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The Best Way to Store Empty Pots Before Freezing Nights

Those empty flowerpots sitting beside the garage may look like one fall chore you can safely postpone until spring, but freezing weather can turn an expensive container into a pile of cracked pottery. The problem isn’t simply cold temperatures; moisture that gets into porous materials can freeze, expand, and damage…

Frugal Gardening · 13h ago

How to Prevent Weeds From Taking Over Fall Garden Beds

By October, it is tempting to look at a fading garden and declare weed season officially over. Unfortunately, chickweed, henbit, dandelions, bindweed, and other winter annual or perennial weeds may have very different plans, and ignoring them now can mean considerably more work next spring. The University of Illinois notes…

Frugal Gardening · 14h ago

The Right Fertilizer Timing for Cool-Season Lawns

If your lawn struggled through summer heat, your first instinct may be to grab a bag of fertilizer as soon as the weather cools down. That’s not necessarily wrong, but cool-season lawn fertilizer timing matters almost as much as what’s inside the bag. Grasses such as tall fescue, Kentucky bluegrass,…

Frugal Gardening · 14h ago

How to Plant Spring-Blooming Bulbs Before the Soil Freezes

By October, a garden can look like it’s winding down, but one of the best opportunities for inexpensive spring color is actually happening underground. Tulips, daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, and many other spring-blooming bulbs are planted in fall so they can establish roots and receive the cold exposure they need before…

Frugal Gardening · Oct 6

Fall Watering Rules for Newly Planted Trees and Shrubs

Cool October weather can fool you into thinking the watering can and garden hose are finished for the year. Newly planted trees and shrubs tell a different story because their limited root systems still need moisture even after summer heat disappears and leaves begin dropping. University of Minnesota notes that…

Frugal Gardening · Oct 6

Why Raking Leaves Off the Lawn Still Matters

“Leave the leaves” has become popular garden advice, and there are good reasons not to send every fallen leaf to the landfill. Leaves provide organic matter, nutrients, mulch, and habitat, so the old idea that every yard should be spotless by November deserves reconsideration. But your lawn is one place…

Frugal Gardening · Oct 6

Why Cannas Need Special Care Before Winter Storage

Cannas can make an ordinary garden look tropical all summer, with huge leaves and brightly colored flowers that sometimes continue until frost. The problem arrives when temperatures plunge, because these heat-loving plants aren’t equipped to handle frozen ground in colder climates. Their underground rhizomes can be saved and replanted, however,…

Frugal Gardening · Oct 5

How to Lift and Store Dahlia Tubers Before Freezing Weather

Dahlias can bloom spectacularly right into fall, which makes it painful to watch freezing weather turn a thriving plant black almost overnight. The flowers may be finished, but the valuable part of the plant is still underground: the cluster of tubers capable of producing next year’s plants. In colder climates,…

Frugal Gardening · Oct 5

The Right Way to Cut Back Hostas After Frost

Hostas put on one of the best foliage displays in a shade garden all summer, but they aren’t particularly attractive once cold weather arrives. After a hard frost, those broad green leaves can quickly collapse into a yellow, brown or slimy mass lying over the soil. That’s normal: hostas are…

Frugal Gardening · Oct 5

Why Some Perennials Should Be Left Standing Through Winter

When the first hard frost turns a perennial garden brown, grabbing the pruners can feel like the obvious next step. But those dead-looking coneflowers, asters, and ornamental grasses may still be doing important work long after their flowers disappear. Standing stems can shelter overwintering insects, seed heads can feed birds,…

Frugal Gardening · Oct 5