Shrubs and Trees

• November is an ideal time to plant or transplant trees, shrubs and fruit crops. Be sure to water thoroughly, then mulch newly planted plants with a good 3- to 4-inch layer of mulch. Newly planted evergreens should be checked regularly during the winter to ensure they are getting enough water.
• Mulch existing trees and shrubs to reduce weeds, provide insulation from freezing temperatures and conserve moisture.

Perennials, Annuals and Bulbs

• Reduce peony botrytis blight and hollyhock rust by removing and disposing of all leaves and stems this fall. Roses should have all their leaves raked from beneath to prevent black spot. Dispose of plant materials in the trash, not the compost pile. This will reduce the carryover of disease during the winter and you will have less trouble next year.
• Cut chrysanthemum and other perennials’ stems close to the ground once they have begun to die back. Leave ornamental grasses to provide winter interest until spring.
• You can continue to transplant perennials throughout the fall and winter unless they are marginally hardly in your zone. Those marginal plants are best planted in spring. Now is also an ideal time to plant spring-flowering bulbs. Consider planting some of the minor bulbs such as winter aconite, glory of the snow, species tulips, crocus, narcissus and grape hyacinths.
• Winter annuals such as pansies, violas, Dianthus chinensis, red mustard, snapdragons, ornamental cabbage and kale can still be planted – the earlier in the month, the better.
• Mulch flower beds with 2 to 3 inches of good compost or fine mulch to keep soil temperature stable and prevent winter plant injury from frost heaving. As the compost or fine mulch decomposes, it will enrich your garden soil as well.

Lawn Care

• It’s not too late to fertilize your cool-season fescue lawn. Use a turf fertilizer and follow label directions. This encourages good root development and helps improve the color of the lawn.

• Keep heavy layers of leaves raked from the lawn. They should be composted. Another option is to mow over a light layer of leaves, turning them into mulch, which adds important nutrients back to the lawn.
• November is the month for the first herbicide application for wild garlic and wild onion. Ask your county UT Extension office for information on herbicides and rates of application.

Fruits and Vegetables

• As soon as leaves fall from fruit trees and berry plants, spray for the first time with a dormant horticultural oil. This helps control overwintering insects and disease. Apply according to label instructions.
• Incorporate compost in the annual and vegetable gardens for next growing season.
• Complete removal of fallen leaves and debris to help eliminate overwintering insects and disease organisms.
• Cut the tops off asparagus plants and mulch with a good layer of compost.
• Cover strawberries 2 inches deep with hay or straw to reduce weeds and increase winter protection.
• Secure raspberry and blackberry canes to stakes to protect them from wind whipping.

Davis Kee Outdoor offers professional landcape services all year-round to ensure your yard is beautiful and vibrant in the spring. Contact us today!

Source: University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Office

Bonus Tip: Pair annual flowers with ornamental grasses for a spectacular effect. The blooms of the annuals contrast nicely with the dramatic, airy seed heads of ornamental grasses.

Punch Up The Color with Mums and Pansies!
Instant impact! That’s what you’ll get when you add ready-to-bloom chrysanthemums and pansies to beds, borders, and containers. These easy-care plants relish cool weather and provide an injection of color in your September garden. Look for stocky plants that are still in bud so that you can enjoy them longer. Blooming plants are great if you need color for a same-day event, but they’re further into their bloom cycle and won’t last as long as budded specimens.

Bonus Tip: Chrysanthemums are available in two basic types: florist and garden. Florist mums make wonderful gifts, but do not do well outside. For landscape use, look for garden mums.

Improve Your Soil With Amendments
Fall is a great time to improve the soil in your September garden. After you remove dead and dying vegetables and flowers, spread a 2- to 3-inch-deep layer of rotted manure or compost over the surface of the soil. Spade or rototill it into the top several inches of soil and rake smooth. If the area had been mulched previously, just spread the soil amendments over the mulch and then rototill everything at the same time. In smaller beds, use a garden fork to turn the soil. If you want to protect your soil from wind erosion during the winter, sow a cover crop of annual rye grass now in September. It grows quickly and keeps the soil in place until spring. By then, the grass will be dead and you can turn it under to add an extra dose of nitrogen to your soil.

Bonus Tip: If you have a source of fresh horse or chicken manure, spread it directly over your garden in early fall. Winter snows and rains help break it down so its high nitrogen content won’t burn your crops in the spring. At other times of the year, fresh manure needs to be properly composted before applying.

