Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Fall this&that
There are still some sales going on at garden centers. If you find a must-have, go ahead and buy it but be sure to give it extra TLC. That means adding organic matter to the soil and digging a wide enough area to spread those roots out into soft soil. Water well up until the soil freezes, sometime in December. THEN add about 3 inches of mulch.
-Tough perennials such as monarda, hosta and sedum can take a lot but any tender perennials may have a rough go.
-If you’re ambitious, you can divide your asiatic lilies, day lilies and siberian irises now. Dig the whole clump out, divide and replant at the same depth. Water well until the ground freezes.
-You can still plant spring blooming bulbs. Trees and shrubs rated for our climate zones, if planted properly and taken care of, will be just fine.
-Don’t scalp your lawn if you need to mow, leave about 2 ½ inches.
– As you rake up those leaves, do NOT put them out into the street. They’ll go down the storm drains and, depending on where you live, could wind up in our rivers and lakes.
-5 bags of leaves equals about 1 pound of phosphorus which equals about 1,000 pounds of algae! Crazy, huh?!
Stuff them into compost bags and haul them to your City’s waste site or compost them yourself. If you have a shredder, great. If not, you can mow over them multiple times. Personally, I get pleasure out of that!
They’re cut up into little pieces and can be left right there on the lawn. What you don’t want are piles of stacked leaves left on the lawn. You can leave piles of them in a compost or use them as mulch for your perennial beds or shrubs.
