Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Pansies, snapdragons, stock, calendulas and primroses can be planted now to replace summer annuals.

• Apples, pears and other fruit trees can be planted in the fall from containers to get a head start on next spring.

• It’s time to divide overgrown perennials that bloomed in the spring or early summer. It’s also a good time to choose and plant some new varieties.

• Chrysanthemums are the brightest flowers for the fall garden. Plant some now.

• If you have dogwood, walnut, birches and maple trees, now is a good time to prune them because they will bleed sap when pruned in early spring or late winter.

Selecting Trees for your Property

Trees are the backbone of the garden. They provide shade and shelter and bring year-round beauty through their foliage, flowers, fruits, bark and branch structure. Because trees are so important to the landscape and take years to reach maturity, it’s worth taking the time to choose them carefully.

First consider the location where you want to plant a tree and look at the size limitations. Allow space enough for the full-grown tree, both above and below ground. Place the tree away from any underground utilities, and plant only low-growing trees under overhead wires. Locate trees at least 5 feet away from curbs and walkways and at least 8 or 10 feet away from foundations.

What role should the tree play in your landscape? If you need a shade tree, choose a tree with a wide canopy, like fruitless mulberry, Raywood ash, or sycamore. Red maples, Albizzia, flowering pear trees and Chinese pistache also make fine, large shade trees.

If you want to block a view, choose tall, dense trees.
Redwood trees and cypresses will make tall screens while Photinia trees fill out nicely over the top of a fence.

If you’re looking for a specimen tree to serve as a focal point, choose trees with interesting foliage or a showy display of flowers. Always consider where flowers and fruit may fall, and avoid planting messy trees near patios and walkways. Dogwoods, flowering cherries, flowering plums and crabapples, Japanese snowbell and Japanese maples are some good choices. These trees grow no more than 25 feet tall and are very showy in the front yard or near the patio.

Do you want an evergreen tree, or a deciduous one, which drops its leaves in the winter? Deciduous trees give you shade in the summer and let the sun shine through in the winter. Evergreen trees make good screens and windbreaks. Though evergreen trees have leaves year-round, older leaves may fall intermittently throughout the year, or drop during one season.

Trees that have bright fall foliage color are always nice to have on the property. Fall is a good time to shop for these trees when you can see their colorful leaves and decide which ones you like the best. Liquidambars, maples, dogwoods, flowering pears and Chinese pistache all have wonderful fall color. So do white birch trees and ginkgo trees, which turn a bright yellow before they drop.

Fall is the best time to plant most trees. During the fall and winter, trees will be able to establish their root systems so they will be ready to get growing next spring!

• Garlic cloves can be planted now. Keep them watered and weeded through the winter and you will harvest healthy large bulbs next June.

• Chrysanthemums are the brightest flowers for the fall garden. Plant some now.

• Naked lady amaryllis have lovely, fragrant pink flowers that bloom in late summer with little or no care. Plant the bulbs, available at local nurseries, now.

• Seed slopes with annual ryegrass to prevent erosion and improve the soil for later plantings.

• Fragrant hyacinths make a colorful display in a garden bed, or can be grown in pots. They come in red, pink, blue and white and can be planted now.

Attract migrating birds to your garden

Many different birds pass through our area each year, sharing their colorful plumage and distinctive songs with bird watchers. Birds offer us our best chance to observe wild creatures close at hand. To attract birds to your garden, you need to create a habitat that contains the resources that they need: food, water and shelter.

The best way to attract birds is to offer them something that they have trouble finding in your neighborhood. If there is no water around, put out a birdbath or build a small pond. Birds are strongly attracted to the sound of running water. A small fountain or tinkling little waterfall is sure to bring them to your yard.

If there are no winter berries in your area, plant a pyracantha or holly bush and they will come. If you have an open yard, plant shrub borders along one side and trees beside the shrubs. Create an island of trees, shrubs, and flowers and add a birdbath and you will be providing birds with a wealth of food, water and cover.

Plants offer birds food, shelter and nesting sites. Birds favor areas where different kinds of vegetation come together. Trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses and vines offer a variety of advantages to birds.

Seeds come from annuals, perennials, grasses and evergreen trees. You will have to let your flowers dry and go to seed to make food for the birds. Gloriosa daisy, purple coneflower, asters, coreopsis, sunflowers and ornamental grasses are excellent seed sources. Cone-bearing evergreens attract finches and crossbills.

There are many shrubs that have winter berries. Nandina, holly, viburnums, pyracantha, Japanese barberry, privets, dogwood, hawthorn and crabapples, to name a few. A few vines make berries that are attractive to birds. These include English ivy and Virginia creeper. As vines get large and bushy they provide a pleasant place for birds to take cover as well.

Of course there are a wide variety of bird feeders to attract birds also. Nuthatches, titmice and chickadees visit seed feeders, suet and even seed tables and ground food. Sociable finches love niger thistle, which needs a special feeder. Robins and towhees will come to feeding tables and are attracted to peanuts and dried fruit.

Whether you are creating a new landscape or making changes in an old one, try to attract the birds to areas where they are visible from a window. Most birds prefer shaggy shrubbery, so let the plants grow naturally.

Few birds are comfortable feeding or drinking in the open for very long. Most birds prefer to have cover nearby to hide quickly from dangers. Place bird feeders and baths so the birds can reach shrubbery in a moment but not so close that a cat can pounce on them from a hiding place.

Fall is a good time to create a bird habitat, or to make plans for planting one next year.