Top Projects for September

Year after year we try to tell our customers that fall is for planting. Now is the time to wander into the yard, and look at plants that have been damaged by this year’s heat and dry conditions. Make note of the plants that required extra watering and care and decide weather or not you wish to continue babying these plants year after year. This may be the time to consider moving these plants to other areas of the yard or getting rid of them in lieu of more drought tolerant Native plants. If the canopy of trees provide so much shade that grass does not grow under it anymore, consider using ground covers, walkways and maybe even a nice sitting area where you can go and meditate. With a 16-year-old daughter I definitely need a meditation zone. I meditate every day. I am sure that the only purpose of a 16 year old is to cause great concern for all parents. Oh well, maybe if I start on the newsletter I will not think about my paternal problems for a while, so lets get started:

Lawns: Another year of high temperatures and little rain have damaged many lawns.

During my walks around the neighborhood I have seen several lawns that have patches of bermuda grass that are completely dead. Even though I know that most of these homes have sprinkler systems, it seems that these homeowner did not take the time to turn on each station and thoroughly inspect each head. Towards the middle of August one of my neighbors asked me to come by his house and tell him what was wrong with his lawn.

I asked him to go and turn on his sprinkler system one station at a time. On the very first section we found one head that was spraying against the wall of his house and another that was clogged. I showed him how to clean out the sprayer nozzle and told him to continue inspection of the other 8 stations he had. A few days passed by and he called me up to tell me that he had a total of sixty four heads in his lawn and flowerbeds. Fifteen of these had constricted flow, due to some foreign object that had somehow lodged into it. Two heads had been blown off of the system, and had to be screwed back on to the green polly riser. He said that he was going to start watering daily until his grass greened up again in the areas that had not been getting adequate coverage.

I walked over to his house, and tried explaining to him proper watering techniques.

After a brief explanation of the benefits of deep watering, while trying to avoid water runoff, I began to think that I could teach an old dog new tricks. As we discussed his lawn, I pointed out some problem areas; like a big patch where grass died out we decided to apply some Bermuda seed at a rate of 1lb per 500 s/f. This I asked him to water twice a day, but I asked him to water with a hose rather then turning on the sprinkler system. “Just keep the soil moist”, I told him.

Three days later I passed by his house on the way to work, and noticed that he was watering his lawn with the sprinkler system, and that obviously the water had been running for quite some time. I got out of my truck to go have a word with him, when I smelled something awful in the air.

I knocked on his door, and when he came out I asked him if he had applied Diaznon or something similar.

“I went up to the hardware store to buy the seed, and while I was there the lawn and garden expert asked me what I was going to use the seed for. I explained to him that I had a large area where my grass died. The garden expert told me that he had several customers come claiming to have grub damage. He thought that that could have been the cause for my dead grass. He also told me that Diaznon was being banned for public sales, but that he still had a couple of bottles left, and I should take advantage of the closeout special” the old dog told me.

“You have to be kidding," I said. You saw for yourself that the sprinkler system was not working. I started to get upset as I talked to him. Here I was standing in the front yard, watching his water running down the sidewalk carrying that nasty insecticide into the gutter. Do me a favor I asked before we go on, can you please turn your sprinkler system off. NOW”! I demanded.

I am glad that he took sometime to turn the water off, some of you may know that I do have a bad temper and can get quite upset at times.

When my neighbor came back, I asked him when he applied the Diaznon, and he told me that he came out at about 6:00am and sprayed the suspect area only. He then started to water and had been watering ever since.

“What good do you think you did?” I asked. Look at the water in the gutter and look how fast it is flowing. How much of the Diaznon do you think is in the soil? How many tadpoles and fish do you think you just killed?

He was turning red and I knew that I would probably never talk to this neighbor again. Without saying another word, I left.

Oh, I am sorry we were talking about problems in the lawn. I wonder how I got out of line. Sorry. But, let this be fair warning! Do not let hardware store garden experts talk you into products that you are not sure you need. If you are trying to be an organic gardener go to our list of products. If we don’t offer a product for the lawn and you are not sure what to use email or call me at 972-864-1934.

