Tip of the Week

The summer of 2009 is one for the record books. Timely rains and below average temperatures made it a wonderful summer for gardening in Kansas City. I, like most of you, am ready for this year’s lawn season to be over. It is time to put the mower away for the year and turn our attention to other projects around the home.

Before calling it quits in the lawn there is one last important chore, fertilization. November fertilization is one of the most important yearly applications for bluegrass or tall fescue lawns.

One of life’s yearly challenges is the seemingly endless removal and disposal of leaves from our lawns. It used to be that we thought nothing of raking them up, filling trash bag after trash bag and hauling them to the curb for trash collection. But in today’s world of diminishing resources, we should look for ways to avoid sending this bulky yard waste to the landfill and instead, save that valuable space for other material.

Watch out when scavenging curbside yard waste. What you can’t see can hurt.

This has been one of the best summers in Kansas City’s history. Mild temperatures and timely rainfall resulted in a green summer and the makings for a great fall. Over-seeding the lawn is often a yearly September project. But this year fewer people have been rushing to the garden center for grass seed.

Death of a mowerIt was a sad day at the Patton household. I knew we were living on borrowed time, like a disease that would one day claim the life of my beloved . . . lawn mower.

Everyone with a hobby accumulates stuff. My wife likes to sew. She has a sewing machine, fabric, ribbon, thread and, of course, a pile of projects yet to be completed.

Gardeners are no different, as we can quickly collect a myriad of things such as tools, pots, chemicals, seeds and so much more. Of course, being a guy, I also collect power tools to aid in my gardening passion.

For some, it’s a chore. For others, it’s an escape from the rat race of life. Many of you may not give more than a passing thought to mowing the grass, but for the lawn it is the single most important cultural practice we perform.

How we mow has a greater influence on the health of the lawn than watering, fertilizing, or weed and pest control. In fact, improper mowing can lead to a number of ongoing problems. Proper mowing is the cultural practice most under our control.

If you’re planning on overseeding the lawn, now is the time. But before making your purchase, do you read the package label? If not, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise. Seed labels are required by law and are the consumers’ protection against buying inferior seed or trash.

My wife will be quick to tell you that I can be a total pain in a horse’s rear-end when it comes to shopping. Like the great wife she is, she shops for me. Instead of just saying “thank you for thinking of me,” I have to ask the age old question men usually ask women after a shopping trip, “How much did it cost?”

Looking out my kitchen window at the garden made me start to think about Rose of Sharon. I often find myself cussing this plant for a bunch of reasons. But today, as I looked out over the garden, I saw a bush loaded with flowers and providing a much needed boost to the summer landscape.

This plant is even more appealing under our more normal hot, dry conditions. It still shines, even when the grass is brown and other perennials have started to dry and shrivel.

Summer of 2009
Just what the doctor ordered

Listen up gardeners! If you have complained about this summer then it is my guess you will never be happy. The summer of 2009 will go down in the record books as one of the best ever for Kansas City gardeners. Mother Nature has blessed us with very timely rains and cool temperatures. Which leads me to borrow the old phrase, “This is just what the doctor ordered to help heal our stressed plants.”

Thinking about...It’s almost that time of year again. Fall is the best time of year to apply fertilizer to fescue and bluegrass lawns. Applying fertilizer in September helps thicken the stand of turf and encourages development of a healthy root system.

This recommendation may seem strange considering all the hype in the spring to fertilize the lawn. Cool-season lawns typically experience a flush of shoot growth in mid-spring. Applying nitrogen before this flush is over can cause the grass to grow too fast. Not only will one need to mow earlier and more often, but the excess shoot growth exhausts the plant’s food reserves. The general rule of thumb is no more than 25 percent of your total annual nitrogen should be applied in the spring.

My alarm clock started beeping at 4:30 a.m. last Thursday morning. I laid there in bed thinking, “Do I really want to drive to Wichita this morning? Just let me sleep!” But then my sense of duty for my job took over and I sprang out of bed like a child on Christmas morning.

The reason for the pre-crack of dawn alarm was so I could make it to Haysville, just south of Wichita, for the annual field day held at the John Pair Horticulture Research Center. The Pair Center is Kansas State University’s other major research center, along with their western Olathe location.

Tomatoes“What is wrong with my tomatoes?” Tomato questions have been the number one question on our gardening hotline. Our tomato harvests have been hindered by heat, bugs and disease.

By Dennis Patton

Are you missing the butterflies this summer? If you have, you are not alone. Many people have asked, “Where are the butterflies?" I know that I and several of our Extension Master Gardener volunteers have noted their absence in our gardens. Normally, by this time of year the black swallowtail butterfly has devoured all the parsley. But to date, most reports show no or very little activity, at best.

BroccoliSpring isn’t the only time to think about planting a vegetable garden. Planting vegetables now is a great way to extend your vegetable harvest into the fall.

There are many advantages to gardening later in the season. Insect pests tend to be less of an issue in late summer and fall. Vegetables that mature during cool fall days are often better flavored than those that mature in the hot, dry days of summer. In addition, many vegetables can be left in the garden and used as needed in the winter months.

Japanese BeetleWhen a horticulturist is asked, “Do we have Pest XYZ here?” many times they will reply, “Well, not yet, but it is only a matter of time.” With that thought in mind, I have been asked for years about the Japanese beetle.

Summer is officially here, along with your lawn’s number one insect pest, GRUBS.
White grubs are destructive pests that feed on the roots of all commonly used turfgrass species and cultivars. Preventive treatment is applied at approximately the same time that adults are laying eggs in the soil. This is between mid-June to mid-July. So in the next week, apply grub control if you have not already.

Container groupingFrom Dennis Patton:

I love container plants because they add so much to the garden. I have them by the front door, along the garage entrance, on the patio and bracketing a seating area in the backyard. They do take some care, as this past week’s summer heat wave meant daily watering to keep them going.

BuffalograssWarm season grasses like zoysiagrass and buffalograss tend to get overlooked here in Kansas City. For us, it’s all about the dark green, lush bluegrass and fescue lawns that grow in so many of our metro yards.