You just thought you were done with gardening chores come
November. But there’s still work to be done and the neighbor’s
oak trees have just started to lose their leaves.
Weekend garden warriors need to grab their gloves and get busy.
It’s first Friday and another list of chores from the Gnome. You
know who to thank _ Richmond County Extension Agent Sid
Mullis who has provided Augusta area gardeners with the perfect
and free booklet “Gardening Calendar,” and a couple of books
I’ve purchased which always come in handy, “Month-By-Month
Gardening in Georgia” and “Georgia Gardener’s Guide,” both by
Walter Reeves and Erica Glasener.
You can still plant those pansies and other winter bloomers.
Give them some fertilizer that is specially formulated for winter
bloomers. If you’re still planting later in the month, you will need
to buy bigger plants to ensure they can make it through the
winter. I’m a six-pack kind of Gnome, but if there’s need for
replacements by the end of the month, even I will pay more for
the larger plants.
If you haven’t yet dug up your Caladiums do so soon. Leave
them out to dry, shake off the loose dirt and store in a fairly warm
location. Ditto that with your sweet potato vines.
Plant spring bulbs and fertilize bulbs, too. I’m a little nervous
about fertilizing my established daffodils considering the fact that
most of them are already several inches tall, but you can fertilizer
established bulbs, too. (allegedly.) If anyone knows who has snow
drops for sale, please shoot me an email. I’m in love with them
and must have some.
There’s still time to divide perennials. Don’t be afraid like I used
to be. It’s good for plants to have breathing room. I noticed a very
over-grown batch of coreopsis this past weekend that I thinned
out and added flowers to my new garden area. I added some
creeping phlox along the brick wall the other week in hope that
one day we’ll have pink blooms spilling over the wall and
looking incredible.
Hopefully your winter garden is coming along nicely by now. I
scored some winter Chinese cabbage and a couple of different
greens from Bedford Greenhouses the other weekend. I lost a
weekend of planting opportunity because of feeling poorly, but I
finally got everyone planted in the raised bed this past
weekend.
If you’re not going to do winter vegetables, clean out all weeds
and dead plants _ this will deny some bad bugs a place to make
camp over the winter.
It’s a good time to clean tools and pots. A solution of bleach
and water mixed 1 to 10 will clean and disinfect. If you have
leftover potting soil in your pots, just add to your beds or garden
area.
Leave the lawn alone, unless you simply must mow again
because you’re that kind of grass-obsessed guy. It is a good way to
chop up the dead leaves at the same time. No fertilizing unless
you have over-seeded the law with cool season grass. But you
can hit those annoying wild onions and other winter weeds with
an herbicide.
It is a great time to plant shrubs and trees. My better half is in
the midst of a Gnome inspired project to change the look of our
back door. Since we moved in, two huge nandinas forests have
crowded the back porch and encroached on a flower bed. I have a
chase tree, and two patio trees to take their place. I predict it will
be fabulous, but the nandinas are proving extraordinary difficult.
As I’ve said before, one woman’s weed is another’s flower. I
realize the former owners probably lovingly planted them. I’m
trying to honor that love by transplanting the smaller ones, but the
big ones are going to compost. Don’t get me wrong, I do like
nandinas and have many in the surrounding landscape. I just don’t
want to feel like I’m hacking through jungle every time I come
home.
Oh, and just in case you thought I wouldn’t mention it, get the
rake and get busy.
