen, it’s good to know that popping green tomatoes in a brown paper bag with a banana or simply putting them inside a closed kitchen cupboard is a far better method than a sunny windowsill, and cuts ripening time down to a week.

More Weekend Wins

This feature is part of the Weekend Wins series, packed with quick and easy 10-minute tasks and gardening tips and tricks that bring a big reward.

As summer blooms begin to fade, autumn flowers and plants are ready to shine and take center stage in the cooler weather. Traditional fall borders are typically dominated by classic fall perennials like hardy chrysanthemums (aka mums), late-season asters, goldenrod, and sedums. However, limiting your displays strictly to conventional ornamentals means you are missing out on an incredible opportunity for creative texture, vivid color contrast, and dual-purpose productivity.

Why not add in some edible fall border fillers that thrive in the gentler weather of the season? Key edible plants showcase a surprising spectrum of jewel-toned colors and architectural foliage. From ruffled, crimson-stemmed leafy greens to intricate, lace-like herbs and blue-hued upright brassicas, cooler-weather crops offer striking visual interest that easily rivals traditional bedding plants. Tucking these edible gems in between your late-season flowers elevates the overall aesthetic of your beds and borders, while offering a continuous harvest for seasonal meal times.

Integrating edibles directly into ornamental borders is also a clever space-saver for home gardeners with limited plot space. Rather than isolating your veg in rigid rows, you can enjoy them in a unique way as part of your seasonal displays. Make more of these dynamic edibles before you have to clip them for soups, salads, and stir-fries. Here’s how to give your fall flower borders a very tasty visual upgrade.

Growing Veg in Fall Borders

Conventionally, a fall border is built around late-season floral heavyweights like mums and asters, with the seedheads left for winter bird foraging. While these classics deliver reliable fall color, they often leave awkward, leggy gaps as lower foliage dies back in cooler weather. Incorporating cool-season edible plants for flower beds fills gaps in spectacular fashion, using jewel-tones and ruffled frills to create depth and dimension, so borders look lush and hearty through first frosts.

From a practical perspective, integrating crops into flower beds offers a brilliant dual-purpose solution if you have limited plot space. Key edible greens and herbs thrive in autumn, provided you can give them full sun or light partial shade and free-draining soil. You just have to make sure you can maintain good drainage through fall, adding coarse sand or perlite where necessary.

Zonal considerations play a major role in fall border success. In northern regions (USDA hardiness zones 3-6), cool-season edibles perform as vibrant annuals that withstand light frosts before winter sets in. In warmer southern climates (zones 7-10), many of these crops will happily overwinter, providing continuous color and harvests straight into spring. Just check packs carefully before sowing direct outdoors

Before tucking young transplants or sowing seeds between fading perennials, take time to prep the soil. Clear away fallen leaf debris, gently aerate the top few inches of earth, and work in a generous layer of organic compost. Give your plant roots a helping hand with the mycorrhizal fungi present in Espoma’s Organic Bio-Tone Starter Plus from Amazon, for faster establishing plants with stronger roots. Prepping now enriches the soil for both these spectacular edibles and any spring-flowering bulbs sleeping beneath the surface. Let's meet our dazzling edible stars…

1. Rainbow Chard

Rainbow chard (Beta vulgaris) gets its name from the neon hues that run through its central stalks. Growing it directly in your flower borders creates an extraordinary display. Featuring glossy leaves supported by stems in fiery crimson, hot pink, vivid yellow, and bright orange, chard cultivars like Bright Lights and Celebration provide a lively backdrop to lower-growing sweet alyssum, violas, or trailing pansies.

Hardy in zones 3-10, chard is typically grown in fall as a cool-season annual. Just aim to set out transplants or sow seeds 6-8 weeks before your region's average first hard frost. Chard prefers rich, fertile, well-draining soil and a location with full sun or partial shade. You can harvest individual outer leaves continuously through autumn without disrupting the plant's stunning upright rosette. If heavy frost threatens, mulch around the base with straw to protect the crown for continued late-fall harvests.

You can currently get a luminous crop of orange, yellow, pink, white and red stalks with a single packet of Rainbow Mix Swiss Chard Seeds from Eden Brothers to add some bargain-friendly razzle-dazzle to borders.

2. Ornamental Kale and Cabbage

Ornamental kale and cabbage (Brassica oleracea) are cultivated specifically for their visual appeal. While technically 100% edible, their leaves tend to be tough and bitter compared to standard culinary varieties. However, what they lack in raw flavor, they more than compensate for in lush fall color and dramatic geometric forms. Popular cultivars like Peacock Red, Chidori, and Nagoya offer feathered, ruffled, or tightly wavy leaves arranged in dense, low-growing rosettes.

These ornamental brassicas form tight, low-growing rosettes featuring tightly ruffled, feathered, or wavy leaves. As temperatures drop below 50°F (10°C), the centers of these plants transform into vibrant shades of cream, royal purple, coral, and magenta. Set near the front edge of a fall border, they really pop near dark-leaved sedums or autumn crocuses. Extremely cold-hardy, they hold their color well into late winter, frequently surviving light snow cover.

Plant in mid-fall in a full-sun location with sharp, fast-draining soil. Don’t overwater once established, though. Soggy soil leads to yellowing lower leaves and root rot. If you fancy experimenting with purple rosettes, you can pick up a packet of Tomorrow Seeds Smooth Mix Ornamental Cabbage Seeds from Walmart for just a few dollars.

3. Tuscan Kale

Also known as Lacinato kale, dinosaur kale, or Cavolo Nero, Tuscan kale (Brassica oleracea var. palmifolia) offers exceptional culinary value and sophisticated beauty. This heirloom variety produces dramatic, upright leaves that curve outward like tiny palm trees. The foliage features a deep bluish-charcoal green hue with a pebbled texture that catches morning light and frost beautifully. All this makes it a real looker.

Tucking Tuscan kale alongside fine-textured fall flowers, golden marigolds, or orange mums creates an immediate, high-contrast focal point. Hardy in zones 7-10, it thrives as a fall annual in cooler northern regions. Plant Tuscan kale in a sunny garden spot with rich, well-drained soil. Wait until after your area experiences its first frost before harvesting, as the cold snap will make these leaves sweet and tender.

If you’ve missed the boat for direct sowing, plant nursery starts in a sunny location with rich, well-drained soil. Oh, and when harvesting, leave at least 6-8 top leaves intact so the plant continues growing upward like a small palm. Bring a dash of ruffled structure with a packet of Lacinato Kale Seeds from Burpee. Or for readymade plants, buy Clovers Garden Dinosaur Kale Live Plants from Amazon.

4. Red Veined Sorrel

Red-veined sorrel (Rumex sanguineus) is a hardy perennial herb that deserves a prominent place in every fall border. Hardy in zones 4-9, this striking plant forms neat, compact rosettes of vibrant apple-green, lance-shaped leaves with rich burgundy vein patterns. This bold contrast makes it a satisfying ornamental edging plant along pathways or beneath taller, leggy perennials.

Beyond its obvious beauty, red-veined sorrel offers a delightful, tangy lemon flavor. Harvest young leaves continuously to add a citrus bite to fall salads, or cook older leaves into soups and sauces. Red-veined sorrel grows happily in full sun to partial shade and prefers moist, well-drained soil. Because it is a true perennial, it will return every spring, offering long-term beauty and flavor. Just ensure clay soils are amended with coarse sand or perlite. Buy Ohio Heirloom Seeds Store Blood Veined Sorrel Seeds from Amazon, for striking heirloom leaves with a zingy twist.

5. Mizuna

Mizuna (Brassica rapa var. nipposinica) is a rapid-growing Japanese mustard green that can add a feathery, fern-like texture to fall beds. Its serrated leaves contrast beautifully with broad-leaved perennials like coral bells or densely packed mums. To maximize visual impact, seek out colorful cultivars like Beni Houshi or Rubra. Mizuna flourishes in full sun or partial shade with moisture-retentive yet well-drained soil.

