By Pat Stone

By Pat Stone and Phyllis Gricus

Fall is both the end of this growing season--and the start of next! Take these steps to help make next year's garden is even better than this.

The Vegetable Garden

• Clean up. Gather and compost dead plant litter. This reduces overwintering sites for insects and disease. (Fall is also a great time to forage for compost material, like neighbor's bagged leaves.)
• Sow cover crops. Broadcast winter rye and hairy vetch (which adds nitrogen to the soil) or, in mild-winter areas, banner fava beans in empty beds. This will improve soil fertility and tilth, and provide future compost material.
• Sow winter-hardy crops like kale, spinach, hardy lettuces, and Chinese cabbage. You can protect them with clear plastic over PVC arches, wooden cold frames, or recycled windows atop bales of hay.
• Plant garlic. Garlic grows biggest (in most areas) if started the fall before. Set cloves, pointy end up, an inch deep and three inches apart. Mulch immediately to keep down spring weeds.
• Tend tools. Clean and store your hand tools. Drain gas from motorized ones to keep water from condensing in their tanks.

The Ornamental Garden

• Fall is an ideal time to plant trees, shrubs, grasses, and bulbs. The soil remains warm compared to air temperature, an ideal environment for root development.
• Move any trees or shrubs that you want to relocate.
• Transplant and divide spring- and summer-blooming perennials in early fall.
• Water plants well prior to winter to help prevent winter injury, especially evergreens.
• Prep your houseplants for their return indoors by thoroughly rinsing leaves and container. Look out for insects.
• Move your potted amaryllis to a cool dry spot indoors to begin its dormancy period.
• Core aerate your lawn, seed bare spots, and fertilize--this is the most important application of the year.
• Once soil has a crusty frost layer, apply winter mulch of straw, shredded leaves, or pine needles to keep soil evenly cool through winter.

By Pat Stone

It's surprising how fast homegrown crops can go from being too young to too old. How can you tell when they're just right? Depends on the vegetable:

Green Beans: Beans are most tender when their seeds are one-quarter normal size.

Broccoli: Cut when the heads are big but still tight. Small side shoots will develop for weeks afterwards.

Cabbage: Heads are full but haven't started to split. (To delay splitting, pull on the head until some upper roots snap.)

Cauliflower: To keep them white, tie outer leaves above the heads when they start to get big. Harvest a week or two later.

Corn: The silks are brown, and the ears feel full. To make sure, peel back the top and poke a kernel. If "milk" comes out, it's ready.

Cucumber: Get them just before they mature, when the spines are still soft and the seeds half-sized.

Eggplant: Bright, shiny, and full-grown? Prime. Dull color and brown seeds? Missed it.

Leaf Crops (Swiss chard, collards, kale, leaf lettuce, spinach): These are cut-and-come-again crops. Harvest some leaves continuously, and they'll keep producing as long as weather permits.

Okra: What you want are two- to three-inch-long pods that are easy to snap. Tough and woody is not.

Shell Peas: The pods are filled out but still light-green, not yellow.

Snow Peas: The pods are full-sized but not filled out.

Hot Peppers: Anytime--younger peppers are hotter. (At the end of the season, pull the entire plant and hang it upside down in a dry place.)

Sweet Peppers: Fruits are firm and full. (If you want to wait, they'll turn red!)

Potatoes: The tops have died down and the ground is dry.

Summer Squash: Young and tender. Check daily!

Winter Squash: A fingernail can barely scratch them? Harvest time.

Tomatoes: Fully colored but haven't turned soft = ripe.

You may find that the hardest thing is keeping up with the yields. But, hey, that's a good problem to have!

By Pat Stone

When you grow your own fruits, they're hundreds or thousands of miles fresher. But to truly maximize both taste and nutrition, you'll want to pick them at the exact right time--and that can be tricky to determine. Like voting, it's a good idea to pick early (when the fruit is still cool) and often (even every day).

Here's a quick guide:

Strawberries: Fully red berries are fully ripe, but three-quarters-red ones will ripen too. Pinch off the stem so that it stays on the plant.

Raspberries: Ripe raspberries are fully colored and separate easily from the stem. If you have to tug, they're not ready.

Cherries: These will not ripen indoors, so pick when juicy but still firm. Taste to judge. People often pick cherries too early.

Blueberries: Blueberries should fully blue (no red), taste ripe, and roll easily into your palm when you pull down with your thumb.

Blackberries: These may look ripe before they are. Blackberries should have turned from shiny to dull black and pull easily. (The thorns, sadly, are always at their prime!)

Peaches: The background color should be deep yellow (no sign of green), and fruit should give just a little when squeezed.

Cantaloupe: Ripe fruit is fragrant, has a yellow-beige color, and slips readily from the vine.

Watermelon: The ground spot has turned from white to butter-yellow, tendrils are turning brown, and the fruit sounds dull and hollow -- not bright -- when thumped.

Grapes: Pick when fully ripe--and determine this by taste more than color. Cut off clusters with pruning shears.

Apples: Fruit should be fully colored, and the background color should be creamy or yellow-green (red varieties) or golden (yellows). Dark seeds also indicate ripe fruit.

Pears: Pick pears before they're fully ripe, and ripen indoors at room temperature. The skin color should be changing from leaf-green to yellow-green, and the fruit should give just a little when squeezed.

Pat Stone is the Editor of GreenPrints, "The Weeder's Digest," the prize-winning magazine that shares the personal side of gardening.