Welcome back to the garden!

November in Virginia is one of those iffy months. If it's warm, you could extend your tomato harvest until nearly Thanksgiving. If it's cold, you'd better pick all you can and put them in a brown paper bag to ripen up.

Some of my neighbors pulled their tomatoes in August in favor of planting cole crops like kale, collards and broccoli.

Not me, boy. I was making pasta sauce last weekend from brown bag ripened maters!

This month we'll look at the world's best -- and renewable -- mulch, what to do with those old jack o' lanterns, and general clean up of the garden if you live in the northern 2/3 of the US. In the southern hemisphere, though, winter is a whole new gardening season.

There's a part of me that would love to have a fourth season to garden in but an even bigger part of me that relishes the rest from it. Not gardening for several months just gets me all revved up for spring.

Let's get to it!

Fall is the best time to take advantage of this renewable source of mulch.

But you've gotta have pine trees (or know someone who does)!

The best mulch around is pine tags. You know what they are. Those little brown needles that fall from the pine trees in October and November.

Ever thought about using them as mulch next spring? Give it a try.

This fall, as you're cleaning up your yard and garden for winter, rake up the pine tags and store them in a big Hefty bag in your shed or garage. Next season, when you need some good mulch, pull out the bag and spread them on your garden.

I like pine tags for a number of reasons:

• They're seedless -- I don't have to worry about seeds from hay or straw planting themselves in my weeded garden
• They're porous -- Unlike other forms of mulch, water runs right through them without being impeded
• They're free -- This is the most frugal mulch I know of. And many homeowners are thrilled to have you take their pine tage away so they don't have to deal with them

Try this great and renewable source of mulch in next year's garden.

October is a wonderful month filled with the smell of wood smoke and crisp fall days. Oh, yes. And Hallowe'en.

When I was growing up in southern California -- hi, Kath! -- Hallowe'en came when it was still warm outside so it didn't always feel like the gateway to fall. My favorite Hallowe'en was my first fall in Vermont when kids had to wear jackets over their costumes.

Jack o'lanterns are such a cool way of marking fall and Hallowe'en but what do you do with them after they're done?

Compost them! You can take the body of your pumpkin, smash it up and then throw it into your compost pile. And call your neighbors and tell them you'll collect theirs too and you'll have lots to throw in for next season's compost.

If you don't have a compost pile, you can still recycle those scary faces. Just head down to your local nursery or garden center and offer it for their compost piles. They'll be so glad you did!

For those of us in the upper tier of the country, cleanup is fully underway. If you haven't lost most of the leaves from your deciduous trees yet, you will.

I always advocate leaving the leaves in your garden. They're a great mulch for harsh winters.

Take the time to turn your containers around if you've planted vegetables in one end of them. If you had a whole container of one veggie, then make sure to plant something different -- preferably in a different family -- in it next year.

Deadhead the last of the black eyed susans and scatter them where you'd like more of them to grow. Same with late season coneflower.

This fall has seen rivers of acrons falling from the oak trees. It's so bad sometimes I feel like I need to wear a hardhat! Before the end of the month, I'll go out to the garden and make sure I've extracted all the acorns lying on top of the soil so I don't have oak trees growing there next season.

If you haven't planted in your pansies, now's the time for them to go into containers.

Also, try planting an Amur or Japanese maple this fall. Yes, I know, spring is the preferred month for tree planting but you'll know the leaf color with confidence if you plant one in the fall. For more info on this, here's a link to an article I wrote recently: Look to the Trees for Fall Color.

Clean, sharpen and store your tools. If you see that a tool is wearing out, put it on a list for next year or ask Santa for a new one!

Get ready for the stampede of seed and plant catalog that will show up in the next 2 months and daydream about another season.

October through March is a great time to garden if you live in Zones 9-11. While you won't be growing hot weather veggies, you can have a great herb garden as well as flowers that tolerate a bit of cold.

Impatiens can continue all through the winter in Florida and it's the ideal time to grow a rosemary hedge.

But what if you don't live in Southern climes? Can you still garden when there's a foot of snow outside?

Sure.

But you'll need a greenhouse or cold frame to do it. I even know gardeners who can grow lettuce and tomatoes all winter long in their greenhouses and can get a head start on onions, carrots and radishes in a cold frame.

The easiest of these two structures is the cold frame and you can build one fairly quickly out of some scrap lumber and an old window.

You'll want to make sure that the back of the cold frame is higher than the front so it will let in as much sunlight as possible. If you're putting your cold frame on the ground, make sure to insulate around the base with straw or mulch to keep the cold from creeping up under the frame.

Lay the old window on top of the structure and make sure it lies flat. To ventilate during the day, simply slide a portion of the window off the frame. If you secure the window to the frame with hinges, simply prop the window open with a stick.

The photo to the right shows a greenhouse and cold frame. As you can see, the cold frame is extensive and built next to the foundation of the greenhouse.

You don't have to build it that big. It can be any size you'd like it to be. Just make sure that whatever you grow in it doesn't get too tall.

This month's mailbag has a great question from Gerry in New York: "I live in a part of the country that has a ton of apples every fall. I'm getting tired of making pies and baked apples. Got any other ideas?"

Hi, Gerry! As a matter of fact, I do have a suggestion. Make apple sauce. I know it sounds kind of simple but it really is better than the store bought kinds and is a great, frugal way to use up your apples.

I use a combination of sweet and tart apples but use what you have in your orchard. Use 6 per batch. Peel, core and slice your apples, add 1/2 cup apple cider, 2/3 cup sugar (I use Turbinado sugar because it's raw sugar without the impurities), and add some fresh or frozen cranberries. Also throw in some cinnamon and nutmeg to taste, about 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.

Bring this mixture to a simmer and then turn the heat to low and cook for about 30 minutes or until the apples are cool. Put everything in a food processor and process until you have the desired consistency. I like mine a little coarser than most so I have chunks of apple and cranberry in each spoonful.

Give it a try and let me know how it comes out!

Do you have a question for The Frugal Gardener? Simply shoot us an email and we'll answer it in our next issue.

That's about it for this issue. There isn't much left to do in the garden before Thanksgiving so sit back and relax.

Next month's edition will be a combined December/January issue and will come out in mid-December.

Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for being such loyal readers!

Yours for a more bountiful garden,

Victoria
The Frugal Gardener