No-Vem-Burr

No-Vem-Burr 

If the coming Winter in Essex County makes you want towrap up in 

layers and wait for spring, you’re not alone! Your lawn and some of your trees and shrubs might want to do the same as well. Which is why we’ve pulled together our top recommendations for your landscape. Read on for more.

It’s Novemburrr…..Time to add some Layers.

Add a Layer of Lime

Late fall is an excellent time to apply lime. The combination of winter precipitation, melting snow, and freezing/thawing cycles facilitates the movement of lime into the soil to balance the soil’s pH. We have traditional dolomitic lime pellets from Soil Doctor in 40 lb bags, along with faster acting calcitic limes from Cal-Turf Pro Fast Acting Pelletized Lime and EarthScience Fast Acting Pelletized Lime.

Add a Layer of Gypsum

Gypsum breaks down salts and helps leach them from our soils. That strip of grass between the sidewalks and the street benefits greatly from this salt breakdown treatment. Gypsum also loosens compacted and clay soils making them more porous which improves air and water movement. Essex Co-Op has plenty of Soil Doctor Granular Gypsum on hand.

Add a Layer of Fertlizer

Use a Scotts Step 4 or WinterGuard product if you didn’t in October, but no sooner than 4-6 weeks after any prior fall application and no later than the middle of November. We carry both Scotts and GreenView fertilizers, along with organic fertilizers from Espoma, NCO, Dr. Earth and Milorganite.

Add a layer of Mulch

No matter which kinds of trees and shrubs you have growing on your property, all of them will thank you for putting down a thick layer of mulch over their roots before the cold weather arrives. Mulch helps keep soil warmer and helps to hold water in for plant roots to use.

If you add that mulch over a layer of compost, even better! Besides insulating your plants’ roots, compost adds soil nutrients that will be readily available to your plants in the spring. Coast of Maine’s Enriching Mulch is an excellent product to use around your trees and shrubs before the winter hits.