Put the beds to bed.
November is when the yard goes quiet. What you do in the next few weeks decides what wakes up in March.
The ground is still warmer than the air right now, and that gap is why November is still a planting month here. A shrub or tree that goes in by the middle of the month keeps rooting after the top has gone still, and it comes into spring already settled. Once the soil drops below about 40 degrees, root growth stops and the window closes.
Beds want something different. Pull the spent annuals, cut back anything that looks diseased, and leave the healthy perennial stems and seed heads standing. Native bees spend the winter inside those stems, and birds feed on the seed heads through the cold months.
Then mulch, once the soil has cooled and before it freezes. Two to three inches, kept a few inches back from stems and trunks. Shredded leaves from your own yard do this job well in a bed. Whole leaves sitting on the lawn still have to come off.
The top of the plant goes quiet in November. The roots keep working until the ground gets cold.
Keep watering anything you planted this fall, any week without a good soaking rain, until the ground gets cold. Cool air fools people into stopping too early.
- GroundStill warm enough to plant into the middle of the month. Below about 40 degrees, roots stop.
- MulchAfter the soil cools and before it freezes. Two to three inches, kept off the trunks.
- LeavesLeaf cleanup routes run through November 16, two passes through the drop. Routes are first come.
That's the ticket. See you in the yard.
Pamela and the YardMasters crew
Need us in your yard? Get a free estimate, or text the crew at (804) 744-4733.
Midlothian, VA · since 2009
