Focus 580; Lawn and Garden Care

Good morning welcome to focus our morning talk show. My name's David Inge. Glad to have you with us. We're also pleased to have back here on the program Sandy Mason she is a horticulture educator with you by extension in Champaign County. Once a month on a Tuesday she is here in the first hour of the program and we talk about lawn garden care and this is your opportunity to call in and ask questions about things that grow in the home landscape could be grass could be trees and shrubs could be flowering plants could be vegetable materials could be house plants. Any and all of that. It's serious certainly welcome if you have questions and it may be as I as I usually say it may be that there's something some lingering issue from last growing season that you still haven't quite dealt with that you have questions about Perhaps you are thinking about what you want to plant this year and how to take care of the things that you already have. Those sorts of questions that's exactly what we're here for. And I know Sandy will do her best to help you out here in Champaign Urbana 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. We do also have a toll free line that's good. Anywhere that you can hear us around the Illinois and Indiana. And that is

800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 so at any point here if you have questions you can cause. What have you here once again. Coming morning and one of things I was think about asking about and I don't know if this is far too general and it's really plant specific but the question is this and round our house in the last few years we planted a number of perennials of different kinds and most everything has done really well and now we're getting to the point where things have been maybe two three years in the ground. They're growing well and they're developed into a fairly good sized healthy plants and the fact that there are some that are so big that I'm starting to think now is this something that I can divide and that I guess that's my question how do you know what you can and what you can't divide is there any any easy rule or do you have to research each plant and ask that question for this particular thing now what. Is there anything like that you can do with it. I think there's a few maybe the few general things that anything that forms that clump as in the clump just keeps getting bigger and bigger and I'm thinking of things like bee bomber if you think of the way mint grows or anything. They sort of

send out these rhizomes piece of cake. You know you can divide those do whatever you want with those. And most of those are pretty darn tough and traditionally would probably like to do it more like in April. We're getting a little bit later here a bit but you could still sort of divide things I just make sure water them we may get into hopefully not get in a dry spell but what we can or we might do in September so use April September the best times when they forms a clock not a problem. Divide those. Anything that obviously forms like separate crowns and I'm thinking of things like Hostel where it actually if you look at it or of day lilies if you look at it very closely you can see there's a sort of these separate crowns and then those then they keep adding crowns and such as the plant grows. Those are pretty easy to divide you can really tell but those can be divided. I think the hard part is when you start getting into plants that look like they obviously have just one trunk coming up or one stem coming up. Then it gets to be a little bit trickier Sometimes I think of things like bleeding hearts the old fashioned bleeding hearts. If you look and see how they grow the plant itself kind of keeps getting bigger but they have kind of a

tap root looking thing a little bit harder to divide in some of those types of plants don't like to be divided. So. There may be a few of those if you start looking at those one single crown those to be the ones I'd start to research and really think I don't know if I can do this. OK well I think that's I think I got it and that somebody was like a pretty amusing if there was one thing that I was I had been delegated to ask you about and then promptly forgot it. I'm kind of thinking that it's that it's an and and nominee and many Japanese anemone and it's has a fairly good sized kind of heart shaped leaf this one in particular is interrogated and it sends up sprays of really little flowers and there's this on this particular plant there sky blue. It's a it's a really pretty plant and we have it planted in a place where it's a shady spot and it's done very well and it's gotten really big and we were thinking the other day what can we can we divide that because it's really almost getting too big for the workplace than it is and then just take it and take part of it and find the right one.

If I remember how those go it's more like a clump it is attacking the leaves come outside Roro bells Yeah yeah. Then actually those can be divided. You can still divide those kinds of plans and actually some of the plans like coral bells actually appreciate being divided once in a while because they come to you know they kind of get this low to that kind of thing the technical term and they actually appreciate being there so that when you know you may or may not want to go ahead and do that now I mean wait till September or so or are you certainly could do it now probably only plan he said. Don't divide in the spring and be peonies and you really should divide those move those in September. So either probably if you're going to do that it's good when they're just getting going or when they are on the right way to being done and right or leaning towards right but not too terribly late and part of that is just whether we really don't want to go through that really hot dry period when we've just divided them. We have several callers in fact the lines are full so let's get to it and we'll start with someone in champagne and wine one hello good morning. Yes yes Hello go ahead.

I I have a problem. I've got some that use some large flowered. And they had a terrible powdery mildew problem last year only that they lost all that. They come out the spring there. Wow and they look really healthy but watch. I do to prevent that. How to rebuild. There is certainly one of the things that any of those types of disease if there's any way that you can improve air circulation is going to help and that may or may not work well for you I don't know if this happens to be around a lot of trees or you might just sort of think about that sometimes we can't do a whole lot about that but. But that's certainly something to think about when it comes to fungal diseases. There are some sprays that you can use for powdery mildew without any of the fungus is for the most part you really need to do it ahead of time when you think it's going to start happening or when it's supposed to start happening so you'd want to do it fairly. We're a little early now but you certainly should start thinking about a fungicide spray there. There actually is one called remedy which is the it's actually bicarbonate of soda which is a fairly safe product and can be fairly effective for powdery mildew.