Hardy in zones 4-9, mizuna thrives in the crisp, cool air of fall. Sow seeds or set out young transplants at least 4 weeks before your first frost date. Because it matures quickly, you can begin harvesting outer leaves using the cut-and-come-again method just a few weeks after planting. Snip outer leaves an inch (2cm) above the soil line to encourage rapid regrowth. Don’t let the soil dry out completely, though, as moisture stress causes the leaves to become excessively tough.

You can buy Mountain Valley Seed Company Red Leaf Mizuna Mustard Seeds from Walmart for a quick-developing color that adds a feathery splash of fire to cool season borders and hungry bellies!

6. Curly and Flat Leaf Parsley

Never overlook cool-season herbs when styling your autumn borders! Parsley is one of the most versatile foliage fillers you can add to late-season beds. Whether you choose the tightly ruffled, cloud-like texture of curly-leaf parsley (P. crispum var. crispum) or fern-like Italian flat-leaf parsley (P. crispum var. neapolitanum), this humble herb adds delicate visual softness around the bases of leggy fall flowers.

Parsley is a hardy biennial grown primarily as a cool-season annual in zones 4-9. Because parsley grows quite slowly from seed in cold soil, using established nursery transplants is the best way to get an immediate fall effect. Plant it in full sun or partial shade within rich, organic, well-draining soil. You can harvest several fresh stems from the outer edge for cooking without disrupting the bushy accents of your border. Grab a pack of The Seed Plant’s Triple Curled Parsley Seeds from Amazon for just a couple of dollars for a lush, fluffy border statement.

Mixing fall-blooming perennials with edible foliage plants is a lovely way to increase texture, color, and productivity in beds and borders as the new season gets underway. The vibrant hues of autumn flowers pop when framed against unique vegetable foliage, rewarding you with a gorgeous display and a fresh harvest. So don’t be afraid to mix and match for spectacular fall ensembles that will have all the local tongues wagging!

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

By September, lavender plants that flowered heavily through early and mid-summer are often looking a bit scraggly. Lingering faded flower stalks might be poking up like spent toothpicks, and the center of the mound may be splaying open under its own weight. So it’s very tempting to grab the shears and start pruning lavender back hard right about now to make your border look neat and tidy ahead of winter.

But fall is where lavender care can become a little counterintuitive. Lavender is not an herbaceous perennial that can be cut to the dirt. It is a woody subshrub, which means that its older, lower stems harden into wood over time. Once you slice deep into that leafless wood, it rarely pushes out fresh shoots again. Making aggressive cuts in fall is one of the quickest ways to ruin an established lavender plant.

Three lavender pruning cuts in particular tend to go wrong if attempted in fall. But that doesn’t mean you have to dodge cutting altogether – it just means you have to adapt your approach, and respect your plant’s needs in the approach to the cooler, damper months ahead. Understanding this will help to keep your plant healthy and resilient ahead of the new year. Do the right thing this fall, so you don’t ruin future blooms. Here are the risky cuts to avoid – and the one safe snip to try before winter.

Why Fall Cuts Hit Lavender Harder

Plenty of soft-stemmed perennials can be sheared nearly down to the ground in fall and will return without a hitch next spring. Lavender works differently: its active growth buds sit almost entirely within the soft, leafy green growth at the top. The older, woody lower stems lack the buds needed to sprout new foliage once they are trimmed down. Cut too far into those stems and you wave goodbye to future blooms.

Different lavender species react with varying degrees of drama, but late-season cutting puts them all at risk. Cold-hardy English lavenders (L. angustifolia) like Hidcote and Munstead tolerate light shaping, but deep cuts expose their woody cores to severe winter frost-cracking. Hybrid lavandins (L. x intermedia) such as Grosso hold onto heavy, sap-rich stems that bleed energy if clipped late. Meanwhile, tender French (L. dentata) and Spanish (L. stoechas) lavenders struggle to recover from any major structural disturbance as temperatures drop.

Furthermore, cutting lavender coaxes out a fresh flush of tender growth. In early June, encouraging fresh shoots is exactly what you want. Late in the season, though, soft new shoots won’t have time to harden off before the first freeze hits. Extreme cold can damage that new growth easily, and frost can turn tender tips into black stumps, opening the plant up to fungal infection in USDA growing zones 4-7.

That’s a tough price to pay for a slightly neater shrub, and yards with an early freeze can feel it the most. Keeping a thermometer handy, like the budget-friendly Serundo Mini Digital Thermometer from Amazon, can help you pinpoint where temperatures are at on a particular day for your lavender. But what do you do about straggly plants in fall? Read on to find out about the cuts that hurt, and the one that can help…

The 3 Risky Cuts to Skip

Each of the following fall cutting mistakes seems sensible and well-intentioned enough in the moment, especially when you’re having a backyard cleanup spree. The trouble is that the damage rarely shows up immediately: it hides quietly through the chilly months, only revealing itself in spring when dead, brown gaps appear.

By the time warm spring weather arrives, there’s little you can do to repair fall pruning damage, except wait and hope a few stray buds green up. Understanding how different varieties react to late-season trimming can help to ensure your plants survive the winter unscathed. But you’ll be doing your lavender a massive favor if you dodge the following cuts now.

1. The Hard Scalp

Picture a lavender mound sheared down to a few inches of brown, leafless stubs, the same way someone might cut back spent daylilies. Bare lavender wood is a one-way street: cut into that brown bark without leaves attached, and that branch almost certainly stays bare forever.

Some scalped plants recover in patchy, uneven tufts, and sit lopsided for 2-3 seasons, while older specimens don’t come back at all. Even an aged, leggy specimen that desperately needs reshaping is better renewed gradually over a couple of years, with gentle cuts in early spring rather than a tragic fall slaughter. Container-grown lavender is especially vulnerable to hard scalping, as pot-bound roots cannot recover from total foliage loss.

2. The Late Month Flush

Here, the cut itself might be perfectly gentle, but it’s the timing that trips things up. Trimming lavender stems too close to your local first frost date will trigger the plant to push out a quick flush of tender, sap-rich green tips that have zero chance of toughening up before those freezing temperatures arrive.

A common rule for pruning lavender is to wrap up trimming 6-8 weeks before your region's average first hard frost date. In colder northern zones (4-6), the seasonal window can be closing as early as mid-August. In warmer southern climates (8-10), light trimming can be extended into late September, but that’s about it. Checking your local frost dates removes all the guesswork before your shears get busy.

3. The Flat Top Box Cut

A crisp, squared-off lavender hedge cut like a formal boxwood might look sharp – at least along a sunny brick walkway. But by February, however, maybe not so much. In fact, that box cut can wind up becoming a structural liability for your fragrant hedge as winter rolls in. A flat top can collect wet snow and hold heavy rain instead of shedding it naturally.

Under the weight of winter snowdrifts, a flat-topped lavender mound can also split down the center, exposing the interior to frost damage. Straight, vertical box cuts can also drag the blades down deeper into bare wood along the sides. Instead, lavender hedges stay healthier over winter when maintained as a continuous series of soft, rounded mounds that allow snow to slide off effortlessly.

The Fall Cut That Works

As you can see, quite a few of the cuts we might embrace earlier in the year become liabilities in fall. The Hard Scalp and Late Month Flush cuts can directly endanger the plant's survival, while the Flat Top Box Cut does its structural harm more slowly over a snowy winter. But there is one type of cut you can safely carry out in fall: the green tip sweep. As the name suggests, this fall snip is focused on a gentle tidy-up.

Grab your sharpest pruners or snips. If you don’t have any, I can recommend the nimble Fiskars Micro-Tip Pruning Snips with Softgrip Handles, available at The Home Depot. They give you precision cuts that slide easily between crowded shoots and won’t gouge surrounding shoots. Start with the spent flower stalks, snipping each one down to where the top cluster of green leaves begins.

