Organic Gardening News

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 Fruits1. 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.

(Image credit: Getty Images)2. Halt All New Growth

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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.

(Image credit: Getty Images)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

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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.

(Image credit: PhotoJuli86 / Shutterstock)

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.

Make a Christmas Cactus Flower

Christmas cactus blooms are a delightful part of holiday decor, and there’s a very easy way to persuade your plant to flower on time.

Plant Pansies

Tuck cold-hardy pansies into pots and hanging baskets for months of easy-breezy fall-to-winter blooms.

Add lawn bulbs

Plant fast-growing bulbs in your lawn and enjoy drifts of lavender-hued blooms in a few weeks.

Revive Pots

Treat tired plants in pots to some tomato feed and fuel another flush of fresh flowers.

Boost Roses

Remove suckers that are stealing energy from your rose shrubs and enjoy bigger blooms next summer.

Groom Grasses

Use a $4 dog comb to give ornamental grasses a quick groom and save yourself hours weeding in spring.

Trim Lavender

Prune spent lavender stems so your plant has time to grow a duvet of dense foliage to survive winter well.

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.

(Image credit: Hank Erdmann / Alamy)

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

(Image credit: Stanislav Ostranitsa / Getty Images)

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

(Image credit: Bildagentur Online McPhoto / Alamy)

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

(Image credit: Katrin Ray Shumakov / Getty Images)

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

(Image credit: Westend61 / Getty Images)

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

(Image credit: Seven75 / Getty Images)

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

(Image credit: Karina Matvejeva / Getty Images)

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.

(Image credit: Bildagentur Online McPhoto / Alamy)

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!

Old towels, in my house, have traditionally had a pretty short life once they stop being soft. I prefer mine fluffy, so as soon as they start resembling sandpaper-rough rags, I’d either gift them to my greyhound-cross (he’s not fussy) or, I’m ashamed to admit, chuck them.

My husband, though? He’s been a professional gardener for well over two decades, and apparently sees potential where I see an old towel. According to him, there are several surprisingly useful ways to reuse old towels in the garden – and, annoyingly, he’s got a point.

Usually, I’m the recycling queen in our house, turning old teacups into bird feeders and milk cartons into bird houses (birds, it seems, do rather well out of my craftiness). So it was a bit of a kick in the teeth to discover I’d been bested by the same man who can cook up a storm in the kitchen and coax even my most stubborn houseplants back to life after I’ve neglected them. Leave something for the rest of us, sir!

7 Ways To Reuse Old Towels In The Garden

All that being said, I wasn’t convinced. How on earth could an old towel possibly be useful in a garden?

“Think about it,” my husband told me when I put this question to him one weekend. “A towel is designed to deal with water, it’s hard-wearing, and it’s easy to cut or fold. Why throw it away when you can give it another job?”

Annoyingly, the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. And so, with that in mind, here are his tried-and-tested methods for putting old towels to use in the garden..

1. Keep One Handy For A Surprise Frost

(Image credit: JSvideos / Shutterstock)

This was the first suggestion that made me realise my husband might actually be onto something. “I always keep a couple of old towels somewhere in the shed,” he suggested to me. “You never know when you’re going to get one of those unexpected frosty nights.”

An old towel can be used as temporary protection for a vulnerable plant when frost is forecast, the idea being to cover the plant and trap some of the heat coming from the soil around it. However, there is a small but important caveat here: he wouldn’t simply dump a heavy towel over delicate foliage and leave it there. "It's not breathable and it doesn't let light in," he says, "and it should be supported so it isn’t pressing down on the plant. Make sure, too, to remove it once temperatures rise above freezing."

It’s a useful emergency measure rather than a replacement for proper winter protection, basically; something like these Plant Covers Freeze Protection from Amazon will be far more effective. But, if your delivery isn't due until the day after the first frost snap, then trust me: you’d much rather have a slightly tatty old towel ready to hand than let your favorite plant spend the night looking like it’s been left in a freezer.

2. Create A Water Wick

(Image credit: DimaBerlin / Shutterstock)

Yes, you can use old towels as a slow watering hack, and it's a particularly clever trick if you have container plants that dry out quickly. “This is a good one if you’re going away for a few days,” says my husband. “You can use a strip of old cotton towel to move water from a container into the compost.”

It works through capillary action; just cut a narrow strip of absorbent cotton towel, soak it thoroughly, then put one end into a container of water and the other into the potting mix. As the compost dries, the towel can draw water from the reservoir towards the plant.

It's not going to be as effective as, say, a Back to the Roots Self-Watering Terracotta Olla Pot (which promises a week of watering), but it'll do in a pinch. Just remember to test it out before you go away, as different towels wick water at different rates, and you don’t want to return home to either a parched plant or a pot that’s been turned into a swamp.

3. Use It As A Potting Mat

(Image credit: Nicola Stockden / Gardenpix Ltd)

Oh sure, this may not be the most exciting use of an old towel, but it’s one I can see myself adopting immediately.

“This is less about helping the plant and more about saving yourself a mess,” my husband says. "Lay an old towel underneath your pots when you’re repotting, dividing plants or filling containers. It'll catch loose compost, spilled water and all those tiny bits of soil that somehow manage to travel several feet away from where you’re actually gardening."

When you’re finished, you can shake the towel outside and give it a wash if necessary, making this hack particularly handy if, like me, you occasionally attempt to repot a plant indoors and then spend the next hour discovering compost in increasingly unlikely places.

4. Give Weeds A Blackout

(Image credit: Yackers1 / Getty Images)

For particularly stubborn weeds, an old natural-fiber towel can also be used as a temporary light-blocking layer. “If you’ve got an area you’re clearing, you can cover it for a while and stop the weeds getting any light,” says my husband.

The principle is the same as other forms of weed-smothering: block the light and you make life considerably harder for the plants underneath. Still, I’d use this as a short-term tactic rather than burying towels permanently beneath a border. Choose a 100% cotton towel, weigh it down so it stays put and remove it once you’re ready to deal with the area (or use something like Amazon's Biodegradable Weed Barrier).

And, as ever, check what the towel is actually made from before putting it in the garden. (Synthetic fibers aren’t what we’re after here).

5. Make A Free Kneeling Pad

(Image credit: Grace Cary / Getty Images)

“This one’s obvious,” my husband says. “Why buy something when you’ve already got a perfectly good piece of padding?”

Take an old towel, fold it several times and you’ve got a surprisingly comfortable kneeling pad for weeding, planting bulbs or doing those jobs that require you to spend far too long with your knees on the ground.

The beauty is that it can simply go in the washing machine afterwards. If the soil is particularly wet, I’d put something waterproof underneath it rather than expecting the towel to keep you completely dry. Still, for ordinary gardening jobs, it’s a wonderfully simple way to give an old towel another lease of life.

6. Keep A 'Mud Towel’ In The Shed

(Image credit: JohnnyGreig / Getty Images)

If you have an old towel that nobody is particularly precious about, relegate it to the shed for muddy moments. “Have one in the shed for your tools,” my husband suggests. “You can wipe the mud and moisture off them before you put them away.”

This is less glamorous than some of the other ideas, but it’s exactly the sort of habit that makes sense when you’re gardening regularly. A quick wipe helps keep soil from drying onto tools and removes excess moisture before they go back into storage. And because you’ve deliberately designated one towel as the garden towel, nobody is going to accidentally grab it after a shower.

At least, I hope not.

7. And Let It Go To Compost

(Image credit: hopsalka / Getty Images)

Eventually, even the most dedicated garden towel will reach the end of its useful life, but if it’s made from a compostable natural fiber such as cotton, wool or linen, that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to go straight in the bin.

“Once it’s completely worn out, check what it’s made from,” my husband says. “If it’s natural fiber, cut it up and it can go into the compost.”

I’d check the label first and remove anything synthetic, such as polyester-rich sections, decorative trims or labels. Cutting the towel into smaller pieces will also help it break down more readily.

Shop Composting Essentials:

16 Inch Compost Thermometer

Large Dual Chamber Compost Tumbler

Stainless Steel Compost Aerator

And there we have it: my old towels have gone from unwanted household clutter to emergency frost protection, watering aids, kneeling pads and compost material.

I’m not sure I’ll ever look at a threadbare bath towel in quite the same way again... although I’m drawing the line at letting my husband keep the good fluffy ones.

Every week, our gardening experts at Gardening Know How scour the shopping aisles to bring you the very best garden deals we can find. These aren't simply the cheapest or most discounted garden deals, but worthy products with a minimum 4-star review that offer excellent value for money.

This week, heading up our top 10 garden deals of the week is lavender Phenomenal, better than half price at Trees.com. This modern hybrid variety is widely regarded as the longest-blooming and toughest lavender of all, coping with both humidity and cold in zones 5-9. With a neat habit, silvery evergreen foliage and plenty of sturdy stems that don’t tend to splay like other varieties can, this modern hybrid deserves a place in every yard and is a mainstay of our best lavender recommendations to grow in every zone.

Save $24.99

Phenomenal Lavender in 1 Gallon Container

Older lavender varieties tend to have the sweetest fragrance but can be finicky about their living conditions: English lavenders faint as temperatures climb while French lavenders fail as temperatures fall. Modern hybrid varieties have been bred to be far more resilient, but the cost is usually a harsh, camphorous edge to their scent. Not so lavender Phenomenal! It boasts the best of both worlds, being incredibly resilient and forgiving to grow while having a high concentration of essential oils for a fabulous fragrance. Tuck a stem under your pillow and you'll discover just how soothing its scent is.

Fall is a great time to add lavender to your garden and you'll enjoy plentiful, beautifully perfumed blooms early next summer. It’s one of those sun-loving plants that do better in a terracotta pot as it appreciates fast-draining soil and, especially when planting in fall, treat lavender to a gravel mulch to help it thrive.

Best of the Rest: More Great Garden Deals

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Regarded by many as the most beautiful peony of all, Coral Charm is also one of the earliest to bloom in zones 3-8, and now is the perfect season to plant one.

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If you haven’t yet discovered how versatile a Hori Hori knife is for weeding, planting and pretty much everything else in the garden, it's about time!

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We'll be back with some great October garden deals next week – see you then!

Watch a feeder for ten minutes in fall and the pecking order sorts itself out fast. Grackles drop in as a group and the tray stays occupied. A mourning dove settles onto one spot and stays put. The chickadees and titmice wait it out in the shrubs, darting in between rounds, often leaving with nothing.

Most of the fix sits in the gear and the menu, not in shooing anything away. The usual bird feeding essentials still hold, but the station itself gets built so a bird past a certain size can't reach the food. Nothing about it is aggressive. It just narrows the door.

Here’s how to solve this common bird feeding problem and protect small birds at your feeding station from bigger bullies who may be flying by.

1. Cage the Feeder

(Image credit: Alphotographic / Getty Images)

A wire cage around a bird feeder is the bluntest version of this and probably the most dependable. Openings around 1.5 inches (4 cm) are wide enough for chickadees, titmice, nuthatches and goldfinches to slip through, but too tight for grackles and starlings. Jays can't get into them either.