OK. Appreciate it. All right very good thanks. That's go to Paxton we have someone calling from cell phone line number for Hello. Hi can you hear me OK. Yeah just fine. I actually had two quick questions. I've got a line of Porsches and had him trim down in there. They're doing quite well. The problem I have is infested with deadly nightshade and I get a spray that you know kills weeds and grasses. And I've used them around the edges. But I'm I'm I'm concerned about if I spray you know the deadly nightshade coming up right through the core and I'm off I spray too close to those bushes I'm going to do some damage there. So I was wondering outside of getting down and you know I have a feeling I'm fighting a losing battle outside it just getting out and trying to pull him out is there any technique that I can use. Unfortunately those guys as you've figured out one plant will produce thousands of seeds and so if it goes to seed once then you've got a battle for it probably a number

of years because the seedlings will just keep starting over and over again. So you're saying Don't let it go to flower. Don't let it go to seed so you can stop that so if you can't you know completely win the battle at least make sure that you remove any flowers or seeds or anything like that. So that's one thing. You're right probably at this point your best bet is going to have to actually pull them out. Or if there's some way you can use if you can cover up the shrub with plastic or something and actually paint on something like one of the lot nonselective herbicide something like round up clean up. There are several of them out there and actually just paint on and that way it'll actually kill out the root as follows. Should I be concerned about damaging the shrubs are you sure. You absolutely should be concerned about that because most should not use that spray that well as I said what you can do is it if you can cover of the Shrub. You know if it's coming out inside the plant. If you can cover the shrub so that no spray can contact the Shrub itself and you can just do all you need to do is do this long

enough until the spray dries so you take you know plastic something cover it up and then take the weed out and then go ahead and just paint it on with the herbicide. Just paint it right on or just delicately spray it you don't have to drench the thing and you just want to wet the leaves a little bit and then wait until it dries completely and then you can remove the plastic carriage and then you know. A quick question I had I've been patience and I guess I was a little impatient. I was waiting for you I think it was when I was in there a drum roll or something. Anyway if you're still under Trey and I wanted to and I wanted them with fertilizer and some of our I planted them all on the ground. But some of them look like they're pretty burnt and I'm just wondering over time will they come back. Or have I damaged them to the extent where I've killed them.

It kind of depends a lot to what I saw after that hard freeze we had was that a lot of thing just got burnt. That's really what it looked like burned on the outside but the main stems were still quite alive so I think you're just going to have to individually look at it but if the main stem is fairly alive and you know there's still you know some halfway decent size to the plant they'll come out of that. It's going to it's going to take them a little bit longer and so depending on how impatient you are whether you want to just sort of you know get new ones or whether you have but most of those from what I saw they got nipped on the outside. But it didn't kill off the whole plant. Yeah all right. Thanks a lot. Thanks for the go. Next we'll go to align number three and this is someone in a rock. Hello. Yeah hi good morning. Good morning nice to have a way to get right. I have a Merry Christmas heist. And it's not very prolific like it's just well what can I do. What can I put on it. What does a hostel like

in the ground good schools do better. As in fertilizer type stuff or yeah or any other thing. Yeah you know I think one of the things the hosses if you can give them some supplemental watering in July and August or when it's really dry. I think you'll see some added growth just by that they'll do much better if they're if they're not going that through those really dry spells. And you could certainly use it you know if you wanted to go the fertilizer route now I probably go with something like a 5 10 10 or either her or composter something with some nitrogen but not a ton and I didn't and I have to encourage you in there. There is a miracle. And that's fine if you want to go that route that is normally one that you'd actually add to water. Yeah and it's a faster acting type of fertilizer doesn't last quite as long would it. Actually it's faster for the rain. You know I never know to ask that. QUESTION I wanted to ask what's the difference for us. Yeah if you want a quick reaction like you have say you have azaleas or rhododendrons or

blueberries or something that are showing a very yellow color and you know you need some some I am getting some iron deficiency and so you want a quick reaction. That's one we like to use as water soluble type fertilizers because it's much faster reacting for the plant for other things where you would just want to do some general purpose type fertilizer the granular compost or some is just fine. That's the difference. OK then the other thing I want to ask that question suppose to want you around is adequate situation you know I have seen that when I have yet to see it in in a garden. So I think it's one of those. I see no reason why it couldn't happen. So the jury's out on it as far as how it's going to be in the garden to be honest with you but I think it's kind of an exciting thing to see. So I have a feeling what's happening is that it's able to put on as flower buds more than one time obviously. That's not just Western. Be different than spring weather right. That's right.

