Take advantage of nice falls days to improve your garden
Disconnect garden hoses from outdoor spigots and faucets as night temperatures begin to drop below freezing. Reconnect hoses to water new plants or plants in containers as needed during any warm spells.
If you leave a garden hose attached, a small amount of water can stay lodged in the pipe near the spigot and quickly freeze. This ice can damage your faucet and pipe. Once you have finished watering for the season, turn off the water supply inside your house, disconnect hoses and tighten all the faucets after opening them to drain out any remaining water.
It is important to keep water out of exterior pipe systems that will not be used in the winter because trapped water can freeze and expand, causing cracks and breaks and even bursting pipes.
You may have frost-free faucets on the side of your house. They are essentially standard hose spigots with a long pipe on the back end that extends through the side of the house. It looks the same as a regular spigot from outside the house, but the connection and the valve that controls the water supply is inside, where it's warmer and protected from freezing.
A properly installed frost-free faucet has a slight downward pitch toward the spigot so that water drains out of the pipe when the water is turned off, leaving no water to freeze in the pipe. If you are unsure whether your faucets are indeed frost-free and installed properly, have your plumber inspect them to avoid a broken water line and big mess in the house.
• Install flagstone steppers in garden beds where you frequently walk. There is a wide variety of materials to choose from for steppingstones in the garden. Pick a style that complements your house, plant materials and other hardscape elements in your yard.
Dig the flagstone steppers in slightly and use torpedo sand to level them and set them into place. The sand helps keep the stones from shifting when they are walked on. Install them so the tops of the steppers are just above grade to help keep the tops from being covered by soil and mulch.
Small, thin flagstone steppers are more difficult to stabilize once in the ground. Steppingstones that are thin (less than ½-inch or so) are lighter and easier to work with, but crack more easily during installation. They are also more likely to crack if the base under them is uneven or not well prepared.
• Tim Johnson is director of horticulture at Chicago Botanic Garden, chicagobotanic.org.