All Things Gardening Podcast

Charlie Nardozzi answers gardeners' questions and gives advice on how to get their gardens and tools ready for overwintering and storage.

There are several different kinds of holiday cactuses: There's a Thanksgiving cactus, Christmas cactus and an Easter cactus. Holiday cactuses earn their names because they tend to bloom near Christian holidays.

You can plant crocus, daffodils and tulips outdoors now, as the soil is cool enough for them to overwinter and bloom next spring. And you can also plant bulbs in containers indoors. Use a layering technique and they will blossom for a month.

Love to use garlic in cooking? Consider planting your own. You can choose garlic types based on your taste. Then, as long as you've got composted and well-drained soil, you should get a good garlic harvest next summer.

Sometimes blooming up until — and even after — the first frost, flowers like Montauk daisies and stokesia provide a last gasp of late fall color.

If your daffodils and other flowering bulbs didn't grow well this past spring, try planting flowering onions. They are beautiful and fairly trouble-free. Purchase a few when you're getting other spring flowering bulbs ready to plant later this month.

Paw paw trees grow in our region and produce lots of sweet fruits in late summer and early fall. The fruit's insides are soft and custard-like, and the taste can range from banana to mango to vanilla.

If you love seeing spring flowers popping up under trees, across your lawn or in your meadow, start planning how to get that look now. Soon, you can go purchase your favorite bulbs and get them in the ground.

If your peony plants didn't bloom as much this year, perhaps they're getting too much shade. As you prep your gardens for fall and winter, separating and moving your peonies could help them bloom better next year.

This fall as you clean up your garden and raised beds, remove less leaf litter, stems and other garden debris. Leaving these in place can create places for beneficial pollinators to overwinter.