Fall is here. Get your yard in gear. Part I

The weather is gorgeous outside. The humidity is gone and hair isn’t frizzing so much. It will probably get hot again, yet there are no worries of a freeze any time soon, so you can’t really winterize. But you can organize, my little Mumsie!

Fall is a great time to plant perennials, bulbs, trees and shrubs. Fall maintenance gardening primarily consists of weeding, deadheading, dividing overgrown plants, removing spent annuals, amending soil and adding needed mulch.

Schedule the work over several weekends so it doesn’t become overwhelming. Take a walk around your garden and look at how all the plants did over the summer. If you're yard's like mine, your precious plants are mostly dead due to the drought. Moving on:

Clean up your act: Cut down and remove the past season’s annuals and vegetables, shake soil from roots and add them to the compost pile. Cut back faded or dead foliage on perennials after the first hard frost, and compost.

Top Dress (plunging neckline, anyone?): Top-dress the area you take plants from. Topdressing means applying a layer of fertilizer, mulch, or compost to enrich the soil; all of these provide nutrients and organic matter that leach into the soil throughout the winter.

Intensive Care. Check the overall health of plants; look for diseases and damage.
· Rake up and compost fallen leaves on the lawn, and pull weeds.
· Start planning for mulch. Put that blanket on in a few weeks to protect plants.
· Brush off any mulch that is sitting on branches of shrubs because it can cause leaves and needles to yellow.

Princess Perennials
Perennials can be cut back for the next season: Cut the stems off right near the ground, giving the plants a neat appearance and readying them for spring re-growth. To save the plants you use for cooking, such as rosemary and thyme, pot them in a suitable container, place them in a sunny area in your kitchen, and use them throughout the winter. Dividing perennials (esp. tubors) reinvigorates plants and gives you new plants to add to other areas of your garden or to share with neighbors and friends.