Gardening Tips for November from David Barkley:
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You may wish to consider the following chores to perform at this time of the year:
o Continue to plant trees and shrubs in the landscape. Keep them watered and use winter protection if necessary. Keeping them in a barn or garage for a few days to protect the root ball from freezing should be considered if cold weather is expected around planting time.
o Clean up the water garden. Remove floating leaves and algae from the water and discard any dead plant material. If there are any tender plants needing protection from freezing temperatures (tropical lilies etc.) remove them to a heated structure. If there are fish in the pool, be sure to maintain at least 18 20 inches of water all winter long.
o Remove leaves which have fallen on the turf. A leaf blower is more likely to remove leaves without disturbing the mulch when the leaves are dry. Run the blower on low and remove the leaves often or at least before they pile up.
o Recycle mums into the perennial border. Keep them watered and fertilized. Cut back next year and you should have a good display next fall.
o Seeds that mature and are shed from trees in the fall should be collected and sown immediately into prepared beds or containers. They generally will germinate the following spring. Acorns usually require removing the caps from the acorn. Dogwoods and magnolia seeds should have the outer red covering soften by soaking the seed in water. Red maple seeds ripen in the spring and should be collected and sown immediately after harvesting.
o Pinch tops of pansies and snapdragons to remove stocky growth.
o Prune lantana to 1/3 its height and spread.
o Check camellias and azaleas for spider mites and treat with insecticidal soap if mites are found.
o Remove older canes of raspberries and blackberries.
o Remove dead vegetable plants from the garden to prevent insects and diseases from over-wintering.
o Treat scales with a dormant oil spray applied to the branches and stems where scales are attached.
o If you removed your bird feeder during the summer, now is the time to put the feeder back out.
Great Holiday Gift Idea:
The holidays are right around the corner and as you start thinking about gifts, consider subscriptions to Extension's Successful Gardener newsletter for your gardening friends and family. The newsletter is published 10 months per year and is filled with information specific to North Carolina growing conditions. The articles are written by North Carolina Cooperative Extension horticulture experts. A one-year subscription is $12.95. Call (919) 513-3112 or visit www.successfulgardener.org. You will find articles in the newsletter that will not be included in these monthly e-tips.
Pests Lurking Outside:
Be on the look out for insects which will soon be looking for places to over winter. Boxelder bugs occur on Acer negundo and will cover your window screens looking for a place to come inside. Even though they are not harmful they cause a stir of excitement from people who are not familiar with them, making them think about Alfred Hitchcock's movie “The Birds.” Well, in a sense, I guess the birds could come and try to feast on them. Usually a stream of water is all that is needed.
Ladybugs seem harmless enough but they can become quite a nuisance pest as well once they get inside the house. If you notice huge numbers of these pests congregating on the outside of your house during the fall consider a preemptive strike. Bifenthrin, cyfluthrin or permethrin are labeled for boxelder bugs and would take out the ladybugs if necessary. Treat door thresholds, window ledges and any places insects congregate or gain entry.
Shrubs and Trees:
If you see neatly cut limbs falling off pecan, hickory or persimmon they are probably the result of the pecan twig girdler. This insect lays eggs in the twigs and then cuts them. They fall later. Destroying the limbs over the winter will kill the eggs or larvae. However, insects may fly in from adjacent woodlands. During heavy infestations, these insects have been known to girdle pear, grape and linden trees in addition to their preferred host.
Perennials, Bulbs, Roses, Etc.
o Divide spring-flowering perennials in the fall.
o After the first killing frost, remove dead or yellowed foliage from perennials. Clean up your perennial beds and apply clean mulch to reduce the outbreak of diseases. While cleaning up the perennial bed remember that some seed heads will provide winter food for birds.
o Buy spring-flowering bulbs now but wait until December to plant them.
o Winterizer fertilizer is more of a marketing term than a horticultural term. Without a soil test, the need for certain nutrients is strictly a guess.
o Don't deadhead your spent flowers on your roses. Instead, remove the petals with your hands to allow the rose hips to form. This helps trigger the rose into winter dormancy.
o Clean up your rose bed. Remove any leaves or flowers that may be on the ground.
Inquiring Gardeners Want to Know...
Each fall a number of people call in or write wanting to know if they still have time to perform certain gardening and landscape chores they forgot to do in the spring and summertime. A gardener contacted us and wanted to know if it is too late to prune and fertilize some of the shrubs he planted last spring. More specifically, will it do any good to fertilize now or will it hurt the plants? He also wanted to know what chores he should be doing at this time of the year.
Tip pruning can be accomplished this month. Many evergreens are used in various Christmas decorations from both the foliage and berries. Favorites include the holly species, nandina, pines and cedars. Save the heavy (renovative) type pruning until late winter or early spring. Heavy pruning now would cause too much tender growth that will be prone to cold injury later this winter.
As for fertilizer, a lot of people think that fertilizing is a magic cure-all for all kinds of plant problems. Not so in this case. Same rule applies as for the pruning. Fertilizing plants this late into the season would cause them to remain tender throughout the winter. Since I don't have a crystal ball to tell just how nice a winter we will have, I must advise to wait until around April 15th (tax time) to fertilize your landscape plants and later for your lawn areas. Just remember, when it is time to pay "Uncle Sam" it is time to pay your plants with some fertilizer. Usually 2-4 pounds of 10:10:10 per 100 square feet will suffice.
SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST
o Now is the best time of the year to plant your landscape trees and shrubs.
o November is the time to select your Christmas tree for the Holiday Season.
o Fall gardens may be harvested right on through the cold weather.
o The first freeze can occur in mid October but, the average first freeze date is November 20th.
o Pecans often need a couple of really cold nights to open the husks that holds the pecans to the trees.
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