Jill and Rick Van Duyvendyk answer all your gardening questions on Garden Talk on 650 CKOM and 980 CJME every Sunday morning from 9-11 a.m.

Here is a selection of questions and answers from the November 10 edition.

Q: How can I stop deer from eating my cedar trees?

A: You need to put a net around these plants or bring a dog outside! Burlap can also work, but deer range is a problem.

I have seen cedars that only had green tufts at the top because the deer cut off anything they could reach by stretching their necks. They will cut a perfect line across an entire row of cedars and everything below will disappear. The problem is when you have a brown cedar and it’s gone green, it takes years for it to come back.

If there is nothing on the bottom half of a cedar, you may want to start again. You can also put
posts in the ground with chicken wire around them and allow the cedar to grow through the chicken wire. Every year the deer cut it down to the fence so you don’t need to trim it.

Q: How do I prepare my rose bush for winter in Saskatchewan?

A: It depends on what type of rose it is. If it’s a hardy rose bush, simply mulch a little around the base. You can remove the rose hips if you want, but don’t do a lot of pruning in the fall. Prune it back about a third in spring.

You can prune hybrid tea roses or mini rose bushes and mulch them in the fall. Hybrid roses are tender and
you need to mulch them a little. Place a rose box or hutch around them and fill it with dry leaves. Burlap won’t work, you have to mulch them. The crowns of hybrid tea roses should be surrounded by about 12 inches of mulch.

Q: Can I propagate chestnuts? Can you grow chestnuts from the real nuts?

A: Varieties like Ohio Buckeye (pictured) can be planted directly in the ground, or put them in a bag and store them in the refrigerator until March. If you use a plastic bag, be sure to poke holes in it. The freshness will help the outer shell break down and they will grow.

Ohio Buckeye chestnuts aren’t really good to eat, so you would grow them primarily for the tree. Trees like drier places and don’t like to be a place where water sits. They will grow in a sandier soil type and will not thrive as well in heavy clay.

Q: Can I overwinter trailing bamboo?

A: Creeping bamboo is an annual plant, so you should cut it back immediately and even divide it, as it is a fairly vigorous plant. This won’t be the easiest plant to keep over winter as it is a grass. Sufficient light and humidity are important.

Don’t take cuttings, pull sections of plants and put them in 2-4 inch plant pots, then place them in a bright window with a grow light and keep a tray of pebbles underneath. Don’t let them dry out completely, keep them evenly moist all winter.

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Q: Is it too late to sow new grass and/or overseed an existing lawn?

A: You can do both. When overseeding an existing lawn, be sure to rake it so that the seeds are in contact
with the ground and does not rest on the thatch. It won’t germinate at the moment.

Even when you’re putting seeds on new soil, you want to give them a light raking, or if you have a large area, pull a piece of chain link fencing along it so it puts some cover of soil on the seeds. Its germination will just begin next spring. You may need to repair some areas with runoff. If you’re sowing in a garden where they’re protected, do it wrong, but if it’s in an open area, just wait until early spring so the seeds don’t fly away.

Q: Do yew trees thrive in southern Saskatchewan?

A: No. Chinooks from southern Saskatchewan that, you know, are dried. If you want an evergreen look, you’ll need to go for an evergreen. Try something like a wareana or Siberian cedar. They get wider and taller and you need to keep them trimmed from day one.

Q: I had lily beetles this year and cut my lilies early, but they moved into my hostas and even my modern rose. What can I do in spring to get rid of them?

A: You can use Bug-X Out or End-All in the spring. Look for eggs in spring. When young, the eggs stick to the underside of the leaves and look like a little red jelly. You can use a lint roller to collect them. You can even sprinkle diatomaceous earth where you know the lilies will grow, because as soon as the lilies grow, the beetles will come out of the soil. If the beetles get diatomaceous earth on them, they will become dehydrated.

As soon as you get buds and flowers, you don’t want to spray, because if you do, you won’t get great flowers. If you are spraying when the plants are in flower, take a piece of cardboard and protect the flowers and spray underneath.

Q: Should I wrap burlap around Brandon cedars protected on the south side by a six-foot fence two feet away?

A: What you need to watch is the weather in March and April. It’s not the cold of winter that hurts them, it’s
when the sun is higher, or if you get a Chinook in the middle of winter, especially when the ground is still frozen and you have a white picket fence. The reflection of the snow and fence dries out the needles before the roots are wet.

The most important thing is to think about how the sun will hit them in March and the first week of April, and to shade that side of the trees when the sun is strongest. As long as the fence runs straight east to west, you won’t need to cover it.

The biggest misconception about wrapping cedars is that you wrap them to put a mantel on them.
to warm them up, but you try to shade them. You can use a few stakes and put burlap around them like a tent or enclosure. Keep these six inches from the plant.

If you wrap the plant, leave the burlap six inches above the ground, because if you go directly to the ground, no snow will cover the roots. Snow is the insulation, not the burlap. You can also use burlap if they are planted in a wind tunnel, to also protect the trees from drying out, especially young trees.

Q: What is causing the tips of my snake plant to turn brown?

A: Examine the root system and feel the soil. Snake plants like to dry out between waterings, so you shouldn’t experience any humidity. However, if you let the plant dry out too much, the leaves will be soft to the touch and may turn brown at the tips.

If you overwater it, you might see root rot at the bottom of your pot. Spread an old sheet on the ground, take the plant out of the pot and look at the roots. Healthy roots on a white and sometimes yellow snake plant are firm. If you see brown or black roots, cut them with scissors, replant them in fresh soil and start again. Only go one pot larger – one to two inches larger, not 12 inches larger.

Q: Is it too late to plant garlic this fall as long as I use mulch?

A: You can definitely do it – if you can dig into the ground, you’re good to go. Just be sure to put the pointed side up and give them a little water. When it’s this cold, make sure the area is well drained. Also add a little bone meal and mulch them.

These questions and answers have been edited and condensed.

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