Cleaning Up Now that you've rescued what you can, get ruthless and empty all of your other outdoor containers. If you have a compost heap, chop up remains and toss them there. Soil too! This is particularly important if you've been using terracotta or ceramic containers, as moisture in soil will expand when it freezes and you'll end up with cracked pots. (If there are any crackpots around my house, I want them to be of human variety!)

Next, wash out empty containers to remove any disease and fungal spores. If your terracotta pots have a white build-up from water, potting soil and fertilizer chemicals, soak them for 24 hours in white vinegar and water with some baking soda added. Then scrub them with a stiff brush in warm soapy water. Rinse thoroughly.

Air or sun dry containers and then stack them with layers of newspaper between each. If you have a spot to store them where they won't freeze over winter months, all better. If not, as long as you've made certain pots are dry and well layered with paper, they should be fine until spring.

Now you're ready to put on a show of fall color. I can tell you EVERYTHING you need to know. Check under “Fall Planting Tips” on fre*e articles page of my webs-site.

Finish inside by caulking area of inside stop where it meets casing, and point where stop meets new frame. Fill nail holes in inside stops with caulk to hide nail heads. Now it's time to finish outside. A quality replacement window will either have a sloped frame to match slope sill, or it will come with an insert that fits under new frame to fill gap created by sloping wood sill. If you buy a lower grade window that doesn't come with anything to fill gap underneath, you can buy some wood trim to fill space, or you can get a flat vinyl trim that attaches to face of bottom of new frame. The flat trim is available on my website under "shop" tab. Once you cover bottom gap, it's time to caulk where outside blind stops meet vinyl frame, and where bottom gap filler meets wood sill.

That's it! You're done! You can buy accessories to cover your old wood sills with a vinyl wrap extrusion. That can also be found on website under "shop" tab. Next week we are going to start on replacing old aluminum windows.

John Rocco has been installing replacement windows since 1978 To learn more, visit How To Install Windows

John Rocco has been installing replacement windows since 1978 To learn more, visit http://www.how-to-install-windows.com