Cage diameter is as important as the mesh, though. Anything under 11 inches (28 cm) across and a grackle can perch on the outside, stretch its neck through the bars, and reach the ports anyway. Skimping on width undoes the whole point of the cage. Makers describe mesh spacing in slightly different ways, so measure the gaps if the listing doesn't say.

Cages come two ways: as an add-on that drops over a feeder that's already hanging or built into the feeder from the start. This covered cage feeder from Amazon keeps the seed dry and gives the small birds some shelter while they eat. Hang it clear of fence rails and low branches.

Anything a heavier bird can brace a foot against turns into a foothold and makes the cage useless. Whichever version you buy, pick one where the container lifts out. Cages make cleaning bird feeders awkward at the best of times and forgotten feeders can turn grimy fast.

2. Change Up the Menu

(Image credit: Sacit Bulut / 500px / Getty Images)

Choosing the right bird seed for the birds you want to attract is vital. Safflower has a hard shell and an awkward shape for a heavy bill and blackbirds tend to leave it alone, but cardinals and house finches take to it without much fuss. Striped sunflower seeds work on a similar principle: the thicker shell means more effort than a starling's softer bill can expend.

Some local flocks do acquire the taste over time, so bird seed type alone isn't a permanent answer everywhere. Shortening the perches on a tube feeder you already own works along the same lines. A chickadee lands on a stub perch without trouble, while a grackle can cling to one for a few seconds before giving up.

Pulling cracked corn and millet out of the mix helps too, since those are the ingredients drawing in blackbirds and house sparrows. For the smallest birds, nyjer in a fine-port feeder is about as exclusive as backyard bird feeding gets.

A Perky-Pet finch tube feeder from Walmart holds a pound and a half of nyjer seed and has flexible covers that keep the seed from pouring out in the wind. Goldfinches and siskins take to it quickly. Most of the bigger birds don't bother trying.

3. Rethink the Suet & Location

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Suet can cause trouble between different bird species sometimes. A starling can settle on top of a standard wire cage and work through a cake without shifting position and it can keep that up for a long stretch.

Woodpeckers and nuthatches, on the other hand, feed upside down without complaint and so do chickadees. Move the access to the underside of the feeder to prevent problems. Starlings can still reach it if they commit, but they dislike hanging inverted and rarely stay long. Home Depot stocks a recycled composite upside-down suet feeder built around that idea, with the cake loaded so birds reach it from below.

Where you locate your bird feeder matters, too. Small birds feed more confidently near cover, roughly 10 feet (3 m) out from a hedge or shrub, close enough to bolt for and far enough that a cat has nowhere useful to wait. Pole-mounting the feeder with a baffle underneath beats hanging it from a branch, where squirrels and heavier birds have a route in from above.

What goes in the feeder counts as well. Plain rendered suet draws less starling attention than the peanut and seed blends do, since it is the added bits they come for.

Give these switches a couple of weeks before judging any of them. Bigger bully birds that are used to easy pickings will test the new arrangement, decide it isn't worth the effort, and go bother someone else's yard instead.

Most houseplants make their needs obvious. Snake plants don’t, and that toughness is a big reason they end up in so many homes – right up until a cool snap or one watering too many catches up with them in October. September sits at the turn between summer growth and a much slower winter stretch, so the changes made now carry right through to spring.

Good snake plant care in fall mostly comes down to easing off. Growth slows as the days shorten, and the roots pull far less water than they did back in July. A couple of September’s jobs are time-sensitive, though, especially for plants that spent the summer out on a porch or patio.

6 Snake Plant Tasks to Tackle in September

Temperatures still swing quite a bit this month across much of the country. Warm afternoons make it tempting to keep the same routine going, but the shorter days have already changed how much moisture and fertilizer a snake plant can put to use.

1. Bring Outdoor Plants in before Nights Turn Cold

(Image credit: Focus Pixel Art / Getty Images)

Watch the overnight lows more than the afternoon highs. Snake plants tolerate cool nights around 50F (10C), but longer stretches below that can damage the leaves, and frost will kill the plant outright. Many people wait for the first chilly forecast – the trouble is that a late-September cold snap can show up with hardly any warning. Aim to bring your plant inside while nights still sit in the mid-50s (about 13C), with some margin to spare. It should sit somewhere away from drafty doors, ideally.

2. Inspect Every Leaf before It Comes Inside

(Image credit: Alexandr Kolesnikov / Getty Images)

Pests are rarely a big issue on snake plants, so this step gets skipped a lot. A summer outdoors gives citrus mealybugs (Planococcus citri) and two-spotted spider mites (Tetranychus urticae) plenty of chances to move in, and either one can spread to other houseplants once the plant is back on a windowsill. Peer into the tight leaf bases, where mealybugs tend to tuck their cottony clusters. A spray bottle of ready-to-use insect killing soap, stocked at Home Depot, takes care of light infestations while the plant is still outdoors – both faces of every leaf need a good soaking.

3. Stretch Out the Time between Waterings

(Image credit: Westend61 / Getty Images)

Overwatering is behind a large share of snake plant losses, and fall is when it often creeps in. The schedule that worked in August can leave the mix wet for weeks once growth slows in September. Let the pot dry out completely before watering again. A finger pushed 2 inches (5cm) into the soil gives a decent read, and a battery-free soil moisture meter from Amazon reaches well past fingertip depth in tall pots. Through the coldest months, many snake plants need water only every month or two. A dry pot is rarely an emergency; a soggy one in October can be.

4. Give One Last Light Feeding, Or Just Skip It

(Image credit: boonchai wedmakawand / Getty Images)

Snake plant fertilizer needs are low at the best of times, and plenty of growers have stopped entirely by September. For a plant that hasn’t been fed in months, one dose early this month at half the label rate seems reasonable. Amazon has a liquid cactus and succulent plant food that mixes straight into a watering can. After that, hold off until new growth appears again. Fertilizer left in soil that stays damp for weeks mostly builds up salts the plant has no real use for anyway.

5. Move the Pot Closer to a Window

(Image credit: Victoriia Ihnatovets / Getty Images)

By late September, a corner that felt bright in June might only get a few hours of weak light. Snake plants tolerate dim rooms, though they produce very little new foliage there, and some variegated types may lose a bit of their contrast over a long, dark winter. An east- or west-facing window works well, as long as the leaves aren’t pressed against cold glass. Wipe down each leaf during the move, too – dust dulls those broad, leathery blades and can block a fair share of light. If the leaves start leaning toward the window, a quarter turn every few weeks helps keep new ones growing straight.

6. Check the Roots, but Save Repotting for Spring

(Image credit: Byakkaya / Getty Images)

Roots poking out of the drainage hole send a lot of people reaching for a bigger pot. It can wait. Snake plants grow fine when a little crowded, and a roomy container full of moist mix heading into the cool season is a setup for rot. Snug roots aren’t a problem to solve before winter – soggy ones are. The exception is a pot that’s cracked open or a plant top-heavy enough to tip over. In that case, it's okay to repot a snake plant. Go up only one size, roughly 2 inches (5cm) wider, and water sparingly afterward.

Once September’s work is out of the way, a snake plant needs very little until spring, which is a big part of the appeal. A quick finger test now and then, plus the odd dust-off, should carry it through the darker months without much fuss.

We all want low maintenance plants, and those that bloom in the fall are twice as nice. Summer blooming plants are fading fast and our gardens need an autumn revival. Making sure a few perennials are just coming into their own will guarantee a fresh look for fall that lasts till the first hard freeze.

Low maintenance plants generally do not need a lot of water, fertilizer, or trimming. By this time of year, many people’s thoughts are turning to cooler days and fall events. If you don’t want to spend a lot of time tending to your fall garden plants, install some of these beauties in autumn or spring. If planting in fall, be sure they are planted four-to-six weeks before the first hard frost so the roots have time to establish before winter.

These plants boast other attributes, too. They provide nectar for pollinators seeking end of the season sustenance. Migrating monarch butterflies and hummingbirds need energy to power their flights, and bees are collecting what’s left of the nectar and pollen before winter.

1. Bluebeard

(Image credit: Sankha Basu / 500px / Getty Images)

Bluebeard (Caryopteris) is a late-summer-to-fall-blooming perennial with vibrant color that attracts butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Also called blue mist, it can grow 3 to 13 feet (0.9 to 4 m) tall but usually dies to the ground in colder winter areas of its USDA hardiness zones 5-9. Most hybrid selections stay much shorter. Its fragrant blue, purple, pink, or white flowers grow in clusters around the stems and are a beacon for pollinators but not deer and rabbits.

Foliage is silvery green, yellow, dark, or variegated. Provide good drainage and sandy loam soil in full sun for this drought-tolerant small shrub. ’Blue Empire’ has large violet-blue flowers and tolerates heat and humidity. Another striking and fragrant variety called 'Dark Knight' bluebeard can be found at your local Home Depot. Works well in a border, hedge, xeriscape garden, mass planting or in containers.

2. Tall Sedum

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Succulent sedums (Hylotelephium) such as ‘Autumn Joy’ and ‘Autumn Fire’ thrive on neglect. They are pretty much foolproof as long as the soil is well drained. They like hot, dry sites in full sun in USDA hardiness zones 3-9. This perennial pollinator favorite should be a mainstay in every garden for its easy care and long lasting clusters of pink, white, yellow, or red star-shaped flowers that start blooming in late summer and continue through fall.

Leaving the flowers to dry on the stems provides winter interest. Foliage colors vary in gray-green, maroon, bluish, or variegated on 12 to 24 inch (30 to 61 cm) stems. Works well in perennial borders, rock gardens, pollinator gardens, and containers. 'Autumn Joy' sedum is currently on sale from American Meadows and will pair well with ornamental grasses or other perennial plants.

3. Helen's Flower

(Image credit: Jacky Parker Photography / Getty Images)

Helen's flower (Helenium autumnale) is a North American native perennial that blooms in fall with yellow, daisy-like, velvety flowers with domed centers. Also called "sneezeweed," its hybrids give more color choices such as gold, orange, red, copper, and bicolor. Pollinators are frequent visitors, so it is an important late season wildlife plant. It prefers full sun and moist to average soil in USDA hardiness zones 3-9. Clumps reach 2 to 5 feet tall (0.6 to 1.5 m).

Deadhead to increase flowering. Helenium works well in mixed beds and borders, rain gardens, cottage gardens, and meadows. Deer and rabbits avoid its bitter foliage, which can be toxic if eaten in large quantities. Foliage also may irritate the skin of some people. ‘El Dorado’ sports yellow flowers with red streaks. ‘Mardi Gras’ features orange flowers enhanced with yellow and red. ‘Hot Lava’ has orange-red flowers. Cheerful sneezeweed plants can be purchased from Walmart or you local nursery.

