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Garden Coach 8/6/2020

Desiree G
Updated

Garden Coach

 August 6, 2020

Jennifer Brennan

 

TOPICS:

  • The break in the weather has been a relief for ALL of the plants in our landscape, especially the cool season turf grasses. Take advantage of the BEST growing conditions to give the lawns an early Labor Day / Fall fertilizer. I recommend the Espoma brand Lawn Fertilizer or if there are more than 25% weeds use the Bonide brand Weed & Feed (labeled for “late Spring” and “Fall”).

 

  • Crabgrass exploded all over the sunny areas of our lawns. It is an annual weed and will die with the first hard freeze, but it makes 1,000’s of seeds. Kill it early with either Fertilome Weed-Out with Crabgrass Killer RTU. (Be prepared to use a good pre-emergent weed preventer early next Spring - April)

 

  • Keep watering ALL areas of your lawns and gardens, because we are still not getting the rain that we need! (Half of the samples that we are seeing in the Plant Information Center are from lack of water.)

 

  • Keep planting as long as you are committed to watering the root balls of the plants by hand. We have seen many “failures” due to the reliance on sprinkler systems.

 

  • Things to watch out for in your gardens: (All of these have shown up at the Plant Information windows, since we last talked):
    1. The grassy weed, Creeping Bent Grass has started to brown out, showing large areas of dead looking grass. Bring a sample 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)
    2. There are many insects and fungal diseases in the vegetable gardens (Products to use – Bonide Fungonil with chlorothalanil or substitute with Fertilome Broad Spectrum Landscape & Garden Fungicide and Bonide Tomato and Vegetable spray RTU or Bonide Orchard spray Ready to Spray Hose End with sulfur and pyrethrin or substitute with Fertilome Triple Action Plus Insecticide-Fungicide-Miticide)
    3. Japanese beetles are diminishing. We are still seeing damage, but probably only have 2 more weeks to deal with them. I have a sample to show, Watch your roses, grapes, Lindens, Birches, Japanese Maples, Crabapples, raspberries and Hollyhocks. (Products to use – BioAdvanced 3-in-1 Spray RTU or Ready to Spray hose end – we are waiting for a back-order to come in – many people own these already, so now it the time to use them.)
    4. After saying that about the Japanese Beetles, I need to warn you to be on the look-out (in sunny lawns), for the larva (grubs) that will be hatching soon – in the next 2-3 weeks. They eat the underground roots and can cause damage to lawns and other landscape plants. There is still time to apply Scott’s GrubEx.
    5. 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. (Products to use next spring – Immunox concentrate)
    6. Apple Scab on all of the rose family of plants. (Products to use – BioAdvanced 3-in-1 Spray RTU or Ready to Spray hose end.)
    7. 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 or Bio-Advanced Rose & Flower All-In-One drench)
    8. Lots of slugs are leaving holes in Hosta leaves. Use Sluggo at the rate of 1 teaspoon per square feet every 2 weeks for 3 applications.
    9. 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)
    10. Baby rabbits are eating hostas, heucheras and many other plants in the gardens. They do not have a sense of smell or taste until they are adolescents, so they eat through most effective repellents. (Product to use – Liquid Fence Dual Action Rabbit Repellent)

 

  • What to do
    1. Apply lawn fertilizer this week to get a head start on the rejuvenation process after this horrendously hot summer.
    2. Get one more fertilizer application under the plants on top of the soil. 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.
    3. Spread Sluggo slug bait.
    4. 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.
    5. Drench roses, crabapples, grapes and other members of the Rose family with preventative BioAdvanced All-In-One Rose & Flower Care
    6. Spray Vegetable garden weekly to control diseases and insects
    7. Keep applying animal repellents – weekly for best control

 

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