October is National Apple Month and an excellent time to find more ways to incorporate this healthy food into your daily diet. This superfood is low in calories, high in fiber, rich in nutrients, promotes heart and oral health and can aid in weight loss.

Boost the pollinator and songbird appeal in your landscape with the addition of goldenrods. You’ll enjoy the bright yellow flowers and many visiting pollinators and songbirds. With a wide range of native species and cultivars available, you are likely to find one or more suited to your landscape.

Bring a little fall color indoors by adding a croton to your indoor garden. Their colorful leaves echo many fall colors in the landscape, including red, yellow, orange, green and purple.

Croton leaf shapes can vary, adding to their ornamental appeal. They can be broad or narrow, shaped like an oak leaf, twisted like a corkscrew or somewhat pinched in the middle. You may decide to buy a few to place throughout your home.

Colorful poinsettias and flowering Thanksgiving or Christmas cactus fill garden centers and homes during the holiday season. If you saved your plants from last year, it is time to get started forcing them into bloom for the upcoming holidays.

As summer comes to an end, it’s time to prepare landscapes for fall and winter. Proper fall care helps increase plants’ winter survival, supports pollinators and promotes the overall health, longevity and beauty of a landscape.

Transfer the beauty of favorite flowers onto paper or fabric to create works of art, greeting cards and gifts for family and friends. Pounding flowers is a fun and easy way gardeners of all ages can preserve the beauty of garden flowers.