I have seen plenty of chinch bug damage and some grub damage and there is still a lot of brown patch in the lawn. There is still time to get the lawn in good shape before it goes dormant. Follow the next few steps for repairing your damaged or ugly lawn:

Reprint from June 2001 Newsletter

• Feed the soil. If the lawn is not doing well and you have been using synthetic fertilizers: STOP! Obviously it is not working and something new should be done.
• I would use microbes to help cleanse the soil. GreenSense Lawn & Garden Microbial Treatment should be your first step. You read about Microbes earlier but for more information click here.
• Fertilize with an all-organic fertilizer at a rate of 20 lbs per thousand square feet. We like using GreenSense All Purpose Fertilizer. For quicker results follow up in thirty days with another application of GreenSense Lawn & Garden Microbial Treatment and more GreenSense All Purpose Fertilizer at a rate of 10 lbs per thousand square feet.
• Correct drainage and fill in low spots with the soil that is most similar to the existing soil on your property.
• Now apply an appropriate grass seed or blocks of sod to fill in bare spots. St Augustine will grow in to sunny areas, but Bermuda will not grow in too shady areas. Fescue turf does well in shady areas, but does better when sowed by seed in the fall. To help combat fungal problems apply Corn Meal at a rate of 10 to 20 lbs per thousand square feet.
• To get grass seed to germinate or turf to establish, you will have to water daily or even twice a day. The excess moisture will have compacted the soil. After the roots are established aerate the soil using a core aerator. Leave the cores on the soil and let them break down with watering, mowing or just with time. If you have low spots then rake these cores up and put them there.
• While the soil is open apply rock powders such as lava sand, humate, green sand, rock phosphate or a combination of products such as Minerals Plus.
• Go one step further and apply a thin layer of good compost such as cotton bur compost or a manure-based compost. My preferred manure base compost is from Clear Fork Materials in Aledo. They will blend lava sand and manure if you ask them. Vital-Earth has a good compost mix and they also have a blend of topsoil and manure that has never produced a weed seed in the three years and hundreds of tons that we have used in landscapes throughout the Metroplex.
• Water wise. Keep the soil moist not wet. While the grass is rooting you may have to water more often. As soon as the grass is growing vigorously cut back to no more then three times a week for the first season. Try to get to the point where you water only once a week. I do, sometimes I will go 10 days between waterings if we get one inch of rain between waterings.

At this time of the year you can sow Bermuda seed to help fill in bare spots, lay St. Augustine sod in shady areas where Bermuda cannot grow. Remember make sure you water enough to keep the soil moist so that the new grass and seeds will germinate and grow quickly.

Around September 15^th 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 sq/ft.

Many customers have had problems with summer grasses not being able to emerge because of the heavy canopy of rye grass.

My preferred rye is the perennial, even though it is not really 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 tracks on hard surfaces.

Fertilize now! Fertilizing now will help the grass find nutrients and turn greener after the stressful summer. Fertilizing in the fall encourages root development. We recommend GreenSense 524 now.

Apply a thin layer of compost over the entire lawn, this mild fertilizer will also retain moisture but as it gets wet it will leach its miracle juices deep into the soil. Just by using compost, many customers have been able to control brown patch in their lawns.

Humate is petrified compost that is millions of years old. 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 vine borers 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, 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 better then ever to plant. Now is the time to plant trees, shrubs, perennials, groundcovers and native seeds. If you need winter color, and need 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. Lettuce, mustard greens, cabbage, broccoli, and my favorite- Brussels sprouts, can be planted from transplants now.

Towards the end of September plant Swiss Chard, this bright red vegetable is both edible and used as an ornamental planted with pansies etc.

Some people plant garlic in September, remember that garlic can be very pretty, try several varieties and scatter them around the landscape to help repel unwanted pest.

Mulch: One of the most important, but most forgotten chores in the landscape is the final dressing of mulch. This mulch can consist of any waste product that is biodegradable and non-toxic. I have seen mulches made from paper, cardboard, shredded clothes and of course purchased shredded mulches that are made from hardwood and other plant material products. My preference is pine straw. It has a different look, it is easy to walk on, and as it breaks down it helps acidify the soil. Cedar mulch contains oils that help repel insects while these oils are still present. Due to our dry climate the cedar oil does not last for a very long time, but could be replenished with thin layers added periodically. Keep a two to three inch layer of mulch throughout the year. We still have plenty of hot dry weather left this year, and remember that a layer of mulch also helps insulate the plant’s root system protecting them from the cold winter temperatures.

