The days are getting shorter, quickly, and we're starting to see our breath when we go outside. That means it's time to put the garden to bed for another year.

In this episode, Don and John talk through some tasks to put a wrap on this year's growing season. Plus, we hear from a North Dakota listener growing pineapple. (Yeah, you read that right.)

Mums (or chrysanthemums, if you're fancy) bring a big blast of color to your life in the fall, and you can find them just about anywhere, making them a perfect low-effort way to bring some cheer into the late growing season.

In this episode, Don and John talk about buying and caring for mums. They also talk about "perennializing" them into a part of your landscape.

WDAY Chief Meteorologist Jesse Ritka had a busy summer, with turbulent storms and widespread tornado damage. And now, like the rest of us, she's reaping the gardening benefits of an unseasonably warm fall while waiting for sweather weather to finally arrive.

In this episode, Jesse joins Don and John for a chat about recent weather and how the stormy summer affected her garden. Ever the scientist, she talks about spending time "experimenting" in the garden with her own family.

Just because summer is over and winter is on the horizon, it doesn’t mean gardening has to be done for the year.

In this episode, Don and John talk about how to keep geraniums, mandevilla and other plants growing through the winter so you can get a head start on summer color.

Nothing can be quite as breathtaking as fall color, and though there's a certain poetry to this last burst of natural beauty before we plunge into winter, there's some hard science there, too.

In this episode, Don and John talk about the chemical changes that make fall color happen and talk about their favorite fall color plants, shrubs and trees. Don fields a listener question about late fall pruning and we all seem to agree that slugs are, indeed, super gross.

Crabgrass and quackgrass might sound a little funny, but they are such a common nuisance many homeowners simply throw up their hands and live with them. It doesn't have to be that way.

In this episode, Don and John talk about two of the most common weeds in our lawns and give you strategies to help bring them under control.

A common refrain here at Growing Together is that there's usually something going on with your garden, no matter what time of year, and the same holds true for your local garden centers.

In this episode, Don and John are joined by Luke Nygard, the owner of Nygard Nursery in Dilworth, Minn., for some reasons to give your local nursery a visit even though winter is coming fast. Luke also shares how he transitioned from professional drummer to full-time gardener to business owner.

Learn more about Nygard Nursery on their website: https://www.nygaardnursery.com/

You might think of Labor Day as the time when you start closing down shop for the year, but it's also the time when you can start laying groundwork for next year.

In this episode, Don and John go over some of the most fruitful tasks for your Labor Day/early September to-do list, like fertilizing your lawn, splitting geraniums and tackling your toughest weeds.

Topics in this episode:

0:42 Don's vacation seeing gardens on Martha's Vineyard, Boston and Hyde Park
6:40 Are tomatoes late this year?
12:50 The transition time of the Labor Day holiday
13:52 The most important time of year to fertilize your lawn
15:45 This is the best time to control lawn weeds
16:58 What kind of fertilizer should we be using?
18:54 Overseeding your trouble spots
20:06 What to use for spot spraying
21:31 Making cuttings from your geraniums
23:34 Dig and divide peonies
24:38 Planting tulip, daffodil, hyacinth bulbs
26:15 Moving rhubarb
28:30 Planning your garden expansion
30:27 Harvesting vegetables and fruits