It's going to be very interesting it must be put on flower buds on new wood which is different. Lilacs normally would put on flowers on old wood wood from the year before. This one is probably growing so fast that it's actually producing flour but the new wood as well so it's probably just a genetic manipulation where they were they found a lilac somewhere in the world that bloomed a new wooden cross them. And I I'm ordering one from Jackson and Perkins is sending me the catalog. I'll try it. Let me know how you like it. Yeah. And then my last question I asked about I heard the answer about the man either. Well I guess I have everything and what somebody else has. OK have a good day. Thanks for the CO. Our guest this morning here on focus 580 in this first hour Sandy Mason. She's a horticulture educator with you by extension in Champaign County she's with us monthly on Tuesday to talk about things that grow in the home landscape lawn and garden care so if you have question having a problem not quite sure how to solve it or maybe you're also looking for a suggestion on a plant.

You are welcome to call 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 that's for Champaign-Urbana folks. We do also have a toll free line 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. And next we will talk with someone in champagne and that's one numbered two. Hello. Oh yeah. CONAN Again I've asked a few questions about for example the chemical sprays and the sort of thing I never hear you mentioned fungicide remedy which like a safe organic product I was offering for example for dandelions my condominium association they seem to really be bothered by the dandelions. So they they come in I think they spray with some Crimea's 2:40 and probably put a lot of it all over the place. I get allergic to all those chemicals. I was me and I I thought maybe if I could come up with a good alternative form they would use something different. I asked for suggestions. Boy right off I really don't know of what would be considered in our Gammick way of controlling downloads other than digging them up and getting them out that way I think maybe

you could come with part of this maybe you can come to some compromise in see if they can just do spot sprays because there's really no reason to do the whole lawn if the dandelions are just in one spot you know just spray the dandelions themselves or just spray those spots where the dandelions are and just leave don't spray the whole on. So maybe you can discuss that kind of thing with him and certainly that would reduce the amount of herbicide that they're using. You don't want to I was curious we're going to round up a product that actually 240 of what's in there. No no they're actually different herbicides altogether. Yeah right right. 240 is one of those that selects out broad leaf type of weeds and that's why we like using it in lawns or some people like to use them in lawns because it'll it doesn't hurt the grass but it will kill off broad leaf type weeds like dandelions and other things whereas a round up and those are nonselective. So they don't know the difference in a good weed or bad we eat a grass whatever they pretty much kill off anything that's green that spray that they're sprayed on. So it's a big difference

between the two and how are you going to use them. OK so maybe they can maybe a some compromise there you could see if they can dig out some of them and then maybe herbicide some of the bigger ones. So good luck. It was a question I thought about I was looking at a website just yesterday as a matter of fact in Canada where they have these organizations they don't use any sort of chemicals at all but they you know Graham like Campbell put down gluten corn meal of the season for fertilizer and anyway just like there is some really good companies in Canada. You know anybody in the US has that kind of sort of holistic approach with value chemicals General DeLong and they're talking about lawn care too and right. Right and actually corn gluten is something that we use actually for a pre-emergent control so it's better for things like crab grass things that come up from seed. So that's one of the dandelion surprise. So they come back every year they original plant comes back every year plus they produce lots of seed so it gets a little bit harder to deal with them because you're dealing with the original plant I would just

check was you know maybe do a web search out their gardens alive. I'm not necessarily endorsing them but gardens like catalog you can go online and see the types of products that they have they deal more with organic type products that's it really is one of the things that people just have to decide what what their priorities are and go from there. And really important to me because I get allergic to oh yeah well I don't blame you have the most I don't mind it. Right right right to I certainly think there's some compromise out there room for compromise for sure. Well there you are presented thank a good luck and thank you for the call will continue in the next person in line would be an herb Anna and line number one. Hello good morning. Well I thought I knew every dastardly read there was. You have a new you know to me it looks like sort of a cross between a good leaf looks like a cross between a bag of sweet potato leaf and a morning glory in a sort of a hard and it's a 20 tenderly sort of thing and it has at least what I what

I've been able to dig up the roots are kind of thick white almost. Unless of white the size of my little finger and I ever seen a flower do anything. Oh I hope I don't I don't. I don't know what it is what it is I mean I'm thinking it's some sort of creeping jenny sort of morning morning but these these were then I've just been digging it out but I'm wondering if I'm going to have to round up. I don't remember it in this area before but the roots are so large underground I can't believe. That it's not been there and I've missed it. How big are the leaves. Well I don't know that they're just I'm trying to get them as they come out they don't look. Let's see what's that maybe two inches in length maybe. But they may not be anywhere near their full their full size shiny darkish screen but a real tenderly Vining sort of plant do you know what bind wheat is going to eat it kind of sounds like bind weed.

