Plants that repel squirrels, crabgrass control and protecting trees in snow
To repel squirrels from gobbling up the fruits of your garden, try planting Fritillaria, Galanthus, daffodil, Allium, hyacinth, lily-of-the-valley, marigold and often, geranium, since squirrels are put off by their scent. Credit: Fotolia
DEAR JESSICA: Do you know of any plants or flowers that repel squirrels?
— Lawrence Carr
via email
DEAR LAWRENCE: You didn’t explain your motivation for seeking out plants that repel squirrels, but I’d say it’s safe to assume you’ve lost a few to the hungry critters. And I feel your pain.
For many years, I had a pear tree that would put forth literally hundreds of beautiful pears during spring, but by July Fourth was stripped bare by squirrels. I would watch helplessly from my window as they climbed a branch, swiped a pear, took a bite and abandoned it for another, like a toddler with a box of chocolates.
It got to the point that when we installed a new deck, I didn’t think twice about removing the tree; there was seldom a time when a pear actually remained on its branches long enough to ripen and do me any good, anyway.
Other preferred squirrel foods, which you may have noticed by their disappearances, include other fruits, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, eggplants, daisies, sunflowers and beans.
If squirrel thievery is a particular problem, odds are best they will leave the following plants alone, in most cases because they find their scents off-putting: Fritillaria, Galanthus, daffodil, Allium, hyacinth, lily-of-the-valley, marigold and often, geranium.
DEAR JESSICA: I would like to plant grass seed this spring but also spread a pre-emergent for crabgrass. I planted some seed, albeit too late in the year, in November. Obviously I don’t want the crabgrass killer to kill my grass seed, and I don’t want to spread the crabgrass killer too late, as I understand it would be ineffective.
— John Menacho,
Huntington
DEAR JOHN: Looks like you’ll have to make a choice: Eliminate crab grass or plant grass this year.
I would go ahead and sow seed, since you already started in November. It’s likely those seeds will germinate once the weather warms up.
The hope, of course, is that your new grass fills in luxuriously and crowds out the crabgrass. If that doesn’t work out, however, apply the pre-emergent weed preventive in the spring of 2018, between when the forsythia on your block begins blooming and when the lilacs fade.
DEAR JESSICA: How do I protect my Leyland cypress from snow and winter cold weather? I didn’t wrap them with burlap bags, just left them alone.
— Nancy,
Ronkonkoma
DEAR NANCY: There really isn’t much you can do to protect them. Narrow, upright evergreens like arborvitaes benefit from being wrapped in burlap or tied up with rope or twine to prevent snow and ice from weighing down and splitting branches. But Leyland’s shape and size makes that method impractical and ineffective.
The best thing you can do is go out there with a broom after — and during, if necessary — a snowfall and knock snow off branches before it accumulates and freezes.
