Over the past week, I have talked to many people who are having problems with their arborvitaes. The shrubs are turning yellow on the inside of the branches. After the needles yellow, they drop onto the ground. In most cases, this is a normal part of the fall season.
All of your needled evergreens tend to drop needles all season long. In the fall, they tend to drop many more. It is nature's way of thinning out the branches so there are less needles to deal with dry winds and get covered with heavy snows. If you take a look in your yard, you will notice that the white pine trees are also dropping many needles. Hopefully, this is not Mother Nature's way of telling us we are in for a snowy winter.
Here are some other things to be thinking about:
If you seeded your lawn this fall, you will probably need to apply a crabgrass preventer in the spring. Keep in mind that any lawn seeded in the fall needs a spring seeding of crabgrass control rather than the normal Step 1 crabgrass control. You will damage the grass if you have seeded in the fall and use a Step 1 in the spring.
We have seen an increase in the number of cases of grubs destroying lawns. You probably should apply either an organic grub control or a contact insecticide to control grubs in your lawn.
Get those leaves raked up as soon as possible after they fall off the trees. Leaves left on the lawn for long periods of time can cause grass to die out. It is better to spend a little time each weekend removing leaves rather than devoting an entire weekend to the chore.
If you have a corner of your yard that you can pile up those leaves, you can turn them into a nice compost by spring with some compost activator. What you want to do is create a 6-inch deep pile of leaves. Sprinkle some lime in the pile and then add some of the compost activator. Add another 6-inch layer of leaves, then more lime and compost activator. The 6-inch layers allow the compost activator to speed up the decomposition of the leaves. By spring, you should have some nice compost to add to your gardens.
Once you get your annual and perennial flower beds cleaned up, take some time to plant a few of the spring flowering bulbs. Nothing says spring like having some crocus and daffodils blooming in your gardens.
Well, that's all for this week. I'll talk to you again next week.
¢¢¢
Tim Lamprey is the owner of Harbor Garden Center on Route 1 in Salisbury. His Web site is www.Harborgardens.com. Do you have questions for Tim? Send them to ndn@newburyportnews.com, and he will answer them in upcoming columns.
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