Top Projects for September
I give up. The last three years have been hot and dry. Why? Why, Lord, do you punish us?
Oh, that is right we live in the Sunbelt where it is supposed to get hot. Many customers have had problems with chinch bugs and brown patch. The funny thing is that most of the customers that have come in are just now inquiring about organics and have been fertilizing the lawn with synthetic fertilizers that have high nitrogen (N) levels. Even those people who recommend chemical fertilizers know that high nitrogen applications stimulate fungal disease, like brown patch.
Lawns: All that heat and no rain have caused many counties to ration water, some voluntary and some mandatory. I think that is a good thing. If people learn how to water properly now, then next year the lawns and gardens will not suffer as much.
I hate to brag, but my lawn is never watered before the 5th day, unless I fertilize the lawn or install new beds. I want the fertilizer to break down so I water on the day that I fertilize and then start counting again. I am confident that I do apply 1-inch of water when I run my sprinkler system. When I install new beds or sod, I only water that section (most of the time) with a hose rather than with the sprinkler system.
Of course, at my house I have a three-inch layer of mulch on all my bed areas and I replenish these as needed. I also have applied polymers to my lawn, which also gets aerated once a year. One application of polymers will help retain moisture for over five years. The aeration removes cores from the soil so that the ground is left with thousands of holes that let the water easily enter the soil. Microbial activity is stimulated by the application of Humate and other carbon sources derived from constant application of organic matter found in my favorite fertilizer, GreenSense.
I also apply live microbes to the soil two times per year. These microbes unlock nutrients in the soil making them more available to the plant, resulting in more efficient use of fertilizers and water.
At this time of the year you can sow Bermuda seed to help fill in bare spots, and also lay St. Augustine sod in shady areas where Bermuda cannot grow. Make sure you water enough to keep the soil moist so that the new grass and seeds will germinate and grow quickly.
Around September 15th is a good time to start applying rye grass for the winter. Winter rye is a good alternative to pre-emergent herbicides; this winter grass will catch weed seeds and not let them germinate. The heavy foliage will help crowd out existing weeds. An extra benefit to using rye grass is the nitrogen and other nutrients that are left behind with the grass clippings.
CAUTION: Do not overdo the amount of rye grass recommended per pound per 1000 square feet.
Many customers have had problems with their summer grasses not being able to emerge because of the heavy canopy of rye grass.
My preferred rye is the perennial variety, even though it really is not perennial in the Dallas area. Perennial rye does not grow as fast and is easier to mow. Annual rye absorbs so much water that when mowed it sticks to the bottom of the mower and leaves green tire track on hard surfaces.
Now is a good time to fertilize. Fertilizing now will help the grass find nutrients and turn greener after the stressful summer. Fertilizing in the fall encourages root development.
I also like to apply granular Humate at this time. Humate is loaded with trace minerals, carbon and humic acid, that act as an organic chelator.
Apply Beneficial Nematodes to help control grubs. Grubs are the larvae of June Bugs and can destroy your lawn as they feed on the underground roots of grasses. If you noticed an excess amount of June Bugs accumulating on the sides of walls underneath light fixtures or flying around light post, you might apply BN's as a preventive. Besides grubs, BN's attack 200 different insects that have at least one lifecycle underground.
Fleas, roaches, grasshoppers, termites, farants (fire ants), squash bug and many other pests can be controlled with BN's.
Weeds: If you have a heavy crop of weeds now, take advantage of the heat and spray them with 20% Vinegar. When applying Vinegar add Citrus Oil or Black Strap Molasses at about one cup of either one to a gallon of Vinegar. After killing the weeds, cover all bare soils to block the sunlight so seeds will not germinate.
Planting: Fall is for planting. Now is the best time to plant trees, shrubs, perennials, groundcovers and native seeds. If you need winter color and find the need for annual flowers, plant them early.
Plants put in the ground now will have develop healthier root systems that will enable them to withstand freezing temperatures and next years damaging heat.
Vegetable Garden: Now is still a good time to plant your winter veggies such as lettuce, mustard greens, cabbage and broccoli (my favorite). Brussels sprouts transplants can be planted now.
