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PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAYMCTOBER 17, 2001.
Home & Garden 2001
Fall time to clean up that garden
If you're spending nearly 50 hours
during the summer mowing your
lawn, you should probably be ready
to spend at least a few hours prepar-
ing it for winter.
To novice and experienced garden-
ers, fall signals the end of the grow-
ing season and the best time to care
for your garden and lawn before the
snow flies. According to experts,
taking time to prune, remove leaves,
fertilize and protect your lawn and
garden for the winter will help assure
you of a healthy growing season next
spring.
Lawn Care:
Rake, rake, rake! Or if the very
idea of raking makes you want to cut
down your trees to avoid work, try
using a leaf blower and vacuum.
This will allow you to blow the
leaves into a pile and vacuum them
up without going near a rake. Leaf
blowers with extensions will even
clean eaves for you.
Whether you decide to use a rake
or a blower, make sure you clear
dead stems, leaves and debris from
your lawn, garden and bushes.
If you've been thinking abouLhav-
ing trees in your yard topped to pre-
vent limbs from crashing into your
house or to correct a poor shape,
don't pick up the telephone yet.
"Topping trees to prevent prob-
lems may create the problems you're
trying to avoid," said George
Hopper, a forester with the
Agricultural Extension Service at the
University of Tennessee.
Homeowners often top trees to
prevent limb breakage, house dam-
age, tree diseases or to correct poor
shape of the tree.
Here's the problem: "Topped
branches can't form a callus layer
• A good garden produces armloads,
of cucumbers, corn and piles of
debris, such as corn stalks, pea vines
and spent cucumber plants.
"Don't bemoan the presence of
this trash. Turn it into an asset by
recycling it nature's way," said
David W. Sams, a gardening special-
ist with the Agricultural Extension
Service at the Unjversity of
Tennessee.
"What does nature do with spent
organic material in the fall?" he asks.
"Consider leaves: for example.
Nature spreads them over the soil in
a thin layer where they reduce ero-
sion, retain moisture and improve the
Leftover debris provides a great hid-
ing place for pests and diseases:`
Instead of bagging valuable organ-
ic matter, you can use a mulcher to
produced shredded leaves and grass
clippings that can be added to the
compost pile or used to protect vari-
ous plants in your garden.
Before you store your lawnmower
for the winter, it may be necessary to
mow your lawn one last time, but
don't cut the grass any lower than
five centimetres. After cutting and
clearing all leaves away, it's time to
fertilize. Use a fertilizer such as 6-8-
15 with or without weed killer.
Higher potassium levels (the last of
the three numbers) will provide har-
diness to grass and overall cell-
health to withstand every regions'
w' titer. Always use a fertilizer
spreader to evenly distribute and to
avoid dumping clumps of fertilizer
that may do more harm than good.
Pruning:
Fall is also a great time to prune
summer flowering perennial plants,
overgrown bushes, trees and roses.
Pruning now will improve their
(natural healing layer), so they die
back to the next largest branch,"
Hopper said. "Meanwhile, this dying
and rotting branch becomes infected
with tree heart rot disease, which can
penetrate to the base of the tree and
kill it."
The forester said, "A better solu-
tion to topping a tree is to prune the
tree early during the tree's life.
Proper pruning shapes a tree as it
grows and thus maintains a healthy,
vigorous tree."
Prune a tree during the dormant
season from November through
February. "To reduce the height, use
the 'drop crouch-target' pruning
soil as they decay. You can do the
same," he said.
Just spread spent plants over the
garden soil as a mulch. The mulch
will retain moisture, reduce weed
growth and improve soil structure,
organic content and nutrient level as
the material decays.
"You can also give nature a little
assistance to derive even more bene-
fit," Sams said.
- "For example, small pieces of
organic material decay faster than
large pieces. Take advantage of this
by chopping cornstalks and vines
into six-inch pieces before using
them as mulch."
growth in the spring. Although the
general rule is to prune weaker
branches to avoid their breaking
under the weight of the snow, not all
plants and trees require the same
amount of pruning. Pick up a book
before you overdo the job.
Winter Protection:
Most perennials require protection
from winter elements to help them
survive and keep them growing
healthy in the spring. Recently plant-
ed evergreens that are spending their
first winter in your garden need to
wear a burlap winter coat. Burlap is
readily available where you purchase
your garden supplies.
After the ground is frozen to a
depth of eight-10 centimetres or after
a continued cold spell, place a mulch
of leaves around roses, fall mums
and more tender perennial plants.
Although many people think that
mulches are used to keep the plants
warm, they actually keep the soil
temperatures as uniform as- possible,
reducing the danger of root breakage
and other damage that results from
alternate freezing and thawing.
method," Hopper said. "In this
method, you 'drop back' to the next
largest branch or trunk and prune at
the branch 'crouch.—
Cut branches at an angle. Since it's
easier to cause long-term damage
when pruning shade trees than when
pruning shrubs and fruit trees, you
may want to contact a tree expert
before doing any major pruning.
After pruning the tree, don't paint
the wound," Hopper said. "Research
has shown that wound dressings
don't help the natural closure of the
wound. Healthy trees close the
wounds within a few years."
Short pieces of cornstalks will also
be easier to work with than the entire
plant. Secondly, organic material
will decay much faster when mixed
into the soil than when left on the
surface, the gardening specialist
said.
"If you're trying to build soil
quickly, then turn organic matter
under," he said. "Do this at least six
weeks before planting so decay will
occur before planting."
Topping trees creates problems
Turn good garden trash
into valuable mulch