Lawns
Keep mowing as long as the grass keeps growing. If you haven’t yet spread fertilizer, there is still time to do so. A well-fertilized lawn will stay green all winter.
Run the leaf mulcher through the fallen leaves two or three times to ensure they are finely chopped and thinly spread; otherwise, rake them into the compost pile.
Garden Clean-Up
Cut off dead peony stalks below the soil surface, pick up fallen rose leaves, and cut away any brown leaves from the iris. Burn these leaves and stems to help prevent the spread of botrytis, iris borer, and black spot.
On most other perennials, the usual practice is to let the dead stalks remain on the plant through the winter. They not only catch the dry leaves and hold the snow about them, but their seed-bearing stalks provide welcome food to the wintering juncoes and chickadees.
Remove seed-heads on phlox as the young seedlings are never a desirable color.
Summer-Flowering Bulbs
Dig summer-flowering bulbs, corms, and tubers. Spread out where they can dry and then clean them. Leave the soil clinging to tuberoses. Store in a cool, frost-free, dry place until spring planting time.
Planting
- Plant Roses as long as the earth is not frozen deeper than 2″ inches.
- Plant Tulips and other hardy bulbs this month.
- Pot up a few bulbs and store them in sawdust or peat moss in your cold frame for late-winter flowering in the house.
Seeds may also be sown now. Those who benefit from fall sowing are sweet pea, petunia (not the fancy or ruffled kinds), calendula, cornflower, cosmos, and sweet alyssum.
Hardy, deciduous trees and shrubs can still be planted. Wrap tree trunks with burlap to prevent sunscald and protect against mice and rabbits with a 2′ foot-high collar of wire mesh at the base of the tree.
Mulching
The purpose of winter mulching of plants is not to keep them warm but to keep them cold: therefore, do not apply mulch until the ground is frozen about 2″ inches deep.
Areas where late-arriving lily bulbs are planted, mulch now to keep soil from freezing. Protect upright evergreens are likely to be harmed by heavy snows by pulling branches towards the trunk with a rope wound in a spiral fashion about the plant.
I find iris comes through our severest winters in eastern Maryland with no cover at all. A mulch of any kind, even a light covering of oak leaves, seems to invite rot.
Foxglove will smother under a heavy mulch, as will most other fleshy plants.
Strawberries
Weed the beds carefully so as not to disturb the berry roots. Mulch with straw between the rows and place evergreen boughs over the plants to protect the foliage from wind and sun yet allow light to enter.
Roses
Late this month, hill soil around rose bushes to a depth of 6″ to 8″ inches. Later, an additional mulch of straw over the entire bed may be advisable.
Pools
Artificial pools need protection to avoid injury to both concrete and plants. Small pools may be covered with boards and then perhaps straw. Larger pools should be drained and plant containers grouped in the center and covered with straw or leaves.
All tropical plants should be brought indoors before cold weather.
Chrysanthemums
Protect your chrysanthemum plants by digging and storing them in a cold frame. Cut back tops and pack plants close together on top of the soil. Put excelsior or pine branches over them and lay the sash in place.
Watering
Soak the evergreens thoroughly on a warm day; also, all deciduous trees and shrubs set out this year. Don’t forget to turn off and drain your outside faucets before cold weather arrives.
FGR1160