OVER THE GARDEN FENCE

April 30, 2005

Ive been in the nursery and garden center business for over fifty years and Im still amazed at how intense and hardy Southwest Michigan gardeners are. Last Saturday was certainly not the best weather day, yet at the garden center, people were purchasing seeds, fertilizers, tools, shrubs, trees and perennials all to take home to use or plant. It should not surprise me, after all we see joggers and golfers in the rain, so why not gardeners? These dedicated green thumbers know that waiting for perfect weather can create a real jam-up of garden, lawn, and landscape projects in May and June.

At least Michigans weather is not boring! April has shown us all four seasons with cold, heat, sun, rain, and cold. Lets hope May weather will slip back into a more normal pattern.

A stroll through our garden and landscape this morning will reveal some very pressing projects and others that, if completed now, will save valuable time when bedding plant season arrives in a week or two.

First lets look at the needs of our lawns. Begin raising mower height one half inch higher each mowing until it is 3 to 3 inches high. Many lawns still show signs of droughty soil. The rain and snow this past 10 days still leaves some very dry soil conditions. Lawns that receive the proper moisture have fewer weeds, deeper roots that fill in bare spots, and resist diseases. How much moisture is enough? The ideal is inch of rain or irrigation every 3 days.

This is a good time to apply broad leaf weed killers on lawns. The best and most weather proof broadleaf lawn weed control is Weed Free Zone with Carfentazone. There is still time to apply Step One Crabgrass Preventer. If lawns are off-color and not filling in, apply an application of Scotts Pro Super Turf Builder now.

Seed head production is an annual right of spring for turfgrass. Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, and of course annual bluegrass are all currently sprouting seed heads. They not only detract from the appearance of the turf, but the seed stalks are tough to mow. By now you probably have some good mowing experience under your belt, and the mower blade might even be a little dull. To help ensure a good, clean cut, make sure the mower blade is sharp. However, even with a sharp blade, you still may see a sheen or whitish look to the turf after mowing due to the seed stalks. The best advice is to keep on top of your mowing schedule, not allowing grass to grow too tall, and make sure the blades are sharp. Seed head production will be over in 2 to 3 weeks.

As soon as daffodils, tulips, and other spring flowering bulbs finish blooming, they should be fertilized with Bloom Booster water soluble plant food. Feeding now will help these bulbs flower better next spring.

Annual and perennial beds that are scheduled to be planted in May should be prepared ahead of time. Be sure to spray new planting areas, before tilling, with KillZall to rid area of all perennial weeds and grasses. Incorporate clay soil conditioner 6 inches deep into heavy soils to improve drainage and air movement in flower beds. Light, sandy soils should have sphagnum peat moss mixed into the top four inches. Then apply Plant Tone and composted cow manure and mix with the top 3 inches of the planting bed soil. After leveling soil, apply 2 to 3 inches of irrigation. Your planting beds then will be ready for planting in two weeds. Some advance prepping will assure the best plants ever this summer. If in doubt about your soils ability to produce good plants, bring soil samples to Wedels for a free analysis.

Many trees are vulnerable to leaf diseases that often show up in the summer with deformed, off-color leaves and premature leaf drop. If you own a tree that fell victim last year, be sure to spray Halt Fungicide now. April and May are when leaf infection occurs. Spraying now will give relief this summer.

A walk through a Southwest Michigan woods in the spring is a treat all of us enjoy. Soft greens, pinks, yellows and white are an encouragement to plant lovers after a long, hard winter. Folks who wish to establish some woodland wildflowers in their shady landscape will find that starting from plants is the most successful method. Wedels stocks potted native woodland flowers like Trillium, Dutchmans Breeches, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, ferns, Blood Root, Spring Beauty, May Apple, violets, and many others.

Im asked often if grass clippings would make a good mulch around garden plants and landscape ornamentals. My reply is always an emphatic NO! Grass clippings can be rototilled into vegetable gardens before planting. Grass clippings also make a great soil conditioner when mixed with tree leaves, after they have been allowed to decompose, and then mixed into flowerbed soil, but not as a mulch. Some reasons not to use fresh grass clippings as a mulch include; they will suffocate plants and soil, the odor of rotting grass clippings is quite disturbing, they often mold, and they become very unsightly.

Pachysandra ground cover plantings should be examined closely at this time for scale damage. We have had customers bring in samples of pachysandra with scale-encrusted stems. If damage is extensive, I recommend shearing or mowing off the top of pachysandra plants, removing all of the infested foliage. Next, spray with Safe-T-Side Horticultural Canola Oil and feed with Tree Tone. Most of these plantings will recover to good health if given care now.

I mentioned last week that Garlic Mustard was up, growing, and beginning to bloom. Also, it was time to kill it. I since realize that some folks are not aware of this foreign invader and destroyer of our beautiful Michigan wildflowers and many other native plants.

Every out-of-door enthusiast, whether passive, sports-minded, hunters, or gardeners, should take note of Garlic Mustard, the insidious invader of Southwest Michigans roadsides woods, parklands, and even gardens.

Garlic Mustard poses a severe threat to native plants and animals in forest communities in much of the Eastern and Midwestern United States. Many wildflowers that complete their life cycles in the springtime such as spring beauty, wild ginger, bloodroot, Dutchmans breeches, hepatica, toothworts, and trilliums, occur in the same habitat as garlic mustard. Once introduced to an area, garlic mustard out-competes native plants by aggressively monopolizing light, moisture, nutrients, soil, and space. Wildlife species that depend on these early plants for their foliage, pollen, nectar, fruits, seeds, and roots, are deprived of these essential food sources when garlic mustard replaces them. We are also deprived of the vibrant display of beautiful spring wildflowers.

Garlic mustard is a cool season biennial in the mustard family with hear-shaped, toothed leaves that give off an odor of garlic when crushed. Flowering plants of garlic mustard reach from 2 to 3 feet in height and produce button-like clusters of small white flowers, which are currently in bloom.

Garlic mustard frequently occurs in moist, shaded soil in areas that are most susceptible to rapid invasion and dominance. After spending the first half of its two-year life cycle as a rosette of leaves, garlic mustard plants develop rapidly the following spring into mature plants that flower, produce seed and die by late June. A single plant can produce thousands of seeds, which scatter as much as several feet from the parent plant.

Due to the long life of its seeds in the soil, which may be five years or more, effective management of garlic mustard requires a long term commitment. The goal is to prevent seed production until the stored seed is exhausted. Hand removal of plants is possible for light infestations and when desirable native species co-occur.

For heavy infestations, application of the systemic herbicide KillZall is also effective. KillZall may be applied at any time of year as long as the temperature is above 50 degrees. Care must be taken not to get KillZall on desirable plants as the product is non-selective.

It is very important for everyone to become familiar with garlic mustard and destroy all visible plants. We all need to work together to help protect our Michigan landscape from this pest.