Jeff Ball: Ergonomic hand tools are tops when gardening (Detroit News)

It occurred to me this past week, as we were putting our gardens to bed for the winter, that in the past year Nancy and I, unintentionally, set aside virtually all of the hand tools we had in the shed for the relatively new line of gardening tools put out by the Radius Co.

Sound Gardening: Put the garden to bed (Greenwich Time)

Time to end the gardening season: The leaves are finally down, so you can decide which ones should stay in your garden, which get mulched to turn into compost, and which -- already composted -- get put back on those beds and borders.

Get advice and have fun at Central Texas Gardening events and workshops (Austin American-Statesman)

Strawberry plant sale. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday and Tuesday . Ronda's Montessori Garden, 4300 Mount Vernon Drive. Plants are $3 each. Donations appreciated. 707-8635, www.rondasgarden.net.

Arizona Gardening: Fall Anna apples are a little too late (East Valley Tribune)

Q: I have what I think is an Anna apple tree, but it is maturing fruit in November. I thought apples in the Valley only ripened fruit in early summer. The apples are only the size of golf balls and the leaves have brown edges. Do you have any diagnosis for my tree?

By forcing some bulbs, you can have a flowering Christmas (Post-Bulletin)

PHILADELPHIA -- You thought gardening was for gentle souls. What about forcing bulbs to bloom when they're trying to sleep? In the case of paperwhites and amaryllis, don't fret. They don't sleep. Unlike spr