Our Horticulture Chair, Carol Giunta, has the following gardening tips for November: Sanitation, sanitation, sanitation! Does this sound like a repeat of last month? It is! After researching good task ideas, you will do your yard the biggest favor by staying on top of leaf raking chores. Not only do diseases and pests overwinter in leaf debris, but voles and mice love the cover of leaves to wreak havoc on roots and tender stems. The better your yard is cleaned up, the better you’ll have thwarted problems for next year!
- If you have Viburnums, now is a good time to start scouting for signs of the Viburnum leaf beetle, an invasive pest that has been devastating our area in the past few years. Look for the bump-like egg cases on the undersides of the youngest stems and prune them off,
- Now is a good time to be applying deer repellant on any tender shrubs, even if you believe them to be deer resistant. They’ll eat anything if they’re hungry. Try to remember to spray every two weeks, and after rainstorms.
- This is a good time to do a soil test. Lime takes six months to move into the root zone of your turf. Amending in spring is too little too late.
- Keep watering until the ground freezes. Plants require one inch of water per week. It’s better to water for a longer period less frequently, than frequently for a shorter time.
- Finally, during that freeze a few weeks ago the leaves on Nikko Blue hydrangeas turned black and the plants look horrible. Do not prune these plants as next years flower buds are formed on this year’s growth!