15November 24, 2016

Being outside for any length of time on Monday was a shock to the system. I don’t usually mind the cold, but that first blast of wind and cold can really chill you to the bone.

Over the last few weeks, I have told you about the winter moth caterpillars. I told you that the adult moths would hatch out in late November or early December. The moths must read the paper because I saw the first moths on last Wednesday. Soon the females will be laying eggs and shortly they and the males will die off. Come the spring the tiny green and white caterpillars will emerge on trees and begin their destruction of the newly opening leaves. Come the spring, I will let you know what you need to do to control the caterpillars.

It looks as though the windy weather has taken most of the leaves off of the trees. As is always the case, the leaves on the oak trees just want to hang on for a while. You should get those leaves off the lawn and once the raking is done, you should do a final cutting of the lawn. If you go into winter with long blades of grass on your lawn, the blades of grass will mat down and your lawn may develop a disease called snow mold. This disease will kill off the blades of grass. Sometimes the lawn will recover in the spring but many times the lawn will have dead patches that will need to be re-seeded in the spring. To lessen the likelihood of this disease happening in your lawn, the final cut on your lawn should leave the blades of grass at about 1 1/2 inches long. If we get warmer weather and the grass begins to grow again, make sure to do another cutting of the grass if the blades get long again.

With the holiday decorating season right around the corner, many of you will be hanging wreaths, filling your planters with fresh cut greens and placing evergreen roping around doors and lampposts. All of these greens tend to dry out in the wind. In the past few weeks, I told you about a product called Wilt Pruf. Wilt Pruf is applied to the leaves of your rhododendrons and other broadleaf evergreens. These applications cuts down on the moisture lost through the leaves due to wind and sun. You can also use this spray to prevent your wreaths, greens and roping from drying out too fast. The spray is applied to your wreaths before they are decorated. The greens in your planters can be sprayed after the greens are in your containers. Garlands can be sprayed before the roping is put into place. You should spray the decorations so that the greens have time to dry in daylight hours. The Wilt Pruf needs the ultraviolet light to properly set up the waxy coating that protects the evergreen boughs that make up your decorations.

Well, that’s all for this week. I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving. The store will be closed on Thanksgiving, but will reopen on Friday with the areas best Holiday decorating shop. Please stop by and take a look at all the items we have to decorate your home for the holidays.

I’ll talk to you again next week.