st when you think you can’t take any more of the Northwest rain and wind, the month of November will gift us with a couple of days of sun to help warm our souls. These are great days to get outside and complete a few more projects to help you get a head start on spring.

There are many diseases that love to attack roses while it is damp and wet. To prevent disease problems next year, remove all the leaves from the ground and spray your roses with a dormant spray, such as Bonide’s Oil & Lime Sulfur Spray. Make sure you thoroughly spray the rose and the ground around the rose. To help the fungicide stick on through our rainy weather be sure to add Bonide’s Turbo Spreader to your spray mix.

It's also the time to spray your fruit trees. 

It's a great time to cut your roses back to about knee height to help prevent any damage our windy storms may cause. You will take a second pruning around President's Day in February.

If you haven’t already planted your spring flowering bulbs, November is the last month to do so. For a fun November project to do while staying dry, try forcing spring flowering bulbs to bloom indoors. Paperwhites, amaryllis and hyacinths are easy to force to bloom and make great holiday decorating additions.

To keep weeds from taking over your flowerbeds this winter, spread a weed preventer like Preen or Corn Gluten.

Apply Garden Lime to your lawn to prevent our Northwest rains from turning your lawn yellow. Our rains are really acidic and can leech the nutrients from our lawns.

In November we begin to see the migration of many different birds. If you want a few feathered friends to visit your home, there are many great plants you can add to your landscape to create a bird habitat. Some plants will offer shelter and some plants will offer food. You can also set out bird seed and suet to help feed them during the winter months, but make sure you thoroughly clean your feeders first.

If your pines or other conifers need trimming this is a great month to do it. You can then use the cut branches for holiday decoration, or protect your tender young plants from the cold by laying the branches over them.

It is also a good idea to control bagworms during December by cutting out the webs and burning them. If you’ve experienced boring insect problems in the past, December is a good time to spray your trees with a borer spray. Be sure to coat the trunk of the tree well and spray the surrounding ground to eliminate any over-wintering insects.

If you have a fresh-cut Christmas tree make sure you monitor your watering every day. To help prevent your Christmas tree from drying out too quickly try applying WILT-STOP by Bonide. WILT-STOPis an all natural product that will help retain your tree’s moisture. It also works wonderfully on fresh wreaths and garlands.