• The main activity this month should be garden cleanup. The more you can do now, the happier you will be next spring. Cut down tomato, zucchini, and any other vine crops and dispose in landscape waste. Do not compost as these plants could carry disease. Cut down peony foliage after it has yellowed or turned brown. Do not compost. Cut down hosta before they turn limp with frost. This is easier to do this than after they lay on the ground. Some don't cut down hostas at all, but remove the desiccated foliage in the spring. This is acceptable if you don't have the time or energy, but cleaning up the hosta bed in the fall means less places for the slugs to hide and lay their eggs.
• Cut down perennials. I sometimes leave Siberian iris foliage uncut as it turns an attractive reddish brown color. Variegated Soloman's Seal gets a beautiful yellow, and I don't cut that down until November.
• Cut down dahlias to about 6" after the first frost and the foliage has blackened. Let the tubers remain in the soil for about 4-7 days. (This may stimulate the tubers to form "eyes"...which indicate where the growth will occur next spring.) Then dig, shake off most of the soil, and lay on a paper to dry for about a week. You can divide at this time, remembering that any division must have an "eye ". If you don't see an "eye". don't divide, wait until spring. Wrap tubers in Saran wrap and store in a cardboard box in a frost free area.
• Cannas are also cut down after the first frost. Dig corms, shaking off as much soil as possible, and store in a cardboard box in a frost free area.
• Dig corms of glads, dry, and store in a cool place in bags of netting or in a cardboard box of dry peat moss.
• Geraniums can be pulled out, dirt shaken off, and stored in paper bags in a frost free area. I did this last year and had beautiful plants by June 1.
• This is also the month to begin your winter protection for susceptible plants, shrubs, and trees:
Rabbits and deer:
Apply a liquid deer deterrent to all yews, arborvitae, oakleaf hydrangeas and roses. Protect trunks of young trees with circles of chicken wire...rabbits will chew and deer will rub their horns against the trunks. Black fruit netting thrown over shrubs has been known to deter deer. Fishing line strung between posts has been known to deter deer. A handful of Milorganite thrown near plants you wish to protect will also act as a deer deterrent. All of these measures should be done early, to discourage the deer from starting a habit of visiting your garden. Rabbits chew on small stems all winter. The only sure way to protect small plants is to encircle them with chicken wire or...get a cat!
Voles:
Voles are more damaging than moles as they actually are vegetarians and eat roots of plants and flower bulbs. Mouse traps baited with apple are a good way to catch voles. If you discover small one inch holes in your garden, you most likely have voles. Rat poison dropped into these holes will help control them.
Low winter sun and drying winds:
This is especially tough on evergreens. I plan to spray all my boxwood with 'Wiltpruf', an antidesiccant. Do this 2 times (several weeks apart) on vulnerable rhododendron, azaleas, any newly planted evergreen, and other broad-leaved evergreens. Perhaps this would have saved the several boxwood I lost last winter. Make sure all evergreens go into winter well watered as they continually lose moisture from their leaves and needles all winter along. (Note how the leaves and needles of rhododendron, white pine, and pachysandra all "curl" when the temperatures get in the teens-they are trying to conserve moisture)
• Apply aluminum sulfate to your hydrangeas that bloomed pink when you wanted blue. I plan to also dig in some ground sulfur to try to make the soil more acid so the aluminum in the soil already can be released.
• After you have cleaned your vegetable bed, apply compost. Try to recycle any leaves that fall into compost. If they are cut up with a mulching mower, they will turn into compost faster. I never have enough of this wonderful compost. The green grass clippings and the dry leaves are the perfect combo for making great mulch.
• Also purchase mulch to set aside for applying to needed areas after the top few inches of ground has frozen. These needed areas would include those around roses, Japanese maples, newly planted perennials and shrubs, etc. This not only helps protects the plants against sudden drops or rises in temperature, but it promotes continued root growth until winter truly sets in.
• Start amaryllis this month for holiday bloom.
- Nancy Crawford, MG
