Tip of the Week

September is officially here and this is the best time to fertilize cool season lawns such as tall fescue and bluegrass. Fall temperatures and moisture levels are ideal for replenishing the nutrients that the stress of summer depleted from the turf.

Fertilizers containing higher concentrations of nitrogen should be used at this time of the year due to our soil conditions. Nitrogen helps thicken the stand of turf and encourages development of a healthy root system. A strong root system is the foundation of a healthy lawn. After the heat and drought stress of summer, fall rains, cooler temperatures and an application of fertilizer is just what your lawn needs to recover. The fertilizer helps to thicken up thin areas in the lawn.

I’m not sure what triggers the questions but, for some reason the end of summer brings questions about pruning. The question is, “Can I prune now?” The best answer is, “Depends." But for the most part late summer or early fall is not the best time to prune.

During early fall I would only recommend two types of pruning cuts be made. Those cuts would be to remove dead or dying plant tissue, or to remove a hazardous limb. It does not matter what type of plant — tree or shrub. Dead plant tissue is dead, so it must be removed and safety always comes first. Outside of these types of cuts, fall is not a good time to prune.

Fall is the best time to fertilize cool-season lawns like tall fescue and bluegrass. Are you ready?

The first step is to get your soil tested. Testing your soil will insure you are fertilizing appropriately. Missouri Extension and K-State Research and Extension both provide soil testing services to residents for a minimal charge.

A basic soil test provides homeowners with the necessary information to begin a fertilization schedule. The results of a soil test will answer four questions:

1. What nutrients does my soil need?
2. What type of fertilizer should I use?
3. How much fertilizer should I use?

I know this title sounds like a Clint Eastwood movie, but a comparison can be made to one of August’s most visible insects and that is the fall webworm.

Let me break it down for you, continuing the epic Italian spaghetti western film theme. I will start with the bad news and end with the good.

The Bad – Fall webworms are a colony or group feeder. Hundreds of caterpillars munch away leaves of numerous trees including walnut, hickory, birch, oak, ash and crabapple. Their feeding will strip the tree’s branches of its leaves.

WebwormsThe Ugly – These worms all live inside a thick webbing that engulfs the branches. As the larvae feed they enlarge the web, or bag, to include more foliage. The result is an ugly web clinging over the end of the branch.

In order to have a bumper crop of spring-bearing strawberries next season, it’s important to fertilize in August. An application of nitrogen at this time is important in order to increase the number of strawberries produced.

There has been plenty of daylight hours and warm (actually downright hot) temperatures this past June through August to promote the growth of new runner, or daughter, plants. As daughter plants grow, they build up food reserves. As daylight hours dwindle down and temperatures cool off in September and October, fruit buds for the next year's fruit crop develop.

To get a good berry crop next spring, it is important for strawberry plants to be vigorous and healthy during the development of new plants and fruit buds. Nitrogen that is applied in early to mid-August will help promote fruit bud development.

People often ask me if this is a normal year. I often jokingly reply that there is no such thing as “normal”. In fact abnormal is the new normal in the Kansas City area. It seems that no two years here are the same.

This has been an interesting year. Spring was cooler than normal and rainfall was plentiful. In fact, in many areas it was too bountiful. The abundant rains in May and June actually may be causing some of the landscape problems we are now seeing.

Leaf Disease –- It seems that just about every plant in the current landscape has some type of spot or lesion. These so called “leaf spot diseases” normally don’t result in long-term damage to the plant. The only real “problem” is that the tree, shrub or flower doesn’t have attractive foliage. We are seeing more yellowing and falling of leaves. Controls are difficult because the damage does not appear until after the infection period. So about all we can do is provide good care and help the plant to recover from the stress.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No…it’s a cicada killer! These large wasps are 1-1/3 to 1-5/8-inches long and fly slowly above the ground. They have a black body with yellow marks across the thorax and abdomen. Similar to the red-caped super hero, the cicada killers wings are reddish-orange.