4. Russian Sage

(Image credit: Anmbph / Getty Images)

Russian sage (Salvia yangii) is an upright, fragrant perennial with tubular, lavender-blue flowers on tall spikes (2 to 4 feet, 0.6 to 1.2 m) that starts blooming in summer and continues through fall. It makes a bold statement in borders, cottage gardens, drought tolerant gardens, or along walkways. Deer and rabbits avoid its silvery foliage due to its pungent scent and bitter taste.

However, it attracts butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Native to Asia, grow Russian sage in well-draining soil in full sun in USDA hardiness zones 5-9. Leave the foliage intact over winter, but cut it down to about 12 inches (30 cm) in spring. Recommended cultivars include ‘Blue Spire,’ ‘Denim ‘n Lace,’ and ‘Little Spire,’ a shorter, compact plant. Proven Winners' Denim 'n Lace Russian sage is available from Walmart.

5. New England Aster

(Image credit: AlpamayoPhoto / Getty Images)

Fall-blooming New England asters (Aster novae-angliae) provide color for us and nectar for many insects, as well as seeds for songbirds. Asters also are a host plant for the pearly crescent butterfly. There are so many native plants as well as cultivars to choose from. Asters are perfect for containers, borders, rain gardens, and pollinator gardens.

A popular New England aster variety, ‘Purple Dome,’ has purple flowers and stays about 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 m) tall. ‘Grape Crush’ has dark purple flowers and a compact habit, up to 30 inches (76 cm) and blooms a little earlier than ‘Purple Dome.’ Asters are easy to care for in sun to part sun and well-draining, moist soil, and acclimate better if planted in spring in their USDA zones 4-8.

The asters that show up in stores with the potted mums are typically treated as annuals like mums. They put on a colorful show in fall but seldom return the next spring. Brilliant and compact 'Purple Dome' asters can be purchased from Garden Goods Direct and shipped straight to your door (plus they have a sitewide fall sale!)

6. Aromatic Aster

(Image credit: Tom Meaker / Getty Images)

Aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) is a type of U.S. native aster that is drought tolerant and very popular with the pollinators. One of the varieties, 'Raydon's Favorite,' doesn’t bloom till late fall but provides oodles of violet-blue daisy-type flowers. Another variety, ‘October Skies,’ blooms a little earlier with light blue daisy-like flowers, providing a succession of blooms for all of autumn if you grow both. ‘October Skies’ stays about 2 feet (0.6 m) tall and ‘Raydon’s Favorite’ about 3 feet (0.9 m) tall.

Plant aromatic aster in full sun and well-drained soil in USDA zones 4-8. If you can’t find them in garden centers and nurseries, they are available from online native plant or wildflower nurseries. You can find 'Rayon's Favorite' and 'October Skies' from Garden Goods Direct.

7. Mexican Sage

(Image credit: Getty Images)

If you like salvias, Mexican sage (Salvia leucantha) is a perfect addition for fall color and feeding late season pollinators, especially butterflies and hummingbirds. Hardy in USDA zones 7-11, it produces long spires of velvety purple flowers with white tongues, set off by soft, greenish-silver foliage. Those in colder zones can grow Mexican sage as an annual in containers.

It also works well in pollinator or butterfly gardens, cottage gardens, and in borders. It prefers rich, moist, well-drained soil in full sun, but tolerates some drought once established. Mexican sage grows 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 m) tall and wide. Cultivars include ‘All Purple,’ an all purple selection (no white), and ‘Danielle’s Dream,’ with pink and white flowers, and ‘White Mischief,’ an all-white flowered selection. Dwarf selections are also available. A 3-pack of Mexican sage plants can be purchased from Walmart.

Crystal Koskinen and Rudi Strahl both work from home, which is currently a two-bedroom condo. The desire for individual workspaces was part of their decision to buy into Polygon’s Beaumont development on Burke Mountain.

“It gets a little crowded,” said Koskinen, a visual artist, arts educator and voice-over actor. “I mean, my workspace now is in the living room.”

Beaumont is a 101-home development featuring three- and four-bedroom townhomes ranging from about 1,380 to 2,220 square feet. The homes are being released in phases, with occupancy in the first phase expected from fall 2026 into early 2027.

Floor plans include three-bedroom homes, some with dens, and larger four-bedroom layouts. All homes have powder rooms, double-car garages, heat-pump heating and air conditioning and Level 2 EV-charging capability. Some have dedicated laundry rooms and family rooms, along with generous decks, patios and yards.

Strahl, who manages a team of software engineers for Shopify, and Koskinen will leave their current 935-square-foot home behind for about 2,200 square feet of living space. It’s an end unit with its own floor plan.

“The idea of having a yard and fewer shared walls is nice,” Koskinen said. “It feels a little more like a home when you go in there.”

The homes come with contemporary finishes in two designer colour schemes. More than 5,000 square feet of outdoor amenities include a central green space, children’s play area and landscaped plazas with seating. The development connects to Burke Mountain’s trail and creek network and is near hiking and biking routes and Minnekhada Regional Park. Select homes have views toward Mount Baker, while southwest-facing homes overlook a protected stream.

The couple’s new home will be their second in a Polygon development. Their current condo is in Klahanie, the developer’s master-planned community in Port Moody, though Koskinen says she only recently realized the connection.

“We’ve always driven up to Burke Mountain. We always do our coffee drives up in that area, and we’ve just been watching it develop,” she said. Over years of visiting open houses and new developments, “it seems like Polygon is the one that we always really like.”

When they moved to Port Moody in 2019, Strahl recalls the area as something of a “best-kept secret,” with mostly low-rise development and relatively little traffic. With higher-density development now arriving around the city’s two SkyTrain stations, Burke Mountain reminds him of the Port Moody they first moved to: a neighbourhood still taking shape, with amenities coming but removed from the busiest roads.

“They have a very good method for picking areas,” he said of Polygon.

Burke Mountain is in the midst of a major build-out. The northeast Coquitlam neighbourhood, home to more than 20,000 people today, is expected to grow to about 50,000 over the next 25 years. Much of that growth is being planned around Burke Mountain Village, envisioned as the area’s commercial and social hub, with about 120,000 square feet of retail and commercial space.

Construction began this year on the Burke Mountain Community Centre and adjoining Burke Village Park, scheduled to open in 2029; the centre will include pools, a gymnasium and fitness centre, multi-purpose rooms and a new Coquitlam Public Library branch.

“But even Beaumont is removed from that,” Koskinen said. “You’re close enough to access all that stuff but further up the mountain. You get the views and the quiet. We’re really looking forward to having less traffic around.”

Along with space, quiet is a big motivation for the couple’s move.

“It’s nice to have a little more quiet for my recording, number one. But also just being able to sit outside. We go up every weekend and take a look at you know the progress on our place, and it’s just so quiet.”

Project: Beaumont

Project address: 3630 Harper Road, Coquitlam, B.C. V3E 0P9

Developer: Polygon Beaumont Homes Ltd.

Architect: Ekistics

Interior designer: Polygon Interior Design Ltd.

Project size: 101 three-storey townhomes; approximately 1,380 to 2,220 sq. ft.

Price: From $948,000, plus GST.

Number of bedrooms: Three and four bedrooms

Sales centre: Beaumont Sales Centre and display homes, 3630 Harper Road, Coquitlam

Centre hours: Noon — 6 p.m. daily except Fridays

Phone: 604-238-4162

Website:polyhomes.com/community/beaumont⁠

Related

• Wordsworth by Polygon Homes puts community fit over flash
• Why Monos' Vancouver HQ doesn't look like an office

Weekly roundup of three properties that recently sold in Metro Vancouver.

12 — 7465 Mulberry Pl., Burnaby

Type: Three-bedroom, three-bathroom townhouse

Size: 2,626 square feet

B.C. Assessment: $1,212,000

Listed for: $1,265,000

Sold for: $1,245,000

Sold on: Aug. 8

Days on market in this listing: 66

Listing agent: Rahim Jivraj at eXp Realty

Buyers agent: Matt Stone at Rennie & Associates Realty

The big sell: This renovated townhome resides in Burnaby’s Crest subdivision in a greenbelt setting just to the southeast of Burnaby Lake Regional Park with schools and everyday amenities nearby. It forms part of the Sunridge development, a 50-unit complex that was constructed in the mid-1990s with a strata that permits both pets and rentals. According to listing agent Rahim Jivraj, this three-storey home was updated in 2021 with permits and features a remodelled kitchen with quartz countertops and premium appliances, water-resistant laminate floors, recessed lighting throughout, custom millwork, cordless shades, and redesigned bathrooms. The versatile lower level offers additional storage space as well as a family room, laundry and utility rooms, and the attached double garage can be conveniently accessed via the main floor. Outside, there is a private patio and 750-square-foot backyard with natural gas hookup.

4740 McLure Ave., Richmond

Type: Three-bedroom, three-bathroom detached

Size: 1,940 square feet

B.C. Assessment: $1,612,000

Listed for: $1,389,900

Sold for: $1,200,000

Sold on: July 20

Days on market in this listing: 76

Listing agent: Shafik Ladha PREC at ReMax Westcoast

Buyers agent: Non Member / No Agency

The big sell: According to the listing agent’s team, a subject-free offer was received and accepted for this three-bedroom detached house in Richmond’s Quilchena district. The property in question is a two-level home comprising almost 2,000 square feet with a functional layout, a stone-surround gas fireplace, three spacious bedrooms (two are in excess of 16 feet long) including a main-floor primary bedroom and ensuite bathroom, a private backyard surrounded by hedging and mature plants, and an appealing 7,940-square-foot lot that offers potential to renovate the existing house or to build a new home. Built in 1974 on the western side of the city between No. 1 and No. 2 roads, the property has a highly walkable location with Thompson Community Centre, Railway Greenway trails, schools, parks, and transit all nearby.

5529 Driftwood St., Sardis

Type: Three-bedroom, three-bathroom rowhouse

Size: 1,548 square feet

B.C. Assessment: $755,000

Listed for: $749,900

Sold for: $733,000

Sold on: July 9

Days on market in this listing: 63

Listing agent: Rod Bahari PREC at Sutton Group — West Coast Realty

Buyers agent: Brad Latham PREC and Juan Silva at ReMax Nyda Realty Inc.

The big sell: Webster Crossing is a master-planned community in Chilliwack’s Sardis district with recreational activities on hand including nature reserves, river trails, and Cultus Lake, as well as a host of modern conveniences. This updated non-strata rowhome has a three-level layout with the principal entertaining rooms on the main floor, a den and foyer on the ground floor, and all three bedrooms upstairs highlighted by a vaulted primary suite complete with a walk-in closet and ensuite bathroom with dual quartz vanities, a heated floor, and a five-foot-wide glass walk-in shower. The open-concept kitchen has stainless-steel appliances including a gas range, quartz counters and Shaker-style cabinets, while the bright living room has a gas fireplace, built-in shelving, and large picture windows that frame mountain vistas. Air conditioning and new floors have recently been installed. Outside, the covered patio has an overhead heater, pull-down UV privacy shades, and a gas barbecue hookup.

