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Dog Days Of Summer - August Gardening Tips
By Gary Guzman, Fri Dec 9th
Well these truly are the "dog days of summer". It is still hotsome days really humid and every now and then not a bad day atall. Here are a few tips to keep your garden and a few specificproblems from getting away from you during the month of Augustgardening. Your lawn, again usually three things or anycombination of them may be the culprit(s) for making your lawnor patches of your turn brown. Check water first. It may be that your sprinkler is just notapplying enough water to certain areas of your lawn. Remember ifyou can see your footprints in the after you walk on itthen it is time to get water on it asap. If the patchy brownareas of your feel slightly "warmer" than the green areasof your it usually means that particular area is notreceiving enough moisture. It is best to core holes in thisarea, which will help deliver water right to the roots. Thesecond item you may want to check will be for grubs. There will be no mistaking these creatures. They are usuallyabout the size of your thumb, creamy white with a brown head.They will feed on the grass roots to store up for winter and"hibernate" and emerge next year as adults.
These adults are the May and June beetles your see flying aroundat dusk in early summer. There are granular and liquidinsecticides as well a natural beneficial nematodes to helpcontrol these critters. The third item to check for will be a fungus. If you lookclosely at the blades of grass that are just around the edge ofa dry patch you may notice lines or markings on each individualblade(s) of grass. If you
have already checked for water orgrubworms and are sure these two are not the problems this couldbe whats making your turn brown. There are also granualar and liquid fungicides available to helpwith this situation. If you have any flowering trees or shrubs such as roses, crapemyrtle, vitex, bird of paradise, oleander, among others it isvery important to remove the "spent blossoms" as they appear.This action will help keep your flowering plants blooming upuntil frost. If this is not done the plants will spend a lot ofenergy into forming seeds at the expense of new blossoms. Remember this usuallly works on just about any flowering plant.If your plants are looking a little pale in color you may wantto incorporate some iron into your soil. Plants and lawns canlose some of their deep green color this time of year due to somuch watering. The soil may get leached out of it's nutrients by August so itis important to replace these minerals with chelated iron orIronite. This not only puts a deep green back into the foliagebut also makes flowers more vibrant. If it has been more thant 5 to 6 weeks since you last fertilizedyour then it is time. For this area a 16-8-8 fertilizerwith iron, sulphur and zinc is recommended. This may be used ona fescue, rye or bermuda lawn, as well as trees and shrubs. Thisarticle "Dog days of Summer" is free to use as long as thefollowing is attached: - Author Gary Guzman Website:http://guzmansgreenhouse.com About the author:Gary Guzman: Owner of Guzman's Greenhouse. Over 25 years retailgardening experience.
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