Coleus cuttings give you a fresh start on next year's garden

It is time to take cutting of your coleus if you want to overwinter the plants.

Make about a 4-inch cutting from the tip of a stem, strip the lower couple of leaves and place them in water. Within a couple of weeks, you should see roots forming.

Once the roots have developed to about 2 inches, then pot up the cuttings using a high-quality growing medium for containers. You can grow on the newly rooted cuttings outside until temperatures drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Then move the plants to a bright window inside for the winter.

• Install pegboard on the walls of your garage to hang garden tools. They will take up less space hanging on the wall and will be easier to access.

It is also a good practice to clean tools before putting them away. Remember to sharpen your tools on a regular basis to make your gardening chores easier. An electric hand grinder works well for sharpening spades - be sure to wear ear and eye protection when doing this because of the loud noise and sparks thrown off by the grinding process.

Apply even pressure and keep the grinder moving across the spade in order to put a sharp edge on it. Holding the grinder in one spot too long causes excessive heating in the metal and a potential weak spot in the edge.

• Schedule a time in October to have your sprinkler system winterized. Water left in the system can freeze and crack sprinkler heads and pipes.

It is expensive to replace a backflow preventer that cracked because it was not winterized and froze. This component is typically located near the house where the irrigation water supply connects with the home water supply.

Compressed air is often used to blow water out of the system to winterize it.

• Tim Johnson is director of horticulture at Chicago Botanic Garden, chicagobotanic.org.