By Stacy Kershaw
The leaves are dropping, the growing season is finishing up. What should we be doing now to get ready for the spring. Also, I hear leaf blowers and ads for “Fall Clean-up” What’s your opinion on what to do with the leaves and pine needles once they fall?
While I love the fall colors, I dread the cold, dreary weather ahead. Fall cleanup is a great excuse to get outside and enjoy those last fleeting days of warm sunshine. So get digging!
Trim dead perennial foliage to the ground. That being said, you don’t have to cut back everything. I like to keep my hydrangea flowers and grasses. I think they look beautiful with fresh-fallen snow.
Do you have too many daylilies or irises in one spot? This is a great time to divide crowded perennials. But hold off on splitting fall-blooming perennials, like asters. Do that in the spring.
Trim dead limbs, but be careful not to cut any new growth.
Remove plant debris around roots to prevent disease and pests from attacking.
Rake and repurpose your leaves and pine needles. Whole fallen leaves can suffocate your lawn, but shredded with your lawn mower, they make free mulch. I like to rake them up on big tarp then transport them to a grass-free area of my yard and mow them. Then I spread the chopped leaves around my beds. The leaves I don’t shred, I put into my compost pile to decompose into “black gold” for my garden beds come spring. Pine needles also make great mulch for acid-loving plants like rhododendrons, azaleas, blueberries, daylilies, Shasta daisies, coreopsis, and even hostas.
Mulching is super important. It helps retain soil moisture and supplies a steady stream of nutrients to your plants. Whether you are using leaves, pine needles or purchased mulch, spread a 2-4 inch layer over your beds before the ground freezes.
If you’re planting bulbs, do it now, before the ground freezes!
And finally, I’ve never been a fan of annuals, but this year I planted a bed of dahlias and they were magnificent! So I’m going to try and save them for a repeat show next summer. I’m going to dig them out and store them in peat moss in my basement over the winter. I’ll let you know if they make it!
Every month I will highlight one of my favorite plants. This month I’m being dazzled by this Seven Son Flower tree in my yard. It’s technically a shrub but looks like a tree. Its Latin name is Heptacodium miconioides. It gets beautiful white flowers in September, that turn scarlet red in October. The hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies love it!
About Stacy Kershaw
I am a self-professed garden geek.
After planting every square inch of my postage stamp yard in Boston, I moved to Bedford in 2009 absolutely giddy with the idea of nearly a half acre!
Lucky for me, my husband and son are great laborers, and my mother owns a landscape design business.
I’m a huge supporter of low maintenance, native plants, not only because they are good for our environment, but because they are easy to care for. I do my best to only use organic methods.
As a former television news producer/journalist, I find the garden path a perfect respite from stress and anxiety.
I’m no expert, but I’m happy to share my obsession with others!
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