Focus 580; Lawn And Garden Care

Good morning welcome to focus 580. Does our morning talk program My name's David Ensor glad to have you with us and we're also pleased to welcome back to the program Sandy Mason she saw horticulture educator with you by extension in Champaign County and the once a month on the what do we do this the second Tuesday the third Tuesday something like that. It's a Tuesday. She's done. She stops by here or some kind of Tuesday. Well of course we're always pleased that she is here and the idea is it's your opportunity to call in and ask questions about things that grow in the home landscape could be trees and shrubs could be flowering plants could be vegetables could be grass. We also can take questions about house plants if that's what's on your mind any and all of that if you're having a problem and you need some help. You can call in and you know give us the best description of the problem Sandy can see if she can help you out maybe still people at this point are thinking about planting things and they're looking for suggestions. Any and all of that is certainly welcome. And I know that she will do her very best

to help you out. 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. We do also have a. Toll free line it's good anywhere that you can here is 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 3 3 otherwise 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. Any point here you can give us a go have. Happy to have you with us once again. Good morning and I'm glad it's on much better circumstances I was so afraid. Although it makes my job easy because I just say well you know it's the drought that's why your plants are dying. You know it's real easy. So I'm glad we've gotten some rain. Well certainly because it was so dry May and June and even the beginning part of July we really have we did get a little bit but you know we're we really were down and you could tell that stuff was stressed and people if they if they wanted to keep their plants alive or water. And now it looks like at least here I think this morning our meteorologist said we've got maybe a little bit more than an inch and maybe we'll get some more so that's really yeah that's really good and it's a nice steady

soaking rain which is better than you get two inches and an hour or something right. Especially how dry it is because you know it kind of has that low crust over the top we get really tarantula downpours and kind of rolls off so this is a wonderful rain if we had to pick one right. All right well we have some people lined up ready to go in fact the lines are full. So I guess we'll start right in here on line number one. Yes right. I have two questions and one is about beanies and ones about cherry tree. I have some peonies and they did strange things this summer for the spring. I got some top room a few. Then I got the big prize. You know I mentioned I am not or never opened. And then I got some little teeny ones like you know eight and a quarter and they never did anything more. What's going on. Why did you know that. Yeah actually one of the things that's going on is peonies do get a fungal disease and it's real common and you're fortunate you haven't seen it

before and it does cause the buds just to sort of abort they just basically fungus hits them and then they die and so they never open. So it's a lot of it has to do with their weather conditions that are going on at the time and so most of the time we don't recommend you have to do a fungicide But if you find that it happens year after year after year then there are some concerns. This is the first time and probably your biggest thing is I'd get that stuff. You know anything that looks like the old bugs and all the stuff I had removed that now and get it out of there because the right cause the fungus will overwinter even on that stuff so this fall as the foliage dies down naturally. Make sure you get that out of there right. Right right right. So unfortunately does happen to be one of those conditions you know if there's any way you can improve air circulation those kind of things will help but I have a feeling you just happen to be the weather conditions were just right that I had a problem with it. So all of this. Can you say happened next year. You really should know sometimes people do say that they seem to have a problem year after year after year and it does seem

to be probably depending on how wet our springs are depending on those kind of conditions. If it's cool moist spring and then a lot of times we will get it or if they have an area where there's a lot of trees around the poor air circulation so it would require a fungicide spray if you if you truly want to prevent it so don't want to get wet or someone just say OK. Actually there's there are several of them out there. Dechen L would be one of those one of the name brands that are out there so. But it's generally we don't recommend it generally doesn't happen year after year after year but if you do find that usually sanitation is enough to take care of it. Well my next question about Kerry to you know someone who has a cherry tree and I was just curious because it seems like some of the trees have cherry and some have nothing. And I was wondering are there male and female cherry trees. No actually most of the cherry trees are going to be self fertile so you don't even need another one. I found this year I had a

wonderful I have sour cherries and I had a wonderful crop last year. I had virtually none this year and it was very very very disconcerting when you're when you're so excited about it and what I'm guessing happened is that for some reason or other there was very poor pollination and that's usually what occurs. Either it's too dry or for some reason the bees aren't active or there aren't any bees somehow yet we still require those pollinators out there so for some reason or another they just to get pollinated well so it's not a fortune it was just a bird. Let's care yeah I have plenty of flowers right next to it and I think yeah yeah so I know there's something going on there where they just didn't get pollinated Well that's another thing that that it shouldn't happen year after year after year. OK well I was just curious you know. Thank you. When one thinks of the call let's go to next Aurora on our toll free line line for Hello. Yes ma'am. Oh hi good morning. Well it's just great to talk to you. Could you tell me and I asked you the last time we walked

was something good for you to make some of you know what fertilizer you told me and I recall I don't recall the numbers usually on plants where we're just looking for the foliage were not necessarily looking for a lot of flowers. Oh you really were. OK that's fine. Actually if you want to go that route that's fine you can use anything from actually on hosses I probably you could just use a complete fertiliser like a 10 10 10 or something along those lines and they'd be they'd be quite happy most the time. So the numbers you told me I could not find. Well you know it's maybe 12 12 12 I think it's more of looking at the ratio. Sounds like four five four five and that's good. If it says it's for foliage plants or something along those lines then I think you'll be just fine and it depends a lot on the manufacturer own the numbers are so. So don't worry too much of the numbers are exactly what I tell you but it should be kind of in that ratio whether it's pretty much the same for each nutrient. And then use it works out pretty well.