I was hoping it was. Well it kind of sounds like bind weed and it certainly has roots like that bind we does with these kind of white fleshy roots. And you're right to be to be scared because it's a tough weed to get rid of. Yeah I had it in the gardens at Meadowbrook but I don't remember the weeds being that big. Yeah I would. The other thing are you here in Champaign Urbana. OK you can certainly bring it into our extension office and we'll be glad to help you identify it. And we're at 8 0 1 North Country Fair drive there in Champaign and you can bring it down and actually anybody out within the state of Illinois Indiana just go to your local extension office and pretty much all of us will do weed identification and then from there give you some ideas on how you might control makes a big difference when the weather's an annual perennial litter for the worst and that it is trying to round up is particularly effective and that is it. Well it can it can be. It is one of those things that bind wheat actually with a lot of those hard to go we're going to take a certain amount of digital and I mean you're really going to have to you know either pull

up what you get in most the time you can pull up parts of it but then those those you found out the roots break often don't mix coming back right so they come off back from there but I would pull out what you can and then the new stuff that comes up that might be the part that you then decide to go ahead and use a nonselective herbicide like ground up and then just paint them on dip or spray it on depending on how well you can get to without touching other plants and then go from there so I am feeling is going to be a combination of the two things trying to dig up what you can and I know I know better but better off now than waiting a few years and then it's like everywhere you go you come over the house I mean that's what we did would just grab your. Right right into the end in an often will take you know a couple years before you really find you can get rid of it if it's gotten established. Yeah well we know what you're going to do in the summer. I think I'm going to do that right now one more time I'm getting ready to move a couple of lavender plants who haven't been particularly happy with some pretty heavy clay soil some thinking and what I've been reading over the winter

is that something to loosen up in White Sands. What kind of sand if I put in sand What would you recommend if not sand. Well I would go and use sand and just use a ton of it as in more sand than soil or I should say more sand than soil. Right so it's a very well drained they have to have that or they're just not going to be happy right. Full sun is going to be better. Good air circulation all those kinds of things. I would not mulched them with wood chips. Don't get my wood chips near them if you want to mulch and mulch with sand so good good air circulation in them and just that dryness and then. And really just do you know any of the construction grade sayings you don't have to have anything. I probably go with construction grade some of the bigger stuff you don't find. Oh OK so that's that. So the place them that they're going to have in bags outside the grocery store is not going to do what I need to but it's probably you know I'm not sure you know it's been a long time since I looked at place Sandra.

Yeah I know that there's some difference so it's a it's actually a grain size difference that are granular sized different place and it's maybe a finer sand in the other. See that's what I'm wondering and you could certainly you might even be a little bit cheaper to go construction grade sand. Yeah but if you buy if you buy that stuff that's made for. To go in the sandbox you probably would end up paying more that's I guess from the few times that I've used that is underneath stepping stones or bricks when I was trying to clamp down a solid foundation so they didn't sink into the ground so I haven't but I think you probably end up paying you know five bucks for 10 pounds or something like that and depending on how much you need it it probably would be cheaper if you bought the stuff that was for making making concrete or whatever you do with the new construction right. And I I would imagine construction get there's probably little I think there's pebbles and stuff like that it's not quite as they wouldn't be as nice and finite which is fine with the lavender doesn't care one way or the other so however it's easier for you to get is probably going to be fine but lots of sand is going to be

what are the best bet. All right well maybe I better put on my driving shoes instead of my gardening. Well there you go. Good luck I do think I go where at the midpoint already here in this part of focus with Sandy Mason she's horticulture educator with you know by extension in Champaign County once a month on Tuesday she's here and we invite you to call in with lawn and garden care questions. 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 Naperville is the next caller and that's line for a long time. Well if that was not my original question she probably can't answer straight looking at it but I have a blue spruce that's right on my right and on my side which would be the west side. The needles have a kid it's losing its needles under some branches that don't have it you know. Oh and I don't know if you know if there's a common problem with the

tear where over well is it just on is it just the old needles or it's the old and new Both filler. Well it started with the old needle but it seems like there are. It was much faster than to spend it's growing. So I have to have an eye on some of the branches of our store over there kind of work and you know we don't have bad worms. Well no I wouldn't but I would I don't with the word all right. OK. OK bag worms you definitely like this time of year you see the bags and they may be hanging down like old Christmas ornaments a little brownish looking things in there pretty good size you know to each of them. OK so we can rule that out that would be one thing that is really problems for us is that I also think about spider mites they get a spruce spider mite that can cause some real problems and usually you notice the sort of look off cast they're not quite the right color and different when it's green. So yes sometimes you kind of go grayish and then the needles will fall off so I would wonder about spider mites. You can take a white piece of paper and then just

shake the branches over the white piece of paper and the little spider mites you can see I'm runnin around on the white piece of paper and I don't know. So I would check for that. I'd also wonder about they do get some disease problems some needle disease problems and certainly if it's been going on for a number of years you might actually see death of the branches and I don't think going after. Right so they could certainly also be some needle diseases I would say you hear in Champaign-Urbana I don't remember. No I'm not. DuPage County. OK well debate has a wonderful extension office I would just have Master Gardeners as well as a horticulture educator like myself up there and I would get a hold of them. It should be in your phonebook under probably University of Illinois or under Du Page County. You know and I would contact them bring in a sample and take a look at it and see if they can figure out what's going on. OK for the spread of my cursive that's rumored to spread with spider mites. If some of the problem right we don't have a whole lot of good might aside like we used to. You can use insecticide of soap on