Once the dead stalks are cleared, gather a loose handful of leafy stems in one hand and clip an inch (2.5 cm) off the soft green leafy tips. Work your way around the plant so the outer growth ends up slightly shorter than the central crown. This creates a gentle dome shape that snow can glide off rather than pile on. As a basic guide, always leave 2-3 inches (5-8 cm) of green foliage above the woody part of every stem. If a stem looks thin on leaves or a bit stressed, skip it.

For individual specimen plants, precision snips work best to slip between crowded shoots. For walkway hedges, hedge shears speed up the job, provided you follow the curved contours of each plant rather than cutting flat lines. Whichever tool comes out, keep the edge sharp, as dull blades tend to crush stems. If you haven’t got a sharpener, it’s worth investing in the Orange Ninja 7-in-1 Knife Sharpener from Amazon, for razor-sharp cuts that slice cleanly through stems. Do this right, and you’ll create healthy evergreen mounds that retain their shape through winter.

When to Skip the Sweep

Depending on your lavender variety and late-season conditions, you may need to skip pruning until spring. Tall, vigorous lavandin hybrids (such as Grosso and Phenomenal) bloom later in summer. Their framework handles winter best when left intact until early April. Similarly, tender Spanish lavenders should only receive a very light deadheading in fall, as heavy pruning in colder climates frequently proves fatal.

Whatever gets cut, make sure you give your tools a quick wipe with Equate 70% Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol from Walmart to prevent any disease from traveling plant to plant. However, if frost is already creeping into your local 10-day forecast, just snip off the dry flower stalks and leave all the foliage intact to shelter the crown.

After completing any light trimming, rake fallen stems away from the base of the plant. Damp, decaying leaf litter packed against the plant all winter can trap moisture and invite fatal root rot. Happily, those fragrant trimmings need not go to waste. Dry the aromatic leaves and tuck them into muslin sachets for your linen drawers.

Best Lavender Care for Fall

Beyond pruning, good fall lavender care needs to focus on water management and root insulation. Soggy soil kills far more lavender plants than freezing temperatures ever will. Reduce watering significantly as the days shorten, allowing the top couple of inches (5cm) of soil to dry out completely between rains.

Where your lavender is growing in heavy clay soil, work some coarse sand, pea gravel, or crushed horticultural grit into the surface around the plant to help improve drainage. For ground-based lavenders, a sprinkling of Vigoro Mini Marble Chip from The Home Depot can help to protect crowns and enhance drainage as the weather deteriorates. For container-based lavenders, top-dressing a little Back to the Roots Organic Perlite from Amazon with some coarse sand can help with drainage. Also, elevate the pots onto terracotta pot feet to further improve pot drainage.

If you act fast, you can take a few cuttings from your parent plant. Plant into a fast growing coarse growing medium, or even try starting a couple in water. Cuttings will form strong root systems within 4-6 weeks, ready to overwinter in a protected frame or cold greenhouse. Then sit back and wait for spring, when your parent plant will hopefully start to grow again after your gentle green tip sweep. Come June, those same leafy stems are where the next round of flower spikes will come from.

Shop Lavender Essentials

Transforming your fall lavender routine from a risky seasonal chore into a rewarding ritual is easy with the right kit. Precision cutting tools and targeted soil amendments make all the difference to vascular health and good drainage in damper weather. Whether you are maintaining a formal walkway hedge or tending a few container pots, these curated essentials will keep your lavender healthy through to next year.

Cheeky Cut and Care Trio

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Stanley Tucci recently shared a fascinating lesson in growing tomatoes from the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. While filming his series Tucci in Italy, he visited Ercolano (Herculaneum) in Italy’s Campania region to explore the heirloom tomatoes grown in its volcanic soil. In an Instagram post, the actor praised the “really special tomatoes that grow in the shadow of Vesuvius,” calling them the best he had ever tasted. The crew was also seen enjoying the tomatoes and commenting on their sweetness.

There may be more to their exceptional flavor than the tomato varieties themselves. The volcanic soils around Vesuvius, formed from layers of ash and weathered rock, can be rich in minerals while remaining loose and free-draining – two qualities that support strong, healthy plant growth. And it’s not just tomatoes that benefit. The region is also famed for its citrus fruits, olives, grapes, apricots, grains, and vegetables, including different types of root vegetables.

While you may not be able to recreate the conditions of an Italian volcano in your backyard, there are ways to capture some of the benefits of volcanic soil and improve your own growing conditions. I spoke to soil and crop experts to find out whether horticultural volcanic rock dust or similar amendments can help at home, and how to use them safely. Here is what gardeners should know before adding them to vegetable beds or potted citrus trees.

What Makes Volcanic Soil So Special?

Soils near volcanoes are not exactly the same as the soil in your backyard. Around Mount Vesuvius, two features are particularly important for growing flavorful produce: the minerals supplied by volcanic ash and weathered rock, and the soil’s ability to drain excess water.

Gardeners can replicate part of this mineral-rich environment by adding a horticultural volcanic mineral amendment to their soil, like this Down to Earth All Natural Fertilizers Organic Azomite Minerals Powder, available from Amazon. It comes as a fine powder that you simply mix into soil or potting mix.

Lindsey Boney, Grocery Manager and Produce Expert at Windmill Farms Market, explains why volcanic soil is prized for its drainage properties. “One aspect of volcanic soil that many people forget is that it does not hold excessive water. As a result, this naturally avoids dilution, which helps with richer flavor. That’s why the tomatoes often grown in this area of Vesuvius have been known for their unique sweetness, acidity, and richness ever since.”

Tomatoes need consistent moisture, but excess water can leave fruit tasting less concentrated. In contrast, well-drained soil can help prevent waterlogging and may support a stronger concentration of sugars and flavor compounds as the fruit ripens.

Steve Corcoran, gardening expert and co-founder of Lawn Love, points to volcanic soil's nutrient content. “Volcanic soil is packed with nutrients that really help tomatoes to thrive, like potassium and phosphorus.”

Potassium and phosphorus are both commonly found in quality tomato fertilizers, although the nutrients in volcanic soil are not necessarily available to plants in the same amounts. The same combination of mineral content and good drainage may also benefit fall root crops, which need loose soil to develop properly, and citrus trees, which are particularly sensitive to waterlogged roots. A volcanic amendment can support good soil conditions, but it should not replace compost, organic matter, or a balanced feed where those are needed.

What to Add to Your Soil for Vesuvius-Inspired Growing

How to Recreate Volcanic Growing Conditions at Home

The best way to grow a delicious Vesuvius-inspired crop of tomatoes is to focus on the conditions in which the plants grow. You cannot recreate Mount Vesuvius in your backyard, but you can replicate some of the features associated with its growing environment.

Start with soil testing to check the pH and nutrient levels in your garden. The MySoil test kit, available on Amazon, is a great all-round test kit (and was recently reviewed by Content Editor Kathleen). Tomatoes and many other crops need fertile, well-drained soil, plenty of full sun, and consistent moisture without becoming waterlogged. If your soil is heavy or depleted, improve it with organic matter and a suitable horticultural volcanic rock dust or mineral amendment, following the product’s instructions carefully.

The Mediterranean climate around Vesuvius also provides abundant sunshine and relatively dry conditions, while the volcanic soil allows excess water to drain away. Together, these conditions can help fruits and vegetables develop a more concentrated flavor. However, this does not mean allowing plants to become severely drought-stressed.

To grow your own tomatoes like the ones Tucci was enjoying, Lindsey recommends tapering off watering. “When fruit begins to ripen, reduce water gradually while avoiding severe plant stress. It produces more sugars and flavor compounds.”

However, fall root crops still need even moisture while they develop, and citrus trees need good drainage without being allowed to dry out completely.

For all of these crops, the most useful lessons from Vesuvius are to provide plenty of light, avoid waterlogged soil, and supply nutrients based on what a soil test shows they actually need.

Admit it, we sometimes think of container gardening as a bit of a compromise. We may see it as a way of doing things on a smaller scale, perhaps because we feel limited by natural light, regional issues, or just space. For urban growers and small space gardeners, container growing is a way of trying things to see what happens. Yet the truth is that pot-based living isn’t always a compromise, but a step up!