Why. Why didn't my daughter's bridal push on time on time or at all. Well if I only. Very late now starting with the problem she was so disappointed. Yeah isms that bloomed OK. Sometimes it just happens to do with the spring now for a lot of things that I saw everything was sort of being sort of sped up because it was fairly warm and I found I found a lot of things that were blooming early so in that particular case with with this one I'm not sure exactly what's going on but if it bloomed at all then at least she's not doing anything as far as pruning at the wrong time or any of those things. Certainly if it's going to a lot of shade there might be some issues there where might bloom a little bit later but usually that has a whole lot to do you know when they're blooming is in the how warm it is one by one. Homing beautifully and she was very happy when she in a cooler area for some reason that it stayed cooler longer just to happen. Our way then you know this is my second year and this is the point to come.

OK I'll try to have a fight up like what is our sense of but a price is a very low anyway. Pretty much everybody I talk to I noticed around my yard is that it's been very low this year. I've seen very few butterflies compared to what I have in the past and lots of theories being thrown around out there and I'm not sure if anybody has really come up with a reason for that there seems to be certain one some folks said that they were seeing an awful lot of fritillary AA's. But even like Painted Ladies Normally I see you know thousands of Painted Ladies and I'm seeing very few of those and just a couple swallowtail So it's it's really down there and I'm not sure exactly what's going on there. So don't be discouraged in other words if you're not getting a lot there. I'm I'm still putting I still have the garden you know and I'm still trying my my daughter is doing beautifully. It's great you know it's a prairie plant. Sure you want to play in this buy this but I have what I would call to a hybrid. Off to the right of the plant there are

three my daughters that I would read and the plant of course. Is purple Ivy hybrid. They were all supposed to be the prairie planter. Yeah they were they are they are I'm not but they are red. Well there are many cults of ours of Menard as of the B bombs in some are red. Certainly some memory so you may just have ended up on the call to bars the the pretty people I haven't read I don't know where they came from. That's kind of odd I haven't seen a reseed before so I'm not sure why you'd begin the differences there but it's delightful for one of those good good weird. And one last question I put to me is in and the next day and the next day and the next day something ate them down that didn't touch my snapdragons or anything else. But it does and he is down.

Yeah I think first culprit would probably be rabbits that we would think of because they're certainly very good at that. Like rabbit. I know it was you know they ate around the only friend kept eating around. OK so you and you didn't see any kind of insect or slugs or anything like that that might have been you know I didn't get that and it's tragic. It was so cold what I just thought well think on your calling. Well certainly slugs would be another one since they work at night sometimes you don't notice them. Yeah but the snapdragons. Oh it's great. Thank you. Thanks for the go. We have a little area in our yard a sort of a shady area where we decided we'd like to try and see if we get some ferns started so we put in a couple different kinds of ferns and one of them was a really nice Japanese painted fern it was a beautiful plant was doing really well. So the other day I come home for lunch and I'm just kind of walking around looking at things and I realize the painted Fern is gone completely gone. And I'm thinking Did someone steal it. Crystal hold what.

Well what happened then I started to sort of dig around to investigate and I found out that in fact someone and I think I know who came along and ate it and the more downright wound to the ground because the you know that you could still see a building stick from from within. And so now I'm hoping that well if the you know maybe it will come back yeah. If the roots are still in if it's been there for a couple of years they probably will come back. Well it was just you know it was it was brand new in the ground it had been there for a couple months but I wouldn't give up on I'd still watered it. If we get back into dry spell but it's still water and don't give up on it it was very strange because also it is all of us in Atlanta in this area that we're OK and I'm just and I was completely I thought what where did that. Let's go to medical. They came down just for a minute and he's right in front of me and they have long ears and little wiggly know how to fly but if it's any Mason is our guest. She's horticulture educator with you by extension in Champaign County once a month on Tuesday she's here we talk

about lawn and garden care. And if you have questions give us a call 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. That's for champagne Urbana toll free 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5. Next up is a caller in Paxton line 3. Hello good morning. Yes. I want to know what to do about the Japanese beetle that won't leave my peaches alone. Yeah good question. You know and I wish I had a really good answer for Japanese beetles because we're all suffering from their problems are pretty much all of us are suffering from their problems and then this point I assume they're ready to be picked or almost ready to get it right. I fell pretty hard. Yeah I is a very big tree. I guess what you could consider two war stories and I could get at the top maybe with the step ladder. Because you know it gets harder and harder to use anything obviously you are ready to harvest. And I don't depending on how many Japanese beetles are on there right now. One of the things I found effective especially fierce on the fruit and vegetable crops of the plants are not to