them but sometimes a blue spruces I will tell you it will take some of the color off it to hurt the plant but it kind of changes the color. But I find out for sure what it is for SPI for you start doing any spraying and certainly read the label don't spray when it's too windy or too hot or anything because we're getting some warm temperatures here so it wouldn't be a time I'd be thinking about spraying a lot of stuff. So here's my question. Originally called for white kids but I got despair creeping creeping Ivy you're creeping jenny proof across different things. When I have a whole bunch of evergreens What can I safely use to spray some stuff so as to not screw you know. Evergreen stuff right. And so sorry for it. You're a long way. Well you're you're probably looking at one of the products that is more effective on things like creeping charlie Creeping Jenny we don't call it and it does have a certain product in it that that is a concern if you use it over the roots of trees and shrubs so you may find that you

can't use one of those particular products that often is used for creeping jenny creeping charlie control. But it has three different herbicides in it so you may find you just can't use that product because of the number of trees you have so you may have to go back to something like just 240 which is one of the dandelion type killers that we have out there. It's not quite as effective. But if you're if you're again read the label use it according the label directions when it says that you can reapply it then I would reapply it. So one is not going to do it. OK I'm going to the right thank you. Let's continue here on the next person is in Paxton. That's line three right here. Hello. Your We ran a roadrunner wire guide and I'm wondering if you have any recommendations on care for the rhododendrons are one of those that if you get the site right you cite them in the right place and all the stuff they do beautifully around here but you have to do a lot of site preparation first.

They like organic soil so they like compost mixed in peat moss so they like a higher Gannet matter soil they like moist soil but it needs to be well drained. So that's always the issue. We kind of did that fine line between those two things. But they because they don't like to sit in water but they like moist soils. Also they like acidic soil. So you have to do something to change this city of the soil around here. For us we have to. So that's a matter of adding using as a matter of adding sulphur. And then also ideally it would be nice if you could do this like a year before you actually plant Belmore least the season before you plant them. We don't always do that but but that would be ideal if you could sort of prepare the area let the software work let the PH go down make it more exciting and then plant them when it's ready. Bar barring that those kinds of things I would absolutely do before you plant them and then watch them make sure that if they start to go yellow You may want to go ahead and make sure that you had something near acid or one of the fertilizers for acid loving plants and then keep them fertilized that way so that they don't

have that iron deficiency. Go yellow and kind of thing so. And I would even plant rhododendrons and areas just up a little bit higher instead of doing just that. What we always normally say is you know put it right at the soil level I'd actually plant them up an inch or so. So get that root ball up just a little bit and then put the soil so the kind of almost in a mound that makes sense. And then I would mulch them with wood chips or something like that. We've already planted so forget all the chances. What would you write. Last year we put a few too many and it was planted a little bit lower and you don't want that we got to a place that we did planet up prior and each time we've planted and we've added peat moss to the ground. How can we is there any way to still add sulphur to it. Yeah you can and so we certainly try to work sulphur into the top part of the salt that's not ideal but you could still worth it. OK and it's just a powder typewrite it comes in a bag and then I would also definitely be thinking about fertilizing and with one of the acid

loving type fertilizers and how often what you do there. I would certainly read the label a lot of those you could even do once a week. It depends on if you know if they're looking pretty good looking green You don't have to do it that often but boy when they start doing that yellow thing then you got to pay attention and make sure that you do. You do go ahead and fertilize them and make sure they don't dry out too much because they're not very forgiving when they dry out. OK so you know we water in on a regular basis and when it's like what it is today maybe tomorrow you might be wandering around every single day. OK OK OK. For the new ones. Do you have any recommendations for Annabel hydrangeas. When do you come back in the fall or in the winter or do you just not going to go out and perform. Do you have any recommendations. I would cut them back either in the fall or spring and then let them come back from there. They get kind of tall and lanky and kind of funny looking if you know in any way. So when they bloom they bloom on old wood or near where they bloom on new wood.

OK so they bloom a new wood that way you can go ahead and prune them in the early part of the season or very late part of the season because you're not worried about taking out that old one a lot of the other hydrangeas bloom on old wood so you can't necessarily do things with them. OK so when you prune them do you print them back pretty severely sure. You certainly can. OK OK thank you very much for the call. We just keep going here the next person in line is in Urbana and this would be a lie number two. Hello hello I have a question about sycamore tree. Yes and lawns. We have a few really beautiful giant sycamore trees in our front yard whether on the street they're street trees and we love them for the shade in the summer and everything. But as you can imagine our lawn underneath them is looking a bit patchy and it's kind of you know just over the years it's getting a little Balder and I hope Holder and I don't know if it you know the sycamores actually change the pH of the soil or is it just a matter of the fact that they have these

