Memorial Day is well on its way, bringing with it warm gatherings of friends and families, cookouts, boating, golfing, a day spent poolside or enjoying a mindful day of croquet on the back lawn. We all want our lawns and landscape beds to look their best to create a beautiful oasis for our guests. Almost everyone anticipates Memorial Day and if you’ve ventured into a garden nursery lately you can see the build up of energy awaiting one of the biggest outdoor days of the year. We all hope the weather is better than it was on Mothers day.
We’ve generated a quick checklist for you to make sure you are on track for the spring – Are you caught up?
- Fruit trees, grapevines and berry patches should have all been trimmed back by now.
- If you needed to reseed your lawn you should have accomplished this by now – if not, your best chance to apply lawn seed, without much weed competition, will be in the fall.
- Have you taken a soil test yet? This will dictate what and how you apply product to your lawn and landscape beds.
- Have you fertilized your trees, shrubs and lawn?
- Have you applied your grub treatment, insecticide and crabgrass control to the lawn?
- Mow your Kentucky Blue grass at a height of 2 ½ – 3 inches while the temperatures are still cooler. Allow your lawn to get a tad longer when the temperatures rise to help keep the root system cooler and this also helps the lawn retain more moisture. Mulch your lawn clippings back into your lawn, especially if you have your lawn treated, this will help keep the beneficial nutrients and treatment where it needs to be – in your lawn.
- Heather, Heath, Roses, Ornamental Grasses, perennial Hibiscus, Hosta stalks, Butterfly bush, type C Clematis, and other summer blooming perennials should be cleaned up and cut back by now.
- Have you cleaned your Iris patch out?
- Wait until your Rhododendron and Azalea are finished blooming before applying your Lace Fly systemic product.
- Wait until your spring bloomers are finished blooming before you trim them so you do not lose the blossom for next year.
- Inkberry shrubs should have been trimmed by April 15th – if you haven’t, get to it while you still have time.
- If you waited to plant your tender vegetables and annuals you were wise to do so. It may be safe to plant this week. If you are a bit leary about the weather this week it will be fine to wait until next week to plant – you should be safe from frost and freeze then.
- If you have mums that get long and leggy by late July you can keep trimming them back until the fourth of July – to create a more compact bloomer – yes you can literally run them over with the lawn mower. They will begin to set their bud for blossom after July 4th.
- Re-peat your application of Captain Jacks Dead Bug Brew on your Dogwoods and Large leaf Rhododendron this week.
- Tie your daffodils after they have finished blooming. Wait until the leaf has browned out completely and it will easily pull off the bulb and out of the ground without much effort.
- If you haven’t made it to the nursery yet we would advise you to do so promptly if you want a good choice, as the plants are flying off of the shelves and in some stores even creeping phlox has been sold out – not to be seen again until next spring.
Until next week…Get caught up so can enjoy your summer!!!
As always if you have a lawn or garden question do not hesitate to ask. The only wrong question is the one not asked!
We are here for you!!!
Cultivate some joy in your garden this week!