While many of us grow herbs in pots, container gardening isn’t always our first choice for vegetables. We might squeeze a few pots of small crops in around the edges as an extra, when the reality is that certain edibles genuinely perform better in pots than in traditional ground beds. Growing vegetables in containers means you have more control over soil texture, moisture retention, pests, and ambient heat.

Containers provide an unmatched seasonal advantage as summer shifts to fall, providing excellent cultural benefits for a range of classic-sunseekers and cool-season crops. So if you’ve ever dreamed of growing veggies but don’t have the space for a bed, the dream is still alive. Whether you want to extend late-summer harvests or kick off a rapid fall crop, these vegetables thrive with pot life. Here’s why containers are about to become your secret weapon for lush late-season flavor.

Growing Vegetables in Containers

Growing vegetables in pots helps you dodge several big issues of garden beds. You can eliminate the risk of weeds and better isolate and manage pest issues. Without rocks or heavy clay to obstruct growth, root crops can expand into neat, unblemished shapes. During early fall, containers unlock another superpower. As sun angles shift and night temperatures drop, pots allow you to maneuver crops into microclimates, parking heat-lovers against sun-baked brick walls to retain warmth, or tucking tender plants under eaves during unexpected cold snaps.

Navigating USDA hardiness zones in containers does require a slightly different approach than ground beds. Because potted soil is exposed to ambient air on all sides, container roots generally experience temperatures that feel one to two zones colder than the surrounding earth. While annual cool-season crops thrive across zones 2-11 (depending on planting time), warm-season crops you started earlier in the year rely on container mobility to dodge frost snaps in cooler zones.

If prepping your pots in fall, be careful with feeds. Heavy nitrogen fertilizers should be avoided in fall, as they force weak, sappy growth that is vulnerable to frost damage. Instead, you can top-dress tired pots with rich worm castings or finished organic compost, and feed with a diluted seaweed tonic such as diluted TPS Seaweed Fertilizer, available from Amazon, which helps to strengthen root resilience in young plants in a gentle way.

Protect your plant life and reduce your own ongoing daily workload by making sure you’re using a fast-draining potting soil. Where necessary, top up drainage with a few handfuls of horticultural sand or perlite to keep potting mixes light and free-draining. Elevate planters on pot toes, such as the excellent Lemon Road Terracotta Pot Feet, also available from Amazon to keep drainage manageable right through fall.

1. Fast Radish

Although it seems unlikely a root vegetable would be ideal for container growing, radishes are surprisingly versatile. Their roots are shallow, the plants are compact, and they grow quickly. In traditional beds, their delicate roots collide with stones, or heavy clay. In a shallow pot filled with fluffy potting mix, they expand effortlessly into smooth, uniform globes. You can cultivate dense, high-yield crops in window boxes, shallow bowls, or trough planters without taking up too much space.

September is ideal for a second-wave of this cool weather crop in zones 2-11. Choose rapid-maturing cultivars like French Breakfast, Cherry Belle and heirloom Watermelon radish for peak crispness in 21-28 days. Sow every 2 weeks for continuous succession harvests. Choose a vessel 6-8 inches (15-20cm) deep and blend a lightweight potting mix with coarse horticultural sand or perlite. Keep evenly moist, as erratic watering causes expanding roots to split open. For a crispy fall treat that also roasts beautifully, buy Cherry Belle Radish Seeds from Burpee.

2. Dwarf Peppers

Peppers are natural heat lovers, making them ideal candidates for container life. As nighttime temperatures drop in fall, potted peppers can be wheeled against brick walls or into garages overnight to retain the ambient warmth needed to develop tasty mature reds, oranges, and purples. Opt for prolific dwarf varieties like Apache, Redskin or Shishito. You can still buy Bonnie Plants Shishito Live Starter Plants from Amazon if you hurry. These starters save you a few weeks of waiting, so you can crank out the crops even quicker.

Provide a 3-5-gallon container for each plant, with ample bottom drainage, and grow in the sunniest spot you can find for the season. Make sure the potting mix is amended with coarse perlite and add a diluted liquid seaweed or potassium tonic to support late pod maturation. Pinch off tiny late flowers so the plant channels all remaining energy into ripening existing fruit before hard freezes arrive. Grow as annuals in zones 3-10 or tender perennials in zones 9-11.

3. Baby Beets

Beets grown in beds can turn tough or misshapen when they hit rocks or heavy clay. In containers, smooth, stone-free potting mix allows beet roots to swell into flawless baubles of flavor. You can snip tender greens for fall salads while waiting for the sweet roots to mature. Choose compact varieties such as Early Wonder, Baby Ball, or Bull's Blood (renowned for its magenta foliage). Everwilde Bulls Blood Beetroot Seed Packs from Walmart are budget-friendly and give you 200 seeds for pots.

As the air cools, these cool-season plants convert starches into natural sugars, producing exceptionally sweet roots. Use a wide, 10-inch (25cm) terracotta bowl or fabric pot. Fill with a lightweight potting mix blended with perlite and coarse horticultural sand. Sow seeds half an inch (1.25cm) deep and top-dress with worm castings to provide gentle organic nutrients. Thin seedlings to 2-3 inches (5-8cm) apart so each root has room to expand to lush, ruby loveliness in zones 2-11.

4. Dwarf Tomatoes

Tomatoes are classic container crops and in many ways they can be happier in the right pot than in the ground. They can be picky about garden bed soil, water, and light, so a container is an ideal way to provide the perfect conditions in zones 3-10, especially for dwarf and tumbling varieties. Keeping vines elevated off damp dirt drastically cuts down on leaf diseases, allowing balcony gardeners to harvest sweet, vine-ripened fruit from tight footprints. While tall indeterminate vines decline in fall, potted toms give you late-season agility. Compact determinates like Tumbling Tom, Micro Tom, or Patio Choice thrive in pots and hanging baskets.

Use a 5-gallon container for upright cultivars, or a 10-12-inch (25-30cm) hanging planter for trailing cherry varieties. Use a high-quality potting mix enriched with organic matter and a pinch of garden lime to supply calcium and prevent blossom end rot. As temps drop, hanging baskets and small pots can be carried indoors. Wheel heavier tomato pots and trellis combos inside using a caddy like the Bloem 14-Inch Terracotta Rolling Plant Caddy from Amazon.

5. Short Root Carrots

Carrots are notorious for becoming stunted or twisted in rocky or clay-heavy beds. Containers eliminate those obstacles entirely. In a deep pot filled with fine, loose potting soil, root tips push downward effortlessly, producing tidy shapes as well as delectable flavors. Choose a pot 10-12 inches (25-30cm) deep with clear drainage holes. Fill with a fine blend of coconut coir, potting soil, and perlite. Sow thinly across the surface, dusting lightly with vermiculite, and keep damp until the fronds appear.

Fall carrots harvested after crisp nights are extraordinarily sweet, and this is a great month for sowing fast-maturing short-root varieties. Look for round or short-conical cultivars like Paris Market, Chantenay Red Core, or Nantes Half Long. You can currently get great deals on short root options such as Thumbelina and Royal Chantenay Carrots, both available as seed packs from Eden Brothers. Just avoid high-nitrogen feeds, which cause carrots to grow bushy tops at the expense of roots.

6. Salad Greens

Just about any type of leafy salad green is easy to grow in pots: leaf lettuce, spinach, arugula, chard, kale. Greens have shallow roots, so they don’t need a lot of space. They grow quickly and benefit from being elevated, so that the leaves don’t trail in the dirt and lure as many slugs on board. Greens can suffer from too much heat in summer, so pots also allow you to move them around to catch the sun, but also move into partial shade during unexpected heat spells to prevent bolting.

