25 things you still need to get done in your North Texas landscape
Just when you thought you’d lean back and watch football this weekend, here comes Neil with his longest lawn-dry list ever of things you need to get done before much more time passes. I’ll be merciful, though. Not all will apply to your place. Scroll through to see which do fit your landscape and garden.
• Fall landscaping. Plants look great, and nurseries have sales going on. Planting now gives shrubs and trees maximum time to get ready for next summer.
• Buy your spring bulbs now. Daffodils and grape hyacinths can be planted whenever the beds are available. Tulips and Dutch hyacinths need to be “pre-chilled,” that is, put into the refrigerator for 45 or more days at 45 degrees, then planted between Dec. 20-31.
• Perennial gardens should be deadheaded to remove spent flower stalks and seedheads, also dead leaves. Later, after first frost, you’ll cut all the dead stems back near the ground.
• Spring-flowering perennials that have become crowded should be dug and divided this month.
• Check rose plants for signs of the incurable rose rosette virus. Infected plants will be stunted. Buds will fail to open properly, and some of the canes will have multitudes of thorns. Dig and destroy diseased plants, roots and all. Send them to the landfill in heavy trash bags.
• Remove dead and damaged branches from trees and shrubs before they start losing leaves from their healthy limbs.
• You can do light trimming to remove erratic branches from shrubs and groundcovers, but save major pruning for late January or early February.
• Begin to plant pansies, pinks, snapdragons, ornamental cabbage and kale, and other winter color plants as temperatures cool.
• Take cuttings of warm-season annuals you hope to save through the winter. It’s best to confine this only to those types that are hardest to replace in the spring.
• Water your lawn and landscape deeply occasionally to help plants survive the ongoing drought.
• To conserve water and reduce weed populations, spread a layer of mulch beneath your shrubs and around your perennials. Organic mulches work best because they will improve the soils as they decay.
• Keep mowing at the same height you have used all summer. Letting the grass grow taller does not improve its winter hardiness.
• If you intend to overseed your turf with ryegrass for winter, do so in the next week or two. Water thoroughly to get the rye off to a good start. After that, it should thrive on the normal watering schedule you have for your warm-season grass.
• Keep tree leaves picked up off your lawn. Run them through the mower. Bag the shredded leaves and put them into a compost pile. They’ll be great mixed in with garden soil or applied as a mulch on top of the ground.
• If you don’t have a compost pile, start one now. Put it in a spot that will receive sun in the winter. Alternate 4-inch layers of shredded organic matter with 1 inch of topsoil or finished compost. Keep the pile moist and warm at all times. Turn it every month and it should be ready within six to eight months.
• Watch for brown patch fungus in St. Augustine and zoysia lawns. (University plant pathologists are now calling it “large patch.”) It will become visible when the weather turns cooler and wet. (It eventually will!) Grass will yellow, then turn brown in 24-inch circles. Blades will pull loose easily from the runners. You’ll see where the blades have rotted. Apply Azoxystrobin turf fungicide to stop it. Do not water in the evenings as that will help the disease spread.
• As you see seedlings of dandelions, clover, henbit, chickweed and other non-grassy weeds starting to grow, spray them with a broadleafed weedkiller. It will make quick work of them so that you won’t have to look at them in the spring.
• If you have parts of your yard where you’d like to have a flower or vegetable garden come spring, mark it off now, then carefully spray it with a glyphosate-only herbicide. That type of weedkiller controls all grasses without contaminating the soil. It will be ready for rototilling by January.
• As you prepare to bring your tropical plants back indoors for the winter, cut back on the fertilizer you give them under dark indoor conditions. This is also a good time to prune and reshape them so they don’t take up so much room in your living surroundings.
• Check your patio plants and hanging baskets for insect pests if you intend to bring them into your house or greenhouse for the winter. It’s easier to control pests while the plants are still outdoors. Check their drain holes, too. They’re safe harbors where pests often hide.
• If you have a greenhouse, check its heater to be sure it’s working properly. Inspect the covering to look for damage. Polyethylene plastic probably won’t last through a second winter unless it’s UV-resistant.
• If you don’t have a greenhouse, consider getting one. You have time before the first frost. Average date of the first freeze in Fort Worth/Dallas is November 20-ish, but in suburbs, it can happen much earlier.
• Buy and cut frost cloth to fit over beds you intend to protect during the winter’s worst cold spells. Allow ample width so it can be secured to the ground and held in place with stones or bricks. It will gain you 8- to 9 degrees of protection, and it can be left in place for several weeks if necessary. It can be used for several years.
• Have your soil tested now so you’ll be ready to grow come springtime. The Texas A&M Soil Testing Laboratory gets swamped in the spring. Wise gardeners test early. All the instructions and mailing information are available online.
• If you’re trying to reflower last year’s poinsettia, give it total and uninterrupted darkness for 14 hours each night starting immediately. The hormone that triggers flowering is destroyed by light. Even a few minutes’ exposure can delay it.