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Let’s start in the vegetable garden by removing all spent crops and residue. If left, these could serve as havens for pests and disease to carry over from this year’s crop to the next.

It is especially important to pull out any vegetable plants that are infested with pests or diseases like powdery mildew or blight. Do not compost diseased plants. Remove them and burn them, discard them, or bury them where they won’t see the light of day for at least a year.

Also, weed! You may have thought that weeding was over, but experienced gardeners know that fall is the most important time for weeding—even if frost has killed your flowers and veggies. The more you weed now, the less you’ll have to do next spring and summer. Water before you weed to loosen the soil and make your job easier!

Leave ornamental borders uncut as long as you can bear. Many beneficial bugs shelter among old plant stems and seed heads, which also help to feed the birds. For most perennials, there’s no real need to cut back until early spring, when new growth emerges.