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Spring Ahead with Fall Clean up

© Georgeann Hall

The cool, crisp days of fall have arrived...a welcome change from the blistering heat and drought of this past summer. Fall is a great time to work in your landscape too. Gardens need tidied for next spring and perennials need put to bed for the long winter ahead.

Fall cleaning in the garden and landscape also helps prevent disease and insect infestation. Many disease and pest organisms overwinter in fallen leaves and other debris which may accumulate beneath plants. Taking the time now for sprucing up the beds can save you time and headaches next season.

Here are some examples of popular landscape and garden plants which will benefit from a thorough fall clean up:

Flowering Dogwood: Collect and discard any fallen leaves from the base of the tree. This will eliminate many of overwintering spores of the anthracnose fungus; a disease to which the dogwood can be very susceptible.

Roses: Collect and discard all fallen leaves from the base of the plants. Place fresh mulch beneath plants. This helps eliminate the overwintering spores of the familiar black spot fungus.

Maples,Oak,Sycamore,Ash: Collect and discard all fallen leaves before trees leaf out in the spring. This practice helps prevent a form of anthracnose common to this group of trees.

Cherry: If any of your cherry trees are plagued with the swollen black growths of a fungus called black knot, prune out and destroy them when the trees go dormant.

Crabapple,Hawthorn: If your trees suffer from fireblight, prune out blighted sections and destroy. Disinfest pruning tools between cuts. Scab is a very common fungal disease of apple trees causing defoliation. Remove and destroy all fallen leaves.

Viburnun: Occasionally, viburnum suffers from downy mildew which is caused by a fungus. Raking and destroying all fallen leaves will help prevent this disease.

Fall clean up works with all your plants including turf. Don't give diseases and pests an opportunity to gain a foothold, a little prevention now can save you headaches later.

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