Fall garden clean-up has been a breeze in this beautiful weather, but don’t put away your garden hose just yet! Recently planted trees and shrubs need water until the ground freezes. A good, slow soak is best for these plants so the water has a chance to get way down to the base of the root ball of the plant. Run the hose with a slow trickle or fill a five gallon pail with a few holes drilled along the base to let the water soak into the soil instead of run-off.
Lack of adequate moisture in the soil increases the plants chance of suffering damage from the cold this winter. This is especially important for evergreens. The fall has been fairly dry so most evergreens, even if you didn’t plant them this year, could also use a thorough watering. Keeping them well watered until the ground freezes goes a long way to prevent the winter burn we saw a lot of last winter.