WEBlue

This is our first year in a new property in New England. There's endless leaf raking, of course. We don't have a leaf-blower ... yet.

And after going back & forth about this several times, we recently decided to reseed our very patchy lawn, so now we are having to move the lawn sprinkler about and make sure all the seeds are watered every day. I'm not sure how long this will continue....I suppose until they sprout and look healthy .... or until it freezes, one or the other?

I've also planted a few batches of spring bulbs of various kinds, crocus and daffs and a few tulips. And after the first frost, I must remember to dig up my gladiola bulbs and store them for the winter

Any garden tasks that you're up to this time of year?

Nutek

Mrs N. just finished cutting back all of our Roses. This weekend will be snow-blower-service weekend.

WEBlue

Roses are hard! I struggled for years against black spot on my poor English roses, and I'm so glad the only roses I have here in the States are a few healthy-but-spindly little rambler roses.

Pulaski

Leaves, leaves, and more leaves. I sowed annual rye grass last weekend pending sod installation in the spring. A couple of weeks ago I dug up hundreds of irises in big clumps to make room for the top end of the lawn, so they need to be cleaned of that dämned periwinkle and replanted, probably near the driveway and along the road frontage. I am also thinking about felling some trees (about a dozen 60-70ft pines and sweetgums) before spring, which is a pretty big project, but I might start that this weekend. Did I mention leaves?

markonline1

Hmmmm, I may adjust the time the sprinklers come on. That's about it

ottotheboar

You may be a little late for sowing grass seed, we generally reckon the 3rd week in September to get it well established before the frost.
Did you scatter straw over it to hold in the moisture ?
Our frost is very late this year we have sunflowers and millet still growing.

WEBlue

You may be right. Most people we saw over-seeding around here did it late last month. However, we lucked into some free grass seed a week ago and decided to go for it. Hoping for a very late frost here...

No straw mulch but we did cover the worst part, and now a whole lot of leaves have fallen on top of the rest. So we'll see...

Bob

Plant peas before the frost, apparently.

Get chaulk for the windows that you don't use and seal them up.

Get snow ploughs now before the snow, they're cheaper and better selection, same for wipers on the cars and screen wash.

Get those none slip step covers, the gel feeling ones, they're lovely and much easier to find now.

Coffee sacks, get them now while they're easy to find and use them to cover shrubs and fill them with leaves, if they're not that hardly.

ottotheboar

I think any peas or greens need to go in early September.
I put some Austrian Winter peas in and some greens they are thriving.
I put another batch in late September and they are much further behind.
Peas also fix nitrogen so will help with the fertility as well.

Pulaski

If you have a lot of leaves, might I suggest a backpack blower? You might need to go to a commercial landscaping store to find one, but in my experience the hand held ones are not very effective, and don't last. You're going to pay about twice what a hand held blower will cost, but it should last many years, whereas the hand held ones get difficult to start after two years and are junk by the end of the third year IME.

I have a Stihl brand blower and it is one of the two easiest pull start engines I have ever owned.

Yorkieabroad

Assuming its the same sort of deal as the power edgers, I'd second Pulaski on the longevity (is shortevity a word) of the cheap machines versus the more expensive models. You don't see many of the (good) landscape companies using the cheap end of Home Depot...

Round here, Fall normally brings a quick trim of hedges, pruning the roses, planting new bulbs and splitting old whatever they're called at the bottom of lilies, and refreshing the mulch. If I can be bothered I aerate the lawn (bothered twice in 10 years) and sometimes I put down a winterizer if I've had a weed problem in the grass, but this year I'm not going to bother.

I also make sure the kids haven't nicked my carabiners and rope loops that I use to fasten down the tarps that protect the more delicate areas of the garden from these vicious winters we get. I've gradually been needing less and less of those, as when things have been killed by the odd frost, I've moved towards more native replacements which take less looking after, and are more suitable to the climate than some of the imports from warmer climes.

Jan Alaska

I planted 100 or so daffodil bulbs last week, the leaves out back have mostly dealt with themselves (we back onto farmland) and the trees in the front of the property haven't yet dropped all their leaves so raking out there can wait. I also gathered up various hoses and have taken them inside away from the frost.

Bob

Apparently, around here, it's before the freeze or they don't do well. I tried in September and they didn't do anything.

Peter525839

I have about 1 acre with trees. Used to take me 3 weekends to rake and tarp all the leaves Got a used tractor and rigged up some gizmo to shoot all the leaves into a pull behind cart with plywood sides
My used tractor finally died so now I have a brand new one Didn't want attach the gizmo so bought the Monster leaf bag $60 which replaces the bags
Hold about 6 times as much as the bags so much less stop and start to dump bags
Tried it last weekend Thumbs up No clogging and it took the bloody pine needles as well

King Gimp

Buy a decent backpack blower immediately! Dont even think about buying a handheld - especially an electric one - I can tell you they are really really poor. I just got my first Stihl after 3 years and what was a 4 hour chore is now over in 20 mins. I can't believe I wasted so much of my time with the electric one.

If you have a pond, cover it with mesh to stop it filling with leaves and get the pond heater ready..I bought a nifty temperature operated outlet which turns on at 35F and off at 45F http://www.amazon.com/Farm-Innovator...thermal+outlet