big is to use the floating row covers I don't know if you're familiar with those. Yeah they look like those big white sunbonnet but if they're already you have to shake them up and you know Japanese beetles when they get when they get disturbed they tend to fall to the ground. So you'd have to spend some time sort of knocking them off and doing some of that because obviously you don't want to keep them in there but it would certainly protect some of the peaches themselves in that kind of thing. I have actually seen people cover individual peaches. Believe it or not just to keep them off of those peaches so that they can at least ripen that way and I know that's very time consuming but it certainly would be one way to take care of it. But I try to bring soap and water. So Santa Ana like a host right. You might knock a few off that way but you know they come back so quickly that I'm not sure how well that's going to help. And most the time the soaps aren't particularly good on those hard bodied insects because they tend to be fairly protected from really soaps and those kinds of things so that gets a large. So they could use a high stream of water. Well you know and that people are

just as effective to actually just to hit it with water and try to get them off that way it's not going to last today are art. There certainly are aren't as active when it's raining so I guess that's the good news that Jen generally don't feed as much they don't generally don't fly around as much so I guess there is some good news to that is that the ones that are on there are probably the ones that you're not going to get new ones necessarily today. So there might be some things you could do now to sort of take care of the ones you have now. OK. It's tough I know it's a tough problem. Yeah I wish we had a good answer. If anything. It works on any enemies forum. You know I think the one thing is I guess you know even though Japanese beetles are you know we hate them they're fairly new to Illinois compared to what you know in New York and the eastern states have certainly had them for a very long time much longer than us since about the 1930s or so so they certainly been around for a while and I guess they haven't even quite figured out anything for those. There is Milky Spore which is one of the bacterial type

agents that can be used against the grubs and it's fairly effective against the grubs but unfortunately unless everybody does it the Japanese beetles fly so much that's one of the big problems is that they they fly for miles and can fly for miles. And that's one of the big problems with them is that they don't stick around in one area. OK. Yeah thank you. Well we'll hope some of you come up with something good. All right we'll continue here and talk next with someone in Chicago this is lie number one. Hello and good morning. Yes I thought I was on it. I think it's a matter of triumph and it's about a foot high. It's not healthy looking and I was very trying the styrofoam cup that was dripping with water. I'd like to transplant it. What kind of song would I use. Really with those guys just any kind of really well drained soil and you could actually get mixes that say they're for cactuses and stuff which would be just fine or I wouldn't even a soil us mix would be find something

that you know is going to drain well and they also seem to do better if you can put them in like a clay pot or something that has a lot of prosody to it. How about per ladder vermiculite or pizza and i feel right. Well beach sand is actually a little bit too fine depending on the beach but usually construction grades if you're going to use sand I'd use construction grade the stuff that's bigger if you're going to go that route. And if you're going to use sand I'd use a lot of it has in more than half of the soil mix should be sand and you can certainly make your own you could certainly do that. Heard about called a medicine. Well aloes one of those things that sometimes people certainly do use for burns and cuts than has been used for that for a very long time and people found it to be effective. It's right on the line thank you and let's go next to someone listening in Piet County this line number for learning. Yes I have a question. I read a magazine article a bearded irises and they recommended cutting them

off so I cut them off when it was really hot and then I noticed that some of the leaves had a long brown stripe on it. You know I thought that because it's so dry but the article in the magazine said that that could be a sign for and it wouldn't be the whole Irish you know fan of leaves would be like one leaf would have you know the side of a brown all the way down the leaf and I didn't know short of calling up the rhizome and looking at it. I just went ahead and cut them off and you know got rid of them. Does that mean. The brownies for Iris for us are just dry. Could be I guess you're seeing an actual streak. Then we might wonder about insects or even disease problems. Sometimes I get that. So I'd kind of want to use the if it's a drought you'll see the you know the tips will brown or the sides will Brown and that would be probably more common to what we'd see would drown insuree but irises take a lot of I

mean they're very tough and they'll take a lot of dry before they really suffer from dryness. Well that's what I thought yeah the Metairie thing. Yeah yeah they're they're pretty tough plants so. So I would kind of wonder about Iris. But what you could do is that you know use of the rhizome itself is pretty close to the surface or actually right there on top of the surface and you can tell really easily usually the fan itself will die if you really get an iris bore because they move from the fan down into the rhizome. OK and you can actually stick your thumb into a few of the rhizomes and see if they're firm. Because if they're not what will happen if the bores in there what will happen is you'll just punch right through it because they generally leave the skin on kind of. But then eat out the interior of the rhizome so you'll find out real quick. OK. Just by do a little investigation OK. And should I fertilize them all or just leave me alone. You know really with irises they don't really need a whole lot of fertilization. And actually I think they're one of those it's probably a little bit better for you if they're not. I'd like to be left alone. Yeah there

