Keep a record of what you planted, noting which varieties you loved and which choices did not turn out the way you had hoped. In my garden this year, my most productive bed was a large trellis of ‘Roma’ beans, with a different-colored cherry tomato growing up on both sides.  

Both beans and tomatoes were abundant producers this year, but the best part was the bounty of basil, carrots and lettuces I harvested from seed that I broadcast at the base of the beans. The beans created a shady shelter and a cool little microclimate that kept me in crisp lettuce, baby carrots and leafy basil all summer. I will definitely try to recreate that setup next summer, although I will do so in a new spot.

The main tomato I planted from seed this year was an Italian paste variety. The plants were easy to grow and prolific, but the taste was bland and lacked the acid I like. To their credit, the tomatoes were heavy, cooked up well, and were easy to slice neatly. Still, I am going to try a different paste tomato next summer.  

I also grew a squash called ‘Serpente di Sicilia,’ a fun plant to grow for the three-foot-long zucchini-like vegetable. Its striking, pure white blossoms looked like hibiscus flowers. Alas, my rabbits liked the squash more than I did. I have to think about that one some more.

If you have enough space to move crops around, sketch a map of your garden so you can rotate crops and avoid soil-borne diseases. If your space is limited, consider using more trellises and other structures to grow crops up rather than out.  

Stop watering trees and shrubs now. They need to go dormant. Spend the extra time choosing and preparing sites for any bare-root trees, shrubs, vines and roses you want to add to your garden. If possible, prepare planting holes before the steady rains begin and the soil becomes too wet to work. Do continue to water newly planted evergreens and perennials as needed.

If you did not get bulbs in the ground or in pots in October, it’s not too late. Nurseries, garden centers and catalogs still have a great selection. Narcissus and tulips are beautiful in pots and urns as well as in beds. Also consider grape hyacinth (Muscari) and other larger hyacinth.

If you crave color in winter and spring, sow seeds of wildflowers, alyssum, sweet peas and love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena). Transplant primroses, snapdragons, hollyhocks, pansies, stock and carnations. Poppy seeds and seedlings can go in the ground now, too.

Many of us still have harvesting to do. Pomegranates and persimmons are almost ready to pick, and guavas and olives are ripe, too. Pumpkins and winter squash have reached harvest size, and radishes, carrots, spinach, lettuces and other greens are enjoying the cooler weather. Tomatoes are mostly finished for the year, although a bed cover such as Reemay can keep some plants producing a little longer.

If you keep a year-round vegetable garden or want to, now is the time to sow seeds of carrots, radishes, spinach and lettuce. Garlic, shallots, asparagus crowns and artichokes are also available now at nurseries.

In areas that receive more than 20 inches of rain per year, University of California Extension recommends treating fruit trees with a dormant copper spray to control fungal diseases. Read label directions and follow them precisely. Good coverage is more important than the strength of the mixture so take the time to spray from all angles.  

Remove dead limbs from your orchard trees and haul them to the dump or chip them for compost. Clean your tools with a 10 percent bleach solution when you are finished to avoid transferring any problems to healthy plants.

Clean up the garden to eliminate hiding places for slugs and other pests that can make your spring-planted seedlings disappear overnight. If you are still raking up leaves, consider saving some in plastic bags so you have “browns” for your spring compost pile.  Make sure they are dry before storing them.

November is a busy month, with chores ranging from tidying up to planting violas and snapdragons for winter color. Next month the list won’t be quite so long.

Open garden: Napa County Master Gardeners welcome the public to visit their demonstration garden at Connolly Ranch on Thursday mornings, from 10:30 a.m. until noon, except the last Thursday of the month. Connolly Ranch is at 3141 Browns Valley Road at Thompson Avenue in Napa. Enter on Thompson Avenue.

Workshop: Join Napa County Master Gardeners for a workshop on “Indoor Gardening” on Saturday, November 9, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Transform a room into a vibrant living space with houseplants. Learn how to use color, texture and pattern for design and how to care for houseplants. The workshop will be held at the Senior Multi-Use Center, 2185 Elliott Drive, American Canyon. Online registration (credit card only) Mail in registration (cash or check).

Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.

Lucky enough to befriend some well-connected girls, my roommates and I were “adopted” by their friends who owned a trattoria in our neighborhood. From late August until late October, we benefited from their kindness and were hosted for many meals. Finally feeling settled in our new space, we decided it was time to repay their kindness. We invited them to dinner and began planning, shopping and cooking.

The night arrived. Beautiful vegetables and fruits had been procured, the wine was breathing, and the only detail left was something pretty for the table.

With half of the household on guest watch, the other three of us scampered down the hill to the flower stalls near Piazza San Marco.  

It was a perfect autumn evening with crisp, cool air. Gentlemen in wool coats walked their spaniels, and several flower stalls burst with the colors of the season. All the flowers were beautiful, but the ones that best suited our student budgets were the chrysanthemums.

I had never seen so many different flower shapes. Spiders and quills, pompoms and singles (looking like the daisies on my childhood Easter hats), and blooms from tiny to grand. The colors were equally varied: from pure white to burnt rust, sunny yellow, gold, and rich, deep claret. Mums in light lavender, deep pink and deeper reds tempted us as we turned from shape to shape and color to color.

When we reached a consensus, we purchased armloads (because we could afford them, and these were special guests) and climbed the hill back to our home.

Our other roommates were impressed with the abundance. We found every vessel suitable for flowers and cut, snipped and arranged. When the dining room was sufficiently adorned, we decided to put one vase of chrysanthemums at each of the four stair landings leading to our fourth-floor flat. Then we waited for our guests.

Not long afterward we heard the doorbell ring, and one roommate skipped downstairs to greet our honorees and escort them upstairs. We could hear their excited chatter as they began to climb the stairs. But then we noticed that the closer they got to our apartment, the quieter the giggles and chatter became. At last, they all walked sedately through the front door, worry and concern on every face except my roommate’s.  She just looked confused.

We poured aperitifs and began to chat, but after 10 awkward minutes, two of us spirited our young Italian friend into the kitchen. There she apologized and explained that she and her parents would not have come had they known someone had died.

In Italy, we learned, you put out chrysanthemums only when someone dies. Who knew?

Fortunately, when our guests discovered that our loved ones were still very much alive, the evening picked up and everyone had a good time.  

Chrystanthemums (Dendranthema grandiflorum) are wonderfully diverse. Classified according to bloom type, these free-flowering perennials bloom in October and November when other color in the garden is fading.

Chrysanthemums like full sun and well-drained soil. They look good in beds and borders, planted in mass or as specimens. They range from low mounds to six-foot-tall sprawlers. Because they have a strong odor, deer usually avoid them.  

Mums do well when planted in containers, and they make terrific cut flowers, so choose colors you like to have in the house. For a bushy plant with masses of blooms, pinch growing tips to force branching. If you prefer fewer but larger blooms, remove some buds so those remaining are larger.

Years ago, I had a wonderful landlady who planted the side strip along our narrow driveway in a double row of staked chrysanthemums. Each mum was a different favorite of hers. There were small pompoms looking like little buttons, and deep rust incurves that reminded me of the geometric perfection of dahlias. There were lacy, spidery blossoms in deep purples and violet, and “single” chrysanthemums I first mistook for daisies in pure white and soft apricot. Choosing just one chrysanthemum was always exquisite agony.

My personal favorites are spoon mums and spider mums, whose explosive yet delicate flowers remind me of quiet fireworks. But face to face with a different chrysanthemum, I often forget my loyalty.

Demonstration garden: Napa County Master Gardeners welcome the public to visit their demonstration garden at Connolly Ranch on Thursday mornings, from 10:30 a.m. until noon, except the last Thursday of the month. Connolly Ranch is at 3141 Browns Valley Road at Thompson Avenue in Napa. Enter on Thompson Avenue.

