Continue maintenance program until hard frost or freeze occurs.  Meteorologicallly speaking, a hard frost is defined as temperatures at 28 degrees Fahrenheit or colder for at least four consecutive hours.   Apply Monty’s Plant Food (2-15-15)  to the leaves of your roses with minimal amounts of water for the soil. ( Click here to order) This product thickens the cells of the plants, and helps them retain elasticity, which may protect the canes from winter damage.  The more you can do now to protect your canes through the winter and to increase the likelihood that they will begin spring growth with little if any winter damage, the more likely you are to begin the new season next spring with larger more vigorous plants with little if any pruning needed. 

This is also an ideal time to remediate your soil.  Monty’s Liquid Carbon, if applied to the soil of your garden’s now will have time to start working before winter.( click here to order) This is important because Monty’s Liquid Carbon works in concert with your microbial populations and those little microscopic miners go dormant in soil temperatures below 45 degrees Fahrenheit.  Additionally, the normal ‘heaving’ of the soil during the freeze/thaw cycle will allow Monty’s Liquid Carbon to penetrate deep into your soil profile.  Finally, any Liquid Carbon that you apply now will be there, ready to work, come early spring when often it is too muddy to get much accomplished.

For those of you who experienced the deep drought and extreme heat this summer that we did around our gardens this summer, be aware.  The drought most likely caused your soils to collapse as the moisture was evacuated by evaporation.  This means that you will likely have to deal with compaction this next season, even if compaction is not normally an issue for you.  Monty’s Liquid Carbon is a great help to gardeners fighting against compaction-related problems.

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