We are getting closer to fall which is a great time to work on improving your lawn. Late September and early October are great for spraying lawn weeds. When dealing with pests in your lawn, be sure to use pesticides correctly for the best success and for the least amount of damage to the environment.
Photo from the UNL Pesticide Safety Education Department
Pesticides
It’s definitely getting colder outside. Winter isn’t officially here yet, but it is on its way. This is the time of the year where we give up on plants, but there are some things to consider prior to winter to ensure their survival.
Winter Care of Turf
It’s hard to think about our plants in the winter months. It is even harder to realize that they are still alive and sometimes need care in the winter months. Once plants go dormant for the year many people believe that they need nothing until spring, but that isn’t always the case, especially in years with low or no snow or rain throughout the winter months.
Currently most of southeast Nebraska is in the ‘Moderate Drought’ level on the drought monitor. As we move into the spring and summer we could see the drought continue and irrigation will be critical.
Currently, most of the state is in at least a moderate drought, with many areas affected by severe, extreme, and even exceptional drought conditions. The Farmer’s almanac is calling for a cold, dry winter, again, so moving into that with drought conditions already could be devastating to our plants.
As I walk around my yard with my dog, I wonder about the impacts it has on my turf for the spring. Walking on frozen turf can have detrimental effects. During the spring and summer, we can walk on our lawns and turf fields with no damage. During the growing season, turf plants can recover from traffic through active regrowth. However, during the winter the turf is dormant and cannot recover from the damage until the spring.
When we plant a garden or flower bed, we think about sunlight preferences, color and bloom times most often, but there are other factors to think about including water requirements for the plants. All plants need water to survive, but they differ greatly in how much they need. Some plants are best planted along a pond edge or other very wet location because they like swampy, over irrigated locations. Where other plants require dry, well-drained soil. There are even some great plants used in rain gardens and similar areas that actually do well in both wet locations as well as dry conditions to overcome the changing environment when water collects during rain events and dries out between rains.
Mulch is very important to the overall health of our plants, but are all mulches created equal? Some may have more benefits than others and some may not be as helpful as we think they are.
Benefits of Mulch
Mulch, when properly applied, can provide a lot of great benefits to our plants, including:
Fungi can be very problematic for our plants, and there are a lot of different fungi. In plants, there is a disease triangle that leads to plant diseases. For disease to develop, you must first have a pathogen, a susceptible host, and a favorable environment. Pathogens are common in the environment and just waiting for the right weather to occur and a susceptible host to infect. The environment can sometimes be altered by our plant management practices, such as overwatering or underwatering and improper irrigation practices can lead to more disease problems. That’s why it's so important, whenever possible, to choose disease resistant plants for our landscapes – both turf, fruits, vegetables and ornamentals.
As we move into the heat of the summer, we need to remember proper irrigation practices for our plants. It is just as easy to overwater as it is to underwater plants. And remember that irrigation practices differ among all different types of plants.
‘Right Plant, Right Place’ is a very important aspect of planting and it is never too early to start thinking about landscape changes for next year. As you clean up and refresh mulch or water, start assessing your landscape and what did and didn’t work. There are some very important plant requirements to keep in mind when planning a new garden or adding to an established garden.
