Fall finally feels like fall in the Big Country, and Adam and Amber have plenty of seasonal work to cover. With cooler temperatures and welcome rainfall, it’s time for fall pre-emergent, the final winterizer fertilizer application, active weed control and cool-season color. After deliberately waiting out the record-setting heat, Willow Creek Gardens is also bringing in mums, dianthus, snapdragons, ornamental kale and cabbage, herbs and other fall favorites.

This week’s Plant of the Week is the Chrysanthemum, or garden mum. Adam and Amber discuss the huge range of colors and bloom forms, proper watering and fertilizer, their surprising drought and cold tolerance once established, and how a potted fall mum can become a perennial in the landscape. They also explain the plant’s photoperiodic blooming cycle and how pinching buds through around the Fourth of July can produce a fuller display of flowers in the fall.

Then Amber dives into the fascinating monarch butterfly migration—while correcting last week’s mistaken identification of Queen butterfly chrysalises as monarchs. She explains the monarch’s extraordinary journey between Canada and Mexico, why different generations make the northbound and southbound trips, and how milkweed and nectar plants support them along the way. Plus, Adam and Amber look at cool-season vegetables and herbs that can handle West Texas frost, including broccoli, cabbage, kale, carrots, onions, lettuce, garlic, rosemary, cilantro, parsley, mint and more.