In part one, we chopped and dropped vegetable and annual flower plants and added covering crops and insulating layers of hay and straw to prep for colder months.
Now, it’s time for a new set of chores to get our landscapes ready for late fall and winter.
This time, we’ll learn how to take care of our trees, shrubs and perennials by protecting them from hungry critters, and how to utilize fallen leaves for winter prep.
Protect your trees from browsing wildlife
If you have a new tree or shrub in the landscape, even though it’s fall, keep watering it. Even if it’s a deciduous plant, continue to water it right up until the ground freezes.
Because fall has been dry in our region, watering up until a hard freeze ensures the roots will get enough moisture as they continue to grow.
Protect trees with tree guards, too. This will help keep mice and rabbits from gnawing the trunks and girdling the bark. Add a cage or deer fencing around the trees so that deer don’t browse on them either.
Trim trees that show insect or fungal damage
Now that the leaves have dropped, this is a good time to look up into the canopy of your trees. See if there are any diseased branches, especially on plum and cherry trees, which might be due to the fungal disease black knot.
These black growths on the branches could spread throughout the trees and kill branches.
If you see signs of it, choose a spot about a foot below where the diseased portion is and cut it at an intersection of some side branches.
Make sure you remove the branches from your yard and don’t just toss them into the woods or leave them in your yard.
Chip them up or burn them to reduce the chance of more fungal infection next year.
Cleaning up perennial flowers for the winter
For perennial flower gardens, more recent horticultural guidelines suggest that you leave them as they are throughout the winter.
Those dead stems, flower heads and seed pods provide a safe home for beneficial and pollinating insects to overwinter.
Leaving them can tend to look a bit unkempt, so you can clean the garden up slightly by pruning some of the perennials. Try to leave echinacea, rudbeckia, phlox and zinnias so helpful insects can move in during the colder months.
Use fallen leaves as mulch and winter protection for plants and trees
Though you might feel like you’re in a competition with your neighbors to see who can rake up all their leaves first, think of those fallen leaves as free insulation for many of your plants and trees this winter.
Instead of bagging them up and hauling them to the landfill, keep some leaves for use around plants and trees as mulch.
You can also shred them and leave them in a heap where they’ll sit for a year or two to decompose into a leaf mold pile you can use as fertilizer.
And if the layer of fallen leaves on your lawn is fairly light, use the mulching setting on your mower to chop them up and leave them on the yard. The smaller bits will break down over the months and feed your lawn.
A winter layer for roses and hydrangea
If you have roses and hydrangeas, especially ones that die back in the winter, a layer of mulch will protect them through the winter. Later this month (around Thanksgiving time), pile up wood chips one-to-two feet high around the base of the plant, covering the crown.
Next year, prune the plants down to the live growth. You’ll get more flowers and they’ll bloom sooner.
Dreaded jumping worms in compost bin
Q: Help! I have jumping worms in my black plastic compost bin. Do I have to throw it out? I’m willing to try putting it on a tarp and covering it with plastic, but are the temperatures warm enough to kill them? Should I let them freeze in the bin and heat it up in the spring? – Robin, in Dorset
A: Yes, put a tarp or some clear plastic over the bin. If we get some sunny, warmer days when the temperature under the plastic covering will go above 105 degrees Fahrenheit for three days, that will help kill both the jumping worm adults and the next generation.
If it doesn’t get warm enough for this method, take the compost and put it in a barrel, cover and leave it for now.
Next spring, try this solarization method to eradicate the jumping worms.
How to tend native lowbush blueberries
Q: I have a large meadow near a wetland with a large number of native lowbush blueberries. Woody succession plants are starting to move in and I want to brush hog the area to keep it open. Will that kill the lowbush blueberries? They are spread wide enough that they would be hard to not hit when brush hogging. – Kris, in Lincoln
A: Commercial lowbush blueberry growers either burn or cut down blueberries every couple of years. Doing so stimulates new vegetative growth.
If you take this approach, you won’t get blueberries next year, but in two years you’ll get a big crop of blueberries and the plants will be better for it.
Wait till the ground is frozen, especially if you’re using a tractor, then clear the land by cutting it low.
Preparing a lilac for a springtime move
Q: I was given a lilac six years ago, and now I have to move it. Can I wait until spring to do that? Should I do anything now to prepare it for a move? – Veronica, via email
A: Digging up and moving a lilac is actually best done in spring, so hold off on that. You can root-prune it now, though.
Prune around the drip line of the lilac bush to stimulate the roots. It’ll be in good shape to move next spring.
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