It’s that time of year that we start to get our lawns and gardens ready for winter. A proper fall yard clean up gets you ahead of the game when spring arrives!
Your Fall yard clean up checklist:
- Clean your gutters
- Prune trees and hedges
- Protect your deck
- Start a compost pile
- Till your vegetable garden
- Get the grime off your tools
- Give your garden bed a clean sweep
- Do some lawn and garden maintenance and remove any invasive species
One way you can help prevent the spread of invasive species is by properly disposing of garden waste.
Here are a few tips for you to follow:
- Dead-head and properly dispose of invasive plant seeds, seed heads or fruit prior to flowering and seed maturity.
- All landfills within the RDCK and RDKB accept invasive plant species for free. Ensure your material is bagged in clear plastic bags and notify the attendant that you have invasive plant species. Plants must be identifiable through the bag. For more information please see the RDCK Resource Recovery Bylaw
- Do not dump garden waste in public parks, natural areas, or roadsides. It is ILLEGAL to do so and is associated with hefty fines.
- Avoid putting invasive plants in your compost, as they can contaminate your compost.
- IMPORTANT: Knotweed cannot be controlled by digging, cutting, or burning. These methods have been proven to be ineffective and may actually contribute to its spread. Mechanical control of Knotweed is not recommended. Knotweed can only be effectively controlled with chemical control – for more information please click on the Knotweed Profile for management tips.
Knotweed has a massive root structure and can reproduce from small roots and stem fragments, for this reason mechanical control on its own is NOT effective.