Gardening Tips - Spring

Ahh, Spring!

Ahh, Spring! Just the mention of the word brings a minds-eye picture of lush greenery, gentle rain showers with rays of sunlight streaming through the clouds afterwards, warm temperatures, and a wave of excitement. All of those pictures and feelings lend themselves well to spur you to go and work in your gardens. Once outside, you find lush green weeds, brown plants, something funky looking growing on everything, and a general feeling of despair.

First things first, you should go after the weeds before you do anything else. There are plenty of choices. For your turf, you can use Fertilome Weed Out plus lawn fertilizer (Step two of the lawn care program). This is a product that features a contact herbicide for broadleaf weeds and can be applied with a fertilizer spreader. This means that the product must come in contact with the leaf of the weed to be eliminated. Put this product on a moist lawn (to help the product stick) and then leave it there for a day, after that, water in the fertilizer. If the fertilizer is not needed right now, this product is available in a liquid form. There is also Fertilome Weed Out Plus that includes MSMA, a herbicide that also kills grassy weeds (like crabgrass). Be very careful about how you use these products. Do not allow overspray or drift (a mist of your chemical caught by a breeze) to come into contact with your bushes, annuals, or perennials. If you need a clean slate, use Hi-Yield Killzall to kill all the plants and weeds.

Now that you have that clean slate or if you just have a hole that demands to be filled, you're in luck. Just about every day we've been getting shipments of all kinds of plants. Annuals, vegetables, perennials, vines, shrubs, and trees - now is the time to plant them all.

Speaking of planting, what about your lawn? Thinking over overseeding? Getting new thoughts about a new lawn? Well, if you have fescue or bluegrass right now is the time to get cracking! Today! You'll want to have established plants for when the heat and dry of the summer invades. Of course, there are always things that like heat. If your idea of great grass is Bermuda, Buffalo, or Zoyzia - then June and July are your months to sow. (Remember to use Fertilome New Lawn Starter when planting any grass.) Bermuda, Buffalo, and Zoyzia are what are called warm season grasses. They need warm days and nights to germinate. That said - they are also the best at handling drought conditions.

There are other things that like warm nights - fungus. Black spot, powdery mildew, smut, and brown patch are all problems in your landscape. Fungus loves warm, moist nights (a good reason for why you should not water your lawn at night!). If you have something weird growing in your garden or lawn, bring in a sample and we can set you up with the best fungicide choice.