Autumn is a good time to prepare your lawn for the year ahead, and the best time to tackle any long-term improvements. Tasks such as raking out lawn debris, eradicating moss, feeding and aerating will improve the quality of your lawn greatly if carried out on a yearly basis.

Over the years, grass clippings and debris form a "thatch" on the surface of your lawn. This affects growth of the grass and should be removed with a lawn rake. Raking also removes moss.

If grass growth is poor, aerate the lawn. You can do this by pushing the prongs of a fork about 15 cm (6 in) into the ground. Brush a soil improver into the holes made by the fork. Use sand or a mixture of fine soil and sand if the ground is poorly drained. Alternatively, use peat, a peat-substitute or very fine, well-rotted compost if the ground is sandy.

If your lawn is in poor condition and needs reviving, apply an autumn lawn feed, such as Master Nursery Master Green Weed and Feed. It is essential that you use one formulated for autumn use, as spring and summer feeds will contain too much nitrogen. If the grass contains a lot of moss, apply a moss killer. Use one recommended for autumn use - the mixture known as lawn sand, sometimes used to kill moss, contains too much nitrogen.

You can tidy an uneven edge at any time, but doing it in autumn will relieve the pressure at busier times of the year. Hold a half-moon edger against a board held in position with your feet. This is not an annual job.

In the Kitchen Garden:
1. Protect late cauliflowers from frost by bending surrounding leaves over the head
2. Protect vulnerable vegetables from frost
3. Pot up some herbs for winter use
4. Prune black currants, gooseberries, and raspberries
5. Plant bare-root fruit bushes and trees

In the Flower Garden:
1. Cut down the dead tops of herbaceous perennials
2. Get rid of garden refuse by burning or composting
3. Remove pumps from the pond and store for the winter
4. Plant roses
5. Plant bare-root and balled trees and shrubs
6. Clear summer bedding if you have not already done so
7. Finish planting spring bulbs as soon as possible
8. Protect vulnerable plants that will remain in the garden through the winter
9. Lift and take in chrysanthemums not hardy enough to overwinter outside
10. Take hardwood shrub cuttings
11. Plant hedges
12. Prepare the pond for winter
13. Collect and compost fallen leaves
14. Remove leaves that have fallen on rock plants
15. Protect the crowns of vulnerable herbaceous plants such as delphiniums and lupines from slugs by sprinkling coarse grit around them

In the Greenhouse:
1. Clean and disinfect, get ready for winter
2. Insulate
3. Check the minimum temperatures being achieved
4. Ventilate whenever the weather is mild enough
5. Gradually give plants less water, (except with winter-flowering plants that are still in strong active growth.) Most will tolerate low temperatures better and disease should be less of a problem.

Plants at Their Best in November:
1. Acer: colorful foliage (tree/shrub)
2. Berberis: colorful foliage and berries (shrub)
3. Cotoneaster: berries (shrub)
4. Fothergilla: colorful foliage (shrub)
5. Gentiana sino-ornata: (alpine)
6. Liriope muscari: (herbaceous)
7. Nerine bowdenii: (bulb)
8. Pernettya: berries (shrub)
9. Pyracantha: berries (shrub)
10. Schizostylis coccinea: (herbaceous)

By Tamara Galbraith

As your fall garden clean-up gets underway, don't sabotage your efforts by using dirty tools.

One of the best ways to prevent the spread of fungus and other plant diseases is to prune out infected parts. However, seemingly healthy wood can also be infected, so disinfecting your pruning tools between cuts becomes very important as you trim.

In 1992, scientists at Kearney Agricultural Center in California's Central Valley tested various readily available and commonly recommended disinfectants. The disinfectants tested were chlorine bleach, hydrogen peroxide, Listerine, Lysol concentrated disinfectant, Pine-Sol, and rubbing alcohol.

The scientists found that soaking or spraying pruning blades for a minute or longer in either full-strength or 1-to-5 solution of chlorine bleach, Lysol, or Pine-Sol brought the most consistent protection. Interestingly, just dipping the blade quickly often did not disinfect properly. Chlorine bleach generally did a better job for quick dips, although none of the disinfectants proved completely effective.

Although chlorine bleach is the least expensive and generally most effective disinfectant, bleach corrodes tools quickly and--as many of us know from clumsy experience--can splash up and ruin clothes. Lysol caused the least damage to clothes and tools; keeping a small can of Lysol and an old rag in your gardening bucket is a good idea as you work your way through fall pruning.

By Tamara Galbraith

You see them all over the place during autumn: bales of hay used as fall decor. But once all the pumpkins and scarecrows have been put away, what should you do with your bale of hay? (Hey, I made a rhyme!)

One option is: compost it. Hay is an excellent additive to the compost pile, and ideally, the heat of the pile will kill any weed seeds that might be languishing in the bales. Straw apparently breaks down even better than hay.

Hay and straw make great mulches and/or path covers too. First, though, break open the bales and let them sit outside for a couple of weeks. This will allow wild birds to come in and munch on any weed seeds that might still be present. When spreading hay or straw bales on garden beds, be sure they don't stay too clumpy as you break the bales apart.

Lastly, hay bales left intact make great cold frames - a kind of mini-greenhouse for housing tender plants during the colder seasons. Simply arrange the bales in a tight square and place your plants inside, either right in the soil or in containers. A piece of Plexiglas or an old window serves as the lid.

If you decide to give this easy cold frame a try, be aware that you must monitor the temperature frequently. Too much sun, and the plants inside will fry, so prop the lid open if necessary. If temperatures are going to drop below freezing, throw a blanket over the whole contraption and remove it when things stabilize.

No matter what, the hay will eventually break down, though, so keep an eye out for that -- as well as the occasional mouse looking for a warm, fluffy place to spend the winter.

Bernice was born and spent her first years on a farm in northeastern Iowa. In addition to crops, Big Daddy raised cows, sheep, pigs and chickens.

Her family moved to California and the city when she was 7 years old. As a young woman, she raised a family of 4 sons and had a career in law enforcement. She currently lives with her husband and youngest son and works part-time at Newell's Nursery.

She says, "Once a farmer's daughter, always a farmer's daughter," and delights in learning about horticulture and working in her garden at home.