As serious cold continues to hold off around Puget Sound, the Lazy Garden offers a few remaining rose and fuchsia blooms.

Despite mildew, dahlias and asters add unexpected color to the late garden. Cherish these final twinges of summer as they will soon be gone.

Falling autumn leaves can present a problem, as well as an opportunity. Leaves collecting along streets and roadways can lead to clogged gutters, flooded streets and urban flooding. Homeowners and businesses should take time to remove leaves from street drains.

Do not rake or power-blow leaves and other yard debris into the streets. The cost of cleaning public streets actually comes out of YOUR pocket -- and it’s against the law!

Be sure to clean your roof gutters and drains.

Those fallen leaves also present themselves as FREE soil amendments. Collect fallen leaves to compost and build your garden soil. Small leaves can go directly into the compost pile, but larger leaves (such as maple, catalpa, etc.) should be laid out and run over with a lawn mower. Smaller pieces break down faster in the pile and are easier to handle.

Layer a few inches of leaves with healthy garden debris and throw in some soil to jump-start the microbial process.

By spring, your collection of fallen leaves will have become a rich additive for the garden and you will have saved money. The circle of building soil life will be complete.

Of course, those leaves are also useful for winter mulch on tender perennials and to shed water away from plants that suffer in wet winters.

In the Lazy Garden, fallen leaves shelter slightly tender Chilean ferns, protect potentially hardy (but not well-tested) fuchsia by piling them around the woody stems, and help shed moisture from some of the larger ornamental alliums.

Dahlias will soon be cut to the ground by frost. Cut blooms now to enjoy a few late season bouquets. Dahlia blooms last best in vases when the fresh stems are placed in very hot (not boiling) water and allowed to cool.

Once frost kills the foliage, tubers can be dug, cleaned and dried. Dust tubers with horticultural sulfur to discourage rot, then pack in peat moss and store in a cool, dry location for the winter.

Alternatively, use some of those piles of leaves to protect tubers left in the ground from frost and wet.

If you haven’t yet planted all your spring bulbs, get to it. Bulbs need several months of cold and moist conditions to prepare for strong spring bloom. The longer you wait to plant, the less likely a great display.

Fall is also time to sow seeds that require a chill to induce germination. Seeds of columbine and most annual poppies require a cold period before they sprout.

Read seed packets carefully for cold requirements and whether they must be sown in place or can be sown in pots to be set out later. Most are surface sown and begin to sprout as the weather warms in spring.

It is also time to transplant woody plants, as well as perennials. Yes, permission is granted to move things to better locations, to group plants with similar water needs, and to create better arrangements for next year’s garden.

Several weeks of rain and decreasing temperatures have prepared the soil and hardy plants for relocation.

When transplanting trees and shrubs, prepare the new location before digging the plant. It’s important to replant quickly to reduce loss of the all-important tiny root hairs through dehydration. Root hairs actually absorb and transfer moisture to the plant, and are highly susceptible to drying out.

Excavated root balls should be as large as possible to reduce the loss of the root system. Prune broken roots to encourage branching and reduce potential for disease.

Rather than stomping backfill in the new location, slowly water in the new transplant. Do not amend the soil unless it requires addition of grit to improve drainage.

Perennials should be transplanted into well prepared soil that been amended with organic material to improve tilth and drainage. Be sure to reset plants at the same depth they were growing. Too deep and the crown may rot; too shallow and roots may dry out.

Do not fertilize after transplanting. Water in well and mulch the soil to reduce erosion and protect plants from the effects of freezing.

E-mail inquiries and suggestions to lazy.gardener@comcast.net