October garden tasks

- Harvest tomatoes, peppers and other tender vegetables before the first frost.

- Don't cut down perennials until they turn brown. As long as they are green they are feeding their roots and storing energy for next spring.

- Fertilize lawns right up to Halloween for early spring lawn health.

- Stop or cut back on fertilizing houseplants now.

- Cabbage family vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, etc.) improve in flavor with a light frost.

- A heavy drop of needles from evergreens is normal now.

- Before temperatures drop below 30 degrees harvest pumpkins, gourds and winter squash.

- Continue to spray to eradicate broadleaf weeds through this month.