October is clean-up month

October is clean-up month in Shawnee. Each year the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce beautification committee promotes this effort to coincide with the City of Shawnee and Allied Waste scheduled bulk item pick up.
 The city inserted fliers in recent utility statements that give the dates of pick up for each part of town and provides information describing what can be left at the curb. Questions can be directed to Allied Waste at 275-9062.
 In addition to discarding bulk waste, residents are urged to take other steps to prepare their homes for the fall and winter months, especially since November and December bring lots of relatives and other visitors to town. Make it a “company’s coming” effort.
 Taking a close look at your property using the vantage point of your neighbor’s view from across the street is a good start.  You may see something that needs to be painted or shrubs that need to be trimmed.
 It probably won’t be the final one of the season, but a careful edging of grass along sidewalks and the curb is recommended. Grass along fence lines should be trimmed or perhaps a small strip next to the fence might be treated with a grass killer. If you have an alley, work with your neighbors to see that it is cleared of growth that would shelter pests such as insects, snakes, and rodents.
 October is a good month to plant pansies, flowering kale and cabbage, as well as other winter hardy plants. The kale shown in the picture above was planted last October. This spring when it bloomed, the spent blooms were removed and the plant was left undisturbed. It continued to get larger over the summer and now it has many heads that will begin turning soon. An alternative is to cut the kale back to the ground in the spring, score the stem with an X, and let it develop additional heads. These usually grow to about eight to twelve inches high.
 If you have read this far, you will be one of the first to know the Chamber beautification committee will be distributing 1,000 free trees on Oct. 31 at the Shawnee Municipal Airport, a great way to end the month of property improvement. These trees are being funded by the Apache Foundation and are obtained through the Oklahoma Tree Bank Foundation. Maple, oak, pine, pistache, bald cypress, and redbuds have been requested, but what will be received won’t be known until the trees arrive. A limit of three trees per household will be made available during the morning hours. More information will be provided closer to the date.