What’s Bugging Your Garden?

Our environment is changing. We’ve had five heatwaves this summer. We’ve experienced drought and then floods all within a few short weeks of each other. The pests that plague lawns, trees, and

shrubs are adapting to the extremes as well.

What can you do to help protect your lawn and garden from these drastic variations in weather?

We have some suggestions.

How To Create Healthy Green Spaces

Lawn Care

Start by keeping your lawn height at 3” and mulch your clippings occasionally. Make sure to water deeply. It’s better to water heavily once or twice a week than lightly every day. Light watering encourages surface root growth and that’s not good — you want your lawn’s roots to go deep!

Make it a point to fertilize your lawns at least four times a year. Ensure you generously water your lawn after fertilization and especially when the weather is hot.

At the end of summer and the beginning of spring, amend your lawn with core aerating, lime, and organic compost. Also remember to seed with a good blend of grass seed to thicken the turf. For shaded areas, overseed with a specific shade-tolerant grass seed mix. Note that when it comes to seed, one type does not fit all situations.

Tree, Shrub, And Garden Bed Care

We’ll begin with tree care by mentioning that we highly recommend a deep root fertilization of your trees at least once every two years. 

And don’t ignore the need your trees have for lots of water! Turning your hose down to a trickle and letting water percolate down through the roots gives the best result.

If your trees or shrubs are not looking so great, try this:

Use the white paper method to see if you can spot any critters. Hold a piece of paper under a branch and tap the branch. Notice what drops onto the paper. Spider mites affect many different plants and it has been quite prevalent this year — chances are they could be to blame.

Another critter to watch out for is magnolia scale, which is in the crawler stage right now and is very active. If you have a whitish scale coating your magnolia branches and a dewy substance that bees love, you’ve got scale. Now is a good time to target them.

There are products that can be used by arborists to help control these pests. If you need help, contact us.

Lastly, make it a point to surface fertilize the garden beds in spring to keep the perennials and shrubs well fed. This will help ward off a variety of issues.

Self Care

Have you noticed some people are a little crankier given our current crisis? Spending time in your beautiful garden while calmly enjoying your surroundings is a natural remedy to crankiness. Please be kind to one another and realize we all have good days and bad days. We’ve heard it said so many times but it still remains true, “We will all get through this together.”

Need help with your gardens? Contact Green Thumb Landscaping, we’re here to help your property look spectacular. We have been building and maintaining great properties since 1971. When your property looks great, we look great and everybody’s happy!

Stay cool, stay safe, and stay well.