Greens have shallow root systems and thrive in wide, shallow bowls 6 inches (15cm) deep in zones 2-11. Leaf lettuce is easier to grow than head lettuce. Select cut-and-come-again loose-leaf varieties like Lollo Rossa, Buttercrunch, Toscano Kale, or wild arugula. ust water consistently and add a diluted liquid seaweed tonic every 2-3 weeks. Grab a bargain with Back to the Roots Organic Gourmet Blend Lettuce Seeds from The Home Depot, which you can harvest in 35 days. Snip outer leaves as needed, leaving the central crown intact for crops up to hard freezes.

Shop Veggie Pot Essentials

To get the best performance from your potted vegetable garden through fall and beyond, these curated container essentials ensure optimal drainage, gentle health boosts, and effortless mobility when seasonal weather turns cold. Then all you have to do is sit back and wait for the yummy fall harvests to see you through to winter.

Fall Container Trio

A vegetable garden doesn’t require a lot of garden space. If you have a sunny patio or balcony, you can grow many veggies and herbs in containers with total confidence – and plenty of tasty benefits! You can double up with some of these crops in pots to make even more of having less space. Use this list as a starting point for growing inspiration, and have fun experimenting with compact, tasty container crops.

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They say that every fruit holds its secret, and that's even more true when you consider that we each have a birth month fruit!

Yes, we all know our birth flowers, and by now you may even know your birth month bird, tree, or animal. You can even find a special meaning for you in your birth month vine... so what if your birthday had a fruit, too?

There's something wonderfully satisfying about imagining that the natural world has a little personality profile waiting for each of us, especially if it comes in the form of something we can grow an our own garden. Even more so, too, if that something is edible.

All 12 Birth Month Fruits

From strawberries to pomegranates, each month has its own fruity personality. Some are sweet, some are bold, some are a little unexpected – and, frankly, all feel uncannily accurate.

So, whether you're a January baby looking for a little sunshine or a September soul who'd rather march to the beat of their own drum, let's find out which fruit represents you. And because this is Gardening Know How, let's also consider whether you can actually grow your birth month fruit at home...

January – Orange

Bright, optimistic, and impossible to ignore, oranges are the perfect birth month fruit for January babies. There's something wonderfully cheerful about a bright orange fruit appearing when much of the garden is looking decidedly sleepy, so if you're a January baby, you're probably someone who brings a little sunshine wherever you go.

You're naturally positive, energetic, and perhaps slightly more determined than people realise. You may also have a secret talent for making everyone around you feel a little better.

Grow it yourself?

Orange trees need plenty of warmth and sunshine, but dwarf varieties can be grown in containers. In cooler climates, you'll need to bring them somewhere protected from frost during winter.

Shop Orange Trees:

February – Strawberry

Sweet, sociable, and perhaps a little romantic, strawberries are a fitting fruit for February birthdays.

If this is your birth month fruit, you're warm-hearted and generous, with a tendency to make people feel at home instantly. You may also have a playful streak that comes out when you're around the people you love most.

And honestly, who wouldn't want strawberries as their personality fruit?

Grow it yourself?

Absolutely. Strawberries are among the easiest fruits for home gardeners to grow, and you don't even need a huge garden. Try growing something like these Sweet Charlie Strawberry Plants in containers, hanging baskets, or a sunny border.

March – Lemon

Fresh, energetic, and full of personality, the lemon is obviously the only contender for March's birth month fruit.

You're curious and adaptable, with a knack for finding the bright side of even slightly sour situations. You're also not afraid to say what you think – although you probably manage to do it with enough charm that people forgive you.

Grow it yourself?

Lemon trees (like this Meyer Lemon Tree from Brighter Blooms) love sunshine and warmth, but compact varieties can be grown in pots. If you live somewhere cold, keep your tree somewhere protected and bring it indoors when temperatures drop.

April – Cherry

If you're an April baby, your fruit is the cherry – beautiful, fleeting, and impossible to ignore. Hardly a surprise, of course, as cherries are associated with joy, beauty, and appreciation, making them a fitting match for people who tend to notice the little things.

You're likely sociable and optimistic, with a talent for turning an ordinary day into something memorable. And, much like a cherry blossom, you probably know how to make an entrance.

Grow it yourself?

Cherry trees need plenty of sunshine and space, but dwarf varieties can make home growing much more manageable. Just remember that pollination requirements vary between varieties, so check before you buy (personally, I'm a fan of this Stella Cherry Tree from Nature Hills).

May – Apple

Reliable, generous, and quietly confident, the apple is a classic choice for May birthdays. If this is your fruit, you're the person everyone knows they can rely on, because, while you may not always demand attention, you're usually the first person people call when they need help.

There's also something wonderfully wholesome about having an apple as your birth month fruit. Very garden-to-table.

Grow it yourself?

Yes – although you'll need to choose a variety suited to your climate and available space. Something like this lovely Honeycrisp Apple Tree from Nature Hills promises beautiful apples and a buzz of happy pollinators, too!

June – Peach

Warm, affectionate, and full of summer energy, peaches are a fitting birth month fruit for June babies. You're likely generous with your time and attention, and you have a talent for making people feel comfortable around you. You also have a softer side, even if you don't always show it straight away.

And, naturally, you probably have excellent taste. How could you not, right?

Grow it yourself?

Peaches need warmth, sunshine, and a little patience, but they're very rewarding if you have the right conditions. Look for a variety suited to your USDA hardiness zone (this Elberta Peach Tree from Brighter Blooms is a great option) and give it a sunny, sheltered position.

July – Raspberry

July's birth month fruit is the raspberry, which suits all those who are energetic, independent, and just a little bit wild.

You don't necessarily like following the crowd, and you're happiest when you have the freedom to do things your own way. Beneath that independent streak, though, you're incredibly loyal to the people you care about. Just... just like a raspberry, obviously.

Grow it yourself?

Raspberries are surprisingly easy to grow, provided you give them fertile soil, plenty of sun, and something to support their canes. Just be prepared for them to spread if you don't keep them in check.

Shop Raspberries:

August – Fig

Figs are luxurious, unusual, and slightly mysterious – making them an excellent match for confident and creative August babies.

Hardly surprising, but figgy babies everywhere know how to enjoy the good things in life. Because, yes, they're the kind of people who would happily eat fresh figs in the garden while everyone else is still deciding what to barbecue.

Grow it yourself?

Figs can be surprisingly easy to grow, especially in warm climates. In cooler areas, grow them in a container so you can protect the roots and move the tree somewhere sheltered if necessary. The Violette de Bordeaux Fig Plant from Burpee is said to supply the very finest tasting figs around, so snap one up!

September – Pear

Need a sign to plant a pear tree? If you're born in September, this is it; it's only your very own birth month fruit!

Calm, thoughtful, and quietly elegant, if you're a September baby, you're probably someone who thinks before they act. You're observant, practical, and good at spotting details other people miss. You might not always be the loudest person in the room, but people tend to listen when you speak... and hey, that's way more important in the long run.

Grow it yourself?

Pear trees can make excellent additions to a home orchard, but many varieties benefit from having another compatible pear nearby for pollination. Choose carefully based on your space and climate.

October – Pomegranate

Dramatic, passionate, and packed with hidden depth, the pomegranate is an excellent birth month fruit for October babies like yours truly!

Like the fruit itself, we may not reveal everything about ourselves immediately (we love that sense of mystery, right?). We're also thoughtful, intense, and probably have more going on beneath the surface than people first realise.

We're also not afraid of a little drama, and that isn't always a bad thing. Drama is basically a byline for passion, after all.

Grow it yourself?

Pomegranates need plenty of sunshine and warmth, making them best suited to warmer climates. In cooler areas, a container-grown tree can be a better option, provided you can give it enough light and protect it from freezing temperatures. Something like this Dwarf Pomegranate Fruit Bearing Starter Fruit Tree from Gurney's could be ideal!

November – Persimmon

Sweet, elegant, and ever so slightly mysterious, the persimmon is November's birth month fruit. If this is you, then you're resilient, patient, and perhaps a little underestimated. You don't necessarily need to be the centre of attention, but when your moment comes, you tend to make the most of it.

There's also something wonderfully autumnal about a persimmon – which makes it almost too perfect for November.

Grow it yourself?

