Friday, October 9 at 4:30 p.m. is the deadline to turn in an application for the 2010 Master Gardener training in Lake County. Go to the home page of this website for a link to more information.

The weatherman is calling for frost this weekend. So if you have procrastinated about bringing in houseplants, tropicals and summer bulbs, get going now! If you are hoping to get a little more mileage out of the annuals, you will need to cover them up this weekend (containers could be moved into the garage).

I saw an article recently on how lovely it is to put a few pieces of firewood next to the fireplace. You might want to rethink that idea. Firewood sometimes harbors insects and when the wood comes into the warm house, the insects come out. Don't bring your wood in until you are ready to build a fire.

Do you want your garden to look interestng in winter? Sign up for my class on "The Fourth Season: The Garden in Winter". Go to our homepage (lake.extension.uiuc.edu) and look for the program on the right side of the page (registration fee is $7.00).