child Norma sleeves that trucked everywhere. And that kind of you know make a home for themselves. It really has more to do with the shade issue more than anything. And then depending on what other trees you have it may end up being a fairly dry shade as well so sometimes that's an issue so it's really a shade problem in even our shade loving grasses need some sun. None of them do well in deep shade. They just don't do well. So depending on other trees you have around so you kind of have to decide a couple things obvious these are street trees you have to go to your city arborist but maybe there are some ways that these could be learned up a little bit more or at least maybe opened up so maybe you can get some more light in. That may or may not be a possibility. Then from there you might decide that you just really want to. There's lots of shade loving plants. You may just decide that. There's just no way I can have grass in some areas but not in others or realize that you're going to have to receive them every year and this realize the grass is not going to be long term in those spots.

Right right. So I kind of just decided maybe certain areas where you just decide you really want grass because of traffic control or something along those lines but then these others you know those wonderful plants you know hostas and ferns and all kinds of wood you know. We actually we have quite a lot of. We have a lot of places like that so it's sort of a just a kind of one area where we have a bit of grass and it's sort of a like a picture lawn you know I mean it's ocean or decorative lawn tester But there any other kind of ground covers. Now I remember hearing a few years ago about a lot of research being done into alternatives to grass for you know walkable ground covers. I don't know. If there's been any progress in that area lately. Yeah there's actually there's actually a whole line of plants now that that are out there for for some traffic now and none of them take the traffic that grass does. I mean that's one of the beauties of lawns is that they really will take a lot of abuse I guess for the most part. And some of these other ones will take some traffic there's some some very very tiny seed.

But those are going to do real well in your spot because you know get much sun you know. So unfortunately a lot of those kind of alternative things I'm not sure going to work for you just because of the shade aspect to it. So I definitely you know you may find you just want to reseed every year with the shade loving grass and then just realize that you do is going to have to keep doing that every year. So I am in unfortunately. But there's other ground covers out there there's a pack a sander and and some of them actually do quite well in shady spots. Right but if you want to be able to walk right. Absolutely. So it gets much harder and cheap. Yeah and it may be just you just decide to do that and those are not going away. All right well thank you. Right. And let's continue here. And the next person in line will be Danville line number one. Hello good morning. I have a white mulberry tree that's about 25 years old and I enjoy it because it brings the birds in. But for the last three or four years I've known a

lot of the Green Berets are dropping which they are right now. Just say so or is there something I can do to preclude some of them. It might be I'm not terribly familiar with the Mulberry part of it but I'm I'm just guessing because of other plants that do this kind of thing is that sometimes when they produce a lot of fruit some of it will just naturally drop off because they produce a lot of it. So you may be seeing part of that and sometimes when they go through certain amount of stress they'll drop their fruit early. So other than that I'm not real sure. And so I don't think there's probably too much you can do about it I have a feeling it probably has more to do with environmental conditions than anything. I see what I mean. Extreme portion of the yard next to the curb is a matter of fact and it's hard to fertilize right and you think that if I added Well yes the root feeders are a lot of the other trees and I haven't heard this.

Maybe that will in future years that would or would help her. Well it certainly might help the growth of the tree but it doesn't necessarily mean it's not going to go ahead and drop the fruit it it's one of those say they said if they if they're growing really well and all the flowers get pollinated to the point where it produces lots and lots of fruit they just naturally will they will hang on to all of it and they'll just naturally drop some of it. So that's something that you really don't have a whole lot of control over. To be honest with you so you certainly can help the health of the tree but whether that's really going to help you too much when it comes to the frog was severely pruned back February for the first time in years. So perhaps that has something to do with it. Possum. Another Well thank you and again we go to another caller here this Bloomington Illinois and it's a line for toll free line. Hello Yes hello. I recently purchased from my fertilizer thinking I could save a few dollars I went to Lowe's and bought an off brand bearing

the name brand Scott's and it burned in several places and and I think you know I learned a lesson. It was stay green and they both are the sort of regular fertilizer and seed starter they both burn. So I guess I learned a lesson there not to buy the off brand and and I've never had Scotch burn ever even if if I occasionally you know put on too much is. Is that typical hundreds of different ingredients in the cheaper. Right well you really you really have to to look at the label really like anything it or look at the label and sometimes what what you'll see is with nitrogen because that's really what we're looking for with the wand. Sometimes it's slower release or it's a combination of slow release and fast release and the slower at least it's much harder to burn the lawn. I'm not sure what Scott's there maybe more of that going on there is who are to actually slow release so you don't have to worry about it so I think the big thing is is personally I wouldn't worry