Workshop: Join Napa County Master Gardeners for a workshop on “Indoor Gardening” on Saturday, November 9, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Transform a room into a vibrant living space with houseplants. Learn how to use color, texture and pattern for design and how to care for houseplants. The workshop will be held at the Senior Multi-Use Center, 2185 Elliott Drive, American Canyon. Online registration (credit card only) Mail in registration (cash or check).

Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.

You can plant garlic anytime between October 15 and February 15, but the earlier you plant, the better. The bulbs will have longer to grow and will be larger.

Consider how much garlic you use in a month, then estimate how much you would like to grow. Garlic doesn’t take up much space in the garden and, when properly stored, keeps for months.  So it is possible to grow an entire year’s supply.

There are two types of garlic. Softneck garlic is well-adapted to our mild winters, stores well, and is the type of garlic used for garlic braids. Hardneck garlic, also called “rocambole,” forms flower stems in the spring. Both types are interchangeable for cooking, although varieties differ in flavor, ease of peeling, and perishability.

It’s best to get garlic from a nursery that sells certified, disease-free bulbs. Garlic from the grocery store may have been treated to retard sprouting. Nurseries have the best selection beginning in August; by now, your choices will be more limited as the nurseries begin to sell out.

Prepare your garlic bed with two to four inches of well-aged compost or manure. Add a balanced fertilizer that contains phosphorus and potassium. Some of the organic granular fertilizers available in garden shops would do well. A day before planting, soak the bed so that it is thoroughly moist at least six inches deep. You won’t water again until the sprouts emerge.

Separate the heads of your seed garlic into individual cloves, setting aside the smaller cloves. Do not peel them. Plant the larger cloves blunt end down, about an inch below the soil surface and four to six inches apart in all directions. Each of these cloves will provide a head of mature garlic next year.

Once shoots emerge, water regularly until winter rains start. If we have a dry winter, as we did last year, you will need to continue watering if you want to harvest large bulbs. Do not keep the bed soggy, however. Panting garlic in a raised bed will help prevent the plants from rotting if we have a wet winter.

When plants begin growing rapidly in late winter and early spring, add a nitrogen-rich fertilizer. An easy way to fertilize is with a liquid preparation such as worm compost tea or fish emulsion.

Between May and late June, the tips of the garlic leaves will start to yellow. That’s your sign to stop watering. The softneck varieties will fall over. The garlic is ready to harvest when the leaves are more than half brown. Allow the ground to dry thoroughly before harvesting.

It is better to dig up the plants rather than pull them. Cure the whole plants for a couple of weeks in a warm, dry place away from direct sunlight. Then you can discard the leaves and store the roots in a cool, dry, airy place.

If gophers are a problem in your garden, be forewarned: they like garlic as much as everything else. If your beds are not lined with gopher-proof wire, you can plant garlic in wire baskets set into the ground or grow your garlic in pots. Excluding these pests is the most effective way of protecting your garlic crop.

Aphids can also be a problem, especially if you are growing onions, nasturtiums or artichokes nearby. Inspect plants regularly, and if you find aphids, spray them off daily with water or use an insecticidal soap spray twice a week.

If your garlic rots before it matures, you might be overwatering. Some fungal diseases also affect garlic, although I have not seen them in my east Napa garden. Dig out diseased bulbs and consider bringing them in for assessment to the Master Gardener Help Desk.

You have a long wait until next summer’s garlic harvest, but you can still enjoy home-grown garlic in the interim. Remember those small cloves that you set aside? Plant them close together in a separate area of the garden to harvest as green garlic throughout the winter. You can harvest the shoots anytime and use them like a mild, garlicky green onion. The leaves are high in vitamins A and C, and they will add a fresh, mild garlic taste to your meals all winter long.

Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will hold a workshop called “Design Your Own Edible Landscape” on Saturday, October 19, from 10 a.m. to noon, at Napa City-County Library, 580 Coombs Street, Napa. Learn how to integrate edible plants into your ornamental garden.  Bring a detailed plan of your garden to work on with guidance from Master Gardeners. This is a free workshop but registration is required.  Register here.

Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.

Calls to the Napa County Master Gardener help desk indicate that local gardeners need pruning advice. Many callers want to know when to prune, which is an excellent question. When shrubs fail to bloom, pruning at the wrong time is a likely cause.

Summer-and fall-flowering shrubs are generally pruned in winter when they are dormant. They flower on new wood that grows earlier in the same growing season. Pruning them back in late winter or early spring encourages more new growth and results in more flowers. Butterfly bush (Buddleia), honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) and rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) belong in this category. Many summer-flowering shrubs grow quickly and can take heavy pruning. I cut my Buddleias back every year to 10 to 12 inches, and they become six-foot giants again by the end of summer.

In contrast, spring-flowering shrubs bloom on old wood. That means they produce their flower buds on twigs that grew the previous summer. Although it is tempting to cut all shrubs back when doing your winter cleanup, resist that urge. Pruning spring-flowering shrubs in winter will eliminate most of their blooms.

In general, you should prune spring-flowering shrubs immediately after the flowers fade. Plants in this category include lilac (Syringa vulgaris), mock orange (Philadelphus) and viburnum (Viburnum spp.). Many spring-flowering plants do not need heavy pruning every year and are content with selective thinning to give them shape.

Hydrangeas present a pruning quandary. Some varieties bloom on old wood and others on new wood. Before taking pruning shears in hand, you need to identify the hydrangeas you have.

The large hydrangeas with blue or pink and sometimes white flowers (Hydrangea macrophylla) and oakleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia) both bloom on old wood. Prune them lightly right after flowering. The shrubs with white conical flowers (Hydrangea paniculata) and some of the other large-flowered hydrangeas (Hydrangea arborescens), such as the popular ‘Annabelle,’ bloom on new wood. Cut them back in late winter.

I have several Hydrangea macrophylla growing just outside my kitchen window. I once mistakenly cut them back severely in winter and the result was no blooms the following year. When I cut them back just after flowering, they bloom the following summer but the plants block much of the window before they finish blooming. So I am left with the dismal choice between glorious flowers and a view. This is the perfect example of wrong plant in the wrong place.

Regardless of when your shrubs bloom, you can prune them lightly anytime to remove damaged or diseased wood or to eliminate weak or unwanted growth. This clipping will safeguard the health of your shrub.

Improper pruning not only affects future blooms; it can also destroy the shape and health of the plant. Some gardeners have a tendency to create dense, round balls. Others top their plants or go for the lollipop look. It is best to respect the nature of the plant and prune judiciously.

One method is to cut branch by branch to shape the plant. Cut at branch unions or buds while avoiding shearing in a uniform hedge. Shearing is easier and faster but creates a shell of foliage, and the plants eventually become woody in the interior.

You can rejuvenate many types of shrubs by cutting them to the ground in early spring. However, you will sacrifice that year’s blooms on spring-blooming shrubs.  Another method of rejuvenating an older shrub is to cut one third of the canes to the ground each year for three years until all canes have been rejuvenated. This practice works well on multi-stemmed twiggy shrubs.

We prune plants for many reasons: to control their size, maximize flowering, train them, improve their appearance and rejuvenate old, tired shrubs. Invest in a good pruning book, and prune each shrub according to its needs to avert a horticultural disaster.

Pruning is not always what a plant needs. Sometimes it’s wiser to just remove an overgrown plant and replace it with one more appropriate for the site. I intend to stop doing battle with the giant hydrangeas under my kitchen window and replace them with a more appropriate choice. Then I will have the luxury of both flowers and view.

Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will conduct a workshop on “Landscape Trees and Shade Gardens,” on Saturday, October 12, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., at University of California Cooperative Extension, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Napa. Wondering which trees do well in our valley and how to place them in your garden for years of shade and beauty?  Learn which plants grow well under oaks and other trees, creating thriving shade gardens. Online registration (credit card only) Mail in registration (cash or check only). Sorry, no refunds unless workshop is cancelled.

Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.