The large wasps can be quite intimidating if they fly in your direction, but no fear, they don’t sting! In fact, they usually ignore people altogether. Males may act aggressively if they feel they are threatened, but are unable to sting. Females can sting, but are so passive that they rarely do. Even if the female does sting, the pain is less than that of smaller wasps such as the yellow jacket or paper wasp, and is similar to the sting of a sweat bee.

Hot and humid conditions do not sound like a good time to garden. But if you’re an iris lover forget about the weather as there is work to be done. Mid July through mid August is the best time to plant, move or divide iris. Iris is one of the most popular perennials in the garden and easy to grow. Although they provide pleasure for many years with little care, periodic dividing is an important cultural practice for maintaining plant health.

As a general rule, iris should be divided about every three to five years. Without timely dividing, the plants simply outgrow their allotted space in the garden. Normally, the bloom quality of the clump decreases when the plants become overcrowded.

Water deep and infrequently. During hot summer months, water deeply once or twice per week. It promotes deep roots and maintains adequate soil moisture.

Deeply and infrequently is often the mantra that we hear. But just how deeply and how infrequently should you water? An adequate amount of water is definitely needed by plants to keep them healthy and beautiful. Under watering can cause turfgrass to overheat, go dormant, or even die. However, too much water in the soil:

- Causes too little oxygen for the turf roots
- Slows the uptake of nutrients
- Encourages diseases
- Promotes excessive growth of our plants – requiring more frequent mowing.

It is one of the most easily identified insect found in this area, the bagworm. Bagworms are out in full force this year, munching their way through many landscape plants. Bagworms form a silken bag that’s mixed with plant parts and range in size up to a couple of inches in length.

Bagworms will feed on many different plant materials, but their favorite tends to be junipers and arborvitae. The young, worm-like insects eat the foliage resulting in an initial browning of the area followed by death of the plant under severe feeding. Understanding the bagworm's life cycle is important for control.

Several weeks have passed since the Food and Drug Administration warned consumers of a Salmonella outbreak linked to certain tomatoes. All U.S. states have been cleared as the source with the exception of Florida. Not all the sources from Mexico been cleared.

Tomatoes are returning to restaurants and supermarkets, but can consumers trust this produce after the food safety scare?

Disease outbreaks such as this one are a good reminder of the importance of a local, healthy food supply. Some of the safest produce to consume is that from your own backyard and community. For those with happily growing tomato plants, bring on the fresh salsa and BLT’s!

It has often been said that “April showers bring May flowers.” I think we should revise the saying for the spring of 2008. It could go something like this, “Well if April showers bring May flowers, then May showers are certain to bring June weeds.”

If you look close, tiny weed seedlings of all kinds are out there lurking in the sidewalk cracks, in the garden, and in some cases, thick as hair on a dog’s back in bare soil locations such as the garden. Weeds are easiest to control when they are small. The larger they become the bigger the roots and crown, which makes them almost impossible to pull out by hand, hoe or even use chemical controls.

Mow it High

Keep your mower blades sharp and stick to the one-third rule. Never remove more than one-third of the height of the blades at one mowing. Recommended mowing heights for home lawns are:

- Bluegrass 2–3 inches
- Buffalograss 2–3 inches
- Perennial ryegrass 2–3 inches
- Bermudagrass 1–2 inches
- Tall fescue 2.5–3.5 inches
- Zoysiagrass 1–2 inches

Let it Lie

Leave your grass clippings on the lawn. They will return up to 25 percent of the needed nitrogen.

Sweep grass clippings off paved surfaces
Clippings that fall on your driveway and sidewalks are likely to wash into storm drains. Storm drains lead directly to creeks and streams; the water is not treated. When grass clippings and yard debris wash into the natural waterways they decompose into nitrogen, which can pollute water ecosystems. By sweeping your grass clippings onto your lawn, you are returning that needed nitrogen back to your soil.

