January Landscape Tips
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| Winter Time !! Not a lot going on in the Landscape this time of year. Just a few things to think about. Try to keep any tender plants from freezing during periods of long hard freezes if your in the Transition zone. Here in Northwest Tennessee we can have some plants that are bordering on being too far north. They will grow alright here as long as we protect them in the winter from any hard freezes where it gets down to 20 or below for a day or two. If it gets colder than this or stays that cold for very long your marginal plants will most likely be killed. To protect these plants cover them with plastic or any material to keep the wind from blowing constantly on them, and anything that you can put on top of perennials and bulbs and such for insulation will help also. We use everything from mulch to actual insulation, straw and anything we can find. If you have something like Banana trees or something in a pot you can put them in the basement, under the house or anywhere to keep them out of the severe weather. Sometimes it doesn't take too much to save a plant from freezing death and you have it to use again next year. Time to start looking at plants that you think you might be wanting for this year. Before you know it Feb and Mar will be here and its time to start planting new plants, soon to be followed by annuals and perennials. Start looking at those seed catalogs now! If you live in an area with predominant high winds, your landscape plants could benefit from an application of an anti-descicant spray. This is a protective coating that will protect the plant from loosing too much moisture due to wind blowing on the plants all the time. Dormant oils can also be applied this time of year. Dormant oils are a softer approach to insect control. A dormant oil is a product that will coat certain insects and smother them. Euonymas scale is one such insect. They have a hard coating on them similar to a turtle shell. The scale is a very small white powdery looking critter. If you lift up the leafs of euonymas and look on the bottom, you may see hundreds of them so thick that all you see is a white flaky powder. Spraying regular insecticide on them through the year isn't very effective since the coating they have protects them, so a dormant oil applied when the shrubs are "dormant" will smother the insect without killing the plant. |
We can't stress enough how important it is to plan your lawn and
landscape. A lot of people will plant whatever they find at the
Garden Center on sale, where ever they can find room in there
lawn. That's not all together bad, only that if you don't plan your
whole property out you will have plants in the wrong spot, being
over shadowed by plants that will be planted later, too much sun,
too much shade. These problems can be eliminated or
prevented by planning your landscape and lawn. Sit down with a
piece of paper and draw out your property and all existing
plants, then figure out what type of area each side of the house
is, sun, shade, mixed, etc. Then start planning what will work
here and there. If you want a simple way to do it, less time
consuming check out the Landscape Design Software shown
above, it is very easy to use and makes drawing "what if" plans
very easy. You can see how it may look with changes and
additions as you plan, and then print it out on paper to view it
and take it to the lawn and garden center to pick out your plants.
landscape. A lot of people will plant whatever they find at the
Garden Center on sale, where ever they can find room in there
lawn. That's not all together bad, only that if you don't plan your
whole property out you will have plants in the wrong spot, being
over shadowed by plants that will be planted later, too much sun,
too much shade. These problems can be eliminated or
prevented by planning your landscape and lawn. Sit down with a
piece of paper and draw out your property and all existing
plants, then figure out what type of area each side of the house
is, sun, shade, mixed, etc. Then start planning what will work
here and there. If you want a simple way to do it, less time
consuming check out the Landscape Design Software shown
above, it is very easy to use and makes drawing "what if" plans
very easy. You can see how it may look with changes and
additions as you plan, and then print it out on paper to view it
and take it to the lawn and garden center to pick out your plants.