Plant Spring-Flowering Bulbs
Enjoy a bounty of bloom in your garden next year by planting spring-flowering bulbs now. Tulips, daffodils, crocus, hyacinths, and other early-bird bloomers can be massed in beds by themselves or tucked in between established perennials and shrubs. Planting bulbs is easy: Just dig individual holes (8 inches deep for large bulbs like daffodils, 4 inches deep for smaller bulbs such as crocus), drop the bulb in, and cover with soil. Or, dig one large hole and toss in a dozen or more bulbs.  Planted this way, they’ll pop up in one impressive drift of color.

Bonus Tip: Select a variety of bulbs that bloom at different times to ensure color from early spring through to early summer. Some species, such as snowdrops, bloom as early as February, while late bloomers such as alliums flower in early June.

Clean Up Herb & Vegetable Gardens
The best way to prevent insects and diseases from affecting your vegetable garden next year is to clean it up this fall. Always remove rotting fruit, diseased foliage, or dead vines as soon as they appear. This is especially true with crops such as tomatoes, potatoes, melons, and squash. Pests and diseases love to overwinter on these vegetables if they are left in the garden to rot. Compost your garden refuse as soon as possible and, if your crops have been ill over the summer, consider burning the remains or bagging them for garbage pick-up.

Bonus Tip:  Make sure any leaves or tendrils are cleaned off tomato cages and supports before you store them for the winter. It only takes one insect egg case or spore clinging to the support to cause problems in your garden next spring.

Bring Tender Houseplants Indoors
If you haven’t done so already, bring vacationing houseplants indoors before frost. Give each plant a cleansing spray from the garden hose, then inspect them closely for insect hitchhikers hiding in the foliage. Wipe the pots clean to remove any soil that may have splashed up on them during the summer. Let them dry and then carry them into the house placing them on saucers to protect your floors from runoff. Some plants may also have put on a lot of new growth over the summer and will require a bit of pruning to shape them up before you bring them inside.

Bonus Tip: To prevent unexpected soil pests from moving indoors, sink each pot in a bucket of water for a few hours before bringing the plant indoors. This process drowns or uncovers any slugs, snails, worms, or beetles hiding below the surface of the soil.

Enhance your Landscape With Trees & Shrubs
September is an ideal time to add shrubs and trees to your landscape. Hydrangeas, roses, and other flowering shrubs and trees flourish during the cool, moist fall weather. Just be sure to do a little research before you add any plants to your landscape: Look for varieties that are hardy in your climate and won’t grow too large for the space you have. And always remember that even the smallest sapling will eventually grow into a tree that could swallow your home if planted too close.

Bonus Tip: Improve winter survival of trees and shrubs by watering them deeply right up until hard frost.  The soil should be moist before it freezes solid.

Improve Your Lawn With Some Maintenance
Give your lawn some attention this month. Most cool-season lawns benefit from dethatching, aeration, and fertilization. You can also seed or sod new lawns at this time or fix bare spots in older lawns. It’s also the season to control perennial weeds such as clover and dandelion. In the fall, these weeds prepare for winter by pulling nutrients and starches from their leaves into their roots. When you apply a lawn herbicide in the fall, the plants will also draw the chemical into their roots and die. Southern grasses such as bahia, Bermudagrass, zoysia, and St. Augustine can also be fertilized this month. Choose a fertilizer that contains controlled-release nitrogen that will feed the turf as it needs it.

Bonus Tip: There’s no need to purchase lawn tools such as aerators, dethatchers, or rototillers: They are all available to rent at your local home improvement store.

Dry Flowers For Winter Enjoyment
Savor the colors of your September garden all winter long by creating dried bouquets of your favorite flowers. Strawflower, globe amaranth, celosia, sedum, statice, yarrow, and artemisia are just a few examples of flowers that are easy to dry and preserve beautifully for winter bouquets. Just cut the blooms (leaving as long a stem as possible) in the morning after the dew evaporates. Bundle them, and hang them upside down in a dry, well-ventilated, dark location. After a week or two they can be taken down and mixed together to create everlasting bouquets or wreaths.

Bonus Tip: Use a piece of foam core at the bottom of your vase to keep dried flowers in place. Just stick each stem into the foam base for stability.

Engage With a Child
Now that school is back in session, engage the budding scientist in your life with a terrarium project. Terrariums are fun and allow children to create a miniature world all their own. Plus, kids learn valuable lessons about how soil, plants, water, and air interact in a perfect environment. They can even choose between a jungle or desert themes.
Jungle-theme terrariums can include plants such as peperomia, pilea, fern, nerve plant, selaginella, begonia, philodendron, and saxifrage. In a desert garden, try mammillaria, echeveria, sempervivum, portulacaria, crassula, kalanchoe, sedum, and haworthia.

Bonus Tip: Any glass container can be transformed into a jungle terrarium. Avoid the urge to water too frequently: Misting your plants once a day provides needed humidity without flooding the container. Dish gardens planted with desert plants should only be lightly watered once or twice a month.