What are other Gardeners up to the first weekend in November in East Texas?
• Some folks are setting out snapdragons, pansies, violas, ornamental cabbage, Dusty Miller and other winter accent plants where they would like a bit of color. • Fall & Early winter is the very BEST time of year to plant shrubs and trees. Do not forget to mulch for insulation & moisture control but be sure to keep that mulch OFF of the trunk. • This is your last weekend for digging, dividing and replanting spring-flowering perennials such as daylilies and daffodils. • Plant new daffodils, grape hyacinths, and other spring-blooming bulbs as soon as you get them. Refrigerate tulips and Dutch hyacinths for at least 45 days at 45F before planting them into your garden between Christmas and New Year's Day. • If you have plants requiring maintenance then take some time to clean up overgrown or damaged shrubs now. Try not to take more than 1/3 of the growth off as you prune. If you have major reshaping to do, hold off until mid-January. • Remove diseased and dead stalks, stems, leaves and seed-heads from perennials and stem stubble from annual gardens. These items harbor diseases that will overwinter in the organic material. • Clean up dead or damaged branches from shade trees while you can still identify them. Once they lose their leaves everything looks dead.
I choose not fertilize during the Fall because it has a tendency to trigger new growth that will just die back in the winter cold - damaging the plant. However, now might be a good time to start broadcasting pre-emergent weed preventives and treating lawns with broadleaf herbicides.
It is likely you have mowed for the last time this year. Yay. Now is a great time to winterize the engine of your mower, check the oil, and sharpen blades. It sure beats forgetting to do it.
If you have the "luxury" of an in-ground irrigation system, then now is good time to winterize as necessary. If your irrigation travels through a garden hose like mine, then now is the time to snatch up the insulated hose-bib protectors at your local hardware store before every redneck in Texas discovers they need them.
Be sure to disconnect garden hoses from hose-bibs before a hard freeze. If left connected they have a way of making your pipes freeze in the wall. I hate it when that happens.
Now,
set your clocks!
Mark your calendar!!
pin a note to the fridge!!! and
set an alarm in your smartphone...
Sat. Nov. 13th is our LAST garden sale event of 2021!
We are sending this year off with a bang! Please Join us!
