The Root of the Problem
By
Debbie Cook
The last average frost date in the valley is May 10. That means gardening season is in full swing. Here are some things that you should be thinking about doing this month. Some of these items I’ll discuss in detail in later columns but for now, here is a general gardening To-Do list for the month of May.
· Your vegetable garden should have the soil amended and the weeds pulled before you plant your summer crop.
· Billbugs show up about the middle of the month. If you have a Blue Grass lawn and had trouble with these insects last summer you might want to treat your lawn now to stop the problem before it starts. Use Bayer Grub Control, which is a chemical for season long control, or try beneficial nematodes as an organic control. Symptoms of Billbug damage are irregular brown spots. This brown, dead grass can be lifted right up because the billbug larva chew the grass roots right off. If you dig at the edge of the dead area it is likely you’ll find the culprit, a small white grub with a brown head. Keeping your lawn as healthy as possible will help control this problem.
· Black Vine Weevils show up the middle of this month, too. If you’ve noticed your shrubs or perennial plants looking like the garden fairies have been using pinking shears on the edges of the leaves, it’s a sign of this root weevil. The adult is a small, black insect with a snout that notches the edges of your leaves. The female lays her eggs in the soil at the base of a plant. The eggs hatch and the larva begin feeding on the roots of the plant. These insects can weaken a plant and in great enough numbers, kill it. The Bayer Grub Control will work on this insect, too.
· Fertilize your lawn at the end of the month. This feeding will take you clear through summer until Labor Day when it will be time to feed your lawn again. If your lawn starts looking pale in the heat of the summer you can use iron to green it up without forcing growth when it’s so hot.
· Begin treating for the Codling Moth, the insect that causes wormy apples and pears, and the Cherry Fruit Fly, the insect that gets into cherries. A suggested product is Bonide Fruit Tree Spray. Read the label carefully before using and follow the directions. Make sure you wait the required number of days between the last spray and when you harvest.
· Prune trees that bleed like maple, elm, willow, walnut, birch and dogwood. Waiting until after their leaves emerge will eliminate the bleeding, or at least keep it from being as severe as it would have been in February or March.
· Prune spring flowering trees and shrubs, like lilac and forsythia, right after they bloom. If you wait to long you’ll be pruning off next year’s flowers.
· Kill weeds before they go to seed and keep after them while they’re small. This will make your life much easier.
· Pinch back chrysanthemums through mid July to keep them nice and bushy.
· Deep water trees and shrubs in preparation for hot weather.
· Summer bulbs like cannas and dahlias should be planted.
· Vegetables and annuals can be seeded directly into the garden now. Transplants can go out, too. Be sure to harden off any plants that you started indoors or plants you purchased out of a greenhouse, which is most plants.
· Harvest herbs before they bloom, leaving at lease one third of the plant for more crops later in the season.
· I could go on and on with things that need doing this time of year, but this should keep you busy for a while. Besides, what could be better than being outside in our gardens this time of year?