Never pile mulch directly around the trunk of trees; it can cause basal rot, disease and even death. Start placing the mulch about three to four inch away from the trunk leaving the entire stem exposed, layer out to the tree’s drip line. The finished project should look like a volcano crater the trunk being the smoke coming out of the volcano.

Repairing an Ugly Landscape

As we travel in and around Dallas one can be amazed by the different landscapes installed throughout our city. Depending on where our travels take us, we can find landscapes that all look alike, with row after row of the same plant trimmed the same way. Amazingly, a lot of these repetitive landscapes have the same diseases as the neighbors or the guy down the street. In other areas we may see landscapes that catch our attention because of the unique plants, and their placement, landscapes that look like they should be at the Arboretum or some botanical garden. There are extravagant, inspiring and very expensive landscapes that exist throughout the metroplex that cost more to maintain than the salaries made by many middle class citizens. Upon observation you may notice that a lot of these large landscapes have very few insect and disease problems, but do you know why?

I have said this before, repeat after me: Biodiversity!

The more varied the landscape, the more diverse population of beneficial and predator insects will exist. Be creative; remember that no matter how ugly it turns out the only thing that you have hurt is your back. Plants can always be relocated.

If the plants in your existing landscapes look bad try to determine the cause of their unfavorable appearance. Could they be diseased? Are they older plants that may have looked prettier when they received more sunlight or more personal attention? Was the tree that was providing shade removed or not providing as much shade as it did when it was healthier? Has the grade of the soil changed due to changes in the soil caused by construction, erosion or exposed roots from large trees? Take some time, stop reading, wander out into your yard and try to answer the questions I just asked. I’ll wait. Dumdedumdum, la deda, warm socks, hiking shoes, peanut butter, film for camera. Dumdedumdum, la deda….

Are you done yet? That did not take to long, did it? l hope that you at least have a mental note of some of the things that might be causing your plants to be less beautiful than before.

If I were to go out to a customer’s house to do an assessment of the landscape, the first thing that I would do is look at the existing trees in their yard. As you know the most important items in a landscape will be the tress. An ugly tree can take away from the overall beauty of the house and the landscape. I have recommended that trees be removed at two homes this past year.

At one house, the customer had two Bradford Pears that had been damaged by several wind storms and were growing on the west side of what could be a beautiful Live Oak. The customer hesitated but finally had the Pear trees removed. She later told me that for the first two weeks she cried everyday, but as time went on she started to notice new growth on her Live Oak and that the grass below the tree had started to fill in. A few months later I saw her again and I think she gave me a big hug and said that she got compliments almost daily on how nice her landscape and her now visible house looked.

If the tree is large enough to provide so much shade that the grass does not grow under it any more: DON’T PLANT ANY MORE GRASS, use groundcovers instead. Or you can make a big mistake and remove your valuable shade tree to let the grass grow.

Yes, grass is cheaper and easier to install then preparing beds and planting hundreds of four inch plants, but if you do it correctly the first time, you won’t have to replant grass every year.

As tree roots grow some may become exposed due to the growth of the roots. Exposed roots of large trees can damage a lawn mower or be damaged by the lawnmower causing severe stress or death to the tree.

As the thickness of the root expands with age more and more of the root will become exposed. As the shade of the tree weakens the turf soil may start to erode and further expose the roots. This happens more with fast growing trees like mulberries, maples and ashes, but in areas with shallow soils, live oaks and elm tress will do the same. I think that the best cure is to get rid of the grass and use groundcovers. I just did this under my red oak during the month of August.

If the new bed will end up near an existing bed, combine both into a nice sweeping flow so that the mowing will be easy and uncomplicated.

