************************************************************* ANNUAL
BY A reader asked
me, “What is Annual Bluegrass and how do I control it in my lawn?”
Annual Many yards,
including Fescue lawns, have Annual Bluegrass but the caretakers don’t
know it. Annual Before treating
your lawn for any weed or disease or insect problem, make sure you get an
informed and accurate diagnosis!!! Annual Earlier this
season I wrote about other “Winter Annuals” such as chickweed, henbit,
and pennycress and how to control them. I wrote that winter annuals are
plants that germinate in the fall, survive our cold winters, continue to
grow in the spring and produce seeds, then die in the summer when the
temperatures get very warm. There are also winter perennials like
dandelions and ground ivy that germinate in the fall, over winter, and
then go to seed in the spring. Unfortunately they are perennials so
don’t die over the winter. While it is technically classified as a
winter annual, Annual Bluegrass sometimes survives as a short lived
perennial, and unlike most cool season grasses can produce seedheads
anytime it is actively growing. Strategies to
control Annual Bluegrass differ from control of winter annuals and winter
perennials. Culturally Annual
Bluegrass can be suppressed by raising your mowing height, reducing
fertilizer applications, and cutting back on irrigation in the fall to
minimize germination. Chemically there are two ways to control Annual
Bluegrass. The first is to put on a pre-emergence herbicide around August
1st, but no later than August 15th, and the second
method, and most reliable, is to spray it in the late fall (late
September) or in the spring, with glyphosate (Kleen-up or Round-up). This
will of course kill the surrounding desirable grass. Trimec, Triclopyr,
Weed-Be-Gone, Brush Killer, and other “weed herbicides” will not kill
Annual Bluegrass. Regardless
of how you get rid of it, you will have to re-seed that area if you have a
large patch. Buy good grass bred for our Thanks to Copyright 2009 ************************************************************* WHY MULCH YOUR PLANTS? BY The common myth
is that we mulch our plants in the fall to keep the ground warm. The truth
is we mulch in late fall to keep the ground cold. More winter hardy plants
are killed by the freezing and thawing than from the cold. So we want to
put the mulch on the soil after a couple hard freezes and then keep the
soil cold. I usually do not cover my roses until after Halloween and
sometimes as late as Thanksgiving. Gardeners who put their mulch on too
early in the fall keep the ground too warm, and then when we get a sudden
freeze, the plant is not ready and winter kills. In the fall allow the
ground to cool down normally so the plant goes into dormancy as it should,
then put on your winter mulch. Remember the
warm spells we had last spring and then the cold spells, and then the warm
spells, and then the cold spells? Plants that were not properly mulched or
had their winter mulch removed too early, warmed up and some broke
dormancy. Then when we got the cold spell they could not go back into
dormancy and froze. In northern climates such as What is the
best mulch? Each gardener has his or her favorite. Do not use
those foam cones unless you cut the top out. Then fill the inside with
mulch, compost, or soil. On a warm winter day the heat builds up inside a
cone that has the top still on it. This heat builds up and heats up the
soil, causing the plant to break dormancy. With the next hard freeze the
plant then freezes and dies. They are easy and convenient to use, but they
do not work. Remember, mulch
in the winter to keep the ground cold, and mulch in the summer to keep the
roots cool and the ground from drying out. Copyright 2009 |