Here it is late January 2010 and we’ve had just about all the different weather conditions that you can have in winter: sub-zero temperatures, snow, freezing rain, rain, fog and hopefully sunshine before too long. I was out in Colorado last week and they wanted snow. The streets were clear and you could walk on the sidewalks in regular shoes, no need for snow boots!!! So the weather is strange everywhere, but that’s what makes winter interesting and challenging for our plants.
While we are waiting for spring to start, January and February are the perfect months to start to plan your spring garden projects. We are here Monday – Saturday at this time of year to help with your planning, answer questions, and get you ready to start spring at the right time for your best success with your gardening effort. If you wait until the first nice weekend in late March or early April and come in to plan your spring garden we will be able to help, but not as much as we can now.
Our new 2010 garden seeds are in with more coming soon. So if you don’t mind getting out in the cold, we have an excellent selection and if we don’t have exactly the variety that you are looking for we can usually get them in a week or less. We can also tell you about which varieties do best in St Louis. We’ll also help you with your timing: if you start plants inside too early, you can have all sorts of problems with them producing in the summer.
Feel free to stop in anytime, we may put you to work unloading a truck or moving a display, but we’ll be glad to give you as much help as we can planning your spring gardening projects.
Filed under: Lawn
Here we are again with rain coming down for the third day in a row (a lot like October) and Thanksgiving is just around the corner. If you’re like me and hate to shop, there are some easy garden projects that you can get out-of-the-way when you need some alone time during the long Thanksgiving weekend.
Usually by the end of November most of your leaves are down (but those of you with Oak trees are thinking, “will they ever fall?”) so this is a great time for the final lawn clean-up. Rake, blow, or mulch the remaining leaves and then take some time to put down an application of LIME. The lime will help raise the pH of your lawn, which should be between 6.5 -7.0 for your grass to grow best. Most of our lawns, especially the ones with trees, have a much lower pH. Applying about 40 to 60 pounds of lime per 1,000 square feet of lawn will help to raise the pH closer to 6.5-7.0 range that your lawn is looking for. Lime takes 3 to 6 months to fully work. That’s why fall is a perfect time to apply, plus the freezing and thawing of the ground over the next months will work the lime into the lawn’s root zone without any extra work on your part.
Another easy lawn tip for late fall is to apply WINTERIZER fertilizer. I know it sounds crazy to feed late in the fall, but University research shows that late fall and early winter is one of the best times to feed your lawn. The fertilizer will be absorbed by the roots that remain active even in frozen soil. That fertilizer helps to keep the grass green and slowly growing during winter and will give it the boost the lawn needs in spring without the flush of top growth that you get with high nitrogen fertilizer in the spring.
So if you have some free time before or after Thanksgiving you might want to help your lawn out with a little lime and winterizer. Have a happy Thanksgiving, we will be closed Thanksgiving Day so our staff can spend time with their families. However, we will have expanded hours the rest of Thanksgiving weekend: 9-8 on Friday Nov. 27, 9-5 Sat Nov. 28, and 10-5 Sun. Nov. 29.
Filed under: Uncategorized
It’s hard to believe that this is Nov. 7; to have the sun shining and the 80 degrees is more like the weather that we were suppose to have on the last week of Sept. With this warm weather, don’t be alarmed if some of your plants start putting on some new growth. Your azaleas may even have some scattered blooms. Mother Nature has taken care of one of the most important plant preparations for winter by soaking the ground, but be prepared to water your plants at least one more time unless we have another couple of days of light rain in a week or so (remember that most of the heavy rain that fell in Oct. ran off into the sewers).
One way to help your broadleaf evergreens to make it through winter is to spray them now and again in late Jan or early Feb. with ANTI-STRESS 2000 (NO IT WON’T WORK ON YOUR STRESS, JUST YOUR PLANTS). Anti-stress helps to seal moisture in the leaves of the plant and reduces transpiration, helping to control WINTER BURN or SCORCH (the browning of the leaves), it also protects the flower buds and keeps them from drying out and blasting next spring.
