Dig In!

Before you plant your bed, mix in at least an inch of compost to a depth of between six and 10 inches. It boosts the soil.

Cool-Season Vegetables

Arugula, chard, lettuce, spinach, beets and peas can be planted as seeds or seedlings.

Carrots, radishes and onions should be planted as seeds.

Brussels sprouts and broccoli should be planted as seedlings. Get them into the garden before fall begins.

Other seedlings ready to go into your winter garden are cauliflower, onions and turnips.

Don’t have a vegetable bed? You can grow many cool-season veggies in pots — as long as they get between six and eight hours of sun a day. Great choices are lettuce, spinach, chard, beets, cauliflower and kohlrabi (Remember to use potting soil in pots, not garden soil).

Flowers for Winter Sparkle

Plant winter bloomers such as calendula, chrysanthemum, dianthus, forget-me-nots, Iceland poppies, nemesia, primroses and violas. In bloom now and likely to last a month or more longer are perennials such as begonia, campanula and Japanese anemone; and annuals such as impatiens, lobelia and petunia. If you spot some at the nursery that don’t look too spent and aren’t badly root-bound (where the roots are tightly wound and packed into their containers), bring them home and pot them up for a shot of color by your front door or on your patio table.

Start shopping for spring-blooming bulbs, corn, tubers and rhizomes (Iris, lily-of-the-valley, freesia, crocus, daffodil, tulip, and hyacinth). When choosing bulbs such as tulip and daffodil, look for large firm ones without blemishes or soft spots. In our climate, crocus, hyacinths and tulips do best if they are chilled in the refrigerator for six to eight weeks, and then planted (Chilling isn’t necessary but it makes the plants grow taller and bloom better). Put them in paper bags and store them away from fruit because ripening fruit gives off ethylene gas, which can harm the developing flower buds. I store my bags of bulbs in one of the vegetable bins.

This also is a good time to visit a nursery to see trees that have fall color, such as crape myrtle, flowering plum, liquidambar and ginko. If you see one you love, get it now, because fall is the prime time for planting trees and shrubs.