Time to be a Lazy Gardener

If your calendar seems to be filling as quickly as mine, you’ll be glad to know that there are a couple things you can keep OFF your To-Do List.

November is officially the time to let the garden rest. Yes, I know that many residents believe that all of Florida is frost-free, but those of us who’ve been around a while know this area expects a freeze or two about every winter (some winters, far more than that.)

To prepare for winter’s inevitable arrival, now is the time to let the garden prepare itself for the cold. For the gardener that means, NO MORE FERTILIZER OR PRUNING. If you didn’t get to it already, sorry! Fertilizing or pruning now sends a signal to the plant that it needs to get busy. Not the right message right now. It actually takes weeks for the plants to fully settle into a more dormant state.

“What can it hurt,” you might say?

Well, new growth is more susceptible to freezing, and makes the plant require additional water at a time when Mother Nature is being perennially stingy. All this further stresses a plant.

So be nice to your landscape plants and don’t kill them with kindness! Don’t you already have enough to do?

Editor's note: BJ Jarvis is a horticulture agent and the director of the Pasco County Cooperative Extension Office. For more information about extension programs, visit pasco.ifas.ufl.edu.