Five Questions and Answers about Gardening

The top five gardening questions answered. If you haven’t asked these yet, you will.

1. What is that white powdery stuff on the leaves of my plants and how do I control it?

a. Powdery Mildew – A fungus that loves cool wet springs. Control it by applying a registered fungicide. Home controls include a baking soda solution or diluted milk

2. Why is my grass different shades of green than my neighbors?

a. This wet cool weather has a tendency to leach our nitrogen and increase iron problems. Both can cause grass to look a little more yellow that normal. This can be patchy looking. Apply a slow release fertilizer high in nitrogen, and you can also apply a cheap iron product found at most nurseries.

3. Is it too late to kill those nasty weeds in the lawn?

a. Not ever too late to kill weeds! As long as the temperatures stay below 85 you can apply a broadleaf weed killer like 2, 4-D. Just make sure temperatures stay below 85 for 48 hours to reduce risk of the chemical drifting to desirable plants. Also, you can still apply a per-emergent to the lawn, but some annual weeds may already be growing. It will help though.

4. Can I plant my annuals yet? And which are some different and cool annuals?

a. Annuals only take about 2 to 3 weeks to establish and get beautiful. I think we are out of frost danger, but I make no promises. It should be okay to plant them. The ones I think are really cool and a little unusual are nierembergia, gomphrena, creeping zinnias, and rudbeckia.

5. What problems am I going to see in the future because of the wet spring?

a. I see Anthracnose (a fungus) in sycamores, oaks and maples. This is a common problem when we get wet weather. It normally is not fatal to the trees, but they will drop their leaves. You can spray now with a registered fungicide, or not worry about it.