PEST-PROOFING THE GARDEN AND OTHER NOVEMBER GARDENING TIPS
In November Mom Nature begins to place issues to mattress for the lengthy winter. It’s time for gardeners to do the identical by defending crops for the winter, storing backyard instruments, and tidying up the backyard for the subsequent rising season. When you haven’t cleaned up previous crops and particles from vegetable and flower gardens, achieve this earlier than winter comes. Leaving plant particles permits ailments to overwinter and resurface within the spring to assault crops.
Take away spent canes and reduce lifeless foliage of perennials to about 4 to 6 inches of the bottom. If desired, go away some seed heads or different fascinating options so as to add winter curiosity to the backyard. Rake up damp leaves round crops to stop matting, which might smother or rot your crops. Round Thanksgiving, it’s time to mulch non-hardy perennials and strawberries with a thick layer of straw and put up a snow fence to guard blueberries and tender shrubs from drying winter winds. You additionally must prop up limbs or put buildings over plantings underneath rooflines which can be more likely to be broken by the load of ice and snow.
To keep away from harm to tree trunks from mice and voles, don’t put any mulch round them as this creates a habitat for little critters. As a substitute, wrap a bit of quarter- or half-inch mesh {hardware} fabric across the trunk of the fruit tree. Make this guard two ft excessive–or extra in case you are in a snow belt. Bury it about three to 4 inches under the soil floor. When you’ve had extreme rodent harm in previous winters, a rodenticide utilized in mixture with the above practices could also be wanted. Contact your native backyard heart for info on baits and bait stations. Watch out to not put poison in containers that could be discovered by youngsters, pets, or different wildlife by chance!
Deer management is all the time difficult. Fencing is the best, albeit costly, resolution. However even a brief fence, simply 4 or 5 ft excessive, can shield most small gardens since deer don’t wish to be enclosed. Massive areas require a tall fence, eight to 10 ft excessive since deer can leap. A shorter angled fence or two brief fences a couple of ft aside typically work to confuse deer and, thus, can maintain them out. Much less efficient choices embody repellents reminiscent of sprays made out of scorching peppers, rotten eggs, or soap-like elements. Make sure that industrial merchandise are labeled for the crops you propose to spray them on. After rains or over time, these should be utilized once more to take care of repellency. With reasonable deer stress, you’ll have success hanging deodorant cleaning soap bars in threatened timber and shrubs. Go away the wrappers on, drill holes by way of the bars, and hold abundantly. The important thing to utilizing repellents is to get them in place earlier than the deer get used to feeding in an space. Take time to care now on your garden and backyard tools. Change the oil and spark plugs in your rototiller. Clear the lawnmower and have the blades sharpened. Drain the gasoline tanks or add a fixative (that is totally different from dry fuel) designed for gas-powered engines that shall be idle for lengthy durations of time. Clear and oil your backyard instruments earlier than you place them away for the season. Gentle rust will come off with metal wool and slightly elbow grease. Or fill a big pail with sand and slightly oil, then slide your backyard instruments out and in of the sand to scrub. For heavy rust, use navel jelly. As soon as instruments are clear, coat with a light-weight coating of used mineral oil. Sharpen shears and pruners. And don’t overlook the backyard hoses. They should be drained and rolled up. Then be sure to flip off the water provide to any exterior taps to stop pipes from freezing this winter.
Empty container crops, including the soil to the compost pile or backyard. Scrub and sterilize the pots earlier than storing them to be used subsequent 12 months. If in case you have a small greenhouse for beginning crops, empty it and sweep up any grime and particles. Then wash down the glass or plastic sides and roof with disinfectant. Clear pots and planting benches. Lastly, stock your provides, making an inventory of what you’ll need to purchase this winter to start out seeds for subsequent 12 months’s backyard. November can be the time to take take a look at your landscaped areas. Make notes on the place you’ll need to plant a brand new shrub or bush subsequent 12 months, or what’s getting overcrowded and would require thinning. Maybe you wish to change the border of a flower mattress or create a brand new mattress in a distinct a part of the yard. Jot it down now, so that you don’t overlook subsequent 12 months.
Tag branches (or make a psychological be aware) that can should be pruned in early spring. Take away storm-weakened branches now to stop them from falling and probably inflicting damage to the tree or an individual this winter. Different actions for November: put up chicken feeders and replenish on birdseed; make plans to attend upcoming horticultural conferences; test saved crops for spoilage; shred and stockpile fallen leaves to be used when composting meals wastes this winter.
By Dr. Leonard Perry and
Dr. Vern Grubinger
College of Vermont Extension
