Supplies and plants were provided so members and Friendship Volunteers of Mercy Care could create their own xeriscape environment in small glass bowls. Information about Mercy Care services and Garden Club of Lake Placid activities was exchanged with those attending.

Signs of fall mean the summer garden tasks are coming to an end. It’s time to plan for a frost, while hoping it doesn’t come too quickly. Now is also the best time to write down your successes and create a list of do-overs for next year. Garden photos are a practical way to record both. Take pictures now before you do any garden trimming or plant removal.

Photos are particularly useful to help remember the placement of any newly planted perennials. Emerging foliage rarely resembles the mature plant that you recall tending all summer. Competing weeds can confuse you by hiding the new plant or cause you to question whether what you see is a flower or a weed. Plant tags or golf tees can be easily used as reminders of plant placement. Rocks, while convenient here, are somewhat unreliable for that purpose.

Fall seed gathering and scattering help to expand your favorites with little effort and no expense. Allow spent flower heads or stalks to dry prior to cutting. Your neighbors will just think you forgot to deadhead them or you are saving them for the birds. Save your seeds in envelopes or closed containers in a dry, cool location until next season’s planting time. Take time to label the packets.

A number of perennials such as columbine and poppies dropped their seeds earlier this summer without you noticing. They need no covering. Others like echinacea (coneflower), helenium (sneezeweed), and monarda (bee balm) do not need anything from you either, but to improve germination you can break apart a dried seed head and very lightly cover the seed on the ground around the plant or start the seed in a new area of the garden. These need light to germinate, so the covering is simply to keep seeds in place. Short-lived perennials need this seed dry and drop cycle to keep large and mature plants for bloom year after year.

If you have saved hardy or tender perennial seeds in labeled envelopes to plant next year, be sure to scatter them before the last frost next year. That time is generally a few weeks after the last snowfall here in zone 4. Some need more weeks of 33- to 41-degree temps but will not handle extended freezing temps. It is smart to research each variety to improve your chances of germination. Seeds from your annuals such as marigolds, zinnias and cleome will not survive freezing temperatures but can be saved and started easily on a sunny windowsill in mid-May. An earlier start requires the addition of grow lights for optimum growth before the appropriate transplant time.

Taking cuttings is another way to have new plants ready next year. Geraniums and coleus are two examples of popular summer container plants, where their cut stems will form roots when placed in water. The key is to remove larger leaves and be sure a node (points where new leaves attach to stems) or two are submerged in clean water. The rooted cuttings can then be potted in soil and placed in a window or under grow lights.

Geraniums will winter over in indoor pots with minimal attention in a sunny window.

If you want to save the plants without interest in blooms, place the plant in a box or paper bag without soil after removing flowers and its larger leaves. Store it in a basement, porch, or garage location that does not freeze. Mid-winter you have the option of taking cuttings or putting the plants into soil to prep for your summer garden.

(Patricia Hofbauer is a member of the Garden Club of Lake Placid.)