Suggested Family Activity • Yard 🍁 & Garden 👩🌾
October is a great time to spend time outside working on your yard and cleaning up the remains of your summer garden. It’s the perfect weather – slightly cooler temperatures and breezes make it more pleasant to spend an extended time outside. Why not organize a family work party this weekend? You can plant bulbs that will flower in the spring – annuals, such as pansies, violas, wildflowers are great ideas. Or you can plant perennials, such as daylilies, irises, Shasta daisies, and peonies. You can also pot herbs, such as basil, rosemary, and sage, to keep on a sunny windowsill inside this winter. Other fall tasks that you could do include removing limbs and debris from your yard, cutting out dead limbs from trees so they don’t fall during winter storms, and removing or mulching fallen leaves. All ages of the family can get involved with this activity. While adults are wielding pruning shears and chainsaws, younger children can drag limbs to the side of the road or help dig holes for plantings. And when you are finished for the day, the cooler temperatures make it pleasant to spend time outside relaxing on a blanket, in lawn chairs, or hanging out on a porch or patio. For more information about fall gardening chores from the experts at the Mississippi State Extension Service, check out their website at http://extension.msstate.edu/publications/calendar-home-gardening-chores-mississippi