These transactions were compiled by Nicola Way of BestHomesBC.com.

Realtors — send your recent sales to nicola@besthomesbc.com

Related

• Sold (Bought): Coquitlam home features fresh updates, modern style
• Sold (Bought): Olympic Village condo draws multiple offers

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.

(Image credit: Wita Design / Getty Images)

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

(Image credit: Andrii Tatarynov / Alamy)

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

(Image credit: Almaje / Getty Images)

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

(Image credit: Westend61 / Getty Images)

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

(Image credit: Dorling Kindersley Ltd / Alamy)

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

(Image credit: Ekaterina Varnakova / Getty Images)

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.

(Image credit: Toni Jardon / Getty Images)

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

(Image credit: Aninka Bongers-Sutherland / Getty Images)

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

(Image credit: Paul Hanson / Alamy)

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

Sanitizing Maintenance

Equate Equate 70% Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol, 32 Fl Oz

An often-overlooked biosecurity step for every gardener is giving your pruning tools a quick wipe with rubbing alcohol. Use this excellent money-saver between plants to prevent the spread of fungal spores, wood rot, and bacterial blights.

Soil Alkalizer

Jobe's Organics Jobe's Organics Garden Lime Soil Amendment, 6 Lbs

Lavender demands gritty, highly alkaline soil to flourish. A light top-dressing of this fast-acting hydrated lime neutralizes any acidic rainfall, improves soil structure, and strengthens subterranean root resistance against winter dieback.

Drainage Enhancer

Back to the Roots Back to the Roots Organic Perlite, 8 Qt

Cold, waterlogged soil is the primary killer of lavender from fall into winter. Blending this lightweight, coarse volcanic glass into planting holes or pot mixes boosts aeration, allowing heavy rains to drain freely so roots never drown.

(Image credit: Nicola-K Photos / Alamy)

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that Zooey Deschanel has had something of an iron-grip on our hearts ever since she starred in (500) Days of Summer. So, when she shared a recent snapshot into her home, it's little wonder that many of us sat up and paid attention.

I know, I know; at first glance, it's Zooey's cat (and rather fabulous cat tree) that steal the show in the Instagram photo. But look beyond the window? Why, then you'll find that there's another detail worth noticing: a tall black trellis, partly hidden by greenery, that adds a lovely vertical element to the terrace.

It's the sort of garden feature that's easy to overlook, but I think it's a particularly clever addition to a space that's viewed from indoors. Rather than simply providing support for a climbing plant, this particular type of trellis creates a focal point outside the window, giving the eye something interesting to land on beyond the glass.

Zooey Deschanel's Black Trellis

The benefits to Zooey Deschanel's black trellis (very similar in style to this trellis obelisk from Amazon) aren't purely aesthetic, either; as the climber grows, it creates a little more privacy, softens the view from the window, and provides some welcome shade from strong summer sunshine.

Better still? For those of us with distinctly smaller gardens or terraces than a celebrity, a well-placed trellis can make an outdoor space feel greener and more enclosed... all without taking up the floor space that a hedge would require.

Check it out:

A post shared by Zooey Deschanel (@zooeydeschanel)

A photo posted by

It's an approach that seems particularly fitting for Zooey Deschanel. When she and Jonathan Scott opened up about their home to Architectural Digest, the New Girl star explained that they wanted their terraces to capture the cottage garden feel they love about their Los Angeles garden, and noted that they incorporated “a lot of trellis” into the design.

Now, a trellis is often treated as a purely practical garden accessory: put it against a wall, give a climber something to cling to and let nature take over, right? Wrong! Because positioning one where it can be seen from a window changes its role, allowing it to become part of the garden's architecture. The dark framework provides structure, while foliage and flowers gradually soften its lines.

Viewed from inside, that can create the impression of a much greener outlook (without requiring any major landscaping!). And this could be particularly useful on a terrace or small patio, where there may not be room for mature trees or a traditional hedge.

(Image credit: Maryviolet/Getty Images)

You don't need to find an exact match for Zooey Deschanel's trellis. Instead, look for a tall black metal obelisk (like this 100% Metal Garden Obelisk Trellis from LeJoy Garden) or open-frame trellis with enough height to create a noticeable feature from the window. (Honestly, using something like Amazon's Spiral Frame Trellis for Climbing Plants in a pot would do the trick).

The key is positioning. If your main reason for installing one is to improve the view from inside, don't automatically put it at the back of the border. Think about where you'll see it most often, and consider placing it where the framework and foliage will sit naturally within the sightline of a window.

Then, choose a climber suited to the conditions; clematis, climbing roses, honeysuckle and jasmine can all provide an attractive leafy screen, while sweet peas offer a faster-growing seasonal option.

Shop Climbing Roses:

Gertrude Jekyll

David Austin® Gertrude Jekyll® Rose

Zephirine Drouhin

Zephirine Drouhin Climbing Rose

Lavender Crush

Lavender Crush Climbing Rose

Sometimes the best garden ideas are the ones that improve what you see from inside the house, and Zooey Deschanel's trellis is a brilliant reminder that a climbing plant doesn't just need something to grow on – the support itself can become part of the view.

And just like that, I'm off to buy myself a trellis. Race you to the checkouts!

Following a hot, dry summer, lawn-destroying chafer grubs are a big problem this year so if your yard has any patches of brown or discolored grass, check these common garden pests aren't the cause. The sweltering El Niño weather followed by late-season rain has led to a sharp surge in numbers of these plump white C-shaped grubs that feed on grass roots, spelling disaster for many gardens. While grub worms are easy to treat right now, by mid-October the larvae will begin burrowing deeper into the ground, making them far harder to eradicate.

But don’t fret: as part of our Garden ER series, we’re here with straightforward solutions to treat this season’s biggest backyard problems, including this common lawn pest.

Take swift action with this straightforward five-minute test and the prognosis for your lawn is excellent. Ignore those dead patches of grass, however, and your lawn could be in serious trouble, so this quick check is a vital part of September lawn care. Come on in to Garden ER and let’s diagnose and treat your lawn.

(Image credit: Getty Images)Why Chafer Grubs are a Big Problem This Year

In a typical summer, you probably won’t even notice that chafer grubs are living in the soil beneath your lawn. Healthy grass will grow new roots just as fast as a small population of grubs eat them, so all’s well.

However, a hot, dry summer changes everything. For a start, drought-stressed grass struggles to grow roots at a pace to keep up with damage, which means a lawn can fail with far fewer grubs per square foot. During drought conditions, gardeners’ lawns can become magnets for chafer grubs, leading to higher concentrations, too. The adult beetles who lay the eggs that hatch into these larvae need soft, moist soil to burrow into, which means they prefer irrigated lawns – and even if you didn’t routinely water grass through summer, keeping borders hydrated inevitably means some lawn areas get more moisture than in many of your neighbors' less looked-after yards.

Brown, drought-stressed or dormant grass also masks the damage caused by white grubs. If your lawn is already looking pretty crispy, you’re unlikely to spot the discoloration that's an early sign of a grub worm infestation. And now late-season rain has arrived, grubs that burrowed deeper to find moisture in summer have all migrated upwards to feast on roots, causing catastrophic damage to grass.

(Image credit: Getty Images)Triage: Carry Out a Simple Test for Grub Worms

In a typical year, the tell-tale signs of a white grub infestation are patches of dead, brown grass in your lawn. Grass that has discolored because it’s gone dormant during a drought period will quickly bounce back to green once rain returns. Grass that's discolored because it's had its roots gobbled up by grubs won't recover, so if you’ve still got any bare or brown patches in your lawn in September, you should test for chafer grubs.

First, grab a good handful of discolored grass and tug. If grub worms have eaten the roots, the blades will easily pull away from the ground.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

If that’s the case, use a spade to peel back a square of affected turf. Use the sharp edge of the spade to slice a U-shape in the grass, then fold this section of turf back on itself. With a trowel, have a look for fat, C-shaped grubs that are a creamy-white color. Their bottom half is usually plumper than the top, and they can measure over half an inch long. If you find some, take a closer look. If the larvae has a slightly darker head and three pairs of front legs, you can confirm the diagnosis: your lawn has a grub worm infestation.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Another clue is that the damaged areas of lawn feel slightly soft and spongy when walked on, and you may find crows, skunks and racoons have further destroyed the grass as they hunt for juicy larvae.

Treatment: How to Get Rid of White Grubs in a Lawn

Diagnosis complete? Let's crack on and cure your lawn…

1. Use Nematodes to Treat the Problem Safely

There’s no need to use an insecticide as you’ll eradicate all sorts of beneficial insects as well as the grubs. Far better to use microscopic worm-like animals called nematodes that will kill lawn grubs and some other soil-dwelling pests. Beneficial nematodes are natural, effective and safe for use around people, pets and pollinators. They're a sustainable, environmentally-friendly option and all you need do is water them into your lawn.

Nematodes work by hunting down their prey, entering its body and infecting it with a harmless-to-humans bacteria that kills the grub. Once all the grubs are gone, the nematodes naturally die down to normal soil levels.

The species most commonly used as a biological pest control for grub worms is Heterohabditis bacteriophora and these beneficial nematodes are available from Bug Sales via Amazon. While the nematodes themselves are cheap, do expect to pay for postage as these are live creatures and need to be kept refrigerated. You’ll need to store the packet in the fridge until use, too, and only buy as much as you need now as once opened, nematodes can't be stored.

(Image credit: Getty Images)2. Keep Soil Moist

Nematodes need moist soil to survive and travel to hunt down the grubs, so saturate your lawn and for best results, apply the nematodes in the evening or on a cloudy day. Follow package instructions to mix the nematodes with water, and then apply evenly to your lawn. Treat the discolored patch plus a four-foot area all around it, and if you’re dealing with several patches, it’s best to treat the whole lawn. You can use a watering can, or attach a dispensing sprayer such as this Hose-End Sprayer from Walmart to your hose to speed the job up.

After treating, immediately irrigate lightly with fresh water to ensure the nematodes are washed down into the soil. It’s vital to keep the soil moist for the next two weeks, watering if it doesn’t rain, as the nematodes will only survive to do their job if conditions stay damp. Beneficial nematodes are a very effective form of natural pest control, but only if the soil is consistently moist enough. A cheap rotating sprinkler with a lawn spike such as this from The Home Depot and a basic programmable hose faucet timer like this from Walmart will save you a ton of time for very little outlay.

If your lawn infestation is severe, it's a smart move to keep your lawn moist a little longer. From the moment those original nematodes infected the grub worms, it takes around 12-15 days for a new generation to hatch so, as long as you keep the soil moist, a fresh army of beneficial nematodes will hunt down any remaining grubs.

(Image credit: Kinga Krzeminska / Getty Images)3. Treat in September or Early October

To deal effectively with grub worms, it helps to understand their lifecycle. Part of the Scarabaeidae family, beetles lay eggs in lawn soil in early summer, which hatch into larvae July to August that gobble up grass roots for a couple of months before lying dormant for the winter; in late spring they transform into pupae then hatch into adults to start the process all over again.

