21October 28, 2015

The leaves have turned color and now they are beginning to fall. Pine needles are dropping off the trees as the trees prepare for winter. Are you preparing your yard for winter?

Acid soil is a problem for many plants. Your lawn grass doesn’t tolerate an acidic soil. Lawn weeds thrive in an acid soil. Your lilac bushes don’t like an acid soil. Many of your perennials hate an acid soil. The vast majority of your vegetables will grow better in a soil that is not acidic. To offset all this acidic soil, you need to apply lime to the soil. Many of you apply lime to the soil in the spring. You can just as easily apply lime in the fall. During the late fall and early spring, the lime can change the soil to a more neutral pH. This will allow your plants and lawn to grow at their optimal rate. Get some lime and apply it this fall as part of getting your plants ready for winter.

If you haven’t applied your fall/ winter lawn fertilizer, now is the time. The late fall application of lawn fertilizer will help the roots of your grass. The roots absorb the fertilizer and hold that fertilizer in the roots until the soil begins to warm up. Once the soil warms up, the stored fertilizer is used to form new blades of grass. This will allow the lawn to thicken up before the weeds have a chance to wake up in the spring. Healthy grass, that is rapidly growing early in the spring, can force many weeds out of your lawn. For a healthier lawn next spring, make a final application of lawn fertilizer now as part of preparing your lawn for winter.

We have had some rain as of late, but we are still at a deficient for rainfall this fall. Many of your evergreens need to store water in the fall to survive the winter winds. If Mother Nature doesn’t supply the rain, then you should be watering your evergreens. Hydrangeas and rosebushes need to take up water in the fall. Their thin bark allows the winter wind to dry out the canes. If we don’t get a soaking rain soon, you need to be watering your plants as part of the preparation for winter.

With the arrival of some cold nights, your car, motor home, summer camp, lawn tractor, snowmobile and shed all become places where mice will want to spend the winter. Mice can do a lot of damage by gnawing on wires and creating a huge repair bill. You have heard me talk about using a product called Mouse Magic to repel mice from homes. This product works equally as well to keep mice out of your car and other locations. One Mouse Magic pouch will repel mice for 30 days. Getting started now on protecting your valuable equipment and your other home or shed will save you a huge repair bill come next spring. We carry Mouse Magic at our garden center.

As the leaves fall, you want to get them off the lawn. I can tell you from experience that it is much easier to do multiple clean ups of leaves rather than trying to do it all at once. Your blister – free hands will thank you for doing a little bit of raking at a time.

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