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Denny's Soapbox |
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Spring Timely Tips
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| Don’t put that Shovel Down So, you haven’t planted your summer flowers and veggie’s yet. You are not too late; you are actually smarter than you give yourself credit for. Homeowners that just had to plant in May, regardless of the wet, cool soil, will find themselves planting a second time. June this year will be a much better month to properly plant new flowers along with new trees and shrubs. Local nurseries and garden centers still have a wonderful assortment of plants to choose from. When it comes to adding new, and improved landscape plants remember you can plant anything anywhere as long as the ground is not frozen. Lawn Update Keep mowing your grass at 3 inches, all the rain we’ve experienced over the last seven weeks has caused the roots of those grass blades to remain very shallow in the soil. You’ll be tempted but no heavy feeding of lawn food until the fall. You might notice parts of your lawn develop small brown areas. This could be brown patch or one of the other lawn diseases. These are all weather related and go away as weather conditions improve. None of these diseases cause permanent damage. Don’t be tempted to apply or have a lawn service provide products that claim to help. While this is somewhat true they’ll only help slow the spread of the disease problem. Again, I encourage you not to do any heavy feeding with high nitrogen fertilizer until the fall. You’re probably noticing lawn grasses with seed heads forming. This is a natural part of turf fescue and blue grass growing habit. Do not lower your cutting height to remove them. Let them go and mature. This is only an aesthetic interruption for a couple of weeks. More Plant Info • Apply another application of Dimension to your plant beds. • Dead-head (remove) the spent Knock Out Rose blooms. You’ll get more new blooms quicker. • Leave all the foliage on your spring flowering bulbs, they make food in the bulb for more color next year. • Evergreen needle drop is normal; the plant is just discarding the oldest needles as new ones appear. However, if the entire plant, especially spruce and pine are totally brown they are dead. • Feed all your plants with a time-release fertilizer that will slowly feed your plants all season. Two great ones are Osmocote and Start N’ Gro. Both get applied by spreading the fertilizer over the top of the soil in your plant beds. • If you used shredded hardwood mulch, keep loosening the mulch every month with a cultivator. • We have gone from wet, cool weather to 90◦ days. You will notice your big leaf hydrangeas and impatiens wilt on sunny, hot days. Heat wilt can occur even when there’s good moisture in the soil. Always check the soil for moisture before bringing out the hose. Don’t just assume you need to water. • With newly planted annuals, pinch off all the bloom buds as they appear. Do this and you will have the best looking color in your neighborhood. Don’t panic, only do this for a week and watch those flowers grow. |
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