The warm weather pattern is providing us ample time to wrap up all the end of the season garden to dos. Here’s what I’m accomplishing in my garden before the snow flies:
- Finish cutting back perennials, pulling spent annuals and vegetables
- Plant the final bulbs
- Prune birch, hawthorne, crabapple and stewartia trees
- Amend soil per soil test results
- Rake leaves off lawns to prevent smothering and walkways for safety
- Check woody plants installed this year for water and winter mulch needs
- Top off raised vegetable beds with fresh soil
- Apply anti-desiccant and deer repellents to broadleaf shrubs and needled evergreens (except blue needled varieties)
- Install deer netting on broadleaf evergreen shrubs and garlic clips on hydrangea canes and witch hazel branches that deer are likely to sample this winter
- Drain and gather in hoses, watering wands and reels to store for winter
- Wrap trunks of thin-barked trees against buck rub (such as crabapple, magnolia, apple and other fruit trees)
- Protect bases of young fruit trees from vole damage with cages of hardware cloth filled with peastone
- Cut down asparagus
- Prune raspberries
- Water well before the ground freezes, especially woody plants
After the ground freezes:
- Apply straw mulch to strawberries
- Apply salt marsh hay to perennials in areas that may be vulnerable to frost heaving and loss
- Mulch candytuft, heaths and heathers for winter with pine needles (6″ deep) and cover with evergreen boughs against harsh winter winds
- Mound fresh compost around the bases of hybrid tea and Austin roses; cut back canes to 18″ for better access
- Install shrub protectors to help prevent damage from falling snow and ice at foundation beds
Are you too busy? Give us a call and we’ll help with your to do list.
Schedule your anti-desiccant deer repellents to broadleaf shrubs and needled evergreens (except blue needled varieties). In addition we’re installing deer netting on broadleaf evergreen shrubs and garlic clips on hydrangea canes and witch hazel branches that deer are likely to sample this winter
We want you to experience more peace, joy and ease this holiday season 🙂
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