they are tough points I had one you know I was redoing some irises one time I put them on top of my you know put some on a compost pile and they live through the winter on top of the compost pile and started growing on top. Tough plants they're tough cookies don't hide the replumbing one. Yes I have and I love them. OK go for it if you haven't gotten a re blue Maria. They're all just beautiful and there's nothing nice in unseen irises in September. Yes I was thinking that. Thanks so much for that you know I said the same problem as this caller I am almost 100 percent sure I have a small standard virus that I had IRA spore earlier this spring and I was really quite sure what to do whether just to rip the things out of the ground or just to leave them and see what happened and I decided to leave them and see what happened some clearly some parts of the plants have died and others are still green and seem to be OK and I guess I'm not really sure what. What to do now. Really your best bet not and Grandma's have done this for a long time and I never knew why grandma's did these kinds of things but they always would prune them down would cut them down in the fall you know cut those the leaves off in the front and I was never quite sure. It just seemed like a

grandma thing but come to find out what they really were doing I was trying to prevent Iris bore because what will happen is that the moth and she'll actually lay her eggs in the fall on those leaves. And so if you get rid of those leaves you actually getting rid of the eggs. So in the fall that's a really good thing to just get used to doing and just taken off those old leaves and getting him out of there don't just lay him over somewhere you know either you know barium or put it in the compost pile and bury him in the compost pile something and that will help to get rid of the eggs and then hopefully next year then you wouldn't have any wars you know OK I come just right down to the ground pretty much I mean you're within. Oh and enter too. I mean you're not really getting because you know it gets kind of hard but you really cut him down fairly hard and get rid of that foliage so just good and some of us think good sanitation is a good prevention. And in the meantime nothing and particular you can do between now and the time that things pretty much go dormant K.. You know I'd be one of those things if you want to go ahead and dig them up. You know at this point and it wouldn't be a bad idea if you know you have IRA's Wars sort of dig them up get rid of those that are obviously infested because

they get a bacterial software at this really kind of gross and you know and big a way to sort of revamp the whole planting so dig em up that would be a good thing and get rid of the old ones replanting new ones and then remembering to do that this fall. I think one of the first things that tipped me off was. The way that they smelled. Yeah. Oh it's always that gross. Yeah it's like rotten onion to be brown onion go bad it's that kind of the I mean we can I mean it was almost like in like rotten fish. I got a sort of a sort of a like. So that should tell everybody exactly. People are not in droves they're headed for the radio turning it off saying look it's not lunch let's turn on the F and put Simpson music. Let's go to the next caller champagne wine to right here. Hello hello. Yes I have a couple questions about potted Jasmine plants. My mother in law keeps a large number of jasmine plants and pots and we put them out during the summer. Outside they do very well. We bring them in in the winter keep them in

the basement under some supplemental lighting. What happens is they get woolly aphids as busy as the winter progresses. They get worse and worse and by the time we bring them out again in the spring pretty much have to cut them back and they regrow again but I'm wondering if there's a way we can prevent that by treating the soil or something when we bring the pot. Yeah. I think probably your best bet is to use some like insecticide also. And when you bring them in I would go ahead and spray them with insecticide also. I'd probably go ahead. Do you replant them at all when you bring a man or do you just usually And you know there's so many there's so many it's hard to write it but it might be something where you might want to actually trench the soil several times you know let him drain out and really drenched the soil. You know just for other thing as I know I would just use plain old water. You're just trying to sort of flush anything else out that might be in there but. But using insecticide also does a pretty good job of taking care of a lot of the soft bodied insects that you're going to get natural if we just always seem to get them on those plants that we bring in so things like spider mites

and scale and all those other things that may come in and she may. You may have to do it you know throughout the season obviously. You know just keep an eye on him soon as you see it you know jump on it and make sure you sprang down the insecticide all soap and just do that through the through the winter. OK. And the other question I had is that we've noticed on some of them this time of year sort of a modeled yellowing on some of the leaves and I was wondering if that's some type of viral thing or a nutritional thing. Yeah I'm not aware of a virus on Jasmine but but you know it's not a crop that we grow a lot around here so there could very well be a virus on them do they seem still seem like they grow well and doesn't seem to have. Yeah pretty much. You know I mean I my experiences usually been that if it's insect damage you can sort of see more of more evidence of the insect biting or something like that and the leaf itself uniformly still has the nice sort of waxy coating on it it's just that it's modeled modeled as and you get these yellow kind of streaks kind of here and there kind of patches patches not more not like

more like patches of yellowing. It's not the whole leaf being yellow too which was what made me think more of a virus. Yeah it would be worth investigating. Because viruses can certainly transfer from plant to plant. I mean depending on the insects and depending on if you do any pruning you can actually transfer the pruners themselves. You bet. So if you're prone and you actually can be moving the virus around so it be worth investigating are you hearing chief Peter Pan OK. What you might want to do is maybe take a sample to the U of I plant clinic there on St. Mary's road and really find out for sure and simply because of these other Jasmine's if you have a lot of them it's not some you want to transfer right. Yes exactly. So it does sound more like either fungal virus something else going on besides just a nutrient deficiency. OK. You think should go back here to lie number one this is someone in ur Bana. Hello good morning.

