Preparing your garden for winter is the best way to keep Santa's elves from setting up a shantytown in the vegetable patch. Stave off unsettling seasonal invasions with today's Groupon: for $17, you get $35 worth of plants and garden supplies at the Fort Collins Nursery.

The Fort Collins Nursery collects thousands of vibrant flowers, seasonal shrubbery, and sturdy trees on 3 acres of terra-formed tracts. Customers can stroll through leafy lanes connected by gravel paths or peruse the indoor greenhouse and gardening center when weather dips below optimal browsing temperatures. Floral selections vary based on the season with roses blooming, fruits ripening, and decorative grass sprouting according to perennial dockets scheduled by Mother Nature and the U.S. government. Choose from wintry shoots suited for holiday decorating such as poinsettias ($6.49–$54.99) and fresh-cut Christmas trees (starting at $29.99), or unseasonal seedlings such as palm trees wearing sunglasses. Festoon barren doorways with a hand-decorated holiday wreath (starting at $18.99) customized with your choice of 100 natural and artificial decorations and 70 ribbons pulled from standard and fancy lineages. The nursery staff provides erudite assistance by mining their mental appendices of regional greenery and helpful tips to ready emerald plots for inhospitable winter climates.