Unless the leaves are too thick, mulch mow them into the lawn rather than raking and bagging. That will add some nutrients and organic matter to your soil. After the top growth has stopped, but before the grass turns brown, apply some fertilizer so that you feed 1 lb of actual nitrogen per 1000 sq ft. For example, if you buy some 10-10-10 fertilizer, you would need 10 lbs to cover 1000 sq ft. In the past, the thinking was that the most important number for the last fertilization was the middle number (Phosphorous) but recent research shows that nitrogen is more important, so even if you apply something like ammonium nitrate (21-0-0) or urea (46-0-0) you should get good results. If you've had a soil test and the soil test shows that your soil is deficient in P or K, then you'll want to add some. Otherwise, a nitrogen only fertilizer should be fine.

Thanks. The stuff is expensive anyways. Used some this year to seed the filters and I'm going to put some of the liquid stuff in my indoor pond Fluval filter to reseed when I bring the fish in next week. Happy ponding. Patti

You would need to know whether they are hardy ferns or not. If they have been grown indoors they may not survive a winter outdoors. If you can post a picture of them for ID or identify them yourself using a book or the internet, then you are pretty close to answering your question.

IM kind of a pretty big weather buff myself, and I used to get the farmers Almanac every year when I was a kid as well. I still read it for its interesting articles and such, but really, I think that NOAA is more accurate as its more science based rather than on oak trees "MASTING", and other natural phenomena. For those who don't know, "MASTING" is when Oak trees overproduce acorns to an extreme amount. It happens from time to time some reigons, and from what I understand is more of a survival insurance than anything else. It happend here several years ago, and it was truly incredible just how much acorns were produced. Never seen anything like it. I think it only occurs once in like every 50 or 100 years or something. Anyway...Im still hoping for ( and thinking that it will be) a very mild winter here in the Mid Atlantic. We have the same saying here... " if you don't like the weather in D.C., wait 5 minutes". While its not that volatile all the time, we do get fairly changing weather for large portions of the year, especially spring and fall, we were can see 40 degree differences in temps in sometimes as little as 12 hours. The D.C. Metro just does not have the same winters it had regularly up until about 1995 or so. The last true "blizzard" we had here was in 1996. The rivers and bay almost NEVER freeze over anymore in the last 10-12 years here, and seeing teens and low 20's in the city is fairly uncommon anymore. Were also very hurricane prone here as well, although most are usually strong to medium tropical storms by the time they get here. Although, a few have come through at a category 1 hurricane, like Isabel in 2003. IIRC, it was finally downgraded to a Tropical Storm once it moved just north of the D.C. Metro. Its center passed about 50 miles due west of downtown D.C., putting most of the metro area, and most of VA/MD in the worst / strongest quadrant of the storm. What a trying 24 hours that was. I rode it out in my east facing 14th floor apt at the time, and we had sustained winds up there of 82 MPH for several hours at the hight of it, with a gust to 106. That was the gust that blew the anomometer off of the balcony railing. I can tell you the vines that I could not get down, and the 10' river birch in a large half whisky barrel were all defoliated by the winds, and quite a few of the windows were blown out on the east and south facing windows of the high rises we lived in. Im glad we heavily tapped our large plate glass windows up, because those were the ones that were breaking into peoples apts. Anyway, lots of varied weather here. It keeps things very interesting. I just wish we were 1 zone warmer! Who knows, in the close in dowtown areas of NoVA and DC we have moved into a zone 8 in the last 10-14 years, maybe a zone 9 is coming? Im not for "global warming" but man it would be nice to have even milder winters than we do now.