So right now, grub worms are actively feeding on grass roots so they’re just beneath the soil surface and within easy reach of the nematodes. However, as soon as the temperature starts to dip, chafer larvae begin burrowing deeper into the ground to lie dormant beneath the frost line, and it becomes impossible to eradicate them. Use a simple soil thermometer such as this from Amazon to check: as long as the soil temperature is above 54°F, those white grubs will still be busy eating so it’s ok to go ahead with the treatment.

Patient Notes

Don’t worry if you spot grub worms elsewhere in the garden. It’s only the chafer grub species that target lawns that are destructive enough to create problems for gardeners, and need to be controlled. If you find white grubs in border soil or a compost heap, leave them be as they do a useful job breaking down decaying material and don't cause significant damage to plants.

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.

Peace Lily Flowers Turning Brown?

Work out what your peace lily needs to recover if spathes develop brown patches or look dry and crispy around the edges.

Leaves turning white?

Here's everything you need to know to prevent common fungal disease, powdery mildew, starving your plants of nutrients.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Tannis Seufert found her artistic medium through a tragic circumstance.

“After my dad became ill with pancreatic cancer, my mom and I were kind of joking around, not in a distasteful way, but we said, ‘Oh, we should do some fluid art with Dad’s ashes.’

“And I went back into my head after doing some training with a friend — I was a guinea pig for her, she was acting as a life coach — and I said, ‘You know, there’s something in that idea.’”

Seufert found a way to preserve her father’s ashes — in resin.

She was soon working with the liquid material full-time, experimenting with pigments, inks and other colourants.

“The thing I find most satisfying with resin is how the colour behaves inside the texture of the liquid, because resin has very, very intelligent properties when you learn to work with how it behaves. Which I think is the goal of any person working in a medium. You want to crack the code of that medium.”

The resulting images — vividly coloured, solid, glossy abstract shapes — proved popular in the small community where she lives, Kitimat, and in nearby Terrace. She was soon booked solid with commissions.

For the third year in a row, Seufert is bringing her work to the Vancouver Fall Home Show.

“The first time, I was overwhelmed with how people responded to my work,” she said. “Because I’m in the north, wearing my crusty resin clothes, hanging out with my cats — it’s very unglamorous. And then I go into the limelight and people are like, ‘I have never seen anything like this before.’”

Seufert cuts and shapes her own hardwood canvases before applying the resin. The images often come to her as a shape as she’s working with the wood.

“It’s also a quality in how you draw the line on your canvas. Sometimes it has this bone-like texture. Sometimes it’s like a shard.”

And sometimes she’s inspired by a visit to the store.

“I’ll go into Windsor Plywood and I’ll find wenge, purpleheart, canarywood, walnut, live-edge maple, and that alone will inspire me to go down a rabbit hole with it. I will often experiment to find the colour conveying a feeling I have.”

Seufert was born and raised in Saskatchewan before moving to B.C. with her family. She studied fine art in New Zealand and spent over two decades in the fashion industry across New Zealand, Australia and Canada before transitioning fully to studio art.

“I had gone through textile design, screen printing, photography, silk screening — so many different mediums — and nothing really grabbed my attention until I found resin.”

She is an avid student of quantum physics and holistic healing and says that both influence her work.

“Multi-dimensional quantum physics is a very advanced study of energy,” she said. “It’s learning, really, how you function energetically as a person. When you learn how you function, you learn the principles of creation mechanics, the principles of how energy behaves. You connect that with your own intuition and your own knowing. It expands upon everything much more easily, for whatever reason.”

Seufert is looking forward to the Vancouver Fall Home Show as a chance to mingle and share energy.

“I go from zero to one thousand,” she said. “I just love taking in the rhythm of the people. And people love seeing the art. I want to inspire uniqueness. I want people to tap in and listen to the small voice, their creative instinct. I’m bringing my message with my art.”

The Vancouver Fall Home Show runs from Oct. 15 to 18 at the Vancouver Convention Centre, West. Find the Main Stage and Cooking Stage schedule, a rundown of features and workshops, plus show hours and tickets at vancouverfallhomeshow.com.

Related

• Vancouver Fall Home Show: Health and wellness take centre stage
• Vancouver Fall Home Show: Sarah Baeumler will touch on everything from linens to lighting

I absolutely love the idea of birth month bulbs. There's always been, after all, something wonderfully satisfying about finding a flower that supposedly matches your personality, particularly when that flower is something you can actually plant in your garden.

Of course, this isn't exactly a new concept around here. We've already had birth month trees, birds, flowers, animals and even bugs, because apparently we will take any opportunity to decide that January people have the personality of a particular plant or that October babies are somehow inherently more butterfly-like than the rest of us.

Still, bulbs are particularly well suited to this concept. Unlike an annual flower that appears and disappears in a single season, many bulbs return year after year, quietly sitting beneath the soil before suddenly putting on a spectacular show. And there's something rather lovely about that, especially when you consider how different each bulb can be despite all starting out in much the same unassuming form.

All 12 Birth Month Bulbs

When it comes to birth month bulbs, some are delicate and understated, some are gloriously dramatic, and one or two are so striking that I suspect their birth month owners may have a slightly larger-than-life side to them. (I certainly wouldn't want to make any assumptions, of course).

So, whether you're a resilient snowdrop, a mysterious Queen of Night tulip or a bold November hyacinth, meet your birth month bulb... and find out how to grow it in your own garden, too.

January – Galanthus Nivalis

(Image credit: James Nature Pics / Shutterstock)

If you were born in January, you probably don't need a lot of fussing over. You're perfectly capable of getting on with things while everyone else is still recovering from Christmas, and there's something quietly determined about you that I rather admire, and that's why the snowdrop is such a great birth month bulb.

Galanthus nivalis is one of those tiny flowers that seems almost impossibly delicate until you remember that it can push through the cold and appear remarkably early in the year. Think of them as the first flower of the year, basically.

How to grow it: Pick up some Galanthus Nivalis Bulbs from Burpee and plant them in partial to full sun, around 3 inches deep and approximately 3 inches apart. They prefer soil that doesn't stay waterlogged, and they're particularly lovely planted in groups where their small white flowers can make a bigger impression. Burpee lists Galanthus as an early-spring bloomer and a fall-planted bulb.

February – Anemone Blanda

(Image credit: brytta/Getty Images)

February can be a slightly awkward month; winter isn't quite finished, spring isn't quite here and we're all getting a little impatient for some colour. But if you're a February baby, I'm guessing you're the optimist who can find something to look forward to anyway.

Anemone blanda (or Grecian windflower, if you prefer) has that same cheerful quality. Its daisy-like flowers arrive in spring in shades of blue, pink and white, creating a surprisingly generous carpet of colour from relatively small plants. A pretty cheery birth month bulb, right?

How to grow it: Soak these Blue Shades Anemone Blanda Bulbs in warm water for a few hours before planting, as Burpee recommends, then plant them around 1–2 inches deep and 2–3 inches apart. They can grow in partial or full sun, and the Blue Shades variety is particularly useful if you're looking for a spring groundcover.

March – Ranunculus

(Image credit: Isabel Pavia/Getty Images)

There's something about ranunculus that makes it almost impossible not to be a little bit sentimental. Those layers upon layers of petals look as though someone has sat down and decided that one flower simply wasn't enough.

So, March babies, I'm going to assume you're similarly inclined towards the finer things in life! Especially as, just like your birth month bulb, you're creative, charming and perhaps just a tiny bit dramatic when the occasion calls for it.

How to grow it: Ranunculus bulbs (try these Purple Sensation Ranunculus Bulbs for something profoundly pretty) are spring-flowering and prefer full sun. Burpee's general bulb guide recommends planting them around 2 inches deep and 3–4 inches apart. Give them well-drained soil and avoid keeping them constantly soggy; the bulbs need moisture to establish, but sitting in water is another matter entirely.

April – Geranium Daffodil

(Image credit: Olga Seifutdinova/Getty Images)

April babies have got sunshine in their personality. You're welcoming, generous and probably the person people end up talking to for much longer than they intended because somehow you've made them feel completely at home.

Geranium daffodils as a birth month bulb, then, makes so much sense. It's one of those daffodil varieties that feels cheerful without being predictable, and it has a particularly lovely secret: in other words, there's more to this spring favourite than meets the eye.

How to grow it: Daffodils generally prefer partial to full sun and should be planted around 6–8 inches deep and 4–6 inches apart. Let the foliage die back naturally after flowering rather than immediately cutting it to the ground, because those leaves are busy replenishing the bulb for next year's display.

May – Blue Pearl Hyacinth

(Image credit: Photos by R A Kearton / Getty Images)

You know those people who walk into a room and somehow everyone notices them? That's May energy, and it makes sense, then, that they have a hyacinth to call their birth month bulb.

Not just any old hyacinth, though, but the Blue Pearl hyacinth. Oh sure, it isn't necessarily the loudest bulb in the garden, but it has two things going for it that are difficult to ignore: beautiful flowers and fragrance, which makes it a lovely match for anyone who likes their garden to engage more than just the eyes.

How to grow it: Plant hyacinth bulbs around 4–6 inches deep and the same distance apart, in partial or full sun. They work beautifully in groups, particularly near paths or entrances where you can actually enjoy their fragrance as you walk past.

June – Queen of Night Tulip

(Image credit: Rob3rt82 / Getty Images)

June babies, I'm not saying you're secretly plotting something. I'm simply saying that if anyone was going to have a favorite color that technically isn't a color, it would probably be you... which makes your birth month bulb a true icon.

Queen of Night is one of those types of tulips that makes you stop and look twice. Its flowers are such a deep burgundy-purple that they appear almost black, giving the spring garden a wonderfully gothic little moment.

How to grow it: Bag yourself some Queen of the Night tulip bulbs, and plant them around 4–5 inches deep and 3–6 inches apart in partial to full sun. Tulips are classic fall-planted spring bulbs, so autumn is the time to get them into the ground for a future display.

July – Princess Irene Tulip

(Image credit: Alex Manders/Getty Images)

Hey there, July. You're warm, you're sociable and you don't particularly see the point in being forgettable. If you're going to do something, you might as well make an entrance, right?

Princess Irene is a more than appropriate birth month bulb, then. Its orange flowers are dramatically marked with purple flames, so it has absolutely no interest in quietly disappearing into the flower bed. And, honestly, the color combination alone makes it a pretty good match for a July personality.

How to grow it: Plant your Princess Irene Tulip Bulbs around 4–5 inches deep and 3–6 inches apart in partial or full sun. Choose a spot with good drainage, water after planting to help establish the bulbs, and then let them settle in for winter.

August – Blue Grape Muscari

(Image credit: Nataliia Kozynska / Shutterstock)

August babies have a special knack for bringing people together. You're friendly without necessarily trying to be, you probably enjoy a bit of chaos, and you're rarely the person standing silently in the corner at a garden party... much like your birth month bulb.

