• Time to dial back those sprinklers! One to two deep waterings a week should be fine for established coastal gardens until the rainy season starts, when you can shut them off entirely.  Watch for those rogue Santa Ana heatwaves and hand-water where needed.  Be sure your sprinkler timer is set for the wee morning hours.  Simplify your life and have your gardener install drip tubing into your pots!
• Your plants are are getting ready to take a winter's rest, and slow down their growth!  It's not too late to do your fall fertilizing, both in the garden and on your lawn.  Roses will reward you with one or two more bloom cycles.  Following a regular fertilizing routine will keep your yard looking its best, especially if you use organic products. 
• Wash off aphids, ants and whiteflies with a blast of water.  Neem oil will also do the trick, as will releasing ladybugs from Armstrong Garden Centers.  If you have a snail problem, Mary's Good Snails has decollate snails that will eat those pesky brown snails.  I released 1000 of them in my garden this summer, and they are slowly colonizing and reducing my brown snail population.  Contact Mary at www.goodsnails.com.  Sluggo is another option for organic snail control, just be sure not to use it after releasing decollate snails - it will snuff them out as well!
• Powdery Mildew can also be controlled by a regimen of Neem oil.  There are also some great new organic products on the market, and Armstrong Gardens is always keeping up with new product availability.
• Fall is a great time to refresh your mulch ... Get your gardener to bring you a yard of good black compost to refresh and top off all your beds.  Remove old bark first if necessary.
• Keep weeding!  They'll sky-rocket if ignored, stealing nutrients from your plants.
• Keep an eye on pots that need to be refreshed.  They generally need more feeding than in-ground plants too.  Fall is a great time to add fresh color and succulents to your pots, see my list of plant recommendations below...
• Deadheading (or removing spent blooms) is a great way to extend the blooming period on flowering annuals and perennials, especially roses.  Those Icebergs will flower into January and beyond if deadheaded regularly!
• This is a great time to thin out top-heavy trees, in anticipation of those Santa Ana winds, and also the few winter storms we get.
• When deciduous stone fruit trees go bare, prune and spray with horticultural oils to kill over-wintering pests, and control peach leaf curl.
• Late fall is a great time to order those bare-roots:  roses, trees, berry fruit vines, etc.
• Buy and pre-chill your cool-climate bulbs, for planting in November.
• Prune and divide your daylillies and iris this month, as well as other clumping perennials.
• Fall is a great time to plant - new plants have all winter to put down a strong root system, which gives them a jump-start on vigorous foliage growth in the spring.

Fertilize:  Roses, lawns, cool-season flowering plants and vegetables.

This is a good month to plant: Asters and Mums, Succulents, Avocado trees, Banana trees, Citrus, California Natives, Mediterranean plants, Deciduous shrubs and trees.

Herbs and Vegetables you can plant now:

Cool-season veggies, like

• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Asparagus
• Cauliflower
• Garlic
• Carrots
• Onions
• Peas
• Artichokes
• Spinach
• Lettuces

 Fall plants now appearing in garden centers:

• Daffodils
• Ranunculus
• Freesia
• Watsonia
• Daylillies
• Foxglove
• Scabiosa
• Agapanthus
• Coral Bells
• Protea
• Kniphofia
• Rosemary
• Salvias
• Callas
• Tulips
• Aeoniums and Echeverrias - great succulents 

 Selecting Plants

Here's some important questions to ask or read up on before you buy any plant: