OVER THE GARDEN FENCE

April 21, 2007

Welcome! As I am sitting and gathering my notes, I am wondering, is it really spring? It smells like spring, feels like spring, so I think its spring while I hold my breath hoping for no more frosts, cold snaps, or snowstorms. I have noticed hostas popping their sharp little points up out of the ground and little puff balls of astilbes emerging up through the mulch. Plants that browned up from the deep freese last week are already starting to pop back. The German iris are up about 4 or so, standing like little soldiers, and my bleeding hearts are starting to send up secondary growth after the last cold spell. My favorite flower of the week is Iris Reniculata that bloom from bulbs put in last fall in a bright bluish purple. I love spring!

Lets get started as we walk and work in the yard this week.

Have you ever seen what looks like brown little pine cone growths at the end of the branches of your blue spruce or other spruce? That is called Cooley Spruce gall and can be controlled with a spray now of 38 Plus mixed with Spreader Sticker on a day above freezing so that it can be absorbed by the tree. Spray now and repeat again in two weeks or before the bud emerges from the sheath to kill the tiny insects that cause the galls to form. Spruce galls can be prevented by not having spruce of any kind planted near Douglas Fir Evergreens. Douglas Firs are the co-host needed to cause an infestation of spruce gall in spruce, other firs are ok to plant near them. Let Wedels help you in your selection to avoid this situation on further plantings. Any Douglas Fir that are planted near spruce should also be sprayed in August with Isotox to kill adult aphids.

Several customers this week have reported seeing termite swarmers hovering around the yard and outside their homes. One application of Fertilome 38 Plus will kill termite swarmers and carpenter ants outside. If you suspect your home structure is infested with termites, be sure to call a professional pest control company.

On certain plants, such as daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths, slugs are already getting active. Many bulb leaves emerged then were knocked to the ground by frost, giving slugs a perfect moist hiding place. Slugs work on underside of the bulb plant leaves and will soon be on those new emerging hostas. Sprinkle Ortho Bug-Geta around bulb plantings and new, freshly emerging perennial plants to avoid damage. Diatomacious earth can also be used as a natural control that will actually lacerate the slug as it passes through it.

Now is the time to avoid borers in your iris bed. Have you ever seen a patch of German iris that is not producing flowers and dying off? Chances are the rhizomes were infested with borers and the center has died out due to the damage. To prevent this, apply Fertilome 38 Plus on new foliage every ten days until foliage is three-quarters mature. To help spray stick to the waxy iris foliage, add spreader sticker to your spray. Iris are heavy feeders; be sure to feed them with Espoma Flower Tone. The combination of 38 Plus spray and fertilizing will ensure a good, healthy crop of beautiful flowers this season.

As I walk over to the barn doors in the side yard, I notice the front entry has brand new mole damage, which are probably feeding runs, looking for all the grubs in my lawn. Also, as I dug in some perennials the other evening, the amount of grubs that came up with each scoop full was quite astonishing. Moles have living runs and feeding runs, so to see what is active, stomp down all the raised areas and come back 24 - 48 hours later. The runs that are active are the living ones. I suggest using Tomcat gummy worm mole killer bait in each run use a stick to dig out an area that you can put the Tomcat worm down into. Then cover that area back up with soil. Tomcat worms mimic the moles natural food source, but just one bite is toxic to them. To control grubs and prevent further mole infestations, apply Dylox over the yard at the rate of one bag per 5,000 square feet for immediate control. For the long term, apply Scotts Grubex in late June or the middle of July to control grubs for the rest of the season.

Wedels also carries a natural Japanese beetlegrub remedy called Milky Spore, which is a bacteria that actually attacks the grubs and colonizes off dead grubs. The more dead grubs, the more it colonizes and builds up an immunity that some homeowners say gives great control for up to 20 years.

Certain homeowners have concerns about native surrounding areas around and in the yard for fleas and ticks. Apply Turf Ranger now in tall, grassy areas in the yard and landscape. 38 Plus can be applied in liquid form with a pump sprayer for the hard-to-reach areas, or apply granular Turf Ranger granules with a spreader for lawn areas.

I hate to say this, but pretty soon, well be seeing those pesky black carpenter ants coming from who-knows-where. In our home, theyre infiltrating from two huge maple trees that overhang the house. One of these branches is 24 - 30 plus inches thick and is approximately 75 feet off the ground, and I would hate to lose its cool shade. Now is the time to apply Ortho Home Defense as a barrier around the foundation of the house to help with control. Home Defense also prevents earwigs & pillbugs in spring and European lady bugs form invading the house in the summer.

Now would also be a good time to take care of any insect, bug, or spider that has overwintered in your basement, including Michigan basements. Take out the dogs and cats that live in the house, shut off the pilot lights, and bug bomb the basement. Use one can in every room. A little preventative now will pay off greatly later.

Walking around and looking at my lawn shows me that it could use a lot of help. Well, the time is approaching to apply crabgrass control. Either use Scotts Lawn Pro Crabgrass Preventer with Fertilizer or Scotts Step 1. If there are areas that need grass seed, use Scotts Step 1 for Seeding.

For those who are looking for natural lawn products, theres something new available at Wedels this year - Gro Well with Corn Gluten Crabgrass Preventer. Corn Gluten also has preemergent capabilities for some summer weeds. Gro Wells all-natural product line-up includes the crabgrass control as well as natural fertilizer, natural fertilizer with iron, and Carbon. Carbon has the unique ability to break up and loosen heavy silt particles also known as clay.

As you prepare to have a great-looking lawn this year, the first step is to make sure your pH is ok. Healthy lawns would prefer a pH of 6.5 - 7. On a pH scale, 7 is neutral. Down at the garden center, we have a new fast-acting lime called Encap to raise soil pH. Encap covers twice the area as other lime products with one bag covering up to 5,000 square feet.

Well, what weve discussed so far sounds like a lot of work, so now lets have a little fun. Veggies! Vegetable garden areas may be sprayed now with Round-Up mixed with Spreader Sticker on those abundant perennial weeds. Three days later, till up soil. For optimum weed control, water garden area so that any missed weeds start to show foliage. Apply Round-up a second time; planting may be done 5 days after Round-up is sprayed.

Do you like to weed your vegetable garden? Now theres a product that can be sprayed on to prevent weeds from germinating, saving you hours of labor. Monterey Vegetable and Ornamental Weeder prevents both annual grasses & broadleaf weeds and should be applied after vegetable seeds and plants have started to grow.

After spraying Round-Up on the garden area at our home, my next step was to bring home dads tractor & rototiller and get it all ready to go. Five nights later, my wife, Danielle, planted all by herself, Kennebec and Red Pontiac potatoes and were trying some of those German Butterball potatoes. She enriched the soil in each hole with gypsum, Espoma Plant Tone, and Calcium Nitrate for a bigger, better crop. Well let you know how they turn out. Nothing like fresh red skins in the late summer with fresh, crisp beans and grilled up chops or steaks. Yumm! Oh!

And yum is right. There is a delicious pallet of plant and perennial colors coming into Wedels every day. Fresh out of the farms are hardy evergreen azaleas, boxwoods, hollies, mountain laurels, lilacs and more. Redbud, shadblow, dogwood, magnolia, and crabapple are a few of the hundreds of beautiful trees arriving daily. Fruit trees have arrived including Honeycrisp, Red Delicious & Yellow Delicious apples, Bing, Stella, & Black Tartarian Sweet Cherry trees, Mountmorency tart cherry trees, pears, apricots, peaches, and more, all ready to plant for the freshest, best-tasting fruit from your own home orchard.

Also just in is the first load of sod for lawn repair projects, and fresh bulk mulches including cedar, hardwood, bark fines, red dyed, and river rock as well as 3 sizes of boulders.

I cant wait to start on the next project in the yard! I cant wait to plant one of the cool new weeping larches, a new Hinoki cypress, or Japanese maple. Sorry, Im a plantaholic! Come on down - get the adrenalin flowing - spring is here!