Fall Landscape Care

Ah, autumn! I assume your leaves are mostly raked, you've already brought in summer bulbs, and now you're looking at the last few tasks of the post-growing season. Hopefully, your mums and asters were beautiful 'til their end. The last color before winter sets in is pansies and colorful kale and cabbage. The nice part of fall tasks is that they needn't cause you to miss any football. There's plenty of time to spread out the work.

You should concentrate this year, in particular, on root recovery. Plants suffered through a very wet spring and summer. We need to do what we can to encourage late fall root growth. There's actually nothing we can do to "make" roots grow, but we can establish conditions most conducive to their growth.

If you're behind on your leaf raking, it may have to take a back seat to the other tasks I'm about to mention: fertilizing, watering (if necessary) and mulching. All of these tasks are essential to root recovery and growth next year.

Fertilizing especially is desperately needed this year. Now that November 15 is past, you should add nutrients high in nitrogen - maybe a 30-10-10, or 12-4-4 fertilizer. Remember with fertilizers that the first number is generally the nitrogen content, the second number is potassium and the third number is phosphorus or potash.

Older, well-established plants need fertilizer, maybe even more than younger trees and shrubs. Older trees can't take abuse as easily as younger trees. In that respect, they're not unlike people - it's much easier to bounce back from a late night out when you are in your 20s than later in life.

Water thoroughly before you fertilize and again after you fertilize. Then mulch the beds, after Thanksgiving, to retain the moisture as much as possible. I know it's tempting to put the hoses away this time of the year, but although the top growth on the plants has stopped, the roots are still growing and will continue to grow for four to six more weeks. That's one of the reasons that fall is such a good time to plant trees and shrubs. Roots can take hold in the autumn while there's no top growth to support.

In addition, water acts as an insulator. By keeping plants well irrigated, you can prevent much of the damage caused by rapid and deep freezing and thawing cycles.

As another consideration, older trees have extra distance that the water must travel through the root zone, up the trunk and out the branches. Using a soaker hose, you can water new trees in about 15 to 45 minutes, but older trees should be watered up to several hours every three to four weeks even at this time of year. Place the hose around the drip line of the tree and really give it a good soaking. Continue watering until the ground freezes solid.

As long as you've taken care of root recovery and growth, the other fall project you might consider is bed preparation for spring growth. If you add compost to your garden and flowerbeds now and spade it under you'll be ready to work earlier next spring. We've had several wet springs consecutively and it's hard to have to wait until the ground dries to work the soil. If you add nutrients and organic material now and work them in, the ground will be ready for planting as soon as you are.

Your established plants will be on the way to recovery, and your garden and beds will be prepared for the new growing season as well.