Winter stuff

[Botany]

1 Make sure to run dry or drain any gas you have in gas powered equipment

2 In certain climates leaves that are left on turf will kill the turf ..... a mulching
mower or raking the leaves off the lawn works just fine

3 cut back perennials to 4 - 6" the dead matter on top helps to "wick water" from
the roots and you will have less crown rot.

4. non native invasive plants show up big time right now. Norway Maple yellow leaves,
burning bush red, privet purple, bush honeysuckle green to yellow, Callery Pear purple to
red, and barberry red to grey red ..... cut at ground level and paint the stump w/round up.

5. Epic Tomatoes is a good read.

6. Plan to plant some native plants next year.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. .

Thanks!

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. I've got to admit... I deliberately planted some burning bush.

Just love those Autumn colours. I have three with a couple of purple leaved sandsomethingorothers in between.

The garlic is off to a good start, but with all of the squirrels digging around, I suspect most of it is now just barely below the surface, so I'll be sure and put some straw over and around, and I keep meaning to get a large sheet of clear or mostly clear plastic to drape over the surrounding 'corral' I've got around it to keep dogs out.

I'm excited that in only a few more months the apple tree I bought last year will arrive, having spent the last year strengthening up from being grafted. Roter Stettiner, a variety in cultivation in Germany since the late 1500s. It will replace a sour cherry that broke in wind sheer remnants from hurricane Ike back in 07-08, giving me a row of three apple trees along the back (south) fence of the property.

[Botany]

3. If you like the environment kill the burning bush

Last edited Sun Nov 29, 2015, 10:31 AM - Edit history (1)

There are lots of other native shrubs* that will give good fall and winter color that
aren't invasive like the burning bush. Birds eat the fruits and then disperse them
in their crap all over the place including forests and meadows where they become
real pests because they block the sunlight from hitting the forest floor because they
come out in leaf early, our native insects can not use their leaves for food**, song
birds that would normally nest 20 feet + up in trees build their nests in burning bush,
privet, honeysuckle, and so on and their eggs/young become easy picking to raccoons,
possums, and feral cats, and burning bush can choke out native plants too.


* Red Chokeberry, American Wahoo (a native burning bush), black chokeberry,
black haw viburnum, possum haw viburnum, arrow wood viburnum, winterberry
holly (likes wet feet), alternate leaf dogwood, and or red twig dogwood are nice
alternatives. But plant something that is native to where you live.

** It is very important that are native insects eat some of the leaf tissue of our native
plants because they are then harvesting solar energy which powers our ecosystem.



burning bush growing "wild" in a forest in New England .... planted by birds.

BTW your other plant might be purple leaf plum or purple leaf sand cherry