In mid-October it is too early to talk about closing the season, because warm days will be back in November and even in December. But if you are leaving the dacha and cannot close the season gradually, then it is better to carry out all the pre-winter preparations right now. Our consultant Dmitry Lukyanov, agronomist-vegetable grower, candidate of agricultural sciences, tells how to do this.
October 5 2016
If everything is not all right in the garden, the leaves of the plants were stained and fell off prematurely, there was too much damage with powdery mildew and rust, it is worth treating diseased apple trees, roses, currants and gooseberries with a 5% solution of copper sulfate, and cherries and pears – either the same, or drugs “Skor” or “Horus”.
Free your lawn as much as possible of fallen leaves and cut short. It is undesirable for the grass to enter the winter overgrown, with leaves entangled in it.
Carefully dig under the fruit trees and bushes to avoid damaging the roots. It’s good if you can add rotted manure (or compost) and ash under them. On average, under a tree there are from 1 to 4 buckets of humus and 3-4 glasses of ash, and under a bush up to a bucket of humus and 1-2 glasses of ash. Whitewash the trunks. Fruit trees and maples need this, and when the whitewash is dry, wrap the thick part of the trunks with spunbond and secure with twine or soft wire. With the help of such measures, you will protect trees from frost cracks and partly from hares. If you have a lot of rodents who love to feast on the bark of apple and cherry trees, additionally fence the trees with a fine-mesh netting to a height of 2 meters. In winter, it will pour snow, and hares can easily get to parts of the trunk and branches that are inaccessible at other times of the year.
Do not rush to prune perennials if there has been no frost yet and the plants still look decorative. Crimson leaves of peony and daylily and herbs in hoarfrost adorn the garden wonderfully. The same is true with roses: the later you cover them, the better, because the October night frosts give way to warming, and the plants in the shelter vomit. Try to specially come and cover the plants in November, when the big autumn rains are over and there are a few frosty days before the real snow. Then the roses should be cut to 25-30 cm above ground level, and the climbing and ground cover should be bent to the ground and pinned with reinforcing pins. Then spray with a 1% solution of copper sulfate. After that, you need to spud the roses 10 cm with peat. Cover tea-hybrid and climbing varieties additionally with spunbond or lutrasil.