Do |
Don’t |
Lawns |
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Leave the leaves (after chopping up with leaf mulcher or lawn mower) |
Kick ‘em to the curb |
Aerate and over-seed |
Fertilize (particularly near trees) |
Switch lawn to gardens |
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Garden Beds |
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Remove weeds and invasive plants |
Let yourself be hypnotized by ‘pretty’ invasives |
Remove any leaves with leaf spot |
Allow the fungi to remain on the ground |
Pull and dig weeds from the root |
Yank and drop |
Cover and smother |
Weed whack and walk away |
Solarize the soil to kill rampant diseases like blight on tomatoes |
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Resist the urge |
Rototill weeds (Particularly with root systems like thistles, goutweed, etc.) |
Cut back herbaceous perennials after they fade (less work) |
Cut back while plants are still green (more work) |
Add compost and/or leaf mulch |
Pile up leaves around shrub stems and perennial crowns |
Do a soil test and amend the soil |
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Plant garlic |
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Plant bulbs including tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths |
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Install new trees and shrubs |
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(Photos by Sherrilyn Billger)
DO |
DON’T |
Soggy Soils |
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Plant trees · A mature evergreen intercepts more than 4,000 gallons per year · Red oaks can remove 92 feet of water per hour · Maples remove 8 feet per hour, willows remove 10 |
Add more grass · A study in NC found that switching from forest to suburban turf reduced the soil infiltration rate from 12.4 in/hr to 4.4 in/hr · That means trees are three times faster getting excess water out of the soil |
Consider swales |
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Aerate your lawn |
Compress the soil by driving over it, particularly when it’s wet |
Add compost |
Turn up your nose at mushroom soil |
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Lasagna Garden |
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To transform grassy areas into garden beds, don’t bother weeding, digging, or tilling. Ingredients: cardboard and/or newspaper, compostable materials (plant material, fallen leaves, egg shells, vegetable scraps, coffee grounds), compost and/or dirt |
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1. Place cardboard or layers of newspaper on the ground and water 2. Add a layer of compostable materials 3. Add a smaller layer of compost or dirt 4. Rinse and repeat steps #2 and #3 until your lasagna is at least 6” tall 5. Do nothing for months and months 6. Check your lasagna in April or May and marvel at the dead grass at the bottom of the ‘pan’ 7. Till if you really feel like it, to mix your lasagna into the soil below 8. Remove any remaining bits of cardboard (toss ‘em in your compost pile) 9. Add plants and seeds to your new garden bed |
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Miscellaneous Do’s |
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Remove vines growing on tree trunks |
Remove dead, dying, and diseased trees, limbs |
Remove invasive trees, shrubs, and vines |
Consult with a certified arborist |
In the Comfort of Your Warm House |
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Year in Review · What were your greatest victories? · What were you biggest challenges? |
Start planning your next growing season. Try something new! |
DO remove harmful vines Do add compost to soggy soils or use in lasagna gardening