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  1. Plant all types of permanent landscaping plants (trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, ground covers) except for tropicals.
  2. Remove summer flowers and prepare the beds for cool season color with the addition of an organic soil amendment like GBO Soil Building Conditioner.
  3. Plant cool season annuals such as pansies, snapdragons, stocks, Iceland poppies, dianthus, calendulas, primrose and ornamental kale and cabbage.
  4. Plant bulbs such as daffodils, anemones, ranunculus, bearded iris, Dutch iris, lilies and more.
  5. Purchase tulip, hyacinth and crocus bulbs and place them in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator for 6-8 weeks to prepare them for later planting.
  6. Plant cineraria for late and winter and early spring bloom.
  7. Scatter wildflower seeds, such as California poppies and others. Fall and winter rains will help them germinate for a lavish spring flower show. These are perfect additions for wilder, less cultivated areas of the garden, such as slopes.
  8. Plant cool season lawns by seed or sod such as fescue, perennial ryegrass or bluegrass. Fall is the best time of year by far for this job.
  9. Over-seed sparse lawns with a compatible grass seed.
  10. Fertilize your cool season lawn (fescue, perennial ryegrass or bluegrass) to prepare it for winter.
  11. Over-seed your Bermuda grass lawn with annual ryegrass if you want a beautiful, green carpet all winter long. When the warm weather returns, the annual ryegrass will die out and the Bermuda will take over once again.
  12. Remove old plants from the summer vegetable garden and prepare it for the fall crops by cultivating the soil and adding compost or an organic soil amendment like GBO Harvest Supreme.
  13. Plant cool season vegetables such as root crops, leafy vegetables, peas, broccoli and cauliflower.
  14. If you planted your sweet peas last month, thin them out and pinch them back to force branching; there is still time to plant them by seed or starts, also.
  15. Divide clumping plants that are overgrown such as ginger, clivia, agapanthus, daylily and bird of paradise.
  16. Divide perennials such as Shasta daisy, aster, chrysanthemum, rudbeckia and many others, if needed. Most perennials should be divided every 3-5 years.
  17. Cut back zonal, ivy and Martha Washington geraniums.
  18. Divide naturalized bulbs, if needed, such as belladonna lilies, daffodils, paper white narcissus and Dutch iris. If the bulbs are crowded and the bloom was sparse the previous spring, they probably should be divided.
  19. Divide hardy water lilies.
  20. Treat blue hydrangeas with aluminum sulfate to keep them blue (otherwise they will be pink next year).
  21. Apply one last round of fertilizer to roses early this month.
  22. Begin decreasing the amount of water given to deciduous fruit trees to help prepare for their winter dormancy.
  23. Remove summer annuals from outdoor containers and replace them with a cool-season alternative that will provide color from fall through next spring.
  24. If you have some shade plant a bed of cyclamen (or use them as container plants) for dependable color for the upcoming holiday season.
  25. Prune hedges and shrubs that have gotten out of hand over the summer. Do not prune spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs until after they bloom in the spring.

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