Fall Care for Perennials

Fall Care for Perennials

Fall Care for Perennials

By fall, most perennials are through blooming, and by then you might be ready to throw in the towel, but there are still a few things you need to do to ensure that your perennials survive the winter. After a season of enjoying the blooms from your perennial flower garden, late fall is a time in cold-winter regions to put in order the beds for winter. Taking good care of beds in fall will help them thrive next spring and summer.

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Fall Care for Perennials

Water less. Plants need to naturally get ready for winter by hardening off (becoming accustomed to colder temperatures). You can help by cutting back on the amount of water you give them, but don't let them fully dry out.

Fall Care for Perennials

Fall Care for Perennials

But water more. In dry-winter areas that don't ice or have much snow, water perennials once a month on a sunny, warm day to keep them alive and healthy.

Dig them. After the first frost has killed back the foliage, dig and store tender perennial bulbs such as dahlias and gladiolus that can't survive the winter in the ground in a cold climate.

Cut them back. On perennials that have concluded for the season, cut back stems to 6 to 8 inches from the ground. Compost the foliage as long as it's not diseased.

Feed them. Fall is a good time to feed perennials by working in a 4- to 6-inch-thick layer of compost around the beds.

Mulch them. After the ground freezes, remove old mulch and replace it with hay, evergreen boughs, or floating row covers. This extra layer protects tender perennials and helps catch and hold snow, which will also insulate the bed.

In cold-winter areas, stop fertilizing perennials by midsummer to encourage them to slow their growth and dehydrate off for winter. In warm-winter areas, fall is a good time to plant perennials. However, in winter check for signs of disease, especially during wet periods, since the plants are growing moderately and conditions are right for rotting to occur.

And no - you do not have to find space indoors for all these heavy plants. You can; of course, over winter cannas that have been grown in pots by naturally bringing them inside and letting them continue the show. It's easy. All you need is some peat moss and a few paper bags, plus a cool, dry place to store the bulbs. Do not use plastic bags, as moisture can build up in them leading to rot. Some people save the string bags that onions and potatoes come in and use those to encourage a good airflow around the plants. You must, of course, be willing to do a bit of digging - but it's a small price to pay for recovery and addition these gorgeous plants.

Cannas, Calla lilies and Caladium, Dahlias and many other tender perennials that grow from bulbs, corms or rhizomes are quite easy to over winter. Just enjoy them until that first big frost hits. You will emerge the morning after to find a shriveled and blackened looking mess - but take heart. Cut off that sad-looking foliage leaving only an inch of stem above ground.

Then dig up the rhizomes that they are attached to. Use a digging fork and work your way thought about below the bulb being particular not to nick it - nicks and scrapes supply a inherent entry for rot and infection. If you do happen to scrape something, make sure you leave that particular corm or tuber out to dry and form a protective scab. Some growers advise dusting the wound with a cleanser.

You can leave the dirt right on them unless you are an excessively tidy soul. In that case, at least wait until it has dried and can be authentically shaken off. Then you can naturally toss them into a paper bag at this point and stow them away in the cool but frost-free basement until spring. If using old grocery bags, it is perhaps more prudent to add some very slightly damp peat moss to the bag so that the plants won't dry out. This is obviously not practical with string bags and other perforated containers.

Now put them in a frost free, cool but not too damp place to spend their winter. An ideal warehouse place is one that maintains temperatures of in the middle of 50 and 60 degrees F.

Check them every month to make sure that they are not drying out too much. If so, moisten the peat moss just the tiniest bit or exchange those in string bags to a holder with slightly dampened peat moss. You should not be able to wring the peat moss out and see whatever drip from it - only to be able to sense that there is a trace of moisture there.

If you see that any of them have begun to rot or decay in any way, discard those so that they don't infect the remaining plants.

In spring all you have to do is open the bags, shake out the plants-to-be, wash away the excess soil and plant. Cut back most perennials to about 3 inches from the ground. Any closer may damage crowns. remove debris from the garden to help forestall diseases. Wait until spring to cut back some species, together with European ginger, bishop's hat, ferns, Lenten rose, attractive grasses, and upright sedums. In addition to adding winter interest, some perennials over winter better if left uncut. If the growing season has been dry, water deeply in fall before the ground freezes.

Basic upkeep and care of your perennials will promote healthiness and yield better results. With some basic upkeep and care, your perennials will yield gorgeous blooms and keep your garden looking gorgeous over many seasons and many years.

Fall Care for Perennials

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How to Get Rid of Squirrels naturally

This is what some citizen want. They don't want the critters but they don't want to harm them either. They want to get rid of them naturally. If that is the case, here are a few suggestions:

How to Get Rid of Squirrels naturally

Repellants - Squirrels have natural enemies with one of them being the fox. Because of this, many manufacturers make repellants from fox urine or something very similar smelling. Other manufacturers  have other products made to repel the pesty small critters.

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How to Get Rid of Squirrels naturally

If you want to try something that you can get at  your local grocery store, try moth balls. This is a quick, uncomplicated and cheap method.

How to Get Rid of Squirrels naturally

How to Get Rid of Squirrels naturally

If you were to hunt the net, you would read many many instances of citizen using moth balls to keep the squirrels away. Back a hundred (or two) years ago, moth balls were very popular. However, as mentioned above the use of moth balls is 'dissed' by many as being totally worthless. Only by trying will you know for sure.

You can try using a repellant like chili peppers. Buy the hottest you can find.  Habaneras and cascabellas may even work. Just buy the peppers, grind them up and stick them in your flower pots or around your garden. Squirrels don't like hot stuff.

One thing to remember though with squirrel propellants (or any animal propellant)  is that after a heavy rain they will be diluted or washed away, thus necessitating a re-application.

To keep them out of your bird feeder, you can buy special bird feeders that tilt or spin when something heavy, like a squirrel, sits on it (as opposed to a bird). Or, baffles can also be placed on the pole so they can't climb up it.

You can feed the birds something that squirrels don't like. It is said that squirrels don't like safflower seeds because they are too bitter. So, fill your bird feeder with safflower seeds (which is already usually quite tasteless in bird feed) The birds will still come and dine but hopefully your squirrels won't.

You can also try to keep them away from inescapable areas by creating a special feeding area for the squirrels. This could be one of those stands with a cob of corn on - like you must have seen, or packaging full of nuts, berries corn or sunflower seeds. Just make sure this 'squirrel feeding area' is far from your garden, house or anything else you are trying to keep them from.

If you need to get them out of your attic, you use a strobe light. There are some manufacturers who specialize in this definite goods for getting rid of squirrels and other animals who may be inhabiting places they shouldn't be. They are quiet, humane and simple on your part. (but they may not be cheap)

After they leave, just make sure you conclude how they got in and board it up so they don't return.

Lastly, you can use a "live trap" to get rid of squirrels. A "live trap" is where you catch them safely in a cage and then take them somewhere to publish them.

Depending on how quick you want to get rid of the squirrels you can place the trap out in the yard (or wherever) and prop the door open such that it can't shut and trap the squirrel. By doing this you are giving the squirrels the opportunity to get used to the cage without being afraid of it.

Then after they have been exposed to it for a while, put some nice bait in it (like peanut butter) and you'll probably have your pest trapped within a short period of time.

You have just read a few methods to get rid of squirrels naturally. None of them are inhumane or will hurt the squirrel. You just have to give one or two a try and see how they work. Some of them are indeed not that expensive to try so you don't have much to lose, but much caress to gain.

How to Get Rid of Squirrels naturally

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