too much about name brands when it comes to fertilizer but I would worry about or at least be concerned about is looking at the label and just compare labels if it was you know I did and I even asked the clerk about the stay green I said response because the label said whoa. So did you. Does it say fast release is slower is I don't see that it should say they're actually idle because because a lot of times it'll say so much percent of it is fast really so much of a percentage is slower Elisir may just say so much for present a slow release new Soon the rest of his fitness really doesn't matter that the brand just look for those. Sure and I would see if it has what I want in it and I think the other thing is are you sure there are applique air there isn't a problem with the applicator itself be a reason like a drop spreader something like that or the broadcast. I'd wonder about that is there are some issues there or what was the was the lawn fairly dry at the time when you were applying it so I'd also wonder about just the

application if there were something else going on there. Particular you know got pretty hot there for a while and fairly dry and then it got cold so you know where there are some issues along those lines or just in the mouth. The application itself. OK so yeah I'd look at that too but you know they're on a previous call on the shady I have the same problem. And I have to reseed the grass every spring and end of June. It seems to say I get good coverage initially you know it comes up about 90 percent by the end of June when it starts. If it was down about 40 50 percent I would still. And it was really the shade makes sure I was put in. And so this year I changed and went to a couple of different varieties and I've looked to see the red fescue chewing rescue and blue grass. Is it is it is right

for annual ryegrass is something you don't want to put down right. Well it's not a very quality lawn for sure it's it's cheap. There might be some times where you'd want to use Anurag residents. It simply goes if you want a quick cover say you've got a a wedding appear you know suddenly get a spot in your lawn and you've got a wedding coming up or so it was or you just moved into a brand new home and it's July and August and you really don't want to spend the money on really quality seed right now because you're concerned about you know getting water but you want something out there well use in Irag grass so it's a very temporary type of grass. Even though it says Daniel it isn't even always annual. So it definitely there might be some uses there but I definitely would not consider it a long term quality grass for a lawn if at the end of June the grass is dying out. It comes up OK but then it dies out in June. Is that a shade issue or is it is that a water I mean do you water it normally

no matter how. Much of water is still there. It certainly could be part of the whole shade thing going on there because if they said they just don't do well in really shady spots so we may decide that there are certain spots where you just grass it's just not going to grow well. You said previous to the previous caller receipts so you know initially but because of the shame actually in some spots that may be an issue I guess I would say it was probably more of a dry issue than anything but because often those two go together is shade and then it gets very dry as well. There are certain when you walk past you assess your creeping right. There are certain varieties that do that are unchanged. Well those are just what you just mentioned those are type of grasses that normally would do better in shadier environments and as you said maybe there's other grasses that you want to go for that might do better for you those would typically would be the ones that we might think of. But there are some Kentucky

bluegrass cult of ours that do better in shady clips and you know they all have different names to indicate that there's some shade tolerance there but again it's a tolerance thing doesn't mean they like it there it just means they tolerate it on fruit trees one can you trim one from the car. Normally we do that in February and March before right. OK all right thank you I don't think you know we have probably five six seven minutes left in this part of focus if you like talk with Sandy 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 2 2 2 1 9 4 5 5. Anything in the way of events coming up that you'd like to mention. Well I do want to mention that Champaign County Master Gardeners are having their garden walk again this year with trying some a little bit different you know you like to do different things but it's not going to be on Father's Day this year it's actually going to be Saturday June 25th so it's not even on a Sunday. So we're going for a Saturday June 25th that runs from 10 to five and a bunch of great gardens doing some again a little bit different. We actually have some gardens that are out in the country. So we're doing a town in

country garden walk down so you get to see some very large gardens as well as some city type gardens so I think people enjoy that. So that's the Champaign County Master Gardeners garden walk on Saturday June 25th. They can give us a call at 2 1 7 3 3 3 7 6 7 2 and then you can also most of the garden centers in the area you can get tickets there as well. OK good. Let's talk with somebody else here. We have someone listening in Charleston next line here number four. Hello. Thank you very much. I've got a part of my order. Better shape you know and very aggressive growth. You know a lot of the broadleaf week. What are most requests I've got those I know you've got broadcast singers drop spreaders and split singers are going to rep. Oh so those basically the same. Or one better one worse some conditions that suggested one rather than the other. My impression of those who you know were difficult but more effective approach to it but what

would you suggest. I think this slit seeders work especially well if you have an existing law on as in you got some grass out there but you really feel like you need to thicken it up or you try to add some diversity to the line by adding different types of grass seeds or something along those lines. It's very difficult to just broadcast seed over an existing line and expect it to really get down in there and get good seed to so all contact is just kind of hard to do so I think that's where the slits the eaters come in but. But you're right is a little bit more difficult there especially if you're renting and you're not used to using them realize that it's kind of a workout. Gonna have to keep that in mind but it certainly would be more effective an existing one if you have a brand new line you may find you don't that you can just use a broadcast spreaders and those work out just fine for you. So kind depends on of sort of follow through that that is going to recommend all. So your application of some fertilizer and watering to that well I would just go with your whatever your regular fertilizer program is for your