Towards the end of September, plant Swiss Chard. This attractive bright, red-veined vegetable is tasty and more nutritious than most other “greens” and deserves a spot in the autumn menu.
Some people plant garlic in September. Remember that garlic can be very pretty, with its long leaves adding both line and texture to the garden. Try several varieties and scatter them around the landscape to help repel unwanted pest. For a great article on garlic read the September/October issue of Texas Gardener.
Tomatoes can be picked early to prevent ugly cracking.
Mulch: Football season is now starting, so before we get to the exciting games, mulch now.
The mulch will help the soil stay moist through the rest of the summer heat.
Never pile mulch directly around the trunk of trees; it can cause basal rot, disease and even death (to the tree, not to the gardener). Start placing the mulch about three inches to four inches away from the trunk. Leaving the entire stem exposed, layer mulch out to the tree's drip line. The finished project should look like a volcano crater with the trunk being the smoke rising from the center of the cone.
After the mulch decays, always replenish with fresh mulch to a thickness of one inch, maintaining a layer that is three inches high.
A Poem Sent Over the Internet
The devil wanted a place on earth,
Sort of a summer home,
A place to spend his vacation
Whenever he wanted to roam.
So he picked out Texas,
A place both wretched and rough,
Where the climate was to his liking
And the cowboys hardened and tough.
He dried up the streams in the canyons
And ordered no rain to fall.
He dried up the lakes in the valleys
Then baked and scorched it all.
Then over his barren country,
He transplanted shrubs from hell.
The cactus, thistle and prickly pear,
The climate suited them well.
Now the home was much to his liking
But animal life, he had none.
So, he created crawling creatures
That all humans would shun.
First he made the rattlesnake
With it's forked poisonous tongue.
Taught it to strike and rattle
And how to swallow it's young.
Then he made scorpions and lizards
And the ugly old horned toad.
He placed spiders of every description
Under rocks by the side of the road.
Then he ordered the sun to shine hotter,
Hotter and hotter still,
Until even the cactus wilted
And the old horned lizard took ill.
Then he gazed on his earthly kingdom
As any creator would.
He chuckled a little up his sleeve
And admitted that it was good.
'Twas summer now and Satan lay
By a prickly pear to rest.
The sweat rolled off his swarthy brow
So he took off his coat and vest.
"By Golly," he finally panted,
"I did my job too well,
I'm going back to where I came from,
Texas is hotter than Hell."
The Bulbs Are Coming, The Bulbs Are Coming!
Don Trotter
Hello Fellow Earthlings, and welcome to one of the most exciting times of the year for gardeners. The Bulbs are Coming! Soon there will be an abundance of new fall bulbs in garden centers, nurseries, and home center garden shops for you to drool over (I always do). This discussion will be on how to prepare a site for those little gas tanks of color before you actually plant them. This way, when you do bring them home, a healthy plot will be waiting for them. But first a little background on bulbs.
A very large group of plants that store energy in fleshy capsules during their dormant period are referred to as bulbs. Only a few of these plants are true bulbs. Tulips, Lilies, Onions, Amaryllis, and Daffodils are some true bulbs. Gladiolus and Watsonia are classified as corms. Begonias, Ranunculus and Dahlias are classified as tubers. All of these plants store energy in a fleshy gas tank that allows them to live during harsh weather. This storage organ is commonly called a bulb. Enough science, let's actually talk about growing them.
Different types of bulbs require different methods of care. Some bulbs like tulips, hyacinths, and crocus may actually require that you refrigerate (not freeze) them for several weeks before planting. This is to stimulate a true dormancy response from the plant. Here in Southern California we are forced to perform this yearly ritual of digging and chilling our bulbs if we want to have these types of bulbs in our gardens. This is because the soil does not get cold enough during our mild winters to send the plant into dormancy. Other bulbs like narcissus, some daffodils, freesias, gladiolus, and watsonia will just grow and grow with little or no effort on our part. A little food in the spring and once again in the early summer, and they are totally happy. Other bulbs require that we dig them and store them in a cool, dry, dark place until it is time to set them out to grow.
