garlic 101, plus make better compost, limit weeds, and prep soil with a smarter cleanup 

What an amazing fall it has been, but frost is finally knocking. Brrrrrr! The place looks a bit like Christmas with all the red fruit dangling everywhere (that's Viburnum setigerum, above - more on great fruiting shrubs for birds next issue). For now, let's focus on this:

giveaway: get smart during cleanup, like lee reich

How can every last scrap of goodness we're gathering during garden cleanup be put to optimal use? I asked Lee Reich, who joined me on this week's radio show, to share strategic soil-improving, weed-thwarting, and future-harvest enhancing steps to take now, as you put the garden to bed.  

Learn to compost smarter ("You won't believe what I compost," says Lee, and you won't). Also learn to prep soil easily -- and maybe win two of Lee's books, too. A couple of great how-to videos are included, along with links to our chat, all here.

growing garlic (plus 2 new types I'm trying)

Hail hammered my garden in late May, and among the casualties: much of my garlic crop. Yes, even the narrow, strappy leaves of my favorite Allium were slashed to ribbons, with many plants hit squarely and decapitated altogether. About half of my 75 'German Extra Hardy' plants failed to make the big, fat bulbs I've grown for more than a decade.  While I gradually build my stock back up, the loss presents an opportunity to try new varieties, both of which I'm planting this week, like this.

2 hits from the last issue:

• 7 fall cleanup steps you cannot skip
• Stubborn green tomatoes? Try this!