Blue grape muscari is small, but it certainly knows how to make an impression. Its dainty clusters of deep cobalt-blue blooms are the sort of flowers that look even better when planted in a generous group, which feels very appropriate for the most sociable month of summer.

How to grow it: Plant your Blue Grape Muscari Bulbs around 3–4 inches deep and 2–3 inches apart in partial to full sun. They're spring bloomers and are particularly effective when planted in groups, along paths or allowed to naturalize among other spring bulbs.

September – Iris

(Image credit: Alex Manders / Shutterstock)

If you're a September-born soul, you're not necessarily the loudest person in the room, but you've probably noticed everything that's going on. You have excellent taste, you know what you like and you don't need to announce it to everyone else.

Your birth month bulb, the iris, feels like the floral equivalent. In particular, something like Burpee's Harmony Iris Reticulata has some of the most intense blue colour you'll find on a dwarf iris. Basically, it proves that you don't need to be enormous to make an impression.

How to grow it: Plant iris bulbs around 3–4 inches deep and 2–3 inches apart in partial to full sun. They bloom early in spring, so they're particularly useful for bringing colour into a garden before many of the bigger spring flowers get going.

October – Allium

(Image credit: Zigmunds Dizgalvis / Shutterstock)

October babies, we were never going to get a completely predictable flower as our birth month bulb. And, while alliums in general are the one for us, these Allium caeruleum from Bulbs Direct have, in particular, those wonderful spherical flower heads that make it look as though someone has scattered little blue fireworks through the border.

An easy-growing allium with a sky-blue color? Speaking as an October personality, I think that's exactly the sort of unexpected garden choice we all deserve.

How to grow it: Plant allium bulbs in full sun, around 4–6 inches deep and 3–6 inches apart. They flower in late spring, and the upright stems and rounded flower heads work particularly well among lower-growing perennials.

November – Crocus

(Image credit: Kabar / Shutterstock)

Born in November? I see you, caught between Halloween and Christmas, and I know that you're resilient, perhaps a little understated, and quite capable of brightening things up when everyone else is starting to retreat indoors for winter.

That makes the crocus a rather lovely match. These petite flowers may not have the imposing presence of a tulip or the drama of a giant allium, but they have an uncanny ability to appear when we need them most, bringing little flashes of joy to the garden when the seasons are beginning to change.

How to grow it: Plant crocus corms in well-drained soil in full sun or partial shade, generally around 3–4 inches deep and a few inches apart. Choose the specific crocus carefully, though, as flowering time varies between species and cultivars; personally, I rate Flower Record Crocus Vernus Bulbs from Burpee for that truly intense purple pop.

December – Thalia Daffodil

(Image credit: onepony/Getty Images)

December is already doing a lot. There's Christmas, New Year, approximately seventeen thousand social engagements and the small matter of trying to remember where you put all the presents. It's only fitting, then, that December gets something a little more refined for its birth month bulb.

Thalia is a pure-white daffodil with an understated elegance that makes it feel completely different from the traditional yellow varieties. It smells beautiful, is hardier than many yellow varieties, and is an all-round brilliant choice for anyone dreaming of a classy spring display.

How to grow it: Pick up some Thalia Daffodil Bulbs from the Garden State Bulb Co. Store and plant them around 6–8 inches deep and 4–6 inches apart in partial to full sun. Water them after planting, then allow the foliage to die back naturally once flowering has finished so the bulbs can store energy for another spring display.

Shop Bulb Planting Essentials:

Toresano Toresano Bulb Planter

Espoma Bulb-Tone 3-5-3 Natural & Organic Fertilizer and Plant Food

OFXDD Plant Trays 4 Pcs

And just like that, you know your birth month bulb! Will you be planting yours this fall, ready to see it break through the soil come spring? I know I certainly will; I'll be filling my garden borders with alliums quite happily... and I'm sure local pollinators will thank me for it next year, too!

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.

A post shared by Stanley Tucci (@stanleytucci)

A photo posted by

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.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

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

Down to Earth All Natural Fertilizers Organic Azomite Minerals Powder

This volcanic mineral powder contains more than 70 naturally occurring elements in an ultra-fine formula that’s easy to mix into soil, compost, or fertilizer for small gardens and containers.

Earthcore Pure Icelandic Potting Pumice

This pure Icelandic pumice helps recreate Vesuvius-like growing conditions by improving drainage and aeration while retaining essential nutrients.

Jobe’s Organics Granular Garden Fertilizer for Vegetable Gardens and Tomato Plants

This quality NPK fertilizer is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. These match the nutrients that are naturally occurring at high levels in the soil near Mount Vesuvius.

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.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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.

One small scoop goes into every fall planting hole I dig – and synthetic fertilizer has nothing to do with it. What is inside that little scoop is alive and can give key garden plants a genuine boost. And to do its miraculous job, it just needs to make direct contact with a plant’s roots while the fall soil is still cozy and warm…

Most traditional fall planting advice will walk you through the basics of digging the hole. Dig it twice as wide as the rootball, keep it no deeper than the original nursery pot, and backfill with native soil. And that’s all fine, but there’s another special element to fall planting that can give a special boost. Before any new shrub or perennial drops into the ground at my place, its roots receive a light dusting of mycorrhizal fungi first. Say what, I hear you ask? Well, I spend a lot of time with mushroom cultures in the lab, so call me biased. But you don’t need a microbiology degree to harness the magic of these special fungi in your backyard.

Beneficial mycorrhizal fungi are not fertilizers. They are living partners that form a lifelong underground network with host plant roots. Fall gives that partnership one of its best starts of the year. However, a couple of details frequently get overlooked by home gardeners: exactly where the fungi must be applied, and how warm the soil needs to be when you introduce it. Getting this right transforms your late-season planting success. Here’s how this simple root dusting can supercharge your fall shrubs and perennials.

Understanding Mycorrhizal Fungi

At its core, mycorrhiza is a mutually beneficial partnership between a soil fungus and a living plant root. The fungus sends out millions of microscopic, thread-like filaments called hyphae. These fine threads act as an extension of the plant's own root system, mining the surrounding soil for locked-up moisture and essential minerals. These minerals include phosphorus, which powers root growth and vibrant blooms. In return, the host plant pays the fungus in sugars created through photosynthesis.

(Image credit: Angela van Oeffelen / Getty Images)

Retail inoculants usually contain 2 main types of fungi: endo (which penetrates inside the root cells of soft-stemmed perennials, roses, fruit trees, and vegetables) and ecto (which forms a protective outer sheath around the roots of woody trees like oaks, pines, birches, and beeches). Unlike edible mushrooms, which can grow happily on decaying wood or sterilized grain, these specialized garden fungi cannot survive or multiply without living host roots. That is why buying fresh, high-quality inoculants matters so much when you are setting out your late-season plants.

How to Apply Mycorrhizal Fungi

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On its own, a fungal spore can only germinate and grow a tiny distance through the dirt before it starves. If it fails to find a living root to attach to within a few days, it dies. This is why you shouldn’t stir your fungal inoculant into a wheelbarrow of backfill soil or mix it loosely into a garden bed. Spreading a scoop throughout pounds of surrounding dirt guarantees that most of the spores end up buried inches away from the rootball, where they will rot unused before roots ever reach them. And fall doesn't leave many warm weeks for new roots to grow out and find it.

You need to add your mycorrhizal fungi directly against the plant's root surface. Dust the outside of the rootball where white root tips are visible, and drop a concentrated pinch right into the bottom of the planting hole before lowering the plant in. Using a beginner-friendly option like Ultrafine Endo/Ecto Power from Amazon, you’ll find it dusts on almost like flour. However, damp roots hold the powder better. So make sure the roots are damp first. Labels rarely require more than a light, even dusting, and a little goes a long way, so a small bag copes with dozens of fall plantings.

Why Fall Gives Fungi a Headstart

(Image credit: Bohdan Bevz / Getty Images)

While perennials and shrubs wind down their top leafy growth as fall progresses, underground root growth continues vigorously, as long as soil temperatures stay above roughly 40°F (4°C). Soil retains summer heat for weeks after the air cools down, creating ideal subterranean conditions for biological activity. Introducing fungi in fall gives the microscopic network all winter to weave into the root system. Mycorrhizal plants tend to ride out drought a little better. So, when spring arrives, the plant emerges with an expanded root network ready to get to work.

Colonization speed relies on soil warmth. Active fungal colonization slows down once soil temperatures drop below 59°F (15°C). While cold soil encourages slow root elongation, it delays the speed at which the fungal partnership sets up shop. In milder regions, planting can extend into November, but late-season gardeners should check soil warmth first. Use a good diagnostic tool, such as the Stainless Steel 5in Compost Thermometer and Soil Temperature Gauge Tool from The Home Depot. Pushing 5 inches (12cm) into the planting site should give an accurate reading on how warm your soil is. If temperatures are well below 50°F (10°C), the fungus will sit dormant on the roots until spring soil warms up.

Where It Pays Off Most

(Image credit: Dominik Spalek / Getty Images)

Established beds with healthy, undisturbed native soil already carry some natural mycorrhizal networks, so store-bought inoculants provide only incremental boosts. Where these fungal inoculants truly perform miracles is in disturbed soils, such as new housing developments where topsoil was scraped away, and in potted stock. I’m adamant about using mycorrhizal fungi in containers. Plenty of bagged mixes start out with few, if any, of these fungi (unless the label says they were added), so a perennial has nothing to partner with unless someone adds it.

I like to use Xtreme Gardening Mykos Pure Endo-Mycorrhizal Granules, available from Walmart, which is the gold standard for fall containers. At potting time, I add a tablespoon of my mycorrhizal fungi and tuck it right against the roots, to accelerate root development and increase nutrient uptake. Pure endo covers most perennials and ornamental shrubs just fine.

There are a few exceptions. Members of the brassica family (cabbage, kale, broccoli) and amaranth family (beets, chard, spinach) do not form mycorrhizal partnerships. Furthermore, acid-loving blueberries, azaleas, and rhododendrons need specialized ericoid mycorrhizae that standard retail bags do not contain, requiring acid-loving soil amendments instead.

What Fungi Won’t Fix

(Image credit: Bulavka / Alamy)

Fungal inoculants are biological boosters, but they are not magic wands. They help plants efficiently absorb nutrients already present in the ground, but they cannot replace missing soil nutrients or repair heavy, waterlogged clay soils where fungi can drown. A single, correct application at planting time lasts the entire lifetime of the plant. As the roots expand through the soil year after year, the fungal network grows right along with them into the surrounding soil profile.

Dusting more powder over the top of established beds every spring is a waste of money. Surface-applied spores rarely migrate down 6 inches (15cm) to reach active root zones in useful quantities. Getting it into the right place at the right time is the real magic – and that’s why it's so important to add it to the roots in fall.