Mulching will also help to prevent winter damage on your plants, but you have to use some caution not to mulch too early or too much. The goal of winter mulching is to let the ground get cold then mulch so that the mulch does the freezing and thawing, not the soil in the root zone. You also need to restrain yourself from over-mulching. You don’t want mulch piled 5 to 6 inches or more up the stem or trunk of the plant you’re mulching, that can lead to all sorts of insect and disease problems down the road… even death.
So to review:
1. water your plants regularly until we have consistent freezing weather
2. use Anti-Stress 2000 to protect your broad-leafed evergreens, and
3. mulch, but be careful when and how much you use.
Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be giving you some more tips on how to prepare your lawn and gardens for winter.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I had a trade show in Grand Rapids this week. We had one the same time last year — boy, what a difference a year makes! Last year the trees were still green with only a little yellow showing, and this year the full pallet of colors were starting to form. Hopefully, our FALL COLOR will be as nice.
I had a lot of time to think about fall and spring driving back and forth this week. I thought about this blog and how it would be a great time to remind you that now is the time to start planting your spring flower garden. Those Tulips, Hyacinths, Narcissus, and Crocus need to be planted this fall (you have from now until Christmas and some years until early January to get them in the ground). The spring flowering bulbs need to go though a cold treatment to bloom in spring.
A couple of things that you need to think about to make sure that your bulb planting is successful:
1. If squirrels and rabbits are a problem in your yard you will need to protect both the bulb and the flowers against them. You can soak your bulbs in one of the tried and true animal repellents for at least an hour before planting (make sure that you wear gloves when you handle the bulbs after their bath).
2. Make sure that you prepare the soil with compost, peat moss, or potting mix. The bulbs are grown in Holland and are used to a sandy, porous soil; you want to try and duplicate that.
3. Plant your bulbs in clusters. Grouping of 3, 5, 7, or more will give you a better show and allow you to plant other spring flowers between the clusters, allowing the bulb foliage to die back naturally. The bulbs will return the next year if their leaves stay on as long as possible after flowering.
4. Feed your bulbs when planting and after blooming in the spring with Bulb Food or any well-balanced garden fertilizer.
Bulbs bloom in three different seasons: Early (late March to early April), Midseason (mid April) and Late (late April). The bulbs come in all heights from 4″ to 3′ so you can create an incredible garden this fall for next spring.
As always, stop in and we can help you with your question and concerns about creating a spring bulb garden.
Have you had a chance to read the new Riverfront Times, yet? It’s the Best Of feature, and we’re in it! Rolling Ridge has been voted the Garden Center in St. Louis!! We are pleased, proud, and properly humbled. Thanks to all of our loyal customers — we wouldn’t be here without you.
Check out the RFT on paper or online: http://tinyurl.com/bestgarden
Filed under: Lawn, Pests, houseplants | Tags: houseplants, pest treatment, Pests, winter preparation
With the cooler nights this week we’re all thinking about bring our house plants in from outside. Here are a number of tips to help make the transition go a little smoother:
1. Inspect the plants and soil for unwelcome visitors. Give your plants a good shower before they come inside, make sure that you wash the underside of the leaves because that’s where the insects hide and lay their eggs which will hatch once they’re in your house. It’s a good idea to spray your plants with either Insecticidal Soap or a Pyrethrin spray as well. If you have a plant that you know has tough insects like mites or scale the Hi Yield Systemic Insect Granules will do a really good job.
2. Move the plant to where it’s going to stay for the winter, there will be a transition and leaves will fall, but continuing to move the plant around the house will make it worse. Find a good home and leave it there.
3. Don’t overwater, the plants indoors will need less water than outside. Water thoroughly when you water, then let the plant dry for a week to ten days (or maybe longer if it’s a dark location).
4. Remember that the sun is generating about a tenth the light in the winter than it generates in the summer. Day length decreases also from almost 16 hours in summer to 9 or 10 in late December.
