What are some good flowers to plant along our street boulevard, where salt and snow is thrown from the snow plows during winter?
In the fall of the year lay some excess leaves along the edge of the boulevard, and mat these down with water just before the first heavy snow fall. In the spring when the snow has melted, remove these leaves before planting flowers.
Here are some popular perennial medium height flowers you can plant: Stella de oro lilies, along with the popular orange lilies which grow in the country ditches; Siberian yarrow, (these are not evasive) as other yarrows can be; Monarda, Coreopsis, Sedum, (autumn joy) Asiatic lilies, Salvia. Contact me for more ideas if you are interested. You can also plant medium-sized annual flowers for added color.
How can I keep the rabbits and voles from chewing at the base of our newly planted trees?
Put a special plastic spiral large enough so future growth has wiggle room at the base of your trees. Having this spiral in place on the southwest side of the tree will help in controlling sunscald on your trees. Another option for sunscald protection is to paint with white latex from the ground until to where the first branches are on the tree. Make sure too, you put the bottom two inches of the spiral into the ground.
If you have deer in your area, you may want to apply some “hot wax pepper” or “Ropel” on the lower part of the tree trunk. This will keep the deer away from your recently planted trees.
Do I need to apply anything around the base of future plantings of peach, apples, plums and other fruit trees once they are planted?
Apply a good mulch of wood chips about three inches thick at a radius of about three feet around the base of the tree or trees. This will keep weeds from growing around the base of the tree as well as not hitting the base of the tree with the lawn mower.
Hank Wessels is a Master Gardener in Watonwan County. He welcomes questions and comments from readers. He may be reached at 601 1st St. SW, Madelia, MN 56062, hwdw@madtelco.net or (507) 642-8479.