If you have old shrubs that did well until just a few years ago, could it be that the soil only needs some rich organic matter added to it? You could easily send a sample to Texas Plants and Soil Lab and see if your soil is lacking nutrients and minerals needed for healthy plants. Even though the test will cost around $45.00, it is still cheaper than ripping out all your plants, reinstalling a new landscape just to have the plants struggle in unhealthy conditions because you did not amend the soil. With the new plants living in the same old conditions, can you really expect them to thrive?

At my house I did not send out for soil test, I looked at the plants and tried to determine what was wrong by looking at the leaves and stems of the plants. If I could not figure out what was wrong, I brought samples of my problems to Sally, Kathy or Karen. One of these “smarterthanme women” can figure out what is going on and lecture me for hours on ways to look up these problems in one of our many gardening books.

As soon as I moved into my house I had the lawn crew put out bags of compost over all of the beds. They followed up with one bag of Minerals Plus for every 2000s/f of bed area. At dusk I sprayed all the beds with GreenSense Microbial Treatment and watered everything in that night.

For the next three months I added about an inch of compost every month, I noticed color changes on the hollies, pyracanthas and nandinas within the third week. Before I did all this, the pyracanthas were showing signs of spider mites, but these also disappeared as the plants’ colors changed and seemed to get healthier. I also noticed that the nandina “Gulfstream” had black spot on it, but as the new leaves came out they no longer showed any sign of the disease.

I have been listening to Howard Garrett for years and I have noticed that no matter what new techniques Howard has for controlling insect and disease problems in any landscape situation he always says, “Start with the soil. Improve the soil, add organic matter, and add life to the soil. Healthy soils will grow healthy plants.”

I know for a fact and have been able to prove this in just about every landscape situation. Spend more money on the soil preparation than on the plants and your reward will be a healthier plant that will grow faster, have more color, bloom longer and brighter and have more fruit production.

When you’re contemplating re-working an existing bed, first determine the cubic area of the bed. Start with the square footage (length x width) of the bed. With free form beds, you can use an average width and length. Then determine the depth of the bed. With the exception of azaleas, which require at least an 18” deep bed, a 12” depth is sufficient. The results of these calculations will help you to determine how much organic matter and other additives will be required.

Example: A simple formula for calculating the cubic area of a ten by twenty foot bed twelve inches deep would be: 10’ x 20’ x 1’ = or 200 cubic feet of planting area. The twelve inch depth is converted in this equation to one foot. More complex dimensions may require converting all the measurements to inches. Ex: The equation for a 20’ wide x 30’ foot long x 8” deep bed would be as follows: 20 feet x 12 inches = 240 inches. 30 feet x 12 inches = 360 inches, or 240” x 360” x 8” = 691,200 cu. inches, Divide that figure by 12 inches to convert it to cubic feet, or 576.0 cu. ft.

Next, it’s necessary to understand that a truly healthy soil contains 25% water, 25% air, 45% minerals and a minimum 5% organic content. Amazingly, it is almost exclusively the organic content that makes a soil capable of sustaining life.

Fortunately, organic matter can be easily added to soils in the form of compost. Everyone who’s anyone in horticulture agrees that compost is the single, most important ingredient you can add to your soil, because it is the repository and primary food source for beneficial organisms that are responsible for providing nutrients, aeration, moisture retention, temperature control and maintaining a balance between the beneficial and harmful forces in the soil.

The best compost is probably that which you make yourself. First because it’s free and second because it means you are recycling many of the waste products that you generate on your little piece of earth. After that, it’s Katy bar the door! There’s more junk composts out there than you can shake a stick at.

My favorite commercial compost is cotton burr compost. There are lots of reasons for that. Cotton is a heavy feeder and depletes the soil of nutrients as it grows. The nutrients wind up in the fleshy seed pod, ‘boll’ or ‘burr’ of the cotton plant. In most of the U.S. the burr remains on the plant and is plowed back into the soil after harvest, but on the Texas High Plains the burr winds up in what’s called ‘gin trash’, a by-product of cotton production.

Cotton burr compost is a natural organic fertilizer, does not tie up nitrogen in the soil, is unsurpassed at breaking up tight, clay soils, improves moisture retention and fertility in sands, holds as much moisture as peat, but unlike peat, wets and re-wets easily, lasts for up to two full growing seasons and is economical to use. A quality cotton burr compost will also be free from weeds, insects and pathogens.

