For yard and garden enthusiasts, Fall is the time to relax and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Erik Helland of Landscape Garden Centers, Sioux Falls says there are few simple tasks you can do now to benefit your yard and landscaping next season.
“After that first hard freeze, identify what plants you want to keep, like the grasses,” Helland said. “Grasses are the perfect plant to leave alone because you're just going to get a lot of interest in them through the fall and into the winter. Some things that you can cut back would be your daylilies and your hostas - things like that. But remember, dogwood, viburnum, hydrangea. Things that have some type of ornamental value. After the first hard freeze is a great time to be spraying. You're doing a final spray for all your weeds. That way your dandelions won't come up next year.”
Helland suggests cutting your lawn a little shorter than usual and watering all your plants.
“Make sure to water, water, water, water all your trees, and water all your plants before you put that garden hose away. That's very, very important that the trees and shrubs and plants and perennials go into the winter with some type of moisture around the root system. If we don't do that, they start to desiccate or dry out, and then it just becomes a struggle for those plants and trees and shrubs and stuff to start up next year and have the same type of foliage that they had this year. One thing to remember is, if you did plant any new perennials or new shrubs, leave some leaves or mulch up around the base of them. That'll help protect them from the really deep cold. Any hybrid tea roses, you got to cover those up, with leaves or some type of mulch organic matter. That'll help keep them insulated. Basically, when we insulate something it keeps a consistent temp for a longer period. And the water and the moisture helps to keep it hydrated throughout the winter.”
Helland says you can trim some shrubs this fall but don’t trim lilacs and forsythia. Trimming dogwood, Diablo Ninebark, and Spiraea is ok in the Fall.