FALL PLANTING SEASON IN GEAR, SO GET TOOLS SET.

Byline: JANE GATES Gardening

SANTA CLARITA - The autumn gardening season is in full swing. There's plenty to do and the weather is cool enough to make the doing a pleasure.

This is a superb month for planting winter annual flowers, perennials and winter vegetables, and most experts like it for California natives.

It's a good month for pruning shrubs and trees as they head into dormancy. And there is an ever-increasing pile of crisp brown foliage and dead flower heads demanding your attention before pests decide to tunnel into them for a winter home.

If you haven't been able to get to the gym, here's your chance for exercise. Even the air quality is better. So far, anyway. At least the Santa Ana winds have delayed the early start they've had for the past few years until now. Added to the plant-thirst-quenching, dust-repressing douse of much-needed rain, the season seems to be off to a hopeful start for gardeners.

As trees and shrubs enter dormancy, prune back bare branches to out- growing buds. The new branches will grow at the angle the bud is facing, so you can control the shape of trees and bushes with proper pruning.

There are only a few bushes that take well to being buzz-sawed into geometrical shapes. Most garden maintenance services do not have the time to individually clip branches, so the cube and the sphere are the most frequent bush shapes seen. These severe shapes are appropriate for formal gardens only.

Most bushes and shrubs respond best to hand pruning and grow out in a soft, attractive way. Being pruned this way weakens many plants other than the common box and privet. Photinias will take shearing, but since the most ornamental aspect of the photinia is the new red leaf, you will be chopping off the plant's best asset.

Winter vegetables are ready to go in now. Mulch the area with lots of organic compost to improve soil, help retain moisture and keep the ground warm. Crops that do well in the winter are Swiss chard, peas, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Chinese cabbages and others of the brassia family, as well as root crops like beets, carrots and radishes. Do not use manure with root crops because it causes roots to split.

Hardy perennials can still go into the ground, and you'll find a good selection at nurseries and home stores. Do not plant tender perennials at this time of year. But mulching around their roots and moving in the more delicate plants to sheltered locations before the first nighttime frost hits would be a good idea. As deciduous perennials (the ones that lose leaves in winter) die back, keep dead foliage picked up and, ideally, composted. Fill in the enlarging bare areas with winter annuals like stock, pansies, sweet peas and snapdragons.

Tree planting season also has arrived, and planting is best done before spring since any minor damage done during the planting process will bleed less when the sap is moving slowly during dormancy. The soil is also easier to dig when moist. But refrain from all this planting for a day or two after rain so you don't compact the soil.

There is plenty of time to work on all these jobs because the autumn planting season has just begun.