Fall To-Do List in the Garden

As gardeners, most of us are busy in the outdoor gardens well into the fall. This year though is a little different as it seems we’ve got a bit of a rain problem and a good deal of great weather to be outside getting even more garden stuff done.

The leaves are falling, and the grass is still growing. That’s always an interesting combination that presents some challenges.

Years ago many of us simply raked the leaves into piles and found a spot to burn the them. No one does this anymore, and no one should. Then came the leaf blowers and the landscapers who would blow leaves all day for weeks on end and take them to composting facilities or a dump. That practice is also becoming passé with noise restrictions on leaf blowers and new regulations on municipal composting. What’s a gardener to do? Leave the leaves, sort of.

The answer, for the most part, is in changing the way you mow your lawn in the fall and or convincing your landscaper to change his or her antiquated ways. Yes, you can still gather your leaves and add them to a compost pile on your property, but in order for this to “work” the leaves need to be ground up into tiny pieces with a mechanical shredder. So now you have not only the leaf blowers spewing pollution into the air but the shredder as well.

My solution, and I hope it will be yours as well, is to use the lawn mower or lawn tractor as not just a mower but as a shredder as well. It means using special blades on the mower and probably a mower or special deck that allows your mower to act as a shredder as well as a mower. The result is a great combination of finely shredded leaves that, along with the fine grass clippings, are returned to the lawn as a nearly invisible mulch that builds your soil and adds nutrients to the grass root zone. This not only builds your soil but allows you to reduce fertilizer use by as much as 50 percent or more.

By the way, my lawn looks really great. In spite of the lack of rain it’s still a pretty lush green that the dog and I still love, and it just makes the property look terrific with very little to no environmental impact when all things are taken into account. My fertilizer use has been cut by at least 80 percent, and my near acre gets only two small doses of organic fertilizer a year. No need to move the leaves around, fertilizer use is reduced and less use of gas and oil since I don’t need to use a leaf blower. Truly a win-win setup, and one that you and your landscaper should be using. Now, your landscaper won’t be happy if you insist on a similar regime (unless they’ve switched) since your landscaper will be applying less fertilizer (which they charge you for) and they can’t charge you for leaf blowing and leaf removal. Lean on them — hard!

To accomplish this your mower needs to have a couple of things. It may need a mulching kit. This allows the grass blades and the fallen leaves to remain under the deck a bit longer so they get well shredded. The second element are the mowing blades. These must be a “high lift” type like a Gator blade, which aids in keeping the leaves and grass blades within the deck longer as they pass over the blades more than once to really cut them into fine pieces. With my deck and the mulching kit I can either use the side discharge or have the deck return the mulched material straight down into the turf. Either way you’d be hard pressed to know that I’ve just returned bushels and bushels of ash, maple, oak, lilac and oak leaves back into the soil.

The result is something you often don’t see since the process is so complete and the fine mulch that’s produced is pushed back down below the grass itself. This fine mulch, in the presence of moisture and soil microbes, breaks down quickly and no, unlike we were told 10 years ago, this does not result in a thicker thatch layer. In fact, it has nothing to do at all with thatch.

Now, if you’re lazy or wait weeks and weeks to do this mowing/thatching, it won’t work. This needs to be done weekly just like your regular mowing, and on those few occasions when the leaves are falling like raindrops you may have to mow twice. And speaking of rain, and dew, wait until the lawn is dry. This eliminates the clumping of leaves and grass that can happen when they are mowed and mulched wet.

For those who require an absolutely pristine lawn with not a leaf or blade of uncut grass on it, get over it. We share this tiny planet with you, and it’s time for you and your gardener and landscaper to be part of this movement. The rest of us will surely appreciate your effort and I promise, your lawn will benefit and not suffer.

On another note, I was out on the tractor yesterday doing the mulching and mowing. In spite of several frosts upstate, the days have been warm and the grass has kept growing. Easy enough to get out and cut, and it only takes me a half hour or so to do the tiny acre. But as I walked from the tractor back to the house, there, walking up my shirt was a tick.

Yes, it’s tick season and the warm weather has encouraged them to look for a meal. What surprised me was that my work boots and jeans are always treated with permethrin as it’s a proven and effective tick repellent. However, my shirts, especially the short-sleeved ones, rarely get treated. At some point I must have brushed against a shrub or twig that the tick was waiting on and as it sensed my body heat it reached out with its forelegs and hitched a ride. Easy enough to remove it with a small piece of tape, close the tape over it and put it in the trash. Keep in mind though, this warm fall will result in ticks being active for weeks to come, and they are looking for you.

For most of my adult gardening and nature seeking life I’ve always known that ticks are a part of being outdoors, and I’ve learned to deal with them. However, last week I became aware of another insect that, like the tick, is seeking a blood meal from us and possibly our pets.

My wife takes our dog for a long walk every afternoon. They go up the street, through a meadow and through some woods. A few days ago, after one such walk, she brought me an insect that she felt crawling across her scalp. I’d never seen this bug before but what concerned her was the tiny drop of blood she noticed near its head. Not a good sign.

I hit the books and lists of insects in New York State with no luck so it was on to the Cornell entomologist that’s my main guy when it comes to bugs. Turns out our new and intimate buddy was a deer fly (Lipoptena cervi), also known as a deer ked. The one on her scalp was in the wingless stage, and based on the spots on her neck and the drop of blood on its head, it seems to have been feeding.

Unlike the tiny deer tick, the deer fly is large enough to easily see and is about a quarter of an inch long. The deer fly is very susceptible to the same repellent we use for ticks, permethrin. In fact, when it comes into contact with permethrin it not only repels the insect, but it kills it. Seems that if you have loose hair on your head (like me) this may not be an issue, but my wife has dense short hair, which they love. Still be mindful of the ticks for sure. But if you feel something moving about your head and on your scalp be on the lookout for ticks and possibly something bigger.

Since we’re in a stage 1 drought there are some considerations to think about if you have a tree or shrub planting project for this fall. Make sure that whatever you buy is well watered and keep it well watered when you plant it until the ground freezes or gets very cold. Water easily evaporates and drains from parched soils so mulching at planting is critical. And don’t rush to turn your lawn irrigation off or your hose bibs. Until the East End gets a hard frost of several nights in the upper 20s you should still be watering the lawn if we get less than an inch of rain every week or so. Keep growing.