The garden path is covered in dried oak leaves and copious amounts of acorns, each step results in soft crunches. It was a good year for the oaks, deer and other wildlife will be feasting on the acorns most of the winter.
In the forest, those leaves eventually break down, providing food for the trees. They are also an important addition for our gardens and should never be sent to the curb if they are headed for the landfill. Some municipalities though, will gather leaves to make compost and that’s also how they can be used in our own landscapes.
For gardeners with a compost pile, shredded leaves are a carbon rich additive and pair perfectly with the nitrogen rich ingredients from the kitchen or garden. Every time those green ingredients are added to the pile, a layer of leaves will help the pile break down quicker and create a better quality compost.
In the perennial garden, it’s best to allow the leaves to lay at the bottom of the dried stalks of the plants. The leaves provide habitat for the good bugs as does the standing dried perennials. In year’s past experts told us to clean the garden of any “refuse,” but now it’s recommended to leave everything as is. In late spring the garden can be groomed again after beneficial insects have hatched out.
Leaves are also a great mulch but are best shredded. They can be run over by the lawnmower, then collected, sent through a chipper or put into a garbage can, then pulverized with a string trimmer. When applying mulch, it should look like a donut, never a volcano and shouldn’t touch the bottom of the plant.
When putting the vegetable garden to bed, a layer of compost, followed by a blanket of shredded leaves will revitalize the area with nutrients and keep the soil in place during winter winds. Erosion from those winds can take a quarter of inch of good soil if the ground is not covered in mulch.
Still time to plant with bargains to find
Many gardeners have ended their planting season when frost arrived, but there’s still time to find bargains and plant bulbs, trees, shrubs along with perennials.
Here’s a complete tutorial for planting bulbs
Locally they can be found at a 50 percent discount and can be planted until the ground freezes solid. The big four include tulips, daffodils, crocus and hyacinth, but there are many other species that aren’t as well known which will provide beauty for decades to come.
Snowdrops are a favorite, they can bloom as early as mid-January, providing the first flowers of the season. Other bulbs include allium, glory of the snow, corydalis and many more.
Trees and shrubs love being planted now, the cool weather and short days mean they will put on root growth, not top growth.
There are great deals to be had right now at nurseries as they would rather give the plants a new home instead of trying to over winter them.
It's also the perfect time to plant garlic. Start with cloves from a nursery as grocery store garlic might not be hardy. The cloves are plants three inches deep, six inches apart in good soil and then mulched with shredded leaves or straw. Each clove becomes a head and is ready to harvest in July.
When choosing a tree or shrub, it’s fun to look for plants with more than one season of interest. That might mean variegated foliage, flowers, beautiful bark or fall color.
Stewartia trees are underused in the landscape, have great shape, grow to about 20 to 30 feet, produce beautiful peony like flowers in June, good fall foliage and interesting mottled bark for winter interest. It’s a tree that check a lot of boxes.
Hepticodium or Seven Son Flower is a shrub/tree that’s also not planted much. It’s a sun to part shade plant with tan colored exfoliating bark along with late blooming fall flowers the start white, fading to deep pink.
Smooth hydrangeas are reliable bloomers, unlike the mophead (H. macrophylla). They offer flowers that can be pure white, to deep pink. Deer will nibble on them, but they are not a favorite. The plant is tough, loves morning sun and afternoon shade along with average garden soil.
Nurseries are almost giving away lilies in one-gallon containers. They are hard to sell when the wonderful, fragrant flowers are gone. Even though the bulbs could be planted now, the plants already have a fully developed root system and will be ready to bloom next summer.
Don’t stop planting, swoop in and get deals on some great plants that will make next year’s garden so much more fun.
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Host of "In Doug's Garden" on CBS KDKA-TV Streaming
Host of the Talking Trees podcast for The Davey Tree Expert Company
Consultant for Farm to Table Buy Fresh Buy Local
Columnist for Pittsburgh Earth Day's "The Green Voice"
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