Re-Invigor Your August Garden

'Knockout Pink' rebloom in early September

When you reach the month of August, your garden is either flourishing or you're thinking "better luck next year" or on the phone to a paving company. 
Here are some quick-step maintenance suggestions:
·         Keep container plants watered – remember that other than occasional August rains, you are their only resource for moisture.
·         Fertilize all container plants and perennials in your garden.  Frequent watering may be a must unless summer rainfall has been plentiful.
·         Add a Water Soluble Fertilizer products as Miracle Gro™, Jack's™, or Espoma™ Slow Release.
·         Prune back hybrid tea and shrub roses to spur plentiful re-blooms in September and October.
·         Continue to pull weeds. Don't allow them get ahead and go to seed.
·         Deadhead (prune back) annuals and perennials so they'll look better and to stimulate new blooms. Your lawn mower, set at 5-inch cutting height, makes the work faster and simpler.
·         Prune/remove dead limbs and branches on shrubs and smaller trees.
·         Scout these late summer pests - aphids, white flies, spider mites on all landscape plants. A number of safe organic pesticides or a coarse spray of water from a garden hose may take care of most pests.
·         If summer annuals have peaked and dying off from diseases or insect pests, head to your local garden center for fall blooming mums, asters, toad lilies, anemones, et.al.
·         Plant fresh containers or a garden bed of petunias, calibrachoas, marigolds, and/or globe amaranths (Gomphrena) that should bloom non-stop to first hard frost.

Calibrachoa in container

Basics On Herbicide Use

Wild Garlic - spring weed

Dandelion

Herbicides are vegetation killers. They kill weeds and occasionally, if applied incorrectly, damage the good plants. A weed is any plant that you don’t want in the garden.

Avoid spraying on windy days or on hot days over 85 °F as chemical herbicides can drift or volatilize, injuring nearby garden plants. Warm summer temperatures increase the possibility of lawn injury from certain herbicides. It should not rain within 24 hours after application. Don't mow a few days before and 2-3 days following an application. Wait 3-4 mowings before treating a newly seeded lawn with any herbicide.

There may be 3 different kinds of weeds you’re trying to control: grasses, broadleaf types and sedges. Broadleaf weeds include dandelions, spotted spurges, buckthorns, purslanes and thistles. Fall and late winter (before new leaves emerge) are safe times to spray broadleaf herbicides. Most deciduous shrubs and trees are shedding their leaves and are less susceptible to the spray drift.

Spring and early summer herbicide applications will not control perennial and woody vegetation such as brambles or poison ivy. Wait until mid-summer to tackle these tough weeds.

For a contact broadleaf  herbicide to work, outdoor temperatures need to be 60 °F and higher over a 6 hour interval for the spray to be absorbed into the plant. Regardless the time of the year, weeds need to be actively growing for herbicides to work.

Finally, heavy weed invasion in lawns may be evidence of poor mowing practices, low soil fertility, or too much shade. Knotweed and spotted surge may indicate bad soil compaction. Tough weeds are not going to give up easily and multiple applications. may be necessary. 

Always read and understand the package directions before using.