Cotton burr compost under several different labels is available commercially through independent garden centers in many parts of the Central, Southwestern and Southeastern United States. At Rohde’s and at a few Texas military base exchanges, we offer a premium grade cotton burr compost under the ‘GreenSense’ label. Besides being the very best cotton burr compost money can buy, GreenSense Cotton Burr Compost contains sulfur, the longest lasting of the elemental acidifiers and a plant-essential micro-nutrient. In my opinion, sulfur is an absolute necessity in our alkaline soils.

Whatever you do, don’t use peat moss as a soil amendment. The very things that make it an excellent potting medium: sterility and lack of nutrient value, make it virtually useless as a soil conditioner. It’s initially hard to wet, impossible to wet if it ever dries out, it’s famed acidity disappears when it’s exposed to alkaline soil or water, and if that’s not enough reasons for you, it’s an endangered natural resource, and it’s expensive.

Stay away from composts made from wood or wood by-products and yard waste, and especially from any composts containing sawdust. These products can actually rob nitrogen from the soil.

Sludge products, also called ‘bio-solids’ are gaining acceptance, and they’re probably okay for landscape applications. Municipal bio-solids is just a nice word to say ‘sewer sludge’…human waste.

Milorganite (Milwaukee sewer sludge) has been around for years and gained wide acceptance on sports fields. Some other sludge based products are: Houactinate, (Houston sewer sludge) ‘Dillo Dirt’, (Austin’s contribution) and even some Garden-Ville products. I’ll leave that decision up to you, but regardless of what the pundits say, I don’t recommend bio-solids for food crops.

GreenSense products do not contain bio-solids.

A good rule of thumb in using compost is one-third compost to two-thirds soil. In sandy soils, you can safely use up to 50/50 compost to soil, and in areas like New Orleans, where excessive rainfall and tight, clay soils are prevalent, no more than a 15:85 ratio of compost to soil is recommended. Don’t use compost straight. It isn’t necessary and it will not noticeably improve the quality of the bedding mix.

Mix your compost with native soil where possible. I know it’s tempting to buy some of the rich looking sandy loam that’s available commercially, but since nutgrass is nearly impossible to get rid of once it gets established, why take the chance? At least you know what’s growing in your own backyard.

Back to the math. If we refer back to the 20’ x 30’ x 1’ bed in the second paragraph, a third of 200 cubic feet of bed would be 66.66 cu. ft. of compost. If the compost you are buying comes in 3 cubic foot bags, you would need 22 bags of compost if you elect to use 1/3 compost, 2/3 soil. Bulk compost is usually sold by the cubic yard. There are 27 cubic feet to a cubic yard, so 66.66 cu. ft. would be about 2 ½ cubic yards.

Adding a quality compost to your bed means you can cut back on other stuff because you won’t need other stuff! In fact, I don’t recommend adding more than two amendments at a time to a bed.

There’s one other thing I recommend where possible…raise your beds about a foot above ground level to improve drainage. Just be careful to keep the level of the soil below the foundation so that termites and other critters aren’t tempted to set up housekeeping. If drainage isn’t a problem where you are, fine. If you’re not sure, dig a hole about 12 feet deep in undisturbed soil, fill it with water and see how long it takes to drain. If water is still standing in the hole six hours after you filled it, you will need to provide drainage.

Okay, enough with the compost already.

Last but not least, keep records of changes and additions you make to your beds and make notes on the progress. Space applications of nutrients, minerals, foliar sprays, etc. at least two weeks apart to give them a chance to work before you apply something else.

And last but not least, remember, good bed preparation is the key to great gardening.

I would like to thank Warren Johnson, for the information provided about cotton burr compost.

Natural Controls for that Fungus Among Us

Don Trotter

Hello fellow Earthlings, and welcome to disease control 101 for your garden. In this discussion we will be looking at those unseen disease organisms that are of constant concern for gardeners in any location and climate. So lets take a walk out to the garden and look at the places were these bacteria, fungi, and viruses live and how to put a monkey wrench in their plans to damage our plants.