American persimmons (like this one from Ginger Glow) can be surprisingly hardy and make beautiful additions to an edible garden. Just check whether you need a male and female tree, or choose a self-fertile variety if you have limited space.

December – Blueberry

Last but by no means least, the blueberry is December's birth month fruit.

Sweet, spirited, and full of surprises, a December baby is curious and enthusiastic, not to mention always looking ahead to the next adventure. They are also adaptable, which is useful because they tend to have a habit of saying yes before they've fully considered what they've agreed to.

And while blueberries might look small, they certainly aren't short on personality — much like the incredible December-born people in our lives.

Grow it yourself?

Blueberries are excellent additions to a home garden, and many varieties can be grown in containers. They need acidic soil, plenty of sunshine, and regular watering, so choose a specialist compost like this one from Down To Earth if you're growing them in a pot.

Shop Blueberries:

Whether you're a strawberry, a fig, a raspberry, or something a little more unexpected, there's something rather lovely about finding another way to connect ourselves with the natural world.

Of course, your birth month fruit doesn't actually determine your personality; you're much too precious and complicated for that. But if your symbolic fruit happens to feel strangely accurate, why not lean into it? Or, better still, try growing it.

After all, there's no better way to celebrate your birth month than with something beautiful, delicious, and growing in your own garden, right?

Tomato plants in September sit in a strange spot. Days still feel like summer, but nights have cooled and the light is shorter, and the plant keeps throwing out flowers it has no chance of finishing. Most gardeners let it ride until frost takes the whole thing down. That leaves a lot of fruit on the table.

Most of the advice on how to grow tomatoes covers the first half of the season, back when more of everything was the goal. September flips that. The work now is mostly subtraction – cutting off what will never finish so the plant spends what daylight is left on fruit that can.

Here are the top tasks to do in September to get the most out of your tomato plant before the season ends.

What to Do With Tomatoes in September

How urgent these tasks are come down to your average first frost date. Count backward from that date to decide what to tackle first.

1. Top the Vines

Pruning the growing tip off each main stem of your tomato plants and they will stop growing and ripen the existing fruit instead. The energy will go into swelling and coloring the fruit that's already set. Four to six weeks ahead of the average first frost is the window for this type of tomato pruning, which for much of the country, puts it right about mid-September.

Indeterminate tomatoes are the plants that need this pruning technique. Determinate tomato varieties wrap up on their own and tend to get set back by early topping.

Make the cut just above the highest cluster with a realistic shot, and leave enough leaf cover that the fruit underneath doesn’t scald. Use a sharp, clean pair of pruners. Home Depot carries the Fiskars classic bypass pruning shears that get through green stems without crushing them.

2. Strip Late Flowers & Fruit

It feels wasteful to pull blossoms off a healthy plant. It isn’t. A tomato flower needs roughly six to eight weeks to become ripe fruit, and cool nights stretch that out further. Any flowers opening now are a draw on the plant's energy resources, but produce nothing to show for it. The same goes for fruit that's no bigger than a marble.

Pinch off flowers and small fruit with your fingers as you walk the row. Go back through in a week or two to do another pass. Topping usually prompts a flush of side shoots that also waste energy. Pluck off any tomato suckers that appear as well.

3. Remove Diseased Foliage

Small round spots with pale centers on the lower leaves point to septoria leaf spot (Septoria lycopersici). Bull’s-eye rings inside a dark spot usually mean early blight (Alternaria solani). Both need wet foliage to spread and both overwinter in plant debris, so removing diseased foliage is vital to keep next year's garden healthy.

Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) is the one to move fast to remove. Greasy dark patches creeping in from the leaf margin, sometimes with white fuzz on the underside in damp weather.

Bag infected material instead of composting it and wipe your pruner blades between plants. It’s a containment measure, not a cure. But it's important to clean up diseased plants now to prevent issues next summer.

4. Keep Watering Evenly

September rain often arrives in bursts after dry stretches, and that swing is a common cause of splitting tomatoes. Fruit that's already at full size pulls water in faster than the skin can stretch. Watering tomatoes steadily at the root zone is the fix rather than more water overall.

A soaker hose handles this better than a wand and keeps the foliage dry, which is half the battle with leaf disease. Walmart stocks the Expert Gardener soaker hose that's cheap enough to buy two without putting much of a dent in your wallet. Tuck mulch over the top of it if there isn’t any down already.

5. Get Frost Covers Ready

Frost warnings rarely give more than a day or two of notice, and hunting for a tarp at dusk is how plants get missed and accidentally frozen. A floating row cover buys somewhere between 2 and 8°F (1-4°C) depending on weight, which is often the gap between losing everything and picking fresh tomatoes for another two weeks.

These Agfabric plant covers from Lowe’s are the light-duty option. Heavier grades hold more warmth, but cut more light. Old bedsheets work in a pinch. Run whatever you use down to the ground and weigh the edges with rocks or bricks to prevent heat escaping out the sides.

6. Harvest Mature Green Tomatoes

Green tomatoes that you pick ahead of a freeze ripens well, but only if they have hit maturity – full-sized with the skin shifted from flat dark green to pale whitish or yellow-green. Anything still small and dark won’t color up properly and is better off in a jar of relish.

Chilling injury sets in around 50°F (10°C) out on the vine and wrecks flavor before you ever pick. Clip each fruit with a short stub of stem attached. Sorting by ripeness helps a batch finish together. Hold them between 55 and 70°F (13-21°C). Add a banana to the box to speed up ripening.

7. Save Seeds From the Best Plants

This one’s easy to skip and easy to regret, but saving tomato seeds is a great way to save money next year and grow more of your favorite crop. Squeeze seeds and gel from a fully ripe fruit off the best plant in the row into a jar, add an inch (2.5 cm) of water, and leave it loosely covered on the counter.

Three to five days on, a film forms across the top and the viable seeds have sunk to the bottom of the jar. The fermenting process strips the gel coat, which carries germination inhibitors and can shelter seedborne disease. Rinse seeds clean and spread them to dry, then label and store in an envelope. Open-pollinated heirloom tomato seeds come back true; hybrids don’t.

Two tomatoes on the same vine can have completely different futures. One has finished growing and is only waiting on warmth and ethylene to turn it red. The other is still filling out and probably won't get the chance. Every trick below works on the first one and does almost nothing for the second.

Most of what gets written about growing tomatoes in the closing weeks comes down to a single move: take jobs away from the plant so it finishes the ones it started. That part is sound. Past it, ripening runs on ethylene and temperature, and temperature is the variable a gardener can still nudge in late September.

Which Tomatoes Will Ripen?

Size and shade tell you almost everything. A tomato that has stopped swelling and gone from dark green to a pale, nearly whitish green has reached what growers call mature green. That one finishes ripening on its own, whether on the vine or indoors, and the flavor holds up fine. A hard, matte, undersized tomato is still in the middle of growing. Fruit at that stage tends to rot before it turns.

The calendar backs the eye up here. Pollination to full size runs something like six to eight weeks, so a blossom that opened in early September was never in the race. Pinching those off costs nothing. Whatever survives that triage is the real crop, and it's usually a smaller pile than it looks from the driveway.

Three Moves That Work

Three to four weeks ahead of the average first frost date is when this becomes useful. Earlier and you're ending the season by hand. Later and there's nothing left to work with.

1. Snap Off the Top

Take the growing tip off each main stem, then strip the flowers and marble-sized fruit underneath. It feels harsh. A plant only has so much sugar to hand out, and every blossom opening in late September is a claim on sugar that could be finishing a tomato instead. Amazon sells a classic bypass hand pruner if the stems have gone woody, though a thumbnail handles soft new growth. One caveat: this suits rangy indeterminate vines. Determinate types set a fixed crop and can lose yield when they get cut back heavily.

2. Water Less

Advice to shut irrigation off completely turns up everywhere, and it overshoots. Once fruit stops getting bigger, it's good to cut the amount you water tomatoes in half – that is shown to raise sugar content consistently across trials.