Avoid using high-phosphorus transplant starter fertilizers alongside your inoculant. Heavy concentrations of synthetic phosphorus trick the plant into shutting down its fungal partnership. Similarly, avoid soil drenching with synthetic chemical fungicides right after planting, as this can destroy beneficial fungal networks instantly before they can establish. If you are going to use fungicides as a drench, go for something organic and gentle, such as Arber Bio-Fungicide from Amazon, and use sparingly.

Select the Best and Preserve Storage

(Image credit: Future Publishing Ltd)

When shopping for mycorrhizal fungi, read the product label carefully before buying. Look for named species (such as Glomus intraradices or Glomus mosseae) and a clear propagule count per gram, which proves the product contains viable, living spores.

Most perennials and a good share of shrubs pair up with endo-mycorrhizal fungi, while oaks and pines lean on ecto types. Check for an explicit expiration date on the bag, as living fungal spores gradually degrade in viability over extended time on store shelves. For general beds and mixed plantings, go for a combined endo/ecto blend, which offers broad-spectrum coverage across different plant families.

Finally, proper storage is crucial. Fungal spores are living organisms that can easily be killed by excessive heat or freezing conditions in an uninsulated space. If a bag sat in a metal shed or hot garage all summer, living spores may be compromised. Keep your inoculant in a cool, dark, climate-controlled closet until planting day.

Shop Soil and Planting Essentials

(Image credit: Maryviolet / Getty Images)

Building healthy, living soil is the single best investment you can make when setting out new trees, shrubs, and perennials in fall. Alongside beneficial mycorrhizal inoculants, make some room for high-quality organic amendments so new arrivals can establish deep roots and withstand winter stress effortlessly. These soil boosters prepare your yard for a spectacular spring comeback.

Fall Soil Trio

Root Booster

Xtreme Gardening Mykos Pure Endo-Mycorrhizal Fungi (1 Lb)

This single-species endo-mycorrhizal inoculant is designed to be applied directly to the rootball. Ideal for perennials, fruit trees, and flowering shrubs, it gives roots a boost and increases nutrient uptake.

Pathogen Shield

Arber Arber Organic Bio Fungicide Concentrate (16 Oz)

Apply this drench (made from beneficial soil bacteria) around newly planted stock. It guards vulnerable roots against soil-borne pathogens like root rot without harming beneficial mycorrhizal fungi.

Ocean Tonic

Bloom City Organic Liquid Seaweed and Kelp Fertilizer (8 Oz)

Give your soil a healthy dip with this cold-processed liquid blend laced with trace minerals, amino acids, and gentle nitrogen. It feeds both the newly planted roots and beneficial soil microbes without scorching tender fall growth.

Next time you bring a shrub or perennial home in a nursery pot, make time for this extra step. It takes just 30 seconds at the planting hole. Simply dust the damp rootball while the ground retains its warmth, and water in deeply, then let nature take its course. Whatever the fungal network does not finish establishing before the freeze, it will pick right back up when the soil warms again in spring, rewarding you with lush, drought-resilient growth 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!

There are a lot of reasons to love hellebores. These unusual flowers are prized for their pretty blooms, low maintenance needs and for the fact that they bloom in early spring or even winter in warmer climates. While other plants are preparing to go dormant in September, hellebores are getting ready to grow strong roots and buds.

If you know how to grow hellebores, you know they don’t need a lot of fussing. However, these simple September steps will prepare your plants for the coming growing season and ensure healthy foliage and abundant blooms.

Here’s what your hellebores need in fall to ensure stunning winter blooms.

1. Clean & Tidy Up Plants

(Image credit: PamelaJoeMcFarlane / Getty Images)

Don’t prune hellebore foliage all the way back in fall. Spring, as the new growth is coming in, is a better time to do this. Now is a good time for a light tidy up of faded blooms and problem foliage. Look for and remove any foliage that is damaged or diseased. If you suspect any disease, dispose of the foliage in the trash. Do not compost it.

Clean your tools well after trimming. Content Editor Laura likes to use a disinfectant wipe, like these ones from Walmart, for quick and easy cleaning.

You can also clean up around your hellebore clumps. Lift up the leaves and look for any loose debris to rake up and remove. This will improve airflow during damper fall conditions and limit any disease risk.

2. Provide a Light Fall Feeding

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Hellebores are not generally heavy feeders, but fall is a good time to provide some extra nutrients. They are about to break summer dormancy and start active root growth again, so a little food helps.

Use a balanced, mild fertilizer, either a liquid or slow-release product like this organic plant food from Walmart. Alternatively, you can add some compost as a top dressing. A bloom-booster is definitely not necessary to ensure hellebores flower.

Because established hellebores need so little fertilizing, it’s a good idea to check for alternative causes of any poor growth you see. It’s more likely to be an issue of soil moisture or disease. Check to see if the soil is too dry or isn’t draining well and for any signs of common hellebore diseases, like mold or spots.

3. Refresh Mulch & Manage Moisture

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Early fall rainfall can be unpredictable. Moisture in the soil is essential as hellebores begin a period of active root growth, so keep an eye on both rain and the soil around your plants.

If the soil keeps drying out and the weather becomes unseasonably hot and dry, provide regular and deep watering at the soil level, not overhead. Use a drip irrigation kit or soaker hose, like this one from Home Depot, for easy watering. Be especially careful to keep the soil moist around newly divided and transplanted hellebores.

A layer of mulch is a good way to keep the soil more consistently moist. Apply a layer of organic mulch to a depth of about two inches (5 cm) all around the plants. Keep the area right around the crowns bare to prevent rot.

4. Divide Large Clumps

(Image credit: P_PHOTO / Getty Images)

Hellebores develop nicely into large, dense clumps that flower year after year and don’t need to be divided annually. In fact, they don’t particularly like having their roots disturbed, so let large plants establish for at least three years and only divide healthy, oversized clumps.

If you do think your hellebore is ready for dividing, early fall is the right time to do it. Cooler air and still-warm soil make for good conditions to help transplants establish before the winter freeze. Dig up the entire root ball to divide your hellebore and cut cleanly through it to make divisions that have at least two to three healthy crown components each. Replant the new divisions right away.

5. Check for Volunteer Seedlings

(Image credit: Anna Nelidova / Getty Images)

If your spring hellebore flowers were allowed to go to seed, you will probably see a crowd of small volunteers all around the mature plants. These self-sown seedlings can get overgrown by September, so look for them and pull them out. Take care not to disturb the roots of the parent plant as you do this.

You can simply dispose of volunteers, transplant them, or pot them up. You can also leave some in place to create new clumps. Just be aware that many hellebores are hybrids, so the volunteers will not be the same as the parents.

Hellebores are very easy-going plants that don’t need a lot of care once established. A little attention in early fall can benefit these mostly hands-off plants, though. Keep an eye on moisture, tidy up lightly, and feed or divide if necessary, and they should transition well into their active growing season, providing gorgeous late winter to early spring blooms.

Terracotta pots not only bring classic good looks to your patio but provide growing conditions that help some plants flourish and cause others to fail. So, if you’re choosing planters on looks alone, listen up! Pair the right plants with terracotta rather than plastic, resin or ceramic pots, and they’ll be happier and healthier, rewarding you with more flowers and foliage. And once you know which popular plants detest growing in clay containers, you'll avoid unnecessary patio-pot deaths, too.

You see, terracotta clay is breathable, rather like your fancy Gore-Tex jacket that lets moisture escape when you work up a sweat. Terracotta works like a membrane between the potting mix and the air, drawing excess water outwards to ensure the soil never sits soggy. There's another factor that's vital to successful container gardening, too: as well as being porous to allow moisture out, terracotta lets air in. Almost all plants have respiring roots that must continuously consume oxygen to survive, just like us humans. Some plants need more airflow than others, so really benefit from a clay container's breathable sides.

It just so happens that most plants that evolved to flourish in a dry, fast-draining environment also like well-aerated soil packed full of oxygen – and it’s no coincidence, as the more moisture sits in the soil, the less room there is for oxygen. So, pair those plants with terracotta pots and hey presto, you have containers brimming with healthy growth.

All these 10 plants grow far better in terracotta containers than they do in suffocating plastic, resin or ceramic pots. Give yours a clay-based home before fall rain arrives and they'll survive winter far better for stronger plants and more abundant blooms and leaves next year.

1. Thyme

(Image credit: Getty Images)

If you're growing thyme in a patio pot, know that it will do far better in a terracotta pot that removes dampness from the soil to create the dry, fast-draining conditions that this flavorful herb loves. Mimicking the plant's native Mediterranean habitat, the clay walls wick excess moisture away, which is vital as thyme is highly susceptible to root rot if it sits in soggy soil. There's a benefit for you, too, as these quick-drying conditions concentrate the thyme's essential oil production, resulting in tastier, more fragrant leaves for cooking.

2. Lavender

(Image credit: Westend61 / Getty Images)

While modern hybrid varieties have been bred to better withstand high rainfall and resist root rot, all lavenders do best in well-draining soil so love life in a terracotta pot. Move your lavender from a plastic or ceramic pot to a terracotta one and you'll quickly realise there's a world of difference between surviving and thriving. Add a couple of handfuls of coarse horticultural sand like this from Amazon to the potting soil and treat your lavender plant to a gravel mulch, and you’ll heighten the benefits of that porous, breathable container. Choose the exact right lavender for your zone, too, and you can look forward to incredibly abundant, highly fragrant patio pots.

3. Hardy Succulents

(Image credit: Getty Images)

If you’re a fan of hardy succulents like Sempervivum (houseleeks), Sedum (stonecrop) and Delosperma (ice plants), then growing them in terracotta pots will make these low-maintenance lovelies even easier to look after. The sun-loving plants need fast-draining soil to thrive, so really appreciate the moisture control a porous clay container brings. As they only need irrigating when soil is fully dry from May to September, and prefer to be kept even drier through winter, housing them in terracotta pots makes it easy to avoid the damp conditions that lead to an untimely death. And nine times out of 10, it's the wetness of winter rather than the cold that kills these drought-adapted darlings.

4. Rosemary

(Image credit: Getty Images)

This woody herb evolved in the rocky, dry environment of Mediterranean hillsides so it's naturally suited to the aerated, well-drained soil a terracotta pot provides. Good drainage helps rosemary survive winter, too, as its roots quickly rot in soggy soil, a real danger when growing herbs in wetter zones. Practicalities aside, the pairing of cool blue rosemary blooms with the warm hues of a terracotta pot is just divine, especially if you have a trailing variety like blue cascade rosemary, available from Nature Hills, with stems that spill oh-so-stylishly over the rim.

5. Bird of Paradise

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Sterlitzia has exceptionally strong, fleshy, active roots that consume high levels of oxygen, so housing bird of paradise plants in terracotta pots where they'll benefit from the clay’s breathability is a smart move. That epic root system supports huge sail-like leaves, so the weight of a terracotta planter is also a wise precaution. Growing these tropical plants that are only reliably hardy in zones 10+ in a container also makes it easy to overwinter them indoors as houseplants, where their epic evergreen leaves make quite a statement.