existing law on. Normally this would be the time of year that we would first of May is when we would normally recommend that you do your first for elevation application. I probably wouldn't necessarily do that to the same time. It depends on how much seed you put out there if you're not really putting out a whole lot of seed a pride to stay with my regular program if you put a lot of seed out there. I would wait until I've mowed it at least twice before I think about fertilizing it. OK thanks very much true and thanks for the call. It's really not I don't want to be making any personal commentary on anybody who's called in but we get these questions all the time about people saying I'm trying to get grass to grow in the shade and grass is just not a shade plant. Go to the forest. Yeah exactly you know where grass and grass is an open kind of thing when it really likes the sun. And we always make the suggestions you make this gesture. Well there's all kinds of things that you can grow that grows in the shade a lot shade loving ground covers. There are lots of different things you can do with shade gardening. But I guess that's really maybe if you've

never done that before it just seems foreign to you. The idea of the lawn is more it's a more established kind of idea and maybe you think well maybe if I just got the right kind of grass it would grow and maybe the thing is that the conditions are just not right and it doesn't matter what kind of grass. It's just not going to grow because it doesn't get enough sun. Right. And absolutely and you know there are times when we do want we were talking about those just sometimes you want to lawn just because the traffic you know a lot of you know it's tough to walk through a patch of hostile you know that is so that's when you have to think about are there some paths. Maybe it's time to actually do some hard surfaces in certain areas and then put some hosses or supper around those. We all have those certain paths that we always take start thinking about stepping stones maybe even thinking about a sidewalk or something for those areas if it's really a traffic issue and then go from there but you're right I mean I talk to so many people are just really fighting the whole shade thing when I think people should just embrace this you know brace it don't fight it just go for it.

Well it is I guess something that you have to do. You have to educate yourself a little bit to know what's going to do well and then how to how to put those things together and it's really I was just at a friend's house over the weekend and she has quite a small backyard and it's enclosed and it's very shaded and she has a beautiful shade garden there and a lot of variety of plants and I'm and I'm certain I know that in the terrible heat of summer. That's a great place to be sitting there right. Because the everything is green and cooler and its role shaded and you know I couldn't hardly think of a better place. The people with a lot of shade and people like nuts but because I don't have a lot of shade at this point but I'm getting there. So I'm really excited when I finally get there. Anything else real quick that you might like to mention in general. We talked about the Master Gardeners event coming up. That's that's a little while from now. We also we also have Raymond Cloyd the UI extension specialist is going to be out at the

idea garden on May 20. The idea garden is there on South Lincoln just south of the corner of Florida and Lincoln Urbana part of the UI arboretum every the last Saturday of every month we have programs Raymond's on Ellen my gardener my gardener many times he's going to be doing a program how to effectively deal with insects and mites in the garden. So 11 o'clock May 28 just got the idea garden and see what's going on out there. It's also just a great place to see and you know the master going to really get it you know labeling things and giving you some ideas on what you can do in your own backyard. I have been there in a while I think the last time I was there think that really there was much going on yet it was it was still healing and it was I don't know if it was late winter early spring but there wasn't much happening right there. And they they change it every year I think that's the fun part so even if you were there last year I guarantee it's not going to look the same this year. OK well thanks very much. Thank you. Sandy Mason she's a horticulture educator with us by extension in Champaign County once a month on a Tuesday. She is here in the town clock hour we talk about lawn and garden care by the way if you're interested in gardening she did mention the program. Illinois gardener that's a

show that you can see on our companion station w wild TV. It's now not when is it now. Thursday Thursday. I think you quiz me I think you just do that on purpose just to see if I remember. Well there's a lot on the show you utter ever There's Diane Nolan is the host and it's a good show it's a good resource and they have rotating groups of people like Sandy people who work and some of the various garden centers. People who are from the University of Illinois who come in and answer questions so there's another opportunity as on this program you can call in and ask questions about the plants and then usually they have some features in there and good information for you if you like to work outside in the garden and grow things. So Thursday nights 7 o'clock you know my gardener and the next month Sandy will be back here and will be doing again. Great thank you. Programming here on AM 580 is made possible in part by a grant from the thrifty Nichols American classifieds distributed each Thursday in over 100 towns in east central Illinois on the web at American classifieds dot com. Programming is also made possible

by active seniors options presenting the senior Expo flayer 2005 passport to active living to be held Friday May 20th from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the interstate center in Bloomington Expo flair 2005 will feature entertainment and activities for seniors and their families including wellness screenings seminars informative exhibits and drawings and more information is available at their website which is. W w w dot Expo flare dot com. A little later today as part of the afternoon magazine a recent poll found that 75 percent of parents want to change something about their children's sleep habits. An expert on pediatric sleep will be joining us for the afternoon magazine today. She'll be taking your questions and offer advice to help infants toddlers and their parents get a good night's sleep. She is a psychologist Her name is Jody Mendell and she's an associate director of the Sleep Disorder Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia she'll be the guest in the 1:00 o'clock hour of the show Celeste Quinn is the host of program gets underway at noon here on AM 580 in the next hour of this

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