Frost doesn’t signal the end to gardening

Just because the frost killed off your plants and flowers doesn’t mean gardening is done in Iowa for the year. Horticulturist Gino Patera says this is a great time to pull out your drooping annuals and, if they’re in pots, replace them. He says you can put things like fall mums in the pots or fall pansies, and these will look good deep into the fall and even early winter. Also, sometimes people start putting in spruce top branches, and these will look good all fall and all winter. For your perennials, Patera says you should wait until they’re no longer green before trimming them back. He says this is also the perfect time of year to plant fall bulbs like tulip, daffodil and crocus, as they’ll be the first thing to pop up out of your garden next spring.