While bird of paradise appreciates a thorough watering, the plant likes the soil to dry out in between, and terracotta accelerates this process. Do choose a sturdy pot though, as these roots are powerful enough to break through a flimsy planter.

6. Agapanthus

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Another plant with a heap of flower power and a hefty root system to fuel it is agapanthus, also called African lily and lily of the Nile. This beauty also has a high root respiration rate so benefits from the breathability of a terracotta pot and the oxygenated soil it brings. While you will need to keep agapanthus growing in a clay container well watered over summer, you'll reap the rewards of that fast drainage for the rest of the year as its roots hate to sit in waterlogged soil.

Make sure you plant agapanthus in a straight-sided terracotta pot or a classic design with sides that taper outwards though, as its enthusiastic root system will expand to fill every inch of the planter; if the container curves inwards at the rim, you won’t be able to remove the plant when it’s time to repot. You needn’t be in a rush to move lily of the Nile up a pot size, however, as this plant blooms far more profusely when its roots are constricted.

7. Pelargoniums

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Terracotta pots are a natural match for all pelargoniums (sometimes called tender geraniums) whether you like to grow zonal, ivy-leaved, scented-leaved or regal types. These glorious plants need fast drainage and good airflow around their roots, and poor aeration is a prime reason they fail – though forgetting to bring the tender plants in out of the cold comes a close second! But even then, growing a pelargonium in a stylish terracotta pot means you can easily bring it indoors for the winter, where it'll make a handsome houseplant.

8. Cacti

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Cacti need even more airflow around their root balls, so also do best in terracotta pots. Because they’ve evolved to live in such a dry environment, cacti are highly sensitive to a lack of oxygen in the soil. Waterlogged soil effectively suffocates roots by excluding oxygen, and quickly causes irreversible damage to their hyper-sensitive surface cells. While most plants can deal with a short-term lack of oxygen, cacti quickly struggle, so a breathable container that helps to control moisture levels is a real asset. Standing the terracotta pot on a little pea gravel or pot risers helps to keep the drainage hole unobstructed, too.

9. Santolina

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Lavender cotton brings cushions of fragrant foliage and cheery yellow flowers to a patio pot, and this low-maintenance plant will be all the happier if that container is made of clay. Another Mediterranean native, Santolina chamaecyparissus evolved to grow in dry, stony soil so benefits from a terracotta pot’s breathability. Santolina actually performs better under mild moisture stress, so the fluctuating conditions inside a clay container actively help it flourish. Adding a few handfuls of perlite, available from The Home Depot, to the potting mix will improve drainage and aerate soil some more, for showstopper results.

10. Rockrose

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

With its beautiful rose-like blooms, Cistus is another Mediterranean shrub with a high demand for oxygen and low tolerance for soggy soil, so does far better in a terracotta pot. Even a compact dwarf rockrose can get a little top-heavy, so the weight of a clay pot prevents the plant being blown over, too.

Terracotta Pots that Don’t Bust the Budget

Fabulous

Set of 2 Rustic Round Terracotta Planters

Functional

14" Diameter Vigoro Standard Clay Pot

Fancy

Set of 3 Handcrafted Clay Planters

Choose the Right Terracotta Pot

• Depending on your zone and what you’re planting in them, check if your planter needs to be frost-proof. Because of its porous nature, clay holds water which can freeze and crack. Terracotta that’s frost-proof is typically fired at a higher temperature, and its winter weather resistance should be outlined in the product description.
• There’s no need to pay more for a frost-proof pot if you’re matching it with a tender plant that needs to overwinter indoors or in a sheltered spot. Simply stand the pot on a wheeled dolly such as this plant caddy from Ace Hardware that makes moving it easy.
• If you choose a planter for its porosity and breathability because you're growing plants that thrive in terracotta pots, don’t pick a design that’s glazed. The hard glaze forms an impenetrable layer over the terracotta that neither air nor moisture can pass through.
• Sitting your terracotta pot on a set of risers such as these Pot Toes from Amazon through fall and winter allows the drainage hole to drain freely and ensures the clay container doesn’t sit in pooling water.

(Image credit: Getty Images)What Not to Plant in Terracotta Pots

Terracotta containers don’t make good homes for all plants, and these in particular will suffer in a clay pot:

• Moisture-loving plants such as hydrangeas and hostas, which appreciate more consistent water levels in the soil.
• Acid-loving plants such as camellias, azaleas or rhododendrons, as the alkaline clay can change the pH of the compost over time.

In B.C., fireproofing your home has never been more critical. Structure Defence is a new North Shuswap-based company that consults with homeowners to protect their property from wildfires.

“We started this based on our experience fighting wildfires, being around communities that have been exposed to wildfire, and seeing that there are things that you can do beforehand,” said co-founder Warren Gray.

“We wanted to help people prioritize things that they can do to make their home more wildfire resilient. We’ve definitely seen that there’s a spot for people to improve, and we want to help.”

Gray and the company’s other co-founder, Craig Nygard, are both NFPA-certified firefighters. Drawing on their experience, they use internationally recognized principles to help homeowners and builders identify wildfire vulnerabilities and turn mitigation strategies into practical steps for protecting properties.

They started the company earlier this year, says Gray, after seeing the devastation wrought in B.C. by this and previous years’ wildfire seasons.

Despite burning less land than the province’s record-setting 2023 wildfire season, 2026 has been one of the province’s most destructive years for homes and other structures, with more than 500 damaged or destroyed by mid-August.

“The Bush Creek East fire here, in 2023, was kind of a big eye-opener in terms of something happening right in our community,” Gray said.

“It’s a whole different thing when we’re out doing it in somebody else’s community,” Nygard said. “But seeing in happen so close to home and personally experiencing the devastation really kicked us into high gear to get something going.”

Protecting a house from wildfire may increasingly begin with prevention, long before smoke appears on the horizon.

“One of the things that we try to impress upon people is that the more time you have, the more options you have,” Nygard said.

“If you’re leaving your decisions or your plan until the last minute, instead of having options, now you basically have priorities. We try to make it as proactive as possible. ‘Wildfire preparation starts before the wildfire arrives’ is one of the big messages that we try to get across.”

Some things people can do is remove high-priority wildfire hazards from within five feet of a home.

These include combustible material like patio furniture, propane tanks, gas cans, and wood. “If you have bark mulch nearby and you have time, replace that with gravel,” Nygard said.

Cedar trees, sometimes used as “privacy fencing,” can be hazardous. “You grow the cedar hedge up and now you can’t see your neighbours. Those are extremely flammable, and they put off a lot of embers.”

The company also consults on new homes and provides emergency services.

“In the event a wildfire is happening right now at your property, we have personnel available who can walk you through top priorities, things you can do in the immediate time before you evacuate,” Gray said.

Structure Defence will be discussing these and other fire prevention principles and mitigation strategies at their booth at this year’s Vancouver Fall Home Show. Nygard will be on hand to conduct a property review for anyone providing their address and asking for help.

“They can bring in pictures of their home, but we’re going to be able to pull their address up on an iPad and look over their property from satellite view and run down what we see as the major concerns, or positive things that they’re doing,” said Nygard.

Nygard will also be a presenter at the home show on Oct. 16 and 17.

“We’ll discuss how firefighters would look at a property, how we would evaluate it, what our priorities are, explaining what the pathways are and what the dangers of certain things can be.

“We really just want people to leave saying, ‘I’ve never looked at my property that way before.’ And hopefully it makes more sense to them.”

The Vancouver Fall Home Show runs from Oct. 15 to 18 at the Vancouver Convention Centre, West. Find the Main Stage and Cooking Stage schedule, a rundown of features and workshops, plus show hours and tickets at vancouverfallhomeshow.com.

Related

• Vancouver Fall Home Show: Health and wellness take centre stage
• Vancouver Fall Home Show: Celebrity chefs to focus on sustainable, locally sourced ingredients

Many people with a fitness routine and an internet connection probably remember doing at least a few online classes during the pandemic.

The YMCA was among the organizations that embraced remote fitness, and the format has stuck. Today, digital programming is part of the Y’s effort to reach people beyond its bricks-and-mortar facilities.

“We learned a lot during the shutdowns,” said Christina Matthews, general manager of YMCA BC Digital Experiences.

“People are busy and they’re looking for ways to be active and healthy. They’re looking for opportunities to do that sometimes in a more hybrid capacity, where you can go into a branch, but you can also do things at home.”

That connection between home and health is what the organization hopes to demonstrate at this year’s Vancouver Fall Home Show.

At the YMCA Health and Recreation Zone, volunteers and staff will lead fitness demonstrations, offer personal-trainer consultations and talk to visitors about the Y’s in-person and digital programs. There will also be games and prizes.

Among those staffing the zone will be Lisa Stiver, the Y’s director of fund development and a member of its community team, a group of staff and volunteers who represent the organization at special events.

“I think sometimes people don’t know a lot about the Y if they’ve never been in a facility,” Stiver said.

Even people who are familiar with the organization, she said, may know only one part of it.

“Everybody knows the Y in a way that they’ve engaged with it. Some people, it might be child care; some people, it might be summer camp; some, it might be swimming lessons. The hard part is really telling the whole Y story.”

That story increasingly includes programs that don’t require setting foot inside a YMCA .

Y@HOME+ offers live and on-demand fitness classes, wellness webinars, healthy meal plans, recipes and online preventive health programming. The Y also provides child care and camps across the province, employment and newcomer support services, and mental-health programs such as Y Mind Youth.

Its online learning programs include the Responsible Adult Course, designed for people working with children from birth to age 12.

The breadth of those services can be obscured by the Y’s familiar image as a place to exercise.

“I think sometimes people look at the Y as ‘gym and swim,’” Matthews said. “They forget that we have so many community programs. We have a bigger impact on the community than solely our health and fitness facilities.”

Founded in London, England, in 1844, the YMCA arrived in Canada seven years later, when the first North American YMCA opened in Montreal in 1851. Today, the YMCA in Canada is a federation of 37 independent associations operating at more than 1,000 locations and serving about two million people annually. Once known as the Young Men’s Christian Association, the Canadian organization has been secular and inclusive for decades.

At the Vancouver Fall Home Show, however, fitness and recreation will provide the entry point. The idea is to show visitors that incorporating wellness into daily life doesn’t necessarily require another trip out the door.

“Fitness and wellness doesn’t have to just mean going to a facility,” Matthews said. “There are more ways to make that fit into your life, and our homes play a really important role in supporting both our physical and mental well-being.”

For Stiver, that makes the home show a natural place to introduce people to a broader version of the YMCA than the one they may have in mind.

“It’s making the connection between our programs and how they connect to you at home,” she said.

The Vancouver Fall Home Show runs from Oct. 15 to 18 at the Vancouver Convention Centre, West. Find the Main Stage and Cooking Stage schedule, a rundown of features and workshops, plus show hours and tickets at vancouverfallhomeshow.com.

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