By BIRGITT THORNHILL

By BIRGITT THORNHILL

Extension Agent

• If the weather stays dry enough before the ground freezes, you can plow. Fall plowing allows earlier planting in the spring and is especially good for heavy soils since they are exposed to the freezing and thawing action of winter. This will help improve your soil’s structure.

• Remove any diseased or insectinfested plant material from your garden. It may harbor overwintering stages of disease and insect pests. If you leave this plant material in your garden, you are leaving diseases and insects which will begin to reproduce again next spring and add to next year’s pest problem.

• Pumpkins which are free from insects, disease or damage will keep two to three months if stored at 5055 degrees F with a relative humidity of 70-75 percent.

• Fertilize trees and shrubs that have shown signs of weak growth after they are dormant but before soil temperature drops below 45 degrees F.

• Clean up home orchard and small fruit plantings. Sanitation is essential for good maintenance. Dried fruits of “mummies” carry disease organisms through the winter to attack next year’s crop.

• If you have a sunny area to naturalize with small flowering annuals, sow seeds of sweet alyssum or johnny-jump-ups. They will come up this fall or early spring and bloom extra early next spring. Both are very hardy and self-seed readily to maintain the natural area.

• House plants will slow down growth as the days get shorter and light intensity is reduced. This means that they will need less frequent watering ant’ fertilizing until next spring. Too much of either in the winter months can cause weak growth.

• Do not become alarmed if your yews, pines, aroorvites and junipers begin to shed their innermost needles. It is natural for them to do so at this time of year.

• Fall is an excellent time for taking soil samples in your lawn and garden. Soil tests will measure the acidity or alkalinity of the soil and