- Water everything deeply-- perennial beds, trees, shrubs, and lawn-- if weather has been dry.
- Draw up garden plans now. Try something new this year! Check the catalogs and scan garden center seed racks. Look for disease-resistant vegetable varieties.
- Decide whether to buy annuals and vegetables from a garden center or to start your own from seed. Order seeds now, if you are going to start them indoors.
- Cut back to 3 inch stubs Buddleia davidii (the fall-blooming butterfly bush), Caryopteris candensis (blue-mist spirea), Perovskia atriplicifolia (Russian sage), and other late summer-blooming shrubs.
- Start pansies indoors from seed in early January.
- Recycle Christmas greens by laying them over perennial beds for winter protection.
