43May 4, 2017
Well, at least you don’t have to water the lawn to get the lime and fertilizer to work properly!
May has arrived and I would guess it is not how you pictured that the month of May would begin in our area. If it is any consolation, there are other parts of the country that are getting more rain than we are getting. This too shall pass.
Let’s take a moment to talk about the containers that you have that will become the new home for your flowers and maybe even your vegetable plants. If you used the containers last season, did the plants that were in the containers succumb to any plant diseases? If so, spores may be sitting on the containers waiting to start the disease cycle all over again. You can disinfect those containers by removing the old soil and washing out any remnants of soil with water. You will then mix up a solution of 1 part bleach put into 9 parts water. Use this mixture to wash the container. Once you have cleaned the planters with this solution, make sure to rinse the containers with water. If your containers use the cocoa fiber liners and you had plant diseases last year, it would be advisable to throw out the old liner and replace it with a new liner. It would be almost impossible to disinfect an old liner that might be a haven for disease spores.
Before you plant in your containers, take a look at the potting soil that is in the containers. The soil is probably filled with roots from last year’s plants. To make it easier for this year’s plant to grow, you should dump out the old soil and clean out as many roots as possible. To bring the soil “back to life ‘, you should add some compost to the soil. You can then use this mixture to pot up your plants. On the other hand, it may be easier to dump the old soil in the compost pile and grab a bag of Coast Of Maine’s Bar Harbor Blend potting soil. I have used this soil mix for many years and plants love this soil. Once the plants are in the soil, give them a drink using a plant starter fertilizer. This type of fertilizer encourages the roots to grow. You only need to apply the starter fertilizer one time. After that, you should be fertilizing your plants on a regular schedule. This will start your plants growing and keep the plants growing. Well-fed plants are less likely to develop fungus diseases. If you are not sure of what to use on your plants for optimum growth, stop by the store and we can get you the right plant food for your plants.
The grass is growing in our yard due to all of the rain. If your lawn isn’t putting out a lot of new growth, please give your lawn an application of fertilizer. So often people think the lawn is dead when in reality the lawn is just hungry. I have recommended this approach to many people over the years and in so many cases an application of fertilizer has gotten the lawn growing and negated the need to re-seed the lawn.
Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.