Prepare your garden hoses, spigots for the cold

As I am writing this column, it’s 71 degrees outside in early November with no cold weather or frost in the forecast. Even though it is extraordinarily warm, it’s time to prepare for cold weather.

Disconnect garden hoses from outdoor spigots and faucets as night temperatures begin to drop. Reconnect hoses to water new plants or plants in containers as needed during any warm spells.

It looks like new plants will need some supplemental water deep into November based on the current weather forecast. 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 a standard hose spigot 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 valve that control the water supply are inside where it's warmer and protected from freezing.

A properly installed frost-free faucet should have 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 frost-free and installed properly, have your plumber inspect them to avoid a broken water line and big mess in the house.

Bring out the evergreens

Remove unattractive plants from containers and hanging baskets and replace them with evergreen boughs, branches with colorful berries and interesting seedheads from perennials and ornamental grasses.

Garden centers have lots of options to choose from for decorating your containers if you do not have materials available in your garden. Push ends of the stems into the growing medium in the container to support the branches. Try to do this before a hard freeze makes it impossible to push in the ends of the branches.

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