09December 17, 2014

This week, I thought that I would remind you of some of the chores that you need to finish before the snow flies into our yards for the winter.
For whatever reason, many trees didn’t drop their leaves until very late in the fall. You don’t want to have those leaves sitting on the lawn all winter. The buildup of leaves can smother the grass and the breaking down of the leaves can acidify the lawn. As much as you don’t want to add raking leaves to your holiday activities, get those leaves cleaned up.

Once the leaves are cleaned up, take a look at the grass. Has your grass grown since the last time you mowed the lawn? If the grass is longer than an inch and a half long, you should get the mower out one last time and cut the grass to that inch and a half height. If you leave the grass long going into the winter, it will mat down and you will very likely develop a lawn disease called snow mold. This will lead to dead patches in your lawn. These patches may need to be re-seeded in the spring. If it needs to be done, make sure to do that final cutting of your lawn.

Somewhere in the shed or the garage, you have your gardening tools. You probably have a hand trowel, long handle shovel, a pair of pruners and other tools. These need to be cleaned up before winter really sets in. Any left on sap or dirt can cause your tools to rust. You can scrap off any dirt or you can use a wire brush to remove any caked on dirt or sap. Tools should be sharpened before spring so that once the weather breaks, you are ready to get gardening again. If you don’t know how to sharpen your tools, tool sharpening is a service that we offer for a nominal charge.

If you haven’t gotten those garden chemicals out of the shed or unheated garage, you need to do so immediately. Liquid garden chemicals and aerosols should not be allowed to freeze. Aerosols will seldom spray after they have frozen. Many liquid garden chemicals become less effective or ineffective if they are allowed to freeze. Gather all those bottles and aerosols and get them into the cellar or other inside location where they will not freeze.

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