All those beautiful autumnal colors getcha thinking about spring, don’t they?
“Heck No! Knucklehead… I’m thinkin’ about roasts, and warm beverages, and fireplaces and warm beverages! Sweaters and hugs and maybe a grown up beverage!”
Well, lest you forget, my pretties, winter barely showed up a couple years back. Spring began in mid-February. And summer was a buh-lazzzzingly hot marathon that got kick-started when we had mid-80s temps in early April!… Ugh!
PREP NOW FOR SPRING… It’s almost here.
That year we started on Feb 15th, which was the earliest start we’ve had for major outdoor projects. Thankfully, that enabled us to finish a kiss-on-the-cheek gorgeous 110′ stone wall by early March.
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- Entrance from corral
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- Angled ends at request of homeowner. I love them!
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- Added moss to ‘age it’ a bit
Spring can certainly come very, very early so plan now, work now, and enjoy the harvest of an even more beautiful garden and lawn next spring… So let’s git to it! SHHHK’ahhhhh [whip-sound].
Hit List
Here’s a quick hit list of things to do right now! Immediatamente! PRONTO!
- Feed your Lawn: get it healthy/ier with a good fall fertilizer applied before soil temps cool below 50 degrees. When your lawn stops growing — generally toward end of October — it’s too late for most fertilizers to be of any use. All the microbes in the soil get sleepy and ready to bunk down for the winter. If they’re not active, your fertilizer will not get broken down into usable form and can leach (be washed) away. Your investment can literally go down the drain. So plan that last lawn feeding around mid-October. Send it to winter sleep with a reserve of stored energy for a healthier spring.
- Water your Lawn: still water it but less so… every few days… and please water in the morning. Don’t send your lawn to sleep at night all wet. It gets cranky and moldy and fungussy and yucky. You can usually stop watering toward the end of October.
- Patience w Perennials: DO NOT clip too early. Let the natural process of the plant dying back to happen in its due time. The plant is drawing back nutrients from its leaves and storing them in the root system so that they can over-winter (I love that term, ‘over-winter’… makes me think of a lonnnng slumber party). If you can bear the sight of withering leaves for a couple weeks, wait till fall cleanup to clip away all the dead, floppy leaves. But, then, do clip them well so that spring growth will not be impeded.
- Low Lawn Cut – sending your grass to its winter bed with a nice low lawn cut of about 2.5″ will help it fight for its life under snow pack. Long grass is more susceptible to disease when under snow pack, and, even more so, if your lawn care company gave it too much nitrogen late in the season (generally after Nov 1).
- Pruning – Wait for Winter: Most trees are best pruned in the winter after they are fully dormant. This will enable all spring growth to empower the flowers… that’s right, say it with me: ‘Empower the Flowers!’ ’Empower the Flowers!’((c)2012, all rights reserved… hey, Madison Ave, want to buy a slogan?).
- NOTE: Most flowering trees and shrubs are best pruned six weeks after they drop their flowers (e.g., June for Magnolia). More on this in another blog. But, even if you did prune the flowering trees six weeks after they dropped blooms, a good winter pruning allows you to see the internal branch structure better, shape it better, and do a better job. Just ensure you or your lovely neighborhood landscaper don’t prune all the blooms!
There’s definitely much to do in the next few weeks to ensure your property shines in Spring. So let’s git to it! SHHHK’ahhhhh! [whip sound]
