Timely Garden Tips

From Over the Garden Fence

March 31, 2007

Good morning and welcome to the 49th season of Over the Garden Fence. It has been such a beautiful week of weather in March, making trees and plants leaf out earlier than usual. The willow with their new lime green flower and foliage, the red flowers of a Scarlet Fall red maple, the heads of the tulips and daffodils popping through the foliage about ready to flower. Now if I could only keep my dog Jake out of them! I love spring. To walk the yard each night or morning to see what's new, what's popping up, and to pull a few weeds.

Folks, as spring is coming faster than normal, these next few days are important to get some things done. If your dormant sprays have not been put on yet, it is best to choose the lime-sulfur spray because it will kill some insects and all your diseases. Since your lime-sulfur spray and your fung-oil spray cannot be applied at the same time or mixed together, the lime-sulfur spray is recommended to be sprayed 1st and then apply the fung-oil at the reduced rate, not dormant rate, 10 days to 2 weeks from now. As I look around the yard, it's already too late to spray certain plants: red maple, willow, honeysuckle shrub, some shrub roses. Each yard is different, just remember, if the bud of the plant is still pointed, and leaves are not coming out, it's OK to spray. And on roses that are already leafed out, still spray the ground around the plants in the beds, and the lime-sulfur will still kill the spare colonies around the roses.

For listeners with oak trees in their yard, now is the time to stop pruning any branches or limbs if you care about the tree. Maples can still be pruned along with many other shade and ornamental trees. You'll notice that it will bleed from the pruning, but that's OK for the tree.

Lots of things to do with the yards and lawns this time of year. First thing, anyone applying a crabgrass preventer on the yard this year, it is too early. With even the warm weather on us, it will get cool again. We are recommending to wait until at least the 3rd week of April for Step 1 or crabgrass preventer. This gives you a great time for three weeks to overseed the yard. If snow mold has not been raked up, rake up crusty areas with a leaf rake and overseed the entire yard with two to three pounds of Supreme Blend grass seed, or apply Scotts start fertilizer. With the warm days and cool ground, it is the best time to overseed. Then just make sure you use Scotts Step 1 for seed, which has a selective kill only effective on preventing new crabgrass plants to germinate. So if the question has not been answered, I'll say it again, it is too early to put down crabgrass preventers! Although now is the time to apply your organic crabgrass and weed preventers. We have a great new line of organic and natural corn based products from Gro-Well. This provides a full line of lawn products organically based, but it does take a couple of weeks to become active and create a "barrier", so these products can be applied now.

Perennial weeds are already starting to sprout in the yard, including dandelions, spurge, buckhorn, oxalis and creeping charlie. Hit them now with Fertilome Weed Free Zone. Mix this with oil based spreader sticker in a pump sprayer that is separately marked for weed killer sprays. This allows you to get a jump on those buggers before your weed and feed application is due. For small contained areas like perennial beds, cut out both ends of a coffee can, put it over the weed, and then spray down in the can to avoid dusting onto other plants. Dial down your pump sprayer to a fine mist and walk the yard on a calm morning or evening of a day with no rain schedule for 24 hours for good control in the yard. I mentioned earlier about a marked sprayer: Have one pump sprayer specially marked for weed control, and one for your other sprays like insecticides and disease control, and possibly a third one for fruits and vegetables. Plastic is porous and can absorb the ingredients of weed control like round-up. Even after washing it out, it could be detrimental if it was used on roses next, for spraying foliage for example.

Now is also a great time to drench the soil with Bayer Tree and Shrub insecticide, for anyone having Japanese beetle problems. Japanese beetles emerge a few months from now, but applying now will allow your plants to absorb or "drink up" the systemic making the plant poisonous to the beetle. Beetles love a lot of burgundy, leafed plants, including Crimson King maple, purple leaf sandcherry, Thundercloud plum, Weeping Snow Fountain cherry, althea and plenty of other plants, including roses. Apply at the rate of one ounce of solution mixed in a gallon of water in a 5 gallon bucket or watering can for every inch of tree circumference, and 3 ounces per foot of shrub height, mixed again with water. So for example, if the trunk of your tree is 6" caliper, 4-6" from the ground, multiply the caliper of 6" x pi (3.14) to get the distance around. This gives you 18-19 ounces of solution mixed with water for 1 tree. It's a great, easy way to control Japanese Beetles and many other insects, including aphids.

Last week we talked about broadleaf evergreens and the winter damage they incurred. Boy my azaleas took a beating, with almost a burnt rust color to the foliage. The plant looks dead, but it's not. Looking at it closely, little green buds the size of a pencil head are starting to appear. Be patient and feed the plant now with 1 cup of Espoma Holly tone around each plant to ensure new growth.

Now is also the time to start thinking about spring planting in the yard. We are happy to help you with our "We plan, you plant" service. This allows you to come in with your ideas, dimensions, and pictures (worth a thousand words), "walk the yard" with us, and make a scratch sketch. Then you can plan out your ideas on paper, work on your budget, and decide what needs to come out and what needs to stay. We can help! From placing your new shade tree, to where the water garden will go, to the patio and walkway, to where the fire pit or outdoor kitchen could go. How about some up-lighting or walkway lighting? We can help! So often lighting at a residence looks like an airport runway with lights every 4 feet all the way down the sidewalk. With SPJ lighting we can up-light or accent a certain tree or specimen plant, or accent a brook or stream in the early evening hours, helping out with security issues as a side benefit.

Looking at the palate of tastes for plants is going to be sooo much fun in 2007. Folks, I am a plant nut. If there is a cool new plant on the market, if it's hardy for our zone, we try to carry it. This gives you the choices you need to put together "in your mind" the color tones and textures you need to create "the look" for that one spot or one area in the landscape. The newest and most exciting plants on the market right now include a lot of cutting edge technology, new hybridizers and new ideas from Proven Winners. Talk about a line-up: from shade to sun, from dwarfs to full size, from evergreens to flowering shrubs, these are the coolest of the cool. Our 2007-2008 lineup includes Leptodermis, Coppertina ninebark, Snowstorm spirea, Little Kim hibiscus, Little Teddy Arborvitae, Castle Wall Holly, Fine Wine Weigela, Black Lace elderberry, the Cityline Hydrangea series, just to name a few. It's going to be so much fun with they come into the market for sale. Introductions will be during the spring, summer and fall, as the plants are ready. These new species can give a garden a whole new look.

Leptodermis most people haven't even heard of, let alone seen before. It's a great new Proven Winners plant. I'd describe this plant as a little blooming machine, a wonderful little known shrub with a low mounding habit and small violet purple lilac blooms that appear in late spring and don't stop until frost. Very fragrant.

Another is Black Lace elderberry. There has never been a plant with so much appeal. Black Lace is reminiscent of a Japanese Maple with its lacy purple black foliage. Even better, if produces massive pink flowers that reach 6" in diameter. Its great color texture makes a great accent plant in any perennial garden or design.