Gardening This Weekend: November 28, 2019

In case you have a little time between shopping outings, let’s list things you might want to get done in your landscape and garden.

PLANT
• Pansies, violas, pinks, ornamental cabbage and kale, snapdragons and other winter annual color. Plant in well-draining beds prepared with several inches of organic matter.
• Daffodils, jonquils, narcissus and grape hyacinth bulbs. Leave tulips and Dutch hyacinths chilling in the refrigerator for at least another 10 or 15 days before planting into the garden.
• Transplant established trees and shrubs that need to be moved. Hold a ball of soil intact around their roots. Replant immediately at the same depths at which they were growing originally and prune to compensate for roots lost in the digging.

PRUNE
• Shrubs to correct erratic growth, but save major reshaping for late winter (January).
• Lawn to remove fallen leaves. Run them through the mower to shred them. Bag them and use them as mulch or in compost pile.

FERTILIZE
• Ryegrass overseedings with high-nitrogen lawn food. Apply at half the rate recommended for turf. Water into the soil deeply.
• Pansies and other winter color plants with water-soluble, high-nitrogen food each time that you water them.
• Compost pile with one cup of ammonium sulfate per cubic yard of compost each time that you turn and blend it (approximately monthly).

ON THE LOOKOUT
• Aphids congregating on tender new growth can be knocked off with hard stream of water.
• Broadleafed weeds in turf, including dandelions, clover, henbit and chickweed. Apply herbicide containing 2,4-D soon, before temperatures start to drop dramatically. Read and follow label directions carefully.
• Mistletoe should be removed from tree branches as soon as you see it, preferably while it is still young.
• Remove rose bushes (roots and all) that are infested with rose rosette virus. See details I have left archived on my website.