Compost Pumpkins and Jack-o-Lanterns break the pumpkin or jack-o-lantern into pieces. Toss the pieces onto the compost pile. Breaking it up helps the pumpkin break down faster, then bury in your garden.

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Improve your garden soil in the fall. Deciduous leaves that come down in the fall make an excellent lightweight mulch that will quickly break down and feed the garden soil. 

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Pull out the camera and snap some shots of what you’ve accomplished this year. Don’t forget to take a few photos of areas that need improvement, too!

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If you’re planting a new bed next spring, prepare now by marking it off, observing its conditions (including soil type and drainage) and killing any existing plants and grass by smothering with layers of cardboard and compost over the winter.

Grow a winter cover crop on the bare soil of vegetable or cutting gardens. Cover crops are cool-season annuals that feed the garden soil when they are mowed or tilled into the ground in early spring.

Stop Squirrels from Digging Up Flower Bulbs: Squirrels and chipmunks avoid daffodils, Fritillaria which are all parts are poisonous and they don't love Alliums either. Inter-planting these bulbs among more tasty bulbs, like tulips and crocus, should deter squirrels from digging up  bulbs in your garden. If that doesn't work put hardware cloth; which isn't cloth at all, its a metal mesh, on top of the soil and cover with mulch. Squirrels cant dig through it but the plants can grow up through it. This is also effective against vole damage. For voles place sections of hardware cloth at the bottom of a hole then plant your plant on top of the cloth. .

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Grow Asian greens in fall and winter. Asian greens, a diverse group of salad crops that offer excellent cold tolerance as well as an intriguing array of leaf shapes, textures, colors and flavors. Tatsoi is a low-growing green with deep green, spoon-shaped foliage that forms pretty rosettes in the garden. It laughs off winter, thriving in the shelter of a simple cold frame. Use the young leaves in salads, or let the plants mature and add them to stir-fries or Asian-style soups.

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• Fun jen (pronounced foon yen) persists into winter if it’s sheltered in a mini hoop tunnel or cold frame. fun jen is a looseleaf Chinese cabbage that looks like leaf lettuce. Its such a pretty plant that you can tuck it into flower beds.

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• Mizuna produces delicate-looking but robust frilly leaves in green or green tinged with purple. It’s very easy to grow and extremely frost tolerant. It tastes a bit peppery, but it’s mild and sweet compared to other greens.

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• Mustard tastes quite hot, but it grows well in the cold weather of late autumn and winter. Favorites include ‘Green Wave’, which has bright green leaves and ‘Ruby Streaks’, a bi-colored mustard with maroon and green foliage. The leaves are extremely serrated, the leaves adding texture as well as color and, of course, flavor to the salad bowl.