Things To Do in November

Design-

Jot down some notes regarding the performance and appearance of your landscape this season.  Some observations that seem obvious now, may be forgotten next spring.

Chores-

Continue raking leaves off your lawn and garden beds, so that they do not become matted down and suffocate your lawn and/or plants.  Take special care in cleaning up foliage of plants that had foliar diseases over the past growing season.  Remember that by cleaning up infected leaves and branches now, you are helping your plants next year.

In the perennial garden, cut back plants that have gone dormant.  A few plants, such as 'Autumn Joy' sedum, can be attractive in the landscape if allowed to remain uncut during the winter.  Any perennial that has a lot of foliage, or stems, that are still moist must be cut back because they are more likely to decay. If the entire plant is dry, such as with sedum, they can be left standing.

If you have not already re-mulched your gardens, do so now.  A 4" layer of mulch on top of the root zone of your plants will stabilize the soil temperature in your gardens, and help prevent frost heaving. Mulching on top of the crown of a plant will encourage rotting, so be especially careful around your perennials that are dormant.

Prune summer or fall blooming trees and shrubs after they have finished blooming. After the leaves are off your trees and shrubs it is easy to remove dead and damaged branches. Trees and shrubs can also be "shaped" by selective pruning of branches.

Fertilize your plants. Acid loving evergreens benefit from an application of organic granular slow release fertilizer such as Hollytone.  Also fertilize your deciduous trees with a slow release organic fertilizer.

If you have had your soil tested, and need to adjust the pH, now is a good time to do so.  In the Philadelphia area the soil tends to be acidic, therefore lime is used to raise the pH and make the soil more alkaline (less acidic).  The freezing and thawing of the ground will help break down lime.

Broadleaf evergreens, such as hollies, benefit from being sprayed with anti-desiccants to help protect them during the winter.  Anti-desiccants are emulsions that contain a waxy substance that helps slow transpiration, which is a process during which plants lose water.  During the winter your trees and shrubs cannot draw water from the frozen earth, but their foliage warms in the sun and transpiration takes place, which can lead to leaves drying out, since there is not water to replace that which is lost.  The anti-desiccants must be applied before the temperatures dip below freezing in order to be effective.