Going bone dry is a different animal. Plants swing back sharply when water returns, and split tomato skins and blossom end rot follow. So taper it down instead. The payoff here is flavor more than speed, which is useful to know before rebuilding a watering schedule around it.

3. Trap Heat at Night

Color development wants 68-77F (20-25C). Push past 85F (29C) and the plant quits making lycopene altogether. Drop under 50F (10C) and green fruit collects chilling injury instead of color. September nights sit right at that lower edge in a lot of places, which is where a cover earns its keep.

A floating row cover from Home Depot goes straight over cages and buys back a few degrees. Throw it on before sunset rather than at bedtime, while the ground is still radiating the day's warmth. Clear plastic holds more of it and has to come off by mid-morning. Fruit already showing a blush responds to all this far more than hard green fruit does.

The Spade Trick, and Why It Probably Doesn't Do What You Think

Here's one floating around. Sink a spade into the soil about 6 inches (15cm) from the stem, sever the outer roots, and the plant supposedly panics and rushes everything to ripeness. It's a satisfying story. The trouble is that a tomato past mature green ripens on its own ethylene, more or less independent of what the roots are up to, and there isn't much research pointing either way on the technique. What root cutting reliably produces this late in the season is a wilted plant. The gentler tug-the-base version probably does even less.

If the Frost Wins Anyway

Pick before the first hard night rather than after it. Green fruit that sits through a 40F (4C) night comes indoors already compromised. Hang a wireless min-max thermometer from Walmart out in the bed and you'll know what the plants are getting, which is rarely what a countywide forecast says.

Clip tomatoes with a short stub of stem attached; a torn shoulder is an open door for rot. Then sort the harvest by color so like ripens with like, and hold it at 55-70F (13-21C). A cardboard box in a spare bedroom is close to perfect. The refrigerator strips flavor out of anything not fully ripe, and a sunny windowsill overheats by afternoon.

Anything still hard and dark green when the vines come down is headed for the fryer or the relish jar. That isn't the worst ending for a September that got away from you.

If you’re growing heirloom tomatoes this summer, then it’s a simple September garden job to save tomato seeds so you can grow free plants next year. What’s more, harvest tomato seeds and you won’t only save money but create plants that are perfectly suited to the growing conditions in your garden or greenhouse. Save your own tomato seeds every year and you will create stronger, happier, healthier plants. And you know what that means: you'll grow even more tasty tomatoes, year after year!

One average-sized tomato typically carries a hundred or more seeds, so you don’t need to sacrifice much of your precious crop. Strong tomato seed – and this method magically separates the strongest seeds to harvest – remains viable for five years, too.

You can only save seeds from heirloom or open-pollinated tomato varieties (those that are pollinated naturally by bees) but this encompasses most of the tomatoes we all love to grow at home from Brandywine beefsteaks and San Marzano plum tomatoes to smoky heirloom Black Cherry and tangy Green Zebra. Don’t bother saving seed from F1 hybrid tomato varieties as it won't produce the same plant.

Here’s how to save tomato seeds and store them safely to enjoy free plants and abundant harvests next year.

1. Pick a Perfect Tomato

Select your strongest, most productive tomato plant, and pick the very best tomato you can find that’s fully mature and slightly overripe.

2. Extract the Seeds

Slice the tomato in half then scoop out the seeds and their jelly-like pulp into a glass jar. With smaller tomatoes, you can simply squeeze the seeds straight into a clean glass jar. Label each jar if you’re saving a few different tomato varieties.

3. Soak the Seed

Next you’re going to soak the seed. Fermenting tomato seeds in this way separates the seed from the pulp, which is vital as this gel inhibits germination. Pour water into the jar, aiming for a 1:1 ratio so there’s a roughly equal volume of tomato seeds and water. Lay a square of paper towel over the opening and secure with a rubber band around the jar rim to keep out flies without obstructing airflow.

Now wait a few days for the mix to ferment and the gel to break down. Keep the jar out of direct sunlight but in a warm spot where you’ll see it, because you need to remember to agitate the mix by giving it a gentle swirl every day. A kitchen countertop next to the kettle is perfect!

4. Separate the Seed from the Pulp

The mix is ready when, looking at the jar from the side, you can see it has started to separate with the pulp floating to the top and some seeds sunk to the bottom. This typically takes 4-5 days. A layer of mold or scum may also form across the surface when fermenting tomato seed, and that’s nothing to worry about. Pour in more water and, as the seeds settle, those that sink to the bottom are the heavy, viable seeds you want to keep. Those that float to the surface along with any scum or mold should be discarded.

Slowly tip the jar so the pulp and scum layer runs out but the viable seeds remain in the jar, or use a spoon to scoop that top goop out. Repeat the process of adding water to the jar, letting the heavy seeds settle and pouring off the top layer, to clean the remaining seeds. For a final rinse, tip the seeds into a fine-mesh sieve and hold under running cold water, rubbing seeds with the back of a wooden spoon to remove any last bits of gel if needs be.

5. Dry the Cleaned Seed

Tip the seed onto paper towel and pat dry, then put on a non-stick surface such as a glass chopping board or a glazed plate. Leave them to dry for 2 weeks out of direct sunlight but in a warm spot with good airflow, gently separating any clumps after a couple of days.

6. Store Seeds Safely

Once seeds are fully dry, put them in a paper envelope and store in a dark, cool, dry spot. A tin in a frost-free garage is ideal, and adding a sachet of silica gel to your seed tin will hoover up any damp and prevent seeds molding. If you're a keen tomato grower and saving seed from lots of different varieties, a seed storage box with separate compartments like this 64-Slot Seed Organizer Box from Walmart makes it easy to sort seed, and it effectively blocks moisture to retain 98% seed viability.

Easy! And now you have a store of tomato seed that you know is well suited to the exact growing conditions in your garden or greenhouse, for a bigger, better crop next summer. Keep growing tomatoes and harvesting and storing seed for a few years and, especially if you have the room to grow a few plants, you can evolve the variety to suit your tastes too. You’ll find one plant produces particularly tasty tomatoes, grows extra-long trusses of fruit, or brings a heavy harvest in a relatively compact space, and by selecting those seeds you can bring that beneficial trait to the fore. And then you have the exact right tomato to grow in your garden space and you’re not just growing heirloom tomatoes but your very own heirloom tomatoes.

You'll no doubt save far too many seeds, but tomato seeds make great little gifts. Write growing instructions on the envelope, pop it in a terracotta pot along with a couple of coco coir soil pellets such as these from Amazon and tie with a ribbon to give to family and friends at Christmas.

Can I Save Seed from Shop-Bought Tomatoes?

Most tomatoes sold in grocery stores are produced from F1 hybrid tomato varieties, so it's not worth saving the seed. Grow your own heirloom tomatoes from seed next year, then save the seed from the harvested fruit. A great place to start your journey is with Burpee's Rainbow Blend of heirloom tomato seedswhich has a colorful mix of six varieties including yellow 'Golden Sunburst', orange 'Djena Lees Golden Girl', red 'Bonny Best, pink 'Brandywine Pink', purple 'Black Krim' and green 'Evergreen'.

Every tomato patch hands over a second harvest at the end of the season, and almost nobody uses it. Spent tomato vines hold minerals the plant spent all summer collecting, and they hold enough structure to be built with. Sending them to the curb in a bag wastes both. What narrows the options is disease, not the material itself.

Good end of season tomato plant care starts with sorting the vines. Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) and powdery mildew (Pseudoidium neolycopersici) do the most damage during the season, though both need living tissue and die along with the plant. What lingers on dead stems is early blight (Alternaria linariae) and Septoria leaf spot (Septoria lycopersici), and a cold heap carries either one straight through to spring. One rule runs through all of it: only clean material gets a second life.

1. Burn the Dry Vines and Save the Ash

Vines have to be bone dry before they burn cleanly, so stack them somewhere sheltered for a few weeks first. Check local burn regulations before lighting anything. Plenty of counties restrict open burning outright, or allow it only in certain months. A contained burn can from Walmart keeps embers off dry grass in a way a loose bonfire pile can’t.