Tuberous begonias are this type of bulb. Bulbs that are actually rhizomes like bearded iris are another plant and forget type. The one thing all of these plants have in common is that they really appreciate it when a gardener takes the time to prepare a healthy bedding area where they are to be planted. I have a tried and true formula for site preparation when considering bulbs in our gardens. It has worked for me for years and is very simple to do. So let's do it!
First I think about which bulbs I will be putting in the garden and make sure that they will get the best sun exposure I can provide them with my site conditions. I then lightly cultivate the soil in the area where the bulbs will be planted. I then put out a little mixture of minerals and nutrients for them so the soil has a chance to digest these supplements before I actually set out the bulbs. This proactive approach to bulb gardening has been in practice for centuries in Europe and still works today. The last thing I do is apply what? yup, you got it, MULCH! A three to six inch layer of good organic compost as mulch over the soil and the minerals will loosen the soil. It will also add essential organic matter, and increase the availability of future nutrition to the bulbs by activating a legion of beneficial microorganisms that process these ingredients into plant foods. My favorite thing about this exercise is that when I do bring the bulbs home I'm not wrestling with the soil to dig holes. This bed preparation method really makes the hardest soil easy to work in within just a few weeks. My little mineral mix consists of the following ingredients:
1 part cottonseed meal
1 part alfalfa meal
1 part kelp meal
1 part soft rock phosphate
I put this mix down at a rate of five to seven pounds per 50 square feet of bulb garden and then add my mulch. By using this mixture you will ensure that your bulbs will be happy and healthy when they emerge in the spring to shower you with color. This mix and the mulch will help your soil quality as well for future plantings. The really great part is that you only need to apply it once a year. I like that.
Next time we will be discussing what seeds to choose for that cool season vegetable garden and how to grow some veggies in the landscape for ornamental and (of course) for munching on. See you in the Garden!
Got Questions? Email the Doc. Don Trotter's natural gardening columns appear nationally in environmentally sensitive publications. Check out Don's books for lots of helpful gardening tips— Natural Gardening A-Z, The Complete Natural Gardener, and soon to be released Rose Gardening A-Z, all from Hay House Publishing and available at all bookstores and on-line booksellers.
Rats, Mice, Rabbits and Squirrels = Rodents = Trouble
Rodent: member of the largest mammalian order, Rodentia, characterized by front teeth adapted for gnawing and cheek teeth adapted for chewing. The approximately 1,800 species of Rodentia are worldwide.
Rat: any of various stout-bodied rodents, usually having a pointed muzzle and long, scaly tail. The name refers particularly to the two species of house rat, the brown, or Norway, rat (Rattus norvegicus) and the black, or Alexandrine, rat (R. rattus). The brown rat is the larger of the two, growing up to 10 inches (25 cm) long, excluding the tail, and sometimes weighing more than a pound (0.5 kg). Rats spread human diseases and destroy food supplies; efforts to exterminate them have been relatively unsuccessful.
I do not care what Webster or any other dictionary call rats. These ugly animals are repulsive. You see one and you want to jump up on the furniture, countertop or any elevated surface. It is good to scream while trying to get away from the rat, this way you make anybody else present aware of the fool you are being. This in return permits the bystanders that are present to make fun of you the rest of your life.
I bet you that there is not one person on this planet that has not seen a Rat. Many rodents have become serious pests on farms, in homes and in industries. That makes me one very special person. At my house we have seen mice the size of a golf ball. At my farm we have seen rats the size of a football. One was so large that when I saw it eating fertilizer from a broken bag I actually thought that it was Alfred my 25 pound longhaired dachshund. When he did not come to me I went towards him to shoo him away from the fertilizer. I did not hear Alfred growl at me instead as he normally would when one approaches him as he eats; I heard a hissing sound and then saw the rat run away.
The Department of Agriculture estimates that there are an estimated 250 million rats in the United States.
Karen, our store manager got a cat for us and that has reduced our rodent population down considerably. We used to see a mouse or rat even in broad daylight, now we never see them, but we do see an occasional dropping here and there.