Yes I'm calling about hydrangea for the first time I've noticed plants both pink and blue colored flowers and I wonder if this is a new variety or a new technique for growing. You know maybe I have one called in the summer. That is one of the newer ones and it blooms on old wood new wood both which is just nice. It does have a tendency that some of the flowers tend to be a little bluer and some tend to be a little bit pink or I think some of it has to do with the age of the flower. They seem to sort of fade away and they get kind of these different colors on them. But it also has happens due certainly with this. You know we're supposed to put an aluminum sulphate on him or to get him to turn blue. So maybe just happened on one where they are the soil conditions the amount of aluminum available those kinds of things. Because I know there are rich flowers so small do change color when you fly.

Yeah and it may very well be seeing the same thing with hydrangeas I'm betting it likely would be one of the newer variety rock right. Thank you very much. Things I think we talked about this hydrangea we have last time I was here because I I said I thought for sure it was a plant that's been in the ground for several years and this is the first time it's flowered and I said I thought for sure that I remembered it having a different color flare and it came up there it looked like it was going to be white. And actually what happened was as the flower sort of developed it actually turned pink as a think and then we have this conversation about how well what if then if you put a particular kind of thing in the soil on the plant you can actually get them to turn blue. Yeah if that's what you want I guess I figure well they're OK pink I think it's an okay color just because. But I was really impressed and I noticed as I was walking down in you know making my walk to work somebody down a couple of blocks down the street from us has a hydrangea that does have a really beautiful blue flower so they must be they must be doing whatever unless it just does that all by itself. Now I have a feeling about you pretty around here our souls just aren't acidic enough for one thing and then jelly it's

the bell ability of aluminum So normally it's something that you have to be applying so more than likely they're they're doing what they need to do to get a Beluga will be past the midpoint here Sandy Mason is with us she's horticulture educator with you by extension in Champaign County and she's here once a month on a Tuesday and we talk about lawn and garden care if you have questions call us. 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5. The next caller on the line is in Champaign and lie number three. Hello how are you. Have a quick two questions two. One about peach trees. I wanted to know if it's a bad finding if your tree bears a couple of the potential peaches and they just don't do anything you just can't follow law. Is this a new tree just a young tree and it's doing really well as far as that goes but we thought it was nice to bear some fruit and it doesn't look like it.

Yeah they're just going to fall off or they didn't develop it with these two and I haven't seen any more come back. Well you know it takes a while for these young trees and usually by the time you get around to maybe the third or fourth year we should start seeing something going on there. OK. What sometimes will happen is the peaches are one of those that do need some pruning. Normally we'd prune in the spring time but but they do need a certain amount of pruning because if they get too many peaches you're not at that point but if they get too many peaches Sometimes we will see some of the peaches just naturally drop off because there's too many of them now you don't have that problem but certainly other people might see that so I would just give it some time. OK. And another want to buy roses. So I don't know if they were our aces some mice some kind of insect kind of like get a job on my road here I mean the balloons and everything but the leaves are on and I just want to know if there is something I can do.

Preacher either something might happen next year. And it wasn't Japanese beetles affair I know. Yeah yeah yeah. Though you know we all know those don't. There actually is something called a rose the color rose slug but it really isn't a slug. It actually saw fly but beyond that there are little bitty tiny little caterpillar like guys and they just chew roses down and they're so tiny that a lot of times we miss some. And a lot of times they're on the undersides of the leaves chewing and so we just kind of notice wow something on there but you don't even see them. So it be one of those things that when you start seeing that you certainly could use any number of insecticides would work on them there actually are some rose products that have an insecticide and fungicide both in them. So if you find you're going to need to do that periodically that's sometimes a good product then you have to spray more than once. But any of those would work out just fine or even you know things like 7 and some of those will actually do just fine. Usually we see it probably maybe some earlier in the season or so and usually we don't see quite so many. Then the Japanese beetles.

