Late this month, plan to prune some of your evergreens. The cuttings can be used to make holiday arrangements for the house, fill window boxes or outdoor containers. And don’t be concerned if pine or arborvitae are dropping some of their needles now. This is a normal part of their renewal. All evergreens shed their leaves at some time, just not all at once like deciduous trees.
The best and easiest way to get them off your lawn, and make them work for you, is to mow them into the lawn with a mulching mower. If you bag mowed leaves, use them to cover flower and vegetable beds, to mulch around the base of trees and shrubs and finally to create leaf mold or compost for future garden use.
Removing all annual plants, vines and fallen fruit before adding any mulch, compost or planting a cover crop on your garden is always good gardening. Your vegetable garden should be stripped of all annual plants. Only perennials such as rhubarb should remain along with the garlic you planted last month to be harvested in June. You will be getting rid of disease and possibly insects before you begin gardening next spring.
