Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Time to get busy for a beautiful Spring!

Seems like an odd time of the year to be thinking of spring flowers, but this is actually the perfect time to tend to things.

This is the time of the year to plan for a lush lawn in the coming season.  Aerating and adding fertilizer will be a big help for next year.  The plugs you remove now will break down and the lawn will get deeper roots and a better start with the winter fertilizer.  Here in the south, we add lime to the lawn about 2 weeks before the fertilizer.  It is also so important to get all of the leaves up so the grass does not smother.

This is also the time that I tend to my schrubs.  I use Hollytone on all of my acid loving schrubs in March and September. 

When the leaves are off the trees, look at the structure and decide where to prune.
I find there are several reasons I might want to do some pruning.  Possibly I want to lift the limbs, cut some out of the center for better air flow and more interesting structure,
or for larger blooms and health of the tree.

And of course, there are the bulbs to plant...daffodils, tulips, crocus.  These early bloomers, along with the forsythia and heleboros are such welcome harbingers of spring!