That whoosh you just heard was summer going by. Wasn’t it only yesterday that you were idling around the garden centre, deciding between hot-pink and salmon geraniums, and taking home flats of small annuals that have now grown big and colourful (or, in the case of my usually reliable lobelia, not). What happened? Right now, most beds, borders, and balconies are at their peak of gorgeousness, but give them a few weeks and they’ll be a sorry sight. Rain turns petals to mush, chilly nights give your hanging baskets a permanent case of the droops, and that seductive smell you get on your hands when you pick those cherry tomatoes will just be a fragrant memory.

You can keep growing through the winter. You can also preserve that $50 investment you made in geraniums, but you have to get started soon. Once the rain and cold set in, it’s way too tempting to ignore the outdoors. Now, while the weather’s still half-decent and evenings still light, is the time to put down the foundations to keep your view green through the cold season.

Some plants are self-sufficient. You can kiss basil goodbye (quick, make pesto with what’s left), but perennial herbs are tough as nails. Mint looks dismal through the winter but re-emerges in spring; rosemary just keeps on going and doesn’t die down like mint does. Flowers? Meh. Apartment dwellers may as well forget the vivid marigolds and cosmos on their balconies. “You won’t get a good display over the winter,” says Glen Kaponero, owner of Figaro’s Garden Centre (1896 Victoria Drive), who recommends filling those emptied pots with smaller evergreen perennials. If you must have flowers, pansies and violas are robust and come in upbeat yellows, purples, and rusty-reds.

You can also go for texture and subtle colours with various grasses and Dusty Millers, he says, and, for a needed shot of late-winter cheer-?iness, underplant with layers of bulbs. When choosing daffodils, tulips, and other signs of spring, rather than buying a few of these, a few of those and scattering them around indiscriminately, go for “fewer areas and big impact. By the time spring comes, you’re so fed up with all the grey.” And don’t leave bulb-buying till late in the year, waiting for markdowns, as many apparently do. All you get is limited choice and the joy of gardening in conditions only a slug could love. Kaponero’s advice is to plant bulbs in October.

You’ll get deals in the coming weeks in shrubs and trees as garden centres start to clear stock to make space for the eventual onslaught of Christmas trees. You can also save money by nurturing those geraniums you’ve raised and fed to scarlet lustiness. “Bring them inside,” says Kaponero. “They don’t need to be really warm, just somewhere cool and moderately bright. Again, they’re semi-dormant, but you do have to keep them watered.” They get as thin and leggy as supermodels over the winter months, so wait till spring to make cuttings.

Fall is also a time to launch the next generation of forsythia and roses. “Pinch back good healthy tips, five to six inches is a reasonable length, on this year’s growth,” says Kaponero. If it’s woody stuff, it’s not going to regenerate very easily.” Don’t expect a 100-percent success rate with cuttings, he adds; between 50 and 70 percent is more realistic, and three cuttings in a 15-centimetre pot is his prescription: “Use rooting compound. It stimulates growth and has antifungal properties.”

While you’re going forth and multiplying, remember fall is also a good time to divide perennials. “Don’t mess around with tender plants,” Kaponero says. “[Look for] perennials showing signs of wanting to be divided.” Day lilies and iris are often candidates, he says, adding, “Gardening is 90 percent common sense. Plants are living things like we are. How would we want to be treated?” With a light mulching in fall, he says. “We carry organic sea soil that’s a great mulch. It creates a bit of a blanket for your garden and some nutrition.”

Fine to keep your plants fed, but what about you? If you’ve been harvesting homegrown tomatoes and beans all summer, it’s depressing having to go back to the produce store. Kaponero says you can plant radicchio, and there are many greens you can grow up until the frost. Like many garden stores, he has no seed left in stock, but you can still buy on-line. Brian Campbell at West Coast Seeds (www.westcoastseeds.com/) says that “There’s a lot you can plant to extend the harvest—and a few items you can harvest in the winter as well.” You can get started on kale and Swiss chard now, start picking around the end of October, and harvest right through the winter. Kohlrabi is another vegetable that you can plant. Radishes (leaves and seed pods are edible too, he wants to remind gardeners) can be seeded now, and through the winter. But Campbell’s top pick is turnips, which, he says, become sweeter the longer they stay in the cold, cold ground.