What is left is the mineral fraction of everything the plant pulled up all summer. Garden ash behaves much like wood ash, carrying potassium, a good deal of calcium, and enough liming effect to move soil pH in a single season. Spread it thin, no more than a five-gallon bucket's worth over 1,000 square feet (93sqm) of ground already sitting close to neutral. Keep it off blueberries and anything else that wants acid. Skip the potato bed altogether, because higher pH is what favors scab.

2. Char Them Instead if You Want Biochar

Burning and charring are not the same operation, and the difference matters here. Complete combustion leaves nothing but mineral ash. Pyrolysis – burning with the oxygen choked back – leaves biochar, which holds the carbon skeleton and the pore structure that makes it worth putting in soil.

Stems this thin do not give up much. One whole season of vines might char down to a few handfuls. This works best as an add-on when woodier material is going into the same burn anyway, like prunings or spent stakes. Crush the finished char and let it sit in compost or a bucket of diluted fish emulsion for a couple of weeks. Raw char pulls nutrients out of soil before it starts giving any back.

3. Bury Them Deep... Just Not under Next Year's Tomatoes

Burial beats a cold heap outright. Soil biology is faster and more thorough. Dig a trench 12 inches (30cm) deep, lay the chopped vines in, and cover it back over. Chopping matters more than it sounds. A bypass lopper from Amazon run through the thick basal stems turns a tangle into something that packs flat and breaks down evenly.

Placement is where this goes wrong. Never trench tomato debris under ground slated for tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, or potatoes next season. Early blight and Septoria both persist in soil and old debris. Two to three years away from solanaceous crops is the standard rotation. Brassica and allium beds are both fine. Beans work too, and the nitrogen they fix offsets some of what the decomposing stems tie up.

4. Weave the Sturdiest Stems into a Trellis or Wreath

Clean vines only, and only ones still supple. Main stems on an indeterminate tomato plant turn properly woody by September, and pulled fresh they bend without snapping. Give them an hour in the sun to lose a little water first, then coil the longest ones into a ring and tuck the loose ends back through themselves.

Expect one season out of it. Those stems are pithy and go brittle as they dry, so a woven trellis is a summer object rather than a permanent structure. Wreaths last better indoors where they stay dry. Green stems shrink as they cure, so weave tighter than looks right and bind the coil at three or four points with jute. Loose rings fall apart by November.

5. Lay Them Down as a Path Liner

Walkways between beds are the easiest place to absorb a lot of bulk. Lay the vines flat down the middle of a path, overlap them, and cover the lot with wood chips or straw. They block light well enough to hold weeds back through fall and winter. By spring most of what is underneath has flattened into a mat.

One trade-off comes with it. Damp mats of vines and chips are the shelter gray field slugs (Deroceras reticulatum) hunt for over winter, so keep it on the path itself and off the bed edges. Skip any path bordering next year’s nightshades for a separate reason. Rain splash onto lower leaves is exactly how early blight gets started in the first place.

6. Steep Clean Foliage into a Pest Spray

This one carries more caveats than the rest. Tomato foliage contains tomatine and related alkaloids. The old kitchen method steeps two cups (475ml) of chopped leaves in a quart (950ml) of water overnight, then strains and dilutes it before use. Gardeners have used it on aphids and small caterpillars for generations. Hard evidence is thin – the whole practice is anecdotal rather than trial-backed.

Two rules are not optional. Use foliage only from plants that showed no symptoms all season. Tomato mosaic virus survives in dried debris for up to two years and travels by simple contact. A sprayer full of infected leaf water is about the most efficient way to spread it that anyone has invented. Never put it on other nightshades. Keep the finished solution away from pets and children, and run it through a dedicated pump sprayer from Home Depot rather than one that also handles herbicide.

Heavily diseased plants get none of this. Bag them, leave the bag in full sun for a few days so the tissue and whatever lives in it die off, then put it out with household trash. Everything else in that pile is just material nobody has sorted yet.

September is an important transition time for lavender plants. They are replacing strong summer growth with winter and cold weather preparation. Lavender is a relatively low-maintenance task, but a few well-timed and simple chores now can help them survive winter and be ready for healthy growth and abundant flowers next year.

September lavender care is simple and focused on helping your plants prep for the colder months as growth winds down. A little pruning, a drainage check, and steps to keep lavender warm enough over winter are adequate steps for maintaining this healthy, thriving perennial.

Lavender is generally low maintenance. If you do nothing for it now, it will probably grow again in spring, but it won’t be its best self. Providing a little bit of extra care in September doesn’t take much time, but it rewards you hugely with healthier, more abundant growth next year. Follow these tips and your lavender will thank you with dense growth and lush, fragrant blooms.

1. Harvest & Trim Lightly

Depending on your growing region, climate, and weather, you might still have time to harvest lavender flowers this month. Make the most of your plants by gathering this last harvest. Flowers are most useful before they’ve started shedding.

Even if you can’t use the flowers now, it’s best to trim them off. Use sharp, clean shears, like these pro-approved Felco pruners from Amazon, and also trim back some of the green growth. Keep this lavender pruning light, just to maintain a good size and shape.

Save heavy pruning for late winter or early spring. This is especially important where winters are cold, as too much trimming can trigger new growth that receives cold damage later. Always avoid cutting woody stems, as these rarely regrow.

2. Reduce Watering for Fall

As temperatures cool and your lavender is no longer actively growing, it needs less water. Rain tends to be more consistent in the fall, reducing the need for supplemental water even more. Now is the right time to taper off watering rather than stopping it altogether.

Check the soil to determine when to water next. Water when the top three to four inches (8-10 cm) of soil are dry and water deeply at the soil level. Do not do any overhead watering. Excess water on the plant now can cause harm by encouraging common lavender diseases.

Keep in mind that, at this time of year in particular, it’s more harmful to overwater than to underwater your lavender plants. Use a soil moister meter, like this one from Amazon, to get rid of any guesswork and keep plants perfectly watered.

3. Check Soil & Improve Drainage

Lavender needs soil that is light and drains well. It will suffer and ultimately die in heavy, soggy soil, especially as cooler weather sets in in fall and winter. September is a good time to check on the soil and roots, especially if you have had a wet and rainy summer.

Gently dig into the soil around the plant to determine if it is holding too much water. If it feels wet, even days after rain, amend the soil by carefully working in coarse sand or pea gravel. Faster-draining soil will help your lavender plants maintain healthy roots throughout fall rains and winter snow that turns into spring snowmelt.

4. Touch Up Mulch

If you had mulch around your lavender plants all summer, it’s time to check on it. Heavy organic mulch, like compost or shredded bark, can be useful in summer. But in fall and winter, it can hold too much moisture. Remove or thin this mulch, especially if it has broken down and deteriorated over the summer.

Consider adding a layer of pea gravel, which you can get at the Home Depot, or grit mulch around your lavender plants. This provides some protection from colder temperatures and can also improve drainage. It’s a better option than organic mulches at this point in the season. Aim for a depth of about one inch (2.5 cm) of mulch.

5. Prep & Protect Potted Lavender

If you grow lavender in containers, those plants will need a little extra care. Go through the same care tasks here for bedded plants. Harvest any remaining flowers, give it a light trim, and check on drainage. Have the holes at the bottom of the pot gotten clogged or the soil compacted? If so, correct these issues now.

Your potted plants always need more water, as the soil dries out more quickly, but this is still a good time to start tapering it off. As for winter protection, container plants need more. There are two options: bring the containers indoors or protect potted plants outside.

If you have very cold winters, it may be best to bring containers inside. Even a garage should provide adequate warmth to keep them alive over winter. If your winters are less harsh, you can protect containers outdoors by grouping them together, moving them to more protected areas, and wrapping the pots with landscaping cloth, burlap (available from Ace Hardware), or even bubble wrap.

Seasonal Gardening Shopping Inspiration

As we head into the colder months, now is a great time to create next year's perfect plot. This is what our team is shopping: