• Beat crabgrass without herbicides by fertilizing and
liming your fescue lawn now. Fescue shades out crabgrass in early spring if it’s
fertilized and cut to your mower's highest setting--which is probably about 3 inches high.
• Fertilize evergreen shrubs and trees with a couple of handfuls of an organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizer takes effect very slowly and will be available to the roots in spring.
• Roll down your car window and smell the eleaegnus growing along the highways. But don't plant them--they are weedy and get as big as a barn.
• This is a great season for planting--the roots have fall, winter and spring to get established before summer heats up. Plant new trees, shrubs, vines and perennials in wide holes that are no deeper than the rootball. Improve clay or sandy soil with composted pine bark rather than peat moss. It works better and harvesting peat moss damages important habitat.
• Water new plantings during dry spells or when freezes are predicted.
