Gardening tips to keep green thumbs going into fall

It's six months into the pandemic. You've perfected your sourdough recipe, you've managed to prevent the new puppy from nibbling thefiddle leaf fig, and the zucchinis in your first garden have grown to the size of a toddler.

Nowyou might be wondering: How do you keep your plants alive when the temperature drops?

Gary Lewis, owner of Phoenix Perennials in Richmond, B.C., says it's a question new gardeners across the province will have to confront soonwith fall right around the corner.

It's been a "crazy" busy summer at the nursery with people buying up plants of all types, from edibles, to house plants and succulents, he told CBC's The Early Edition.

"We've been extremelybusy hiring more people and trying to keep up with all of the existing gardeners who have decided to take on huge projects this year andupgradetheir backyards and their patios," he said.

"And then all of these new gardeners who have come out of the woodwork for the first time."

Lewis says now is a good time to start thinking about how to keep your plants healthy throughout the winter.

For those new to gardening, the best way to find out whether a plant will surviveoutside or not is by using the hardiness zone system, Lewis said.

This system uses the average minimum temperature experienced in every region of the country and designates each as a zone, Lewis said. Canada's North is a Zone 1because of the cold temperatures, while the tropics is a Zone 12, Lewis said.

Coastal B.C. and the Metro Vancouver area fallunder Zone 8. This means residents in these areas can grow all plants designated for Zone 8 and below, Lewis said.

A quick onlinesearch will tell you which plants will survive through the winter in this zone.

But you'd better enjoy the last of your tomatoes now many common summer fruitand vegetable plants are annuals that won't survive even a mild West Coast winter.

"These are just with us for the gardening season.They grow, they bloom, they give us fruitand they do their thing and then they're ... going to die in the winter because that's just how they are," Lewis said.

The zoning system isn't a green light to give up maintenance either, Lewis added.A quick cleanup of dead leaves, a layer of mulch around the stems and an effort to keep pots out of sopping rain can help hearty perennials survive extra cold or wet winters.

As for house plants, Lewis suggests moving them inside before the temperature differential between outside and inside becomes too big, because that can put a plant into shock.

"Most house plants, as a rule of thumb, can handle temperatures down to about 10 C, but you don't really want them to experiencenighttime temperatures a lot colder than that," Lewis said.

"And it's already starting to get a little bit cold."