OCR Text |
Show The Green Thumb Weed, rake, spray, prune for spring MARK BEZZANT ByL?8Pring-Uke weather is ffSe a few things you upou Brighton. jhould gev B thoge weeds out iiefareyoungandthenkeep whJ En while they are young. them feood time to use a little H" f ! fn spray around grassy SaStokilUhavehad Ccss using it around like roses where you might Pibom grasses that the hoe have nS Frankly it is the only 't Inock things like quack way w grass. Dandelions and other broadleafs i n starting to appear. It is Shfontopofthemby traffg now You might as well fwOie old digger away if you are about real control. Now is a good time to apply a pre-emergent pre-emergent seed killer like Packs to prevent crabgrass, and other seeds from germinating. Spraying: It won't be long before you should apply your dormant sprays. The effect is to smother insect eggs while killing any newly hatched eggs from sucking the life from the tender leaves as they open. Systemics: Be sure to get your systemics on the roses soon if you haven't done it already. It will save immense spraying later. There isn't much worse than bringing in a cut rose only to have it full of aphids. Power raking: A lot of folks ask me about power raking in the spring. My personal preference is not to power rake! The same holds true for extensive hand raking. Besides being a lot of hard work, it opens up the lawn as a seedbed for every foreign weed seed in the area. The simple attachments available for mowers are plenty adequate to open up the lawn to receive water. I have seen very few lawns that had any problem taking in water. If you have a lot of thatch I recommend cutting the lawn short and then give it a good dose of fertilizer and water. Next fall remember to cut it short at the last mowing to eliminate a lot of that thatch. The sure fire way is to keep the kids playing on the lawn. Pruning: Before you get the hedge trimmers out again I suggest you take a hard look at just jerking out those plants that were so cute when you put them in but are now overgrown, and take a lot of time. Put something better suited in the area that meets your present and future needs. |