The first week of October is a great time to replant, reinvent and restyle your porch and patio planters.

Fall color to replace summer weary annuals is as easy as getting snippy with evergreens such as nandina, cedar and laurel and poking the cut stems of the branches into the moist soil left behind after uprooting your sad looking petunias, marigolds or coleus.

Add more color with small pumpkins, gourds or a potted mum or purple aster and you have an autumn look that should last until Thanksgiving.

Q. I am so confused about pruning hydrangeas. Do I cut off the brown blooms of my mop head hydrangeas or leave them on the shrub for winter protection of the buds? E.G., Email

A. The choice to dead head or not to dead head traditional hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) is up to you. Hydran

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