19September 24, 2014
The nights have definitely had a fall like feel to the temperatures. Have you had a frost in your yard? It looks like we had a touch of frost at the store.
With the cooling temperatures, we begin the long, slow process of the plants getting ready for winter. The burning bushes are turning red. The maple trees are beginning to show some color. The perennials are beginning to die back. Many vegetable gardens are beginning to fade away. With all this going on, you need to keep in mind that many of the trees that developed fungus diseases are ready to drop there leaves. Many of the annual flowers and perennials that have been infected will die back to the ground. These infected plants and there leaves are a source for re-infection of your plants next year. As the leaves die back, the fungus diseases forms spores. The spores are the “eggs’ for next years infection. If you do not clean up the infected leaves or diseased plants, the spores will wind up on the ground. Come the rains of next spring, those spores will splash up onto the new leaves and the infection is off and running for next year. Try to immediately clean up those infected leaves as they fall and pull up or cut back the infected annuals and perennials. You want to dispose of those leaves and plants. Just leaving them in a pile in the back of the yard or composting them in a compost pile that doesn’t heat up enough to destroy the spores is just asking for trouble next year.
If you enjoy the beauty of tulips and daffodils blooming in the spring, you can’t wait until spring to plant tulip and daffodil bulbs. These bulbs need to be planted in the fall. The bulbs get planted in the fall, they form roots in the soil, they undergo a period of cold soil temperatures and then as the soil warms in the spring, the bulbs come into bloom. There is a lot of the spring – flowering bulbs that you can buy now for fall planting. We have a nice assortment of bulbs at the store.
The skunks are telling you something and you should be listening. If you look at your lawn in the morning and you see that there are small pieces of grass pulled up, the skunks are telling you that there are grubs in your lawn. Skunks will travel over your lawn and will sniff the grass. If they smell grubs in your lawn, they will take their claws and rip back the grass and eat the grubs that are in the soil. If this is the problem in your lawn, you do not want to apply the season long grub control at this point in the season. There are fast acting grub controls that you can apply now. There are even effective organic controls that you can apply now. If you stop by the store, we can show you what you need to use now. Whatever method you chose, the skunks will soon be disappointed and leave. Don’t forget to say thanks for the heads up to your local skunks.
On a bit of a personal note, I want to congratulate my son Daryl and his new wife Katie. They were married on Saturday. As a proud father and as a new father in law, I wish them all the happiness in the world.
Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.