November Garden and Landscape Tips

Lawn Tips:

• Drop the mower deck down and mow your grass at a height of 1.5 to 2 inches for the winter & fertilize.

• Be sure to remove all leaves from the lawn by raking them up, or using a mulching mower to shred them and return nutrients to the soil.  

Early:

• Now is a great time to plant deciduous plant material. Be sure to water them in well to help get rid of any air pockets in the soil around the root ball.

• Remove all leaf and flower debris from the garden to prevent providing a home for overwintering insects and diseases. Use this debris to start a compost pile if you haven’t already. 

• Monitor houseplants; if they are dropping excessive amounts of leaves try moving them closer to a window, or a totally different location to find the right balance of light for them. Shedding of older leaves is normal when you bring them in for the fall, but newer leaves dropping can be a sign of a problem.

• It’s still a good time to consider forcing bulbs in pots for early spring bloom indoors. They’ll need 10-13 weeks of chilling (refrigerate, but don’t freeze!) and take about 4 weeks to bloom after bringing them out to room temperature.
• Take a tour of your property and identify small trees and shrubs that will need protection from rabbits and mice over the winter (preferably metal screening). They like to gnaw off the bark, and will completely girdle or cut off small stems if not protected.

• If you are planning on getting a living Christmas tree this year, pre-dig the hole now (to avoid bad weather, or frozen soil!) and store the soil in buckets until planting time.

• Finish harvesting all root crops, and store them in a cool, humid environment.

Middle:

• Winter is very stressful to broadleaf evergreens if there is inadequate soil moisture. It is always important to soak plantings well before the soil freezes.    

• Continue planting hardy bulbs as long as the ground can be worked or at least until Thanksgiving.

• Fertilize trees and shrubs after we experience several good hard freezes (mid 20’s F, or colder).   

Late:

• Winterize roses (hybrid teas, grandifloras and floribundas) after a killing frost but before the soil freezes. Reduce breakage of tall canes by winter winds by cutting them back to 30 to 36 inches and tying tips together. Hill soil over the center of the plants in broad rounded mounds at least 12 inches high and 12 inches wide. Cover the soil mounds with mulch 2-3 inches deep.
• Mulch strawberries with 3 inches of clean wheat straw.