YOUR GARDEN GUY: Cooler weather brings with it outdoor chores

Now is the time to begin moving house plants indoors. Do this to prevent exposure to frost, which will severely damage most tropical plants. Check for insect and disease problems, and treat the problems before you move the plants inside.

It is too late to seed warm-season grasses such as Bermuda and Centipede. Use winter rye instead, then seed warm-season grasses in May.

To prevent yellowing leaves, give azaleas a light treatment of fertilizer.

Continue cutting back perennials that are going dormant. Weed beds and add mulch.

Buy fall foliage trees such as maples now. The intensity of the leaf color can vary greatly, so if you buy now you can get the best leaf colors. Look at some of the new hybrid trees. These varieties offer consistent leaf color and frequently have greater disease resistance.

Clean bird feeders with a little soapy water and rinse well. With the winter months approaching, our feathered friends will soon be looking for food.

Remove faded flowers on chrysanthemums. The plants will spend less energy on seed production, which will produce more blooms. Water on a regular basis.

What's blooming this month? Tea olive, beauty bush, perennial salvias, toad lily, daisy "Ryan's Pink," mums, pansy, swamp sunflower, roses and hardy ageratum.

Todd Goulding provides residential landscape design consultations. Contact him at www.fernvalley.com or 478-345-0719.

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 9:30 PM with the headline "YOUR GARDEN GUY: Cooler weather brings with it outdoor chores ."