This didn't seem to happen last year from remember accurately to this extent but yeah whatever it is we like roses. Yeah yeah yeah. So soon as you start seeing that little bit of damage or if you want is the least first start to come out you may want to use some of the rose sprays. OK OK good luck. Thank you to go to Charleston. Line number 4. Hello hi I'm trying to get a new lawn established and this is a bad year for the past. Aren't you lucky. One question I have is how long do I need to water it to keep it from drying out and dying when I realize it will get to the point where it's application off it'll just go dormant when how much effect happens. Now when did you start this. The rest will come in. And we finally got a plant. OK. And then did it have some time period there right. Seems like May was awfully dry too so it really didn't have a time period where it really could flourish too much you've had to do supplemental wanting permits the whole

time. We have water there constantly and the Bluegrass is doing pretty well. The roots are down three or four inches now. OK. OK. Probably the biggest thing when you start getting a lawn is to water thoroughly. But maybe less frequently. Yeah we've been doing. Yeah yeah. So you're not sprinkling every day because no no no. OK OK so I can and each a week or so. Yeah that's good. That's that's good and generally that's enough to keep it green. Now when we start cutting back a little bit more than that then that's when you know they'll still be alive but they won't. GREENE So if you're pretty confident that the roots are fairly well established and you could actually cut out a plug or something to see that you might be able to cut back a little bit on that but with this being a brand new lawn it's it's going to be very susceptible to drought injury much more so I'm. And I hate to say this but but I'm guessing that this whole year you're really going to have to make sure that you add some supplemental

watering to it. OK that's what I'll do. So unfortunately a lot of weeds came up weedy grasses and I was just wondering what my options are there will they die out over the winter and let the press take over. It kind of depends on the crabgrass or can you tat question this question. Some of the time that I'm not sure. Ok things like crabgrass and stuff you can take care of that next spring by using a pre-emergent crabgrass control. So I wouldn't I would be too concerned right now you can take care of that next year and get a pretty good control for those annual grass heat so I wouldn't worry too much about that right now the only herbicides that you know of this arsenic and I'm not really depressed about spraying arsenic all over my yard products those are but yeah I would be more concerned about doing something next spring on that and just really try to get that long established issue. OK good luck on working on quite the same as the long grass. Actually they probably aren't and now that you say that I think I have seen that somebody is looking at that Roundup resistant gracefulness spray the whole just so that I can have everything.

Yeah yeah unfortunately those grassy weeds are so similar to blue grass it's very tough to get something that's going to select them. OK I think I'm good thanks if someone could do that they get an AMEN to round up resistant lawn grass. They'd make a bet is probably well or probably in the works here to Mahomet. Lie number two. Well we live in forested area and some of the forests flow and some planted land I'm trying to at least clean out the state of Washington and some other undesirables. I would like to know if there is anything that can be planted that will kind of thrive there are deer there they're rabbits there. Yeah good question. Right at the time I had it have to be something that they do. There are lists for deer resistant plants and one of the top ones on

there was as you've been they came and ate it all. I shouldn't laugh but I know that they just don't read the books like they supposed to. And unfortunately you must have a high population or a fairly high population of them at times. Ma'am you know the one thing that I have and I don't know whether this works well for you and this may be not be the route you want to go but actually I saw somebody do is really an interesting thing in Monticello on the gardeners actually lives in a forested area and they built using use and although deer will use but they used deer and the use use as well as some fencing and actually made this kind of barricade getting deer like to walk through certain areas then don't. They will jump they don't know it's not their first preference and they really said they'd get very few deer in their yard even though I live right next to a forested area and it makes a nice backdrop for the garden I know this isn't really what your question was but. But sometimes if we sort of look at it in a different direction sometimes it helps so I don't know if that's doable for you but I would just think about trying some of the other plants.

Maybe some even some of the wildflowers I know there are some issues there they'll still eat some of those but trying to get maybe some of those established some time to get rid of all the sticker stuff the other stuff will come back. The violence seems to be pretty good. But let's. Well it's so they make a nice ground cover. Yeah yeah yeah. OK. That's another difficult question. OK good luck to you. We'll go next to Sidney line 3. Hello Oh hi. Hi Sandy just your friend and I've got a comment today I'm very alarmed at what I've been seeing with this zero turn radius mowers. People know that they tear the turf up. But I've seen beautiful evergreens disfigured. My guess is the deck doesn't stick out so when they trim they rub the new growth on the evergreens and I've had a new job that I've installed where they've destroyed the evergreens and I've noticed after that looking

around and there are some wonderful evergreens that have just been destroyed and my guess is that when the new growth comes out that constant rubbing my wheels. So I just thought I'd share that with the audience because. Normally you can plead with them not to do that. Yeah yeah and I mean that's a really good point you know as we use different. And I've seen people killed trees use and weed whackers too because people don't think on those young trees they don't think it's a big deal but but you can absolutely kill a tree using those too so I think maybe the bottom line is that people need to mulch. If you would you know maybe do some more mulching and actually get rid of some of that turf underneath some of these plants and give them some space. Maybe that's one thing that would help but that's like I never thought about that but that's a really good comment. Well I've caught him and I would go on and tell them but the fact is I have sat along both thanks to him and I think well thanks for the show.

