Though most of us think of summer as the ideal time to garden, there’s still plenty that can be done during the fall and winter as well! Read on for several things you can do to make your garden

(no matter how big or small) even better!

1. How to enjoy fresh garden basil year-round: Once indoors, we lovingly remove basil leaves from their stems and wash and spin them dry before placing them in a food processor with toasted pine nuts, freshly grated parmesan cheese, garlic and extra virgin olive oil for garden fresh pesto. I like to freeze it flat in airtight bags and then line them up in the freezer door. This makes it easy to snap off pieces for quick pasta sauces, or to spread a thin layer over soft goat cheese in a little baking dish for an impromptu warm hors d’oeuvre with pita chips on a cold winter night. A little piece also melts nicely into a pot of homemade chicken and pasta soup.

2. Fall’s Official Flower: Chrysanthemums! Plant your mums in a sunny location where they will get adequate moisture. Mums are hardy plants and will bloom into the fall when the rest of your garden is looking a little drab. Did you know that in some parts of Asia white and yellow chrysanthemum blossoms are used to make sweet tea?

3. What can you plant in the fall? The Brassica Family! September and October are the ideal months to plant broccoli, brussel sprouts,

cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower and kale for fall harvest. They are nutritious and store high levels of vitamin C in their leaves. They also contain the amino acid glutamine, which is a known anti-inflammatory.

Broccoli grown at the Liberty Learning Garden in Queens

4. Time to plant bulbs! Although fall seems to be the end of the growing season, spring-blooming bulbs are starting their growth cycle now. Beneath the soil, bulbs such as garlic, daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths are putting out new roots to prepare for spring. This makes fall the ideal time to fertilize bulbs. Apply a top-dressing of a slow-release bulb fertilizer now, or after you’ve cleaned up your garden beds for winter.

5. Did you know leaves do not fall off trees? Trees push off their leaves! As the amount of sunlight decreases and temperatures become cooler, a hormone is triggered in trees to shed their leaves. Little red cells called abscission cells develop where the leaf stem meets the branch. That’s where the tree gives each leaf a push, leaving it increasingly dangling. Then a breeze comes along and finishes the job.

6. Leaves make an ideal soil amendment or mulch, and they’re free! Run the lawn mower over the leaves to reduce their size, and once the ground has frozen, apply them to shrub and perennial beds as winter protection. Digging chopped leaves into the soil will also help loosen and aerate it. Or simply pile the leaves inside a ring of wire fencing and allow them to decompose over the winter. Use the resulting compost as a soil amendment in the spring.

7. Don’t trim shrubs. As tempting as it may be to give shrubs a haircut during fall cleanup, it’s usually a bad idea. If you cut spring bloomers, such as lilacs, forsythia, azaleas, and viburnums now, you will remove next spring’s flowers. Instead, wait until after bloom to shape your shrubs.

8. Don’t prune your roses! Roses tend to go dormant very late, so pruning them now encourages new growth that will be too tender to survive winter. Wait until forsythia blooms in spring to prune your roses.

Jacqueline Pilati is the Program Director of Learning Gardens, a CityParks Education Program

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Though most of us think of summer as the ideal time to garden, there’s still plenty that can be done during the fall and winter as well! Read on for several things you can do to make your garden (no matter how big or small) even better!

1. How to enjoy fresh garden basil year-round: Once indoors, we lovingly remove basil leaves from their stems and wash and spin them dry before placing them in a food processor with toasted pine nuts, freshly grated parmesan cheese, garlic and extra virgin olive oil for garden fresh pesto. I like to freeze it flat in airtight bags and then line them up in the freezer door. This makes it easy to snap off pieces for quick pasta sauces, or to spread a thin layer over soft goat cheese in a little baking dish for an impromptu warm hors d’oeuvre with pita chips on a cold winter night. A little piece also melts nicely into a pot of homemade chicken and pasta soup.

2. Fall’s Official Flower: Chrysanthemums! Plant your mums in a sunny location where they will get adequate moisture. Mums are hardy plants and will bloom into the fall when the rest of your garden is looking a little drab. Did you know that in some parts of Asia white and yellow chrysanthemum blossoms are used to make sweet tea?

3. What can you plant in the fall? The Brassica Family! September and October are the ideal months to plant broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower and kale for fall harvest. They are nutritious and store high levels of vitamin C in their leaves. They also contain the amino acid glutamine, which is a known anti-inflammatory.

Broccoli grown at the Liberty Learning Garden in Queens4. Time to plant bulbs! Although fall seems to be the end of the growing season, spring-blooming bulbs are starting their growth cycle now. Beneath the soil, bulbs such as garlic, daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths are putting out new roots to prepare for spring. This makes fall the ideal time to fertilize bulbs. Apply a top-dressing of a slow-release bulb fertilizer now, or after you’ve cleaned up your garden beds for winter.

5. Did you know leaves do not fall off trees? Trees push off their leaves! As the amount of sunlight decreases and temperatures become cooler, a hormone is triggered in trees to shed their leaves. Little red cells called abscission cells develop where the leaf stem meets the branch. That’s where the tree gives each leaf a push, leaving it increasingly dangling. Then a breeze comes along and finishes the job.

6. Leaves make an ideal soil amendment or mulch, and they’re free! Run the lawn mower over the leaves to reduce their size, and once the ground has frozen, apply them to shrub and perennial beds as winter protection. Digging chopped leaves into the soil will also help loosen and aerate it. Or simply pile the leaves inside a ring of wire fencing and allow them to decompose over the winter. Use the resulting compost as a soil amendment in the spring.

7. Don’t trim shrubs. As tempting as it may be to give shrubs a haircut during fall cleanup, it’s usually a bad idea. If you cut spring bloomers, such as lilacs, forsythia, azaleas, and viburnums now, you will remove next spring’s flowers. Instead, wait until after bloom to shape your shrubs.

8. Don’t prune your roses! Roses tend to go dormant very late, so pruning them now encourages new growth that will be too tender to survive winter. Wait until forsythia blooms in spring to prune your roses.

Jacqueline Pilati is the Program Director of Learning Gardens, a CityParks Education Program

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