If the forecast proves right, this weekend will be a great time to spend outdoors in our gardens and landscapes. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you attend to your plants.
Keep an eye out for scale
Watch for scale on fruit trees and many woody ornamental plants. Some types of scale produce a honeydew substance on which sooty mold grows, leaving the plant foliage and branches looking black.
These pests are difficult to control, and often require both dormant season treatment and periodic summer sprays of an appropriate product to prevent outbreaks. Areas of plant where you noticed scale infestations in the winter should be watched and retreated as needed with carefully directed summer or horticultural oil sprays, not dormant oil.
Put spring bulbs to bed until fall
People are also reading…
Spring bulbs have just about completed their period of replenishing their food reserves to get ready for next year. Allow the foliage to turn yellow before removing it to tidy up the planting bed. If you want to rework the beds and need to remove the bulbs, you can do so when the foliage dies back. Dig up the bulbs and allow them a week or so to dry in a shady location. Then cut away any roots or foliage and store them in a cool, dry place for fall planting.
Stop nutsedge now
Nutsedge has sent out its underground runners and is now producing nuts capable of increasing its population by many fold. Now is the time to attack and either dig or spray every last sprout. If you do a good job knocking it back and then quit for month or two, nutsedge will regain the lost ground. You need to stay with it to get it under control.
Protect tomatoes from stink bugs
If you love tomatoes, you aren’t alone. Stink bugs and their cousins leaf-footed bugs are arriving en masse to poke their nasty little mouthparts into our fruit. Insect excluding mesh and rowcover fabrics can help “screen” them out but there are few effective low toxicity spray options. Early morning sprays can catch them when they are still a bit sluggish. Wait too long and they’ll have done their damage leaving fruit deformed or with hard yellow spots.
Plan a new arbor or trellis
It’s not hot yet but summer is on the way. An arbor or trellis is a beautiful way to block the sun overhead or to form a western wall for a patio or deck. Now is a great time to build such a structure and to get those vines planted and off to a head start. When future summers arrive, you’ll be glad you did.
Aphid patrol
Watch for aphids on young transplants and new growth. An insecticidal soap spray will generally shut them down for a while. Check the plants in four or five days to see if another treatment is needed. They have many natural enemies that generally keep them in check, making regular treatments unnecessary.
Start bedding plants off right
New bedding plants will benefit from a drink of a complete fertilizer solution at planting to get them established and off to a good start. Products such as fish emulsion or a synthetic soluble plant food work great for this purpose. Repeat this weekly for a month to help build strong plants for loads of blooms.
Raise the mower blade
Set your mower to leave plenty of height to the turf. Mowing at a low height is more stressful to turf. It results in shallow rooting (less drought resilience) and can increase your weed problems if you don’t mow frequently. The lower you set the mower, the more often you must mow to keep the lawn looking good.
Eliminate mosquito breeding areas
Nothing ruins a nice afternoon or evening outdoors like a swarm of hungry mosquitoes. We often contribute to the problem by raising them in our landscapes. They can breed in standing water that collects in catch basins under containers, in sagging rain gutters and in other outdoor locations. Check these and other such locations weekly and empty any standing water you find.
Robert “Skip” Richter is the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension horticulture agent for Brazos County. For local gardening information and events, visit brazosmg.com. Gardening questions? Call Skip at 823-0129 or email rrichter@ag.tamu.edu.
Make your house a home
For the holidays: Get inspiring home and gift ideas – sign up now!