November is now upon us. So, this is November's lawn and garden to-do list. The season is winding down. The grass has almost stopped growing, and when the first frost comes sometime after Nov. 15, the lawn will finally go to sleep. Then our garden chores will turn to leaf raking. But, what a pleasant task in our cool fall weather!

What to plant

Remember, now is the time to be putting in cool season, color plants. You know, things like pansies, snapdragons, ornamental kale and cabbage. We're still planting chrysanthemums this time of the year. I'm sure there are some at the nursery that will tempt you.

I plan to plant more arugula this month. It's a perfect leafy vegetable, adding a bit of zest to any salad.

You can still sow turf type rye seed right over your centipede, Saint Augustine and Bermuda lawns, if you want to have a green winter lawn.

Odd Jobs and

work in the yard

If you haven't already, dig and divide spring-blooming plants like irises, day lilies, daisies and cone flowers, etc. After the first frost, you will want to clean up your garden, cutting to the ground all those perennials that turn brown overnight in a frost. Then they will be ready to sprout afresh next spring.

Now is a good time to do light pruning and shaping of shrubs. They my not need in it again until early next year (this does not apply to azaleas; pruning now will cut off next season's bloom).

It's still not too late to apply pre-emergent herbicide to the lawn to control winter weeds in the lawn. (If your are over-seeding your lawn with rye grass, do not put out pre-emergent. It will prevent the rye from germinating.)

Apply a light application of an acidic fertilizer to azaleas and camellias to ensure good bloom next spring.

Make sure you've turned off your sprinkler system. We've had plenty of rain, and it is ridiculous to see a sprinkler running this time of the year.

You can finally start to lengthen your mowing schedule to three weeks. After the first frost, you can leave off mowing altogether and store your mower. This is how you ready your mower for storage.

Care and storage of a mower

Add a fuel stabilizer/conditioner to the fuel tankin mowers and string trimmers. Run engine for a few minutes to distribute conditioned fuel throughout the engine. Stop engine, allow it to cool, and drain the fuel tank. Then, choke or prime the engine, restart it and allow it to run until it stops.

For 4-cycle engines, remove spark plug and add about one tablespoon of engine oil through spark plug hole. Slowly rotate engine several times using starter rope or turn the starter key to distribute oil over the piston and cylinder area. Put the spark plug back in, but do not connect spark plug wire.

For 2-cycle engines, like weed eaters and blowers, slowly pull recoil starter until resistance is felt, then stop. This resistance is the build up of compression within the engine. Release the recoil starter rope slowly to prevent engine from reversing due to compression pressure. This closes both the intake and exhaust ports to prevent outside air entry, which during the wet winter months can result in corrosion of the cylinder bore.

If your mower has a battery-powered starter, remove it from the mower and store separately.

Clean the air filter, as described in your operator's manual, and look for damaged or worn parts on the mower. They should be ordered now in the off season when there is no rush. Belts on mowers should be carefully attended to.

Finally, lubricate your equipment, especially looking out for grease fittings. Get a grease gun, and fill these places up. Check your owner's manuals. I'm careful to keep all owner's manuals for my power equipment.

If you do all these things now, then your power equipment will start with a snap next spring and be ready to use. By the way, I never really put away my blower. I use it all year long for blowing off leaves and cleaning up. So, it is one piece of equipment that never gets stored like a mower or string trimmer would.

Be on the look-out

Pine trees will begin shedding their needles this time of the year. I like to rake them up and put them under my azaleas as mulch. We East Texans should consider pine straw an asset rather than a liability. Pine needles make great mulch under azaleas, camellias and hydrangeas.

Be on the look out for scale insects on your camellias. These little bugs appear as tiny white barnacles on the undersides of camellias and sasanquas foliage. They suck the life juices out of the plant. If you have them, apply a dormant oil spray, which smothers the scale. Remember you must get the dormant oil on the underside of the foliage for this to be effective. Some folks apply a systemic insecticide to control severe scale infestations.

Last but not least, remember that November is when we celebrate Thanksgiving. This is one of the things you should be careful to do in November. A thankful heart is something to cultivate.