Disease organisms that attack plant tissue are little understood critters that enter your plants in a number of ways. The most common entry into your plants is through wakened or stressed tissue. The entry may be through a wound in the plant, an unhealed scar, or within the saliva of certain plant juice-sucking insects that inject the toxins into the plant when feeding. These are just a few of the ways that disease organisms can enter your plants.

The old "ounce of prevention" axiom definitely holds true when considering diseases of plants. By far the easiest way to prevent diseases from attacking your precious plants is to grow healthy plants! Using natural gardening techniques is a very good way to ensure you grow healthy plants. Natural/ organic gardening practices are very efficient ways to make sure that pathogenic disease organisms have competition for energy and that beneficial organisms that may actually prey on them are present and active. This battlefield of biology can take place on a single spec of soil or on the leaf of your favorite rose. The war of good vs. bad organisms is as old as the Earth itself and is known as "competitive exclusion". By promoting the proliferation of beneficial organisms in your garden you automatically reduce the chances of pathogenic organisms taking hold. The best way do this is to garden naturally!

The most effective way to begin the process of competitive exclusion is to apply copious amounts of organic matter to your garden soil. This can be achieved by adding composts, organic mulches, and manures to your soil each season. The addition of any of these types of organic matter will encourage the growth of beneficial organisms while it improves the physical quality of your soil. These beneficial organisms will proliferate in your rich, organically tended soil and fight off those evil microbes that attack your plants. Adding a 3 to 4 inch layer of composted manure, backyard compost, or organic mulch will ensure that these good guys have plenty of energy to keep the bad guys at bay.

Many gardeners use a variety of chemical fungicides to compete with disease organisms in order to keep their gardens disease free. This is a very counter productive and environmentally insensitive method. If one is inclined to spray, it is the goal of this natural gardener to give you some alternatives to synthetic chemicals. Some very good fungicidal materials from natural sources are as follows.

Lime/Sulfur Sprays: These materials are derived from naturally occurring minerals that are combined with water and sprayed onto plants affected by powdery mildew, rust, black spot, and a number of other disease organisms. It is widely distributed by retailers and can be found at most garden centers.

Copper: Copper sulfate is probably one of most widely used fungicides by farmers and gardeners alike. It is effective at controlling a wide variety of disease organisms. It is easily found at all nurseries and garden centers and is a very powerful material.

Neem: The oil extracted from the seed of the Neem tree of India is an effective control for many disease organisms, especially on roses. Neem is also used as an insecticide and is used in soaps and toothpastes to fight bacteria as well.

I have a home brewed fungicide that has worked for many years in controlling a number of fungi on veggies and roses. It consists of equal parts of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide (five tablespoons) mixed into a gallon of water. I use this one when powdery mildew gets out of hand on my squash or peas. I also use this one on roses when that bloody rust shows up. I also use it on black spot and downy mildew on roses and grapes.

There are no shortages of disease pathogens that can take hold in the garden. The natural gardener is the most prepared to take the rascals on. Next time we will be discussing some natural care techniques for your houseplants. See you in the Garden!

Got Questions? Email the Doc at Curly@mill.net Don Trotter's natural gardening columns are printed nationally in environmentally sensitive publications. Check out Don's books Natural Gardening A-Z and The Complete Natural Gardener for lots of other helpful tips to tend your garden without chemicals. Both are available at all bookstores and on line booksellers from Hay House Publishing.

Don did not mention Corn Meal. Corn Meal works gives really fast results for fungal problems such as brown patch and black spot. This product normaly goes out dry and can be applied with a drop or rotary spreader Use at a rate of 20 lbs per 1000 s/f on your first application and follow up at a rate of 10 pounds per 1000 s/f every 7 to 10 days until the problem has disappeared. After symptoms are no longer visible continue with two more applications.

Potassium Bicarbonate is an excellent product to use for powdery mildew and other fungal diseases, where spraying is more convenient. Use two tablespoons of Potassium Bicarbonate, one teaspoon of soap per gallon of water in a gallon of water. This mixture should cover 400 s/f. Apply every 7 to 10 days.

Just like in my article, Don agrees that all good landscape start with good soils.

Think about it.