We have about 10 minutes left in this part of focus 580 with Sandy Mason she's horticulture educator with you know by extension in Champaign County. It's our monthly show on lawn garden care. If you have questions gets call 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. Toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. We go back to Aurora here for line number 1. Hello. Yes. I wanted one step removed in the spring break Asiatic clearly. Really. Plants. When can we pick up the ball and move them to a better place. Right now the place bequests safe there are so many in one spot and I want to transplant. You can certainly do that in part you wait till September or so in September maybe October. You could probably do it in October. Well it's just so dry in those guys are a little bit more susceptible to dryness than say daffodils and some of those so I'd be a little bit concerned about that.

You know might be if you have. If they're like tiger lilies and some of those are pretty tough and that's what I did that but really really I give it some time. Be honest with him. I'm glad I asked. Thank you thank you. Back to Bloomington Illinois this next call here lie number 4. Hello. Hi this is Bob. I'm wondering if you can give me any tips on how to keep quarrels out of my peach tree last year I lost virtually every peach to the squirrels and it's getting it's frustrating is feeling like crap and I'm driving my car let me hang up and all listen here and thank you. OK well thanks as well says the wildlife that's what you got to do is you just build yourself a real big cage. We'll you know we save it. But you know you know unfortunately with with those guys you can't really do fancy can't really you know unless there's some way you know if they're if they're jumping from trees on to the peach tree you know sometimes there's some things you can do about trimming trees around it and then trying to do some some other things but I think unfortunately

for a lot of these that is going to be your best bet is to use either usenet NG or something along those lines actually does physically keep them out. I don't know of any sprays or anything like that that's going to keep the squirrels. I think that that's all you can do is the best barrier that you can put up I think that's probably yeah and it may be worth it. You know I could be just a temporary thing that you put up while you're higher wristing kind of thing are ready to harvest and so do I actually just put up a structure of some kind and go from there. I know it sounds like a lot but you know peaches are worth it. Ok Hope that helps. Yeah but I know it's a tough problem they're like racoons they're tough to keep them out of anything because they can climb fences and let other cities before they get ripe. Yes they do don't they. Yes. Yeah you know they don't even wait. They'll even sit there and funny and do it. And while you're watching they taunt you. Yeah I probably do but I'd be another one of those. Again I've seen people just individually cover the beaches which is I know the pain but yeah OK well I think as best we can do let's go to Herb Bana next one

number two. Hello good morning good morning. I have a question I never had ranch a question when I moved into this house the former owners have plans I dreamt of you know on the south side wall so I didn't think I was going to live but it does it lives every year in it. But what happens is a wide range of flowers but about this time every year the flowers turn like a green color. So I'm wondering if there's anything I should put on it to make it stay white. They're probably just aging is my guess. Oh that's just as the flower age is that kind of can get that green look to it so I'm not sure there's anything you can do too much about. I mean they say they're white for a while that way and I like when I first built a bright beautiful white and then right about now I came in yesterday you know I was. Frank pulled into the driveway because that's where the bush is and I noticed all those white flowers and now looking very green saging. Yeah I'm not sure there's too much you can do about that. I think that's just part of what they do. Oh

OK well that cut him off with just the three Yeah a lot of times people actually like you know as they age they kind of even get a little brownish which sometimes people actually even like over the season so it kind of depends on how well you like it. OK well other question has about Iris's I bought some I was in a in a pot over the weekend because they were on sale late tell me to plant each one separate the ball and plant each one five to six inches deep but I thought I was supposed to stay near the surface of the soil not all the way down in the soil are they bearded irises. Yes he said they were bearded irises. You know normally the rhizomes like right at the top surface and jelly we don't say more than an inch and a half or so. Yeah so I don't know what that unless it's some other kind of IRA you know they're certainly Siberians and some of those I mean that. Because it was this late in the season I should put him down deep in the soil so I didn't know they're still in the pot I haven't done anything with him.

Yeah yeah I would be surprised by that because usually they're But one of our problems with Iris is that sometimes they can actually rot. So that's one of the reasons why they're kind of at the top surface who dry out faster and all I could see up to I think that would be my concern and they might rot if they're that deep. So well I'll go with engine half and see what that I know works. I don't know about the other one I mean you could try it but ok. Good luck lying next to Gibson city line number one. Hello Yes hello. Yes I have a question kind of in the same way that last caller in that my son got me a pergola but it and I bought these bulbs. And I know you're supposed to plant in the spring where they're Clematis. And Pilani and Gladio was and I wonder is it too late to plant some dish here or what would be a good time to plant them. I think I would go ahead and plant them at this point either that or put them in pots or something.

