It’s Time for Some Autumn Housekeeping

After a cool, rainy spring and a milder-than-usual summer, it looks like we may have an early start to fall this year. The weather looks great for the next couple of weeks, giving you the perfect opportunity to kick out some of the gardening tasks that you might have been saving for later in the season.

Start by taking a walk around your property, closely examining your lawn, garden, and individual plants...basically most everything that you merely give a cursory glance as you walk from your car to your front door while balancing a load of groceries. Take careful note of everything you need to do and prioritize those tasks. Or better yet, delegate them. If possible.

Start with the easy and obvious stuff. While the leaves really haven’t started to fall yet, except for those from trees stressed from the drought, there may be some stick and leaf debris piled up corners of the yard and garden, so do a general cleanup to get all the odds and ends collected. Then take a look at your annuals. Most of them are probably past their prime by now, so now is the time to pull them out and replace them with cool weather annuals, like pansies, cabbage, kale, and mums (yes, we know that mums aren’t technically annuals, but most people treat them as such nowadays, so we’re not going to argue).   

Now for the stuff that will come back next year. If your perennials are done, cut them back now, but remember that there are many birds that depend on the seeds contained in the spent heads, so leave a few clumps here and there, and cut those back later in the season. Check out your trees and shrubs for any diseased or pest-infested foliage and cut away any affected area. Bag and dispose that foliage rather than composting it. Remember, you really don’t want to undertake a full-fledged pruning. Save that chore for late winter.

Fall is for fertilization, too. You may have seen a late-season spate of weeds emerging in your lawn in the past couple of weeks. If so, try an application of Speed Zone, which will take care of the offending broadleaf weeds without harming the grass, itself. And this is the ideal time to apply your Turf Trust fertilizer. As far as trees and shrubs, most people tend to forget that they should be fertilized this time of year, as you do with perennials and lawns, to encourage root growth. Plant Trust, applied any time in the next few weeks, ensures that your trees and shrubs go into winter ready to burst into activity in early spring.

Of course, this is the ideal time to plant, too. Trees and shrubs will really take to fall planting, which gives them time to establish themselves before spring. And we have some fantastic ornamental grasses, which add beautiful, year-round texture and movement to your garden. Take a look at some of our fall combination containers that will add some instant autumnal color to your porch or patio. And don’t forget that your spring-blooming bulbs need to be planted now for a spectacular show when winter finally ends...we have all varieties in right now!

Be sure to visit our new Fall-Themed Web site for the myriad events that are going on at our Maryland location right up through Halloween. We have our famous Fall Festival, including games, rides, and our corn maze and Field of Lost Souls. We also have movie nights, Ladies Night...the list goes on and on!