Plant shrubs and trees.
4 5
6 Clean bird baths. Below: dig up weedy plants.
Dig up weedy plants or treat them with herbicide. Peren- nials, and this includes weeds, are at their weakest right now as they are shutting down for the winter. This is a good time to
attack weeds by digging up their roots or going after them with a weed killer. Pull out unwanted goutweed for example or dig back groundcovers that may be getting out of hand.
Band trees to deter wingless female insects from laying eggs in the crown. A strategy originally employed to battle Dutch elm beetles (this is no longer recognized as a valid pre- vention for these flying beetles) can be a helpful defence against
other wingless female insects such as canker (inch) worms to keep them from climbing trees to lay their eggs in fall and in spring. Band in fall and renew the sticky component of the bands in spring. (See side bar on how to band.)
Plant garlic. Garlic needs a cold period, so fall is the time to plant the bulbs. (If you are growing from seed, you can plant the bulbils in spring, but you will have to wait a year for a crop.) Decide whether you want a hardnecked or soft necked vari-
ety and buy your seed from a local garden centre. The store bought type is usually from China and may not be hardy here. Plant garlic about mid-October. Separate the individual
cloves being sure to retain a bit of the basal plate on each one. Plant the biggest, healthiest cloves you can about two to three inches beneath the soil with the basal plate pointing downward and the pointy end upward. Garlic is marginal in lower than zone 4 so you may want to mulch if you think this will be a year with low snow cover.
Clean up.
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Beautiful Gardens 2012 • 23
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