Here Is A General Timetable For Next Year

General Timetable for the first of next year:

Around the first of February is the time to put down pre-emergent product which you will water into the soil. It forms a layer below the surface of the ground which chemically prevents germinating weed seeds to emerge as weeds. Thus helping to reduce the number of annual weeds that come back from seeds. Your grass is still dormant at this time.

The next basic time will be in early spring as temperatures warm. You will see the arrival of broadleaf weeds in your yard that have eluded the pre-emergent treatment you have put down. These weeds will be weeds that have flowers on them like henbit, chickweed, and dandelions. Notice that your grass is still DORMANT. At this time you have two options to deal with those weeds. If the high temperatures of the days are between 60 and 90 you can spray the weeds with a liquid broadleaf herbicide OR you can simply mow them down to prevent them reseeding. AT THIS TIME DO NOT PUT DOWN FERTILIZER OR WEED AND FEED(these products contain a broadleaf weed herbicide in combination with a fertilizer) PRODUCTS. The reason is that your grass is still not green and will not use the fertilizer. You would be wasting your MONEY.

Later in spring, your grass is now green and actively growing. So if you chose to mow your weeds earlier and not use an herbicide(and the high temps. are about 60), you can NOW apply a "weed and feed" product to your yard and it would make good sense.
If you earlier chose to spray your weeds, then NOW you should simply apply a 100% fertilizer to provide needed elements for your grass to use in photosenthesis to manufacture food for its growth.

PLEASE NOTE THAT WHEN USING A "WEED AND FEED" PRODUCT, THAT YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE THE CORRECT PRODUCT FOR YOUR GRASS. IT IS BECAUSE THE HERBICIDE THAT IS IN THE PRODUCT IS DIFFERENT FOR DIFFERENT GRASSES.

However, any time you are using a product that is 100% FERTILIZER IT CAN BE USED ON ANY GRASS.

walter

Composting

To create a compost pile is relatively simple. You can use some chicken wire and 4 T-posts and a little wire to form a U-shaped pen. The essential nature of a compost bin is bacteria, oxygen, weed material, moisture, and time. It is the bacterial action that decomposes the vegetable material aided by the access to oxygen and moisture. When creating the pile be sure to leave occasional layers of coarse material to allow oxygen to be available to the bacteria for decomposition to take place. Add kitchen waste to the pile to introduce bacteria to the pile, then start layering grass clippings and mulched dead weeds along with occasional layers of not so finely mulched plant material to allow oxygen to the pile and then more kitchen waste, etc.

walter

Soil Testing

The first thing any serious article on growing plants and grass does is to tell you to get a soil test to see what your soil needs in the way of amendments. So.....here is the Texas A & M website address where you can do a soil test via mail: http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/

The website will give you all the directions for collecting your soil and submitting it to them for analysis.

walter

As Winter Approaches

Well, the cold weather is approaching and all of us "yardies" are mourning the demise of our annuals. But wait! There will still be things we can do. Pruning season is here, compost piles can be started, mulching for insulating the perennials, soil amendments can be added to the yard, or you could finally gather up some dirt from your yard and send it to Texas A & M to get an accurate analysis of the nutrients that you need to add to your soil for maximum results.

Ok, pruning! The rule on when to prune flowering shrubs is this: if the shrub(like spirea or forsythia) blooms in the spring, you prune it right after it blooms in spring, because it blooms on the previous year's growth. If the shrub blooms later in the year, you prune them during the winter months before new growth begins in the spring.

Pruning is done to shape a plant, eliminate dead or damaged branches, restrict growth in a certain direction, create better air flow through the branches to prevent fungal growth , like powdery mildew on crape myrtles or roses. After pruning diseased branches , remove them from the area and dispose of them to prevent spread of the disease to healthy plants.

Keep your cutting tools sharp to prevent tearing the plant tissue, and it makes your work much easier too!

One last thought: when you are pruning young trees, remember that branches that come from the trunk at a right angle(scaffold branches) are the strongest, whereas branches that form sharp acute angles to the trunk are the weakest, and more likely to split off during heavy ice or wind. When you are pruning, remember you are determining the future shape of your tree. Try to create a tree that has scaffold branches evenly spaced around the trunk and up the trunk, in an aesthetic design.

May I also recommend reading a copy of Texas Gardener magazine if you have a chance. It is full of very timely and interesting information. See you!

walter

Dormancy of Grass

Dormancy in your grass is initiated by the cooling temperatures in the fall for warm season grasses such as bermudagrass and St. Augustine. After your grass goes dormant, it will not take up and use any of the nutrients we put on the grass. The grass is "asleep". So a winterizer type of fertilizer has to be put down on your lawn before the grass is going brown for it to have any effect. Otherwise , you are simple wasting your money.

Also, in the spring, do NOT put down any fertilizer before your grass greens up. The expert advice is to not put down fertilizer until your GRASS(not the weeds) has grown enough that you have had to mow IT twice, so that your grass is actively growing before you fertilize. Let your neighbor waste his money, not yours.

Weed and Feed products usually are a bad idea...the only time to use this product is when it is time to fertilize( grass is green and growing) and you have a lot of broadleaf weeds( henbit, chickweed, spurge, dandelions, etc) in your yard, and also remember broadleaf herbicides should only be applied when the daytime high temperatures are consistently between 60 and 90 F.

walter

Landscape Watering 101

Well folks, think you know how to water your lawn?? Probably not!

Infrequent watering, but deep slow watering turns out to be the best overall technique for watering. So if you have an irrigation system that comes on for 15 minutes every other day, then you are most likely doing it WRONG. When you water, you need for the water to get down to a depth of about 8" to properly water your grass, shrubs , trees, etc.

The unfortunate truth is that many irrigation systems are set by persons who do not know what proper watering is, so they set the systems INCORRECTLY. This is one of the most likely causes for losing plants in your landscape.

Also, drip watering is the most efficient, water wise technique for flower beds, shrubs, trees.....not sprinklers. In other words just water the plants, not all the area, so you save water and still do a good job of getting water to your plants. You have to use sprinklers on your grass in order to properly cover the large area it represents.

When you water, you should be trying to simulate a slow 1" rain once a week( perhaps twice if in a very hot droughty time). If you have a water system put a wide pan in the watering area, turn the system on , start timing, and when you have 1" accumulated in the pan, stop the timing and record the time. Then go to the watered area and dig down about 8" to see if the water has penetrated the soil to that depth. If it has, you have established how long your system has to be on to do proper watering. If not, then turn the system back on for small time increments, add that time to the original until you get the 8" depth moist(check in another location). The total time to accomplish the deep watering is YOUR watering time. Another person's soil could be very different to yours, so they would have to go through the same process you did to establish how long THEY should water.

I am passing this water advice along from the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association manual. Hope it helps some of you out there!!

walter

Wet Feet

Well, the first thing to say for sure is that I try to see the humor in things, myself particularly included. So feel free to disagree with anything I post up here, but at least consider my thoughts. Thanks.


walter