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Garden Tips: November 2011

November tip of the Month: From Linda Dodds, Fox Islander and Master Gardener

For the sometimes blustery, but also occasionally balmy month of November, here are your do’s and don’ts.

* Do fertilize your lawn with a fall and winter fertilizer.  The nitrogen will be dormant until spring and then kicks in with a vengeance and start your lawn growing before the spring weeds even wake up.

* Do plant your bulbs now and that includes tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and the best of all…GARLIC.  These bulbs need some cold weather before starting to grow in spring so plant them all now before December arrives.

Plan ahead for beautiful Spring blooms!

 

* Do rake up and clean up all decaying perennials and your workload will be easier next spring.

* Do keep on knocking the heads off all annual weeds and keep the yard as weed free as time allows.  Keep raking falling leaves and either compost them or use them to cover vegetable and annual beds to keep weeds from sprouting in the spring.  Tender perennials covered with a blanket of leaves will survive under much more harsh conditions than those completely exposed to the elements.

* Do start planning your garden for next year.  Cut out pictures of gardens that you would enjoy in your space and come up with plans to incorporate them into your yard or to have similar plantings that would give you the same feelings of comfort.  Ask yourself…do I want an easy to maintain NW rhody and azalea garden, a cottage garden or a tropical looking garden?  Do I enjoy deadheading petunias and geraniums or do I want easy maintenance plants? And then go from there.

Now for the don’ts…

* Don’t prune back hardy fuchsias, hardy hibiscus, hydrangeas or roses until next late February or March.  Pruning now may cause new growth to start and the cold weather will just kill that all back and damage the plants.

* Do not try to kill weeds by spraying with Roundup.  That product only works in 70 degree + weather and will not kill the weeds, but will just return to the soil as nitrogen and eventually make it back into the sound where it would feed plants that kill off the oxygen that the fish need to survive.

Since November can also be blustery, check occasionally to be sure no limbs have been snapped in strong winds.  If there are some, cut them back to a joint so the shrub or tree does not suffer further damage and rot.