Do they still look OK or the fact I made it all in the package and you know I haven't done anything with them because it didn't get done one at the time you know what I thought they were supposed to be done or the pergola so but do you think pot could pick up probably the best. Well the one thing with POTS is that you can control the the what you know you can put them in one spot you sort of control the watering a little bit better. You have to water mill a bit more often so it kind of depends on you know if you can the best thing would just be just to get in the ground. But beyond that I would definitely if you know a chance to do that I'd definitely get in pots at this point. OK thank you very much. Yeah yeah and so you will keep going your next will go to someone in a while and three I think I have. Brad there is a couple. Is this a good time to do that or should we wait till fall. You know raspberries are not one of those it's pretty tough to take a lot of that day a lot of abuse. You could probably get away with it this year. You know right now if you

wanted to do it might be a little bit better if it was a little bit cooler and you wouldn't have to worry about watering them quite so much so you might be better if you wait till like September next spring or something like that but I really think if there's any way she has a chance to water a periodical I think it's still live. OK thanks a lot. OK. 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5. We have a couple of minutes left aim to get at least one more person in here and yeah we'll do that in oh so you want to make a quick plug here. Yeah I just want to say I'm doing a program today and also Thursday night on good bugs bad bugs in his car. I call it GSI garden scene investigation. You like that. It's going to be fun it's at the our county extension office or actually if you're near any of the other extension office as you were it's over the telnet system and you might be able to do it at your local extension office. So one o'clock today and then repeat it at 7:00 o'clock Thursday night.

So it'll be fun too. Let's see we get least one call here Abana line one. Hello. Yes. One quick question and that is. Is it too late to separate Haas. I think I would either wait until I keep saying wait until September but you know it's tough when it's this hot and this dry it's really tough on plants. So I would either wait until September I'd wait until next spring. OK thank you very much. All right. Line number two the pain. Hello. To call the airline to Champaign. Oh yes go ahead. Yes I have a problem with zucchini. I know it's a death syndrome. No reason to start turning tail and die. And this has happened in previous years I've got one plan for doing that now. I have so I can hear you better on the radio. Yeah it be one of those things you may want to take a sample to a local extension office or I've feeling you've got squashed boar that would be the other thing that I would I would look for and they actually get

inside the stem and then and you're right it just basically like the whole plant just dies so that would be the one thing I would look for in that and you might if the if the stem does die I would just cut it open and see who's aboard a little caterpillar guys actually inside the stem and that's why they end up dying so I do a little investigation that way about the one thing we can do is sort of prevent that through pesticide sprays things like Subban and some of those early in the season to make sure that you know Kenna because unfortunately once they get inside there it's very difficult to control them at that point. And that's how you probably mention that's good that you know we do hear troubleshooting on the program but some some cases it's hard to do that without seeing right at the plant and people certainly can bring in a sample of the plant and can stop by your office or depending on where they live and that whoever their local extension person is and they will they will help them out they'll figure out what it is and give them the best advice they can on what to do with it and the universe of Illinois has a plan clinic Purdue as a plant clinic and so you can certainly check those out as well a lot of

times they can take samples of the mailman. Well assuming you have one more at least. Line 3. Hello Hello Julie and just a message to the lady with the white hydrant show or as I call him snowball bunches when they start to turn green like that just put him in a pretty green face. I think that that's sort of like making lemonade out of lemons. I like that brown face when they start to turn a little brown and just enjoy every day for you good for you. That's what I do like that. It's good they go there but I think maybe we can try one more here champagne. Hello the color line one yeah go ahead. Yes I we've just spent a whole bunch of time putting in new flower garden in the front of our house and it's turned out really really well and we have done all of this because the Fed used to have a ton of creeping charlie in it

and we dug all the topsoil off and got rid of a whole bunch of it and to my chagrin I'm seeing a little creeping charlie creeping back up through the mulch. Is there anything I can. And we tried to pull them out you can't get the no end of a what can I put on those little things to kill them. I think one of your best bets would be at this point is that if you can get a round up or one of the nonselective herbicides and what you want to do is you just actually dissipate it on the leaves just very carefully paint on leaves and as long as you don't getting a spray on anything you want to keep it with a new flower bed and there's enough room there where you can go ahead and do that. Make sure it's not a windy day and all those kind of good things that after rain would be a good time. The plants will take it in and that will hopefully kill off the roots then which is what one of your problems is. Yeah yeah thank you really careful with that stuff. Frustrating. Oh yeah. I thanks for the call. Well I think that's be about it any last thing that you want to mention.

You know I just want to mention I saw on PBS last night was Guns Germs and Steel. Excellent excellent program that people get. There's two more segments I know you didn't ask me to do this but there's two more segments on Monday night but the reason I bring that up is that a lot of it has to do with farming and agriculture and so people have gardening interests and all those kind of things I think they'll find some of this quite fastenings the excellent book and now an excellent program it was it was based on a very good book got a lot of positive attention sold very well Jared Diamond we talked about the book here I mean it's very you know I actually got a chance to meet him a couple years ago when he was here. So it is really interesting so you people can catch the show but of course if you really want to read that book either you can. I'm sure it's in paperback by now you could buy a copy go to a library whatever it's it's very interesting reading. OK well thank you thank you. Sandy Mason she's horticulture educator with you by extension in Champaign County once a month here always on the third. It is the third third Tuesday. So when we do this. Second second Tuesday it's not one of the times days I think it's that. Stay tuned

here as we take these questions.