Speaking of cats, while I was doing research for this article I found that in the U.S. there are an estimated 63 million pet cats. Now remember, I said pet cats. There are also about 30 million feral cats living in the wild.
Now, rats do damage foods and crops but they also damage our buildings.
Rodents will chew through many types of materials such as metals, siding and concrete in their search for food.
Rodents can squeeze through openings that are as small as 1/4 inch for mice and 1/2 inch for rats.
Rodents reproduce at the speed of lightning and can give birth to as many as six rodents at a time. Rodents are usually unseen or unheard until night. It is important to remove their food sources—but do not disturb the rodent habitat, until knockdown and elimination occurs they just move to another area.
Normally the first sign of rodents is their droppings. When you see this it is best to start inspection immediately.
Look in dark, recessed areas for openings that have been chewed for easier passage, look for tracks left behind. Most exterminators say that you should start at the outside of the building and go around the perimeter looking at ground level as well as soffets, siding and roof areas. Look for water, food or shelter. Bird feeders, water accumulations, tall vegetation, woodpiles, compost piles and tight spaces by decks and retaining walls are areas where you can find signs of rodents. Make sure that you also check windows, door thresholds, utility lines, rooftops and downspouts. Because rodents have very greasy hair they leave nasty smudge marks especially noticeable in the areas they frequent.
Inside the house check the laundry room, closets, cupboards, and food storage areas. Inspect baseboards, behind appliances and around doorways and windows. If you have an area outside the house where brick meets wood, check that area on the inside of the house.
Now that you have checked your home for rodent entryways, you have to evict the squeaky little varmints. If you seal the holes before they are inspired to vacate, then they will not be able to exit through their same locations.
I like using Red Fox Urine as an eviction notice. The Red Fox is a predator of small mammals including rodents. For some reason even if the rodent has never come near a fox, they sense trouble when they smell the urine.
To apply Red Fox Urine in the areas where you suspect rodents might be, place two to three drops of urine on a cotton ball. If he is inside the house garage or some sheltered area just place cotton balls four to five feet apart. If he is visiting wood piles or birdfeeders place the cotton balls inside used film canisters, poke holes into the canister and apply two to three drops of red fox urine on a cotton ball and attach to a secure area near the problem area.
Immediately after the rodent has left the area, seal the entryways securely and make sure that all other areas that can be used for nesting are also sealed.
Sanitation is the next step. If the rodent cannot get to food he won’t stay.
Unfortunately, I had to quit putting out birdseed. The only area on our property where we saw mice was at the birdfeeder. This is also where we saw many squirrels.
My wife, Sandra, said that she did not mind the squirrels. It was the mice that she could not stand.
Make sure that any piles of trash are picked up. That includes branches; old tile and wood from any remodeling; and trash left behind from sloppy city sanitation crews. Make sure garbage containers have their lids over them.
We recently went out to clean up a landscape where the customer let weeds get really tall. As the guys were cleaning up they found not only a nest of field mice but also a rabbits nest.
Many exterminators will use baits to kill rodents; the problem with this is that it will also kill cats and dogs that may come upon them. And if you are not careful these bright color sticks may attract your child or a neighbor's child who might think that these are candy.
There are traps by Havaheart, and SureFire that are benign. They trap the creature and you release them later away from your area.
The trap that I like is The Black Hole by SureFire. At the opposite end of the trap there is a small opening that gives the rodent the impression that he will be able to go all the way through. But. Once inside there is a spring-loaded noose that traps him and slowly suffocates him. I know that it is kind of cruel, but they work every time.
Glue traps are available, but are very unpleasant. The rodents become stuck to these boards and if he lies down it is even worse. The loud squeals and hisses would drive anyone crazy. When you go to remove the creature, they are so terrified that you almost do not want to get near it for fear that at the last moment he will break free and kill you. It is also really bad when your cat or child become stuck to these.
If you do decide to bait always use a bait station that is child proof. Do not disturb the living quarters before you set out the baits or they may change locations.
Do not invite them back. Keep all areas clean and free of food.