Garden Coach 8/20/2020

Chalet Garden Coach

Jennifer Brennan

August 20, 2020

TOPICS:

• Monday Phil Schwarz announced that from July 1 to August 17 the Chicago area had only had 3 inches of rain when the average was 6.5! Meaning that our area is 3 inches below normal! With very little rain predicted, that means we need to keep WATERING!
  1. This is particularly important for newly planted plants – the roots take 6-8 weeks to move from the “root ball” into the surrounding soil.
  2. Water the plants at least once a day when the temperatures are over 85.
• August 15 to September 25 is the best time of the year to plant perennials and trees and shrubs because of the warm soil temperatures and the cooler nights. Usually, there are Fall rains (I am praying for these to start), but supplemental water is used very efficiently due to the warm soil temperatures.
• This same period is the best time to transplant (move plants to a different location) and divide perennials (if you would like more for yourself or to share with a friend). See the attached list of the best ones to work with now AND ones that do NOT do well.
• Things to watch out for in your gardens: (All of these have shown up at the Plant Information windows, since we last talked):
  1. Lawns are starting to recover due to the shorter days, the cool break in the weather and early Labor Day/Fall fertilizing. I am still still seeing these diseases:
     1. Brown Patch – Rhizoctonia fungus occurs in temps over 85 with high humidity
     2. Summer Patch – Magnaporte fungus

• Dollar Spot – returned again

1. The grassy weed, Creeping Bent Grass has started to brown out, showing large areas of dead looking grass. Bring a sample or send a photo into the Plant Information Center for a confirmed ID. Be prepared to lightly rake the dead layer off the dormant bluegrass lawn and water and apply the Labor Day fertilizer application 2-3 weeks early. (Product to use – Scott’s Step One for Seeding with Mesotrione) See the photos of the crab grass and creeping bent in my lawn.
2. Lots of slugs are leaving holes in Hosta leaves. Use Sluggo at the rate of 1 teaspoon per square foot every 2 weeks for 3 applications.
3. Animals are eating the tomatoes and peppers before the people can harvest them. (Product to use – Bonide Rat Magic granules as barrier treatment around entire garden)
4. Rabbits are eating hostas, heucheras, roses and many other plants in the gardens. They do not have a sense of smell or taste until they are adolescnents, so they eat through most effective repellents. (Product to use – Liquid Fence Dual Action Rabbit Repellent)
5. There are many insects and fungal diseases in the vegetable gardens (Products to use – Bonide Fungonil with chlorothalanil and Bonide Tomato and Vegetable spray RTU or Bonide Orchard spray Ready to Spray Hose End with sulfur and pyrethrin)
6. Japanese beetles have finished their adult life cycles. But, now it is time to watch out for the grubs (their larvae) in the lawns – usually the first indication is the damage done by skunks or raccoons digging the lawn up to find the 1 grub per square foot in your lawn. If you had grubs last year, the animal pests will come back looking and digging again this year. Use repellents like Bonide Repels-All or Bonide Rat Magic to prevent them from entering “your restaurant” to even start digging.
7. There are still many of the fungal leaf spot diseases are showing up now – The “star” again this week is the “rusts” on apples, crabapples, hawthorns and roses. Unfortunately, once the spots show up there is nothing to do except keeping the plants out of stress by watering and fertilizing. Plan to do a good Fall clean-up to get rid of dropped leaves that can carry the spores into next Spring. (Products to use next spring – Immunox concentrate)
8. Apple Scab damage on all of the rose family of plants. Spraying now reducs the “spore load” in the environment for next year. (Products to use – BioAdvanced 3-in-1 Spray RTU or Ready to Spray hose end.)
9. Now is the time for boxwood Volutella stem canker to spread. I got a great sample showing what happens to the plant as a result. The bark “pops” off the stem. (Products to use – BioAdvanced 3-in-1 Spray RTU or Ready to Spray hose end.)

• What to do –
  1. “Deadhead” flowering plants to encourage repeat bloom.
  2. Evaluate perennials in your gardens to determine if dividing is necessary. The best time to do it is between August 15 and September 25. Register for the September 21, at 10AM, virtual Learning Center webinar on “Transplanting and Dividing Garden Plants”.
  3. Now is the time to get rid of as many weeds and possible. Pull them out of flower gardens and apply a pre-emergent control like Preen or Corn Gluten Meal after the beds are all clean and tidy. It will prevent any weed seeds from germinating (biennial and perennial weeds start in the late summer and early fall, coming back in the spring to taunt you.)
  4. Get one more fertilizer application under the plants on top of the soil (ideally before August 25^th). It is especially important for plants that flower in the Spring – now is when they are forming the buds – give them the “building blocks” that fertilizer provides and keep watering! (I just applied Milorganite on my lawn AND all of my trees, shrubs and flower beds. An extra benefit is that it repels rabbits and deer for a short period of time.)
  5. Spread Sluggo slug bait. This effort will reduce the number that “over-winter” in the leaf litter and come back bigger next year.
  6. Protect the plants that the insects want to eat. Use insecticides in an “Earth friendly” manner – using them late in the afternoon or early evening, when the pollinators are back at their hives. The next morning it will be dry and will not kill them.
  7. Drench roses, crabapples, grapes and other members of the Rose family with preventative BioAdvanced All-In-One Rose & Flower Care
  8. Spray Vegetable garden weekly to control diseases and insects
  9. Keep applying animal repellents – weekly for best control.
  10. Sign up for the Chalet Virtual Learning Center on August 21, 2020 at 1PM for “Dividing and Transplanting Garden Plants”. https://chaletnursery.com/pages/virtual-learning-series-class-3