5. Don’t forget that your house plants still need food over the winter; we still eat, they need to also. Feed them about half as much as you do during the summer.
Hopefully this will help give you happier house plants this winter.
One more thing: even though it was said on the Saturday morning garden show that it’s too late to sow grass seed, THAT’S DEAD WRONG, 70 degree days and 50 degree nights are perfect for germinating grass seed. Creeping and Chewings Fescues as well as Bluegrass are slower to germinate but all cool season grasses will still germinate as long as you keep them moist.
Happy Gardening
First a blog, and now Twitter — what is the world coming to? Whatever the answer, we’re tagging along! Follow us on Twitter for the quickest of tips, heads up on new inventory, and notice of “quick sales.” You can find us here:
http://twitter.com/RRNursery
We’ve been asked a lot lately about pruning and feeding of trees and shrubs for fall. What I tell everyone about pruning is: If it blooms in the spring, leave it alone until after it finishes blooming. You can feel free to trim broadleaf evergreens lightly now along with yews and junipers, the key is LIGHTLY — no more than a few inches or there could be winter damage.
You don’t want to feed trees or shrubs now because it can take a month or more for the fertilizer to get into the system of the plant. Late October is not a great time for plants to be putting on new growth. With trees, the best time to feed is in the dead of winter. The freezing and thawing of the ground will work the fertilizer into the ground and in March, when the trees start their new growth, the nutrition is already waiting. Tree trimming is best done when the trees are dormant.
A note: the Botanical Garden is ending the pot recycling program on September 30, 2009. If you still have pots to recycle, please bring them in before next Wednesday. We want to thank all of you for bringing in your pots, but we ask that you not bring any after September 30 since we have no place to store them until next April when the program resumes.
Filed under: Lawn, Pests | Tags: bluegrass, fertilizer, fescue, grass, grubs, rye, turf, winterizer
I was at the baseball game the other week and was amazed at how great the turf at Busch looked. This summer’s weather was ideal to grow and maintain a healthy turf. Though having a crew of 20 to 30 groundskeepers really helps, too. I was thinking about our home lawns and was hoping the you are going to continue to maintain that good looking turf to make it even better for next year.
September and October are the months that cool season grasses ( bluegrass, fescue, and rye) do the majority of their spreading for the whole year. This spreading can be by rhizomes in the case of bluegrass or by tillers in the case of fescue or rye. The use of fertilizer at this time of year will help the turf to thicken itself, sometimes reducing the need to sow as much seed. You can use a quality lawn food with slow-release nitrogen and trace elements (not all major brands contain this, so don’t be fooled). This information is clearly marked on the back of the bag.
You then want to follow-up in late-October or early-November with a good winterizer fertilizer to maintain your turf’s health through winter and into early spring.
Watch your lawn for signs of grubs. With all the Japanese beetles last summer, little grub larva are hatching all over. One sign is a lot of bird activity in the morning: robins, starlings, and grackles will be pecking around looking for grubs. Please don’t put down an insecticide unless you’re sure you have a grub problem.
Hi Folks, Welcome to my Garden Blog. My purpose in writing this blog is to let you know about the problems and concerns that our customers are asking us about so that you can check to see if your garden is having the same problems. I also plan to give you some timely advice on what you should be doing in your own gardens and lawns. Your feed back is welcome. Comment about things that work for you, tips that you would like to share with your fellow gardeners, and questions that you might have that are related to the “blogs topics”.
https://muextension.missouri.edu
A pest that had been bothering a lot of the fall vegetable gardens is the Cabbage Looper. The adult Looper is a white moth with 2 little blue dots on the wings. The moth flies around cabbage, broccoli, and other related veggies, laying eggs as they fly. These eggs hatch into caterpillars that eat holes in the leaves. The good news is that they can be controlled with a number of safe organic insecticides.
September is the best time of the year to sow grass seed and fertilize your lawn to provide a thicker turf next spring. A little bit of work this fall can improve your lawn and reduce your work next spring.
This ends my first blog. Look for updates weekly.
Don
