It's fun to start your own coleus plants

If you have kept a coleus as a houseplant, you can still start cuttings for transplanting to the garden. Use a sharp, clean knife or a pair of pruners to cut the stem just below a leaf node.

Remove the lowest leaves, dip the cut end into a rooting hormone and insert it into some fresh, sterile potting soil. The cuttings will also readily root by placing them in a glass of water.

Transplant to a pot with growing medium once a small mass of roots has developed. The plants will be ready to use in the garden by early to mid-June when the weather is reliably warm.

Gradually acclimate coleus plants to the outside environment by increasing the time the plants are left outside over a period of a week or so. Be sure to avoid direct sun at first so the leaves do not burn.

• It is best to avoid applying crab grass control to your lawn as an annual maintenance task. If you did not have problems with crab grass last year, then you probably do not need to apply crab grass control this year.

Pre-emergent herbicides like those sold for crab grass work by preventing the weed seeds from germinating, so they need to be applied before the weeds germinate. Generally, crab grass controls are applied to lawns in early to mid-April and must be completed before lilacs begin to flower.

These products will also prevent new grass seed from germinating and will be less effective if disturbed by maintenance activities such as core aeration.

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