Fruit trees - wrap it up - your fruit trees will benefit from a plastic spiral wrap on the trunk to protect them from hungry rodents this summer. Especially younger fruit trees can die easily of girdling if a mouse starts gnawing to get at those sugars under the thin bark.

Evergreens - also wrap it up - with two layers of burlap. One layer to protect against sunscald, and another to protect against wind. If you're a gambler you can try your chances with mature plants in protected locations, but if you're looking at younger evergreens - especially juniper and cedar - in windy, salty environments, it's not a bet we would advise you to take.

Broadleaved evergreens - hit 'em with Wilt-pruf to prevent winter desiccation. Apply to your rhododendrons, holly and boxwood when temperatures are above freezing.

Garlic - plant it! If you haven't already. This is by far one of the most rewarding crops, the grocery store stuff just doesn't stack up.

Dig dahlias. Sure, it seems like a lot of work - but it's worth it. Very few flowers put on such a spectacular show for such a long time, so resist the urge to just let them rot away in the soil. Dig up those tubers, let them dry in the sun for a couple of days, then pop them in a paper yard bag with shredded newspaper or peat moss in a cool, dry place. Put a reminder on your calendar for March to plant them up again for next year's performance.

Leave your fall flowering ornamental grasses, coneflower, rudbeckia and all of the autumn flowering plants that produce a seed head. This provides habitat and forage for over-wintering birds, not to mention winter interest in the garden.

Spare yourself the yard bags and rake your leaves right into the garden, or into your compost pile. There is a lot of nutrients there that can be taken up by the soil if you just let them decompose. If you want to accelerate the decomposition, you can hit them once with the mulching mower before raking them off the lawn.

Harvest. Many veggies taste best after some frost. We just pulled up our first leeks this week in our zone 5 garden. Swiss chard, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and the like are ready for harvest. Carrots are sweetest now: dig what is left in your garden and store them in buckets of dry sand in your garage.

Winterize your roses. Hybrid teas, floribundas, grandifloras and miniatures all need to be mounded up with fresh triple mix or garden soil about 60 to 80 cm high. A rose collar helps to mound the soil high enough to do the job very well. 

No need to mound winter hardy shrub roses and climbers that are planted next to the wall of your home. Climbers growing against a fence should be mounded to be on the safe side. Leave this job until hard frost has hit the ground and before it pushes deep.

Amaryllis kits are available now from the Huntington Society of Canada. We buy a couple of cases each year and enjoy handing them out throughout the holiday season. A wonderful gift for less than $20 each.

2024 Amaryllis Campaign2024 Amaryllis Campaign