24 November 4, 2009

The leaves are dropping off the trees and the trees are taking on their winter look. Yuck! Time to rake the leaves.

Speaking of leaves, I was telling you about composting the leaves in your yard. If you mix some of the grass clippings in with the leaves, it greatly speeds up the composting process. If you think forward to spring, you have lots of grass clippings, but very few leaves to mix in to help speed up the composting process. This fall, get some heavy – duty plastic bags and fill the bags with leaves. Store the bags near your compost pile. In the spring, you can take some of the leaves out of the bags and mix them in with the grass clippings. Add in some compost activator and you will have a compost pile that will be humming along and producing finished compost in no time at all.

This past weekend, a few people asked me if it was too late to plant spring flowering bulbs. The answer is that as long as the ground hasn’t frozen, you can still plant spring flowering bulbs. If it appears that we are heading into a possibility of freezing ground, you can always hurry up and plant the bulbs and then apply a 3-inch layer of mulch on top of the ground. This will slow down the freezing of the ground and allow the bulbs more time to develop a root system before the ground completely freezes.

Another question that has come up is whether it is too late to apply lime to your lawn, flowerbeds or vegetable garden. You can apply lime any time the ground is not frozen. Even if the ground freezes shortly after the lime is applied, it will continue to work as soon as the ground thaws in the spring.

The cool and rainy weather we have had has proved to be a bonus for all those people who planted late vegetable crops of greens and other cool season vegetables. The crops have grown well and the harvest has been steady for most people. If you didn’t get your fall crops planted this year, make a note to try it next year.

Many of you have brought your houseplants back inside for the winter. If you haven’t done so already, make sure to spray those plants to control any insects that may have hitched a ride inside. If you give insects a chance to multiple inside your home, you will have a major insect infestation on your plants in no time at all.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.