Fall Yard Cleanup

          Fall is definitely here. What needs to be done in your garden and yard? Leaves that have blown in and piled up around your buildings and fences should be removed but if they are not too thick or heavy just rake them back enough to access them with your lawnmower. Use your lawn mower to shred and spread them. The nitrogen and other nutrients will fertilize your lawn next year.

          Removing dead or dying trees can be done but don’t prune or trim trees and shrubs you want to keep. Wait till late winter or very early spring to do that. Pruning now leaves open tissue on the cut stubs which doesn’t have time to heal and is a wound opening inviting insects and disease.

          Dead annuals in gardens or flower beds should be pulled and added to a compost pile to become future fertilizer. Plants that had mildew, mold, or other disease symptoms before frost should not be added to a compost pile where disease spores may not break down and could infect next year’s plants when the compost is used.

          Inspect your lawns carefully to determine if perennial weeds like dandelion can still be treated with a herbicide. We have some good weather in the forecast and if those small dandelions hiding in the grass are still green and supple a herbicide treatment now will be far more effective than a herbicide applied when they are blooming next spring! If those leaves are crispy toast, save your efforts for next fall.