Biennials. If you planted seeds of biennials in August, transplant them into the garden now. If not, look for transplants in your local nursery. These showy cottage-garden favorites (Canterbury bells, hollyhock, and Queen Anne's) do best if planted in late fall so that they will establish roots before soil temperatures drop, and be ready to bloom on schedule come spring.

Cool-Season Lawns. Cool-Season Lawns (fescue, ryegrass and bluegrass) can still be planted from seed.

Cool-Season Vegetables. Plant cool-season vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, lettuce and other greens. Also beets, carrots, radishes, turnips, and other root crops

Cool-Season Flowers. Plant cool-season flowers. These include calendula, cineraria, dianthus, delphiniums, Iceland poppies, nemesia, pansies, snapdragon, stock, wild flowers.

Garlic. Plant garlic before mid-month to ensure the bulbs develop. Plant cloves base-down (pointy side up) 1-3 in. deep and 3-5 in. apart.

Natives. November is an excellent time to plant California natives. There are many natives that are wonderful landscape plants including: California Lilac (ceanothus),Toyon or California Holly (Heteromeles arbutifolia), Monkeyflower (Diplacus), California Tree Mallow (Lavatera assurgenteum), Coffeeberry (Rhamnus californica). Several low-growing varieties of Manzanita (Arctostaphylos) also make great native ground covers.

Onions. To harvest big sweet onions next June, sow seeds of short-day onions early this month. Short-day or group-1 onions, also called "winter onions" because they grow well here through the winter months, include Grano, Granex, Imperial Sweet and Crystal Wax.

Strawberries. Plant bare-root strawberries before mid-month. Use your own pre-chilled runners or plants purchased from a nursery.

Spring-Flowering Bulbs. Continue to plant bulbs. Plant now any spring-flowering bulb that doesn't require pre-chilling. Choices include anemones, daffodils, grape hyacinth, ranunculus, scilla, and species tulips. South African bulbs such as freesia, ixia, sparaxis, and watsonia are particularly suited to our climate and naturalize readily here. Tulips, crocus and hyacinths need to be refrigerated for 6 to 8 weeks before planting in December (inland) or January (coast).

Wild Flowers. For long-lasting color, choose a western seed mix that has both annuals & perennials or make your own mix, using your favorites. Good candidates for a wild flower mix include California poppies, larkspur, linaeria, clarkia, Chinese houses, godetia and gypsophila.

Bermuda Lawn. If you have a Bermuda lawn and want a green lawn in winter, overseed Bermuda grass with annual winter ryegrass this fall. Cut the grass short and mulch it with composted manure or a fine-sifted compost. Keep the ground damp until rye seeds sprout.

Berries. Prune cane berry plants, except for low-chill raspberries. Old canes of blackberry, boysenberry, and loganberry should be cut back to the ground. Leave the new, smooth-barked canes that grew this year to bear fruit next year. Wait until December or January to cut back the canes of low-chill raspberries.

Chrysanthemums. After they finish flowering, cut chrysanthemums back, leaving 6-inch stems. They will begin to grow again next March. Old clumps can be lifted and divided, cut roots apart and discard woody centers, then replant.

Peaches. If your peach or nectarine had leaf curl (puckered, yellow and red leaves) this year, spray it with lime sulfur at full leaf fall. Do not use this spray on apricot trees.

Trees. Thin out evergreen trees so that the strong winds that come with our winter storms will blow through them more easily. If you are going to prune the tree yourself, read up on proper pruning methods first. Improper pruning can ruin a tree and cause more maintenance problems down the road. If you are going to hire someone else to prune your trees consider a certified arborist. Educated arborists avoid certain tree-endangering cuts. A good tree worker will not "top" your tree. That is, he or she will make no "Venus de Milo" cuts midbranch, since this results in the rapid regrowth of weakly-attached branchlets.