Think twice before turning on the sprinkler system or watering your flower garden. How you water now will help determine your plants' needs later on this summer. As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

By that I mean if your plants get used to a constant supply of water now they will expect it during the heat of summer. Keeping the plants on the lean side will encourage them to send roots deeper into the soil in search of moisture. By providing it at the surface, the roots will develop right under the surface. Summer heat and evaporation will quickly dry the soil close to the surface leaving the plants struggling to find ample moisture. Grass is especially prone to this problem.

Annuals for summer color are flying off the nursery and garden center shelves. We are all in a hurry to get the plants in the ground for a summer of great color in the landscape. By taking a little extra care when planting, we can help ensure success for the long, hot summer months ahead. Follow these steps:

1. Plant selection. When possible buy your plants green, that is, without flower buds. Plants grown in small packs quickly become pot bound and stunted. Oftentimes they cannot overcome this stunting. Buying green usually means that the plant is younger, having spent less time in a small container.

Pinching or cutting back perennials is a task that will result in a nicer appearance in the garden. A plant that has been pinched often is short, stockier and less likely to flop over in the garden. The most common plant pinched or cut back is the garden mum, but other plants respond well to this treatment.

Pinching is the removal of the growing point of the stem, resulting in the development of side shoots. Many times, one growing shoot will produce two to four shoots each, which flower later in the season. Some plants should only be cut back once, while others can be pinched a couple of times. The classic example is garden mums. For example, when the mum reaches about 6 inches high cut it back to about 3 inches. A month later when the plant reaches 6 to 8 inches again, cut it back again to 4 or so inches. This process can be repeated until July 1. Growth produced after this period of time will need to develop for fall flowering. Fall asters can also be treated this way.

By DEAN FOSDICK
The Associated Press

Less is more when designing a meditation garden, where the minimalist approach can be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. These gardens are meant for dreaming, not for tending.

Choose low-maintenance plants — for the most part perennials — with features that appeal to the senses.

Here are some selections that have proven popular in dream gardens. Many were inspired by the temple gardens of Japan.

-- Japanese maple trees. More than 400 different cultivars have been developed, making this a great, all-purpose, all-season tree whether it’s used as a centerpiece or in groups. Japanese maples are not the hardiest of trees but usually do well in USDA zones 4 through 8. Japanese maples are prized for their fall colors, but they also outperform many other showy ornamentals with their springtime radiance. Their spectacular leaves continue “flowering” long after fruit trees have dropped their blossoms.

Obedient plant
From time to time our garden perennials need to be divided. There is no set rule of thumb about how often this chore needs to be completed. Here are some guidelines to help determine if your clumps need to be tackled. Some perennials are best divided every three to five years while others, such as the peony, may never need to be touched.

Want more flowers on your rose? If so, then you need to provide an extra boost through fertilization. Proper fertilization develops strong vigorous canes that produce big, fat plump buds with nice flowers.

Most local soils have plenty of phosphorus and potassium, so the recommendation of using a balanced fertilizer such as 13-13-13 or 10-10-10 is outdated. The old recommendation was to apply about 1 cup of this type of fertilizer per plant 3 to 4 times per growing season, between mid-April and mid-August.

Carefree delightNewer recommendations are more environmentally friendly, as it reduces the use of unnecessary fertilizer containing phosphorus and potassium. Nitrogen, the first number on a bag of fertilizer, is the key nutrient for established roses. Using a higher rate of nitrogen and lower amounts of phosphorus and potassium are best. Examples of fertilizers to use are 27-3-3 or 25-5-5. (Hint: Many rosarians just use plain, inexpensive lawn fertilizer.)

A Consulting Rosarian with the American Rose Society once told me the best time to prune a rose bush is Tax Day, April 15. I didn’t believe him until after last year’s freeze. I am now a believer and wait to prune my own bushes until mid-April.

Abraham Darby Austin Rose, Monet GardenHow you prune roses really depends on the type of bushes you have. (Sorry rosarians, but I want to use the KISS approach — Keep-It-Simple, Stupid.) I am going to make it simple and break pruning down into two groups. The two groups are the larger flowering hybrid tea types and the newer landscape shrub roses.