November - 2009

Winter was early and you're still wrapping up the yard.

Winter is already here and many of us are still trying to get our yards in order or in some case still trying to find time to plant. The pasted year has been a funny one as far as weather goes, cold one minute, colder the next then very warm for a second or two. It has played oddly with the growth rates, flowering times and seed set over much of the area. Now that's interesting, but it does not help you with winding up your native plants for the year. Here are couple of tips that may help you: 1. Don't bag your leaves. You can rake them but scatter them over you beds, or if you like compost them, instead of bagging them, this adds nutrients to your beds as well as insulation and it puts less stress on over used pickup systems and landfills. 2. Leave your dried grasses and flowers long and uncut. It lends to winter interest and helps in insulating these plants, but just as importantly it creates winter habitat and hibernation sites for all the small critters that share our yards. 3. Remember to cage some of your plants that are rabbit targets (let them eat something else). Two to three foot chicken wire fencing works best in small yards and is most cost friendly. 4. Take care of you pruning for the coming year (2010). Now that the plant is done using it to produce food it is safe to remove it without cause much harm. These are just a few tips that may help you get started, but there are loads more. We recommend that contacting a source you trust to get more ideas on low impact ways to button up you garden and yard for the year. If you are still planting remember that as long as the ground is thawed you can plant, when it freezes, stop. We hope that you plantings all grew well this past year and that our plants are preforming well for you. Hope see or hear from you next year and remember, spring plants sales are right around corner!