Yes. Top dress. Mulch, compost.... It's all good for the plants!!

Now that the leaves are all picked up

I hope you put those leaves somewhere - they are a great source of enrichment themselves. If you don't like them whole, grind them up with the lawnmower and put 'em right back where they were!

I just grabbed 3 tall bags of pinestraw/leaves that someone raked up and then put out on the street. I can't BELIEVE people put this lovely stuff in yard waste bags. My son was mortified that I would stop on the side of the road and pick them up ... but he helped because he figured we'd get out of there faster!

And you know what? I'll reuse those yard waste bags and fill them up with the japanese honeysuckle and other weeds that I take out of MY yard.

Yes - I do save all the leaves! I have a big compost bin in the "back 40". I rake and blow them out of the flower beds because they look so messy AND have made a lovely winter home for so many poopy little bugs! The year I left my leaves, I swear I had a triple crop of aphids. It was unreal ! (Sadly, the ladybugs didn't hear about them - they could have had a feast!) Surely, this big cold snap will kill a lot of the bugs. But did you see - by Friday we'll be back in the 60's ! No wonder everyone is getting sick! Have any of you heard any old wives tales or almanac predictions about this year? A snow day would be so fun - but I wonder if they are a thing of the past?
Oh- back on topic (sorry) - I will definitely start topdressing my beds to get ready for Spring!!!!!! Thanks!

The year you left those leaves you may also have had a triple crop of ladybug nymphs too. Leaves are their most favorite spot. So think about leaving some in an area that you can leave them in and not just a compost heap. Maybe a pile by a tree or if you are lucky a tree by a creek and they will LOVE you...and your aphids!

Well, I'm glad you save the leaves.

Pest management is most effective when you know the bugs you're dealing with. Japanese beetles, for example, lay eggs that live in the ground over the winter as small grubs and feed on roots (especially grass roots). Getting rid of the leaves has no effect on them. Treating the grass with milky spore is the way to attack japanese beetle grubs.

Canna leafrollers, on the other hand, do have eggs that overwinter in the dead foliage. So picking up the canna foliage and discarding it is very effective in diminishing next year's population.

Esh, have any other canna roller suggestions?
Mine are bad every year and I always get rid of damaged foliage. I think it may just be fresh laid problems...they do not begin ravaging my cannas until June/July ...however, they ANNOY the holy heck outta me!

I don't have any other ideas. I don't know if it would help to dig up the tubers every few winters and put them in the garage/basement.

I gave up on growing them after a while. It was just too much trouble.

Esh, I hope you are saving those bags of Japanese honeysuckle and other weeds! They also make great compost :). I sometimes feel that were it not for the weeds, I would have no compost at all.

GGG, I have had some success spraying tobacco tea into the cannas (though I cheat and use cigarette butts). The smell is enough to drive them off, methinks.

Isn't it strange how different yards and plants are attacked by different things? Example - I have cannas like insane weeds. They multiply like crazy and I don't do a darn thing to them. I have even - gasp - pulled some and thrown them in the compost to thin them out. I have several different types of cannas and they all grow like they are in the rain forest.

But zucchini? Fuggedaboudit.