Carrie Barre-LiBaire's Gardening Column

Down to Earth Gardening

As fall approaches and the landscape changes, you may notice some things in the garden that you haven’t before now. I don’t know if we are more observant this time of year because of the changing leaf colors or we were distracted by the abundance of flowering plants during the summer. Whichever it is, a rather startling observation can induce panic, but like a lot of things that happen in the garden you just have to let Mother Nature take its course.

There have been many inquiries about grubs and what to do about them. Grubs have a three year life cycle and most damage is noticed in the third year. At first you may think you have a dry patch on your lawn, but when watering doesn’t seem to help, pull back the turf. If it pulls up like a toupee it’s from grubs. You many also notice destruction in the area, most likely from skunks. Getting rid of the skunk is not the answer; they are just after the grubs. The grubs have already done most of the damage to the roots and are getting ready to dig deeper in the ground to pupate into beetles, so treatment is not necessary or even effective right now. In the spring put down a grub-killer insecticide as part of your spring lawn care.

Another popular question has been concerning pine trees: the needles closest to the trunk are turning yellow and dropping. Don’t worry; it’s normal fall needle drop. Even though most conifers are classified as evergreens, these trees do lose their older needles every two to five years. As long as the newest needles are still green and healthy your pine is fine. The needles make great mulch, especially for acid loving plants like dogwood, azalea and rhododendron. The needle drop of White Pines is especially pronounced this year, and that can be attributed to drought conditions.

There is always confusion when discussing conifers and evergreens. Conifer is a botanical classification generally meaning to “bear cones”. In this classification are plants that can be called evergreen. Evergreen is a characteristic of a plant, not an actual botanical classification. An evergreen is any plant which has leaves present on the branches all year round. Some of the most common conifers that are also evergreen include pines, firs and spruces. An easy way to identify the different conifers is that pines needles grow in a bunch of two to five needles along the branch. If there is only one needle per spot you have a spruce or fir. The next step is to roll the needle between your fingers; fir needles are flat and spruce needles are cylindrical and sharp.

Knowing which species of tree you have is very helpful in care and diagnosing problems, as many diseases or insects tend to attack a specific type. Once you become familiar with the trees in your own landscape you’ll be surprised how easy it is to recognize the trees all around you.

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