GARDENING TIPS

Fall Green Ideas

For Your Lawn

• Lime your lawn.  A 50# bag of limestone will raise pH about .5 per 1000 square feet.

• Dormant seed your lawn in the areas where crabgrass has died out.
  

• Apply winter fertilizer on lawn after the last mowing.  This can be done around the same time as your lime application.
  

For Your Vegetable Garden

• Feed your compost pile with lawn trimmings and shredded brown leaf, alternating layers. Add an activator to speed up decomposition.
  

For Your Flower Beds

• Mulch in rose beds.  Cover the bud union with at least 2" of mulch.  If using leaf mulch, make sure it is composted.  Remove in early spring.
• Lift and store all tender bulbs such as dahlias, gladiolus, begonias.  This should be done after frost has killed the foliage, but before severe ground frosts.  Sever the spent foliage; wash off bulb or tuber and let air dry.  Store in a cool, dry place in peat moss or saw dust.
  

For Your Trees and Shrubs

• Mulch spring-planted trees and shrubs and be sure to water them thoroughly and deeply.
• Apply an anti-desiccant to broadleaf evergreens and specimen conifers while temperatures are still above 50 degrees.