From little acorns, mighty oaks will grow — in your lawn!
Connor in Fairfax writes: “Last year, the oak tree in my backyard dropped a large number of acorns. Now oak seedlings are popping up all over my lawn and I’m having a tough time controlling them. I’ve tried pulling them by hand but they are tough to get out of the ground. Is there an easier way to rid my lawn of the seedlings?”
They are little trees and are tougher to pull than regular old weeds.
If you have a clumping grass like fescue, use one of the new iron-based broadleaf herbicides to kill the little trees without harming the grass. (Gardens Alive sells its version under the “Iron-X” brand name, and there seem to be a few other brands available at retail whose active ingredient is iron).
If you have a spreading turf, such as bluegrass or zoysia, you can use a flame weeder to torch the little trees, and any burnt grass will fill back in. The best time to do this is right before a rain, when the trees are a little drought stressed and the lawn will be watered shortly after. Don’t flame weed when the trees are well-watered — you want them to be as dry as possible.
Note: The weed burner I use, Bernzomatic’s Outdoor Torch, is listed as being discontinued, which is a shame because it’s safe, easy to use and there’s no bending over. A few still seem to be available, so get yours before they’re gone!
And in the future, be ready to remove those acorns promptly as they fall — for a much more important reason than those little trees.
From little acorns, nasty ticks will grow
Connor in Fairfax needs to be prepared with a yard vac to suck up those acorns as they fall once more in a couple of months — and not just to prevent his becoming an oak tree farmer.
Acorns are a primary food for mice and deer and their numbers increase greatly the year after a record acorn drop. Both creatures are pestiferous enough on their own, but they both also serve as breeding grounds for the notorious disease-carrying “deer tick” (aka the black-legged tick, aka the Lyme disease Tick). And despite its common name, the “deer tick” breeds on mice much more often than on deer.
Simply put: Failure to remove fallen acorns promptly greatly increases your risk of being tick bit the following season.
Keep those ticky woods at bay with a sea of mulch!
Josh in Annapolis writes: “I live in a heavily wooded area with a large tick population and try and maintain at least a 3- to 5-foot-wide wood chip barrier between my yard and the vines, ivy and heavy brush of the woods to decrease the number of ticks near my home. I don’t like using chemicals in my yard. Are there any alternatives to herbicides that can keep the dense vegetation at bay?”
Absolutely, Josh! But first, double congratulations — yours is a proven method of keeping ticks at bay, as the little blood suckers are reluctant to cross large open flat surfaces. And you have found an excellent use for the wood chips I’m constantly telling people not to suffocate their trees with.
Now, the long-term solution to keeping those woods on the other side of those chips is a lot safer and much more cost effective than herbicides: a machine called a brush cutter. It’s like a supercharged lawn mower with powerful blades designed to cut through heavy brush and thick vines. Just ‘mow’ the other side of your sea of mulch a few times a year and you’ll keep the ticksters at bay!
Tick-proof clothing
Of course, Josh in Annapolis needs to protect himself when he uses that brush cutter to beat the woods back several times a year, as he is placing himself in tick central while doing the mowing.
While personally performing such tasks, I rely on tick-proof clothing. A company called Insect Shield sells socks, pants, shirts and hats impregnated with permethrin, a low-risk pesticide that’s deadly to ticks. It’s a synthetic form of pyrethrum, the botanical insecticide made from the leaves of a specific species of chrysanthemum. The company can also treat your clothing, if you prefer.
The treatment is EPA registered and used extensively by the U.S. military to protect troops in tick-infested areas. Although some “experts” disagree, the best research I’ve seen has found that the chemical repellent DEET is not very effective against ticks. And besides — this repellent is in your clothing; not lathered onto your skin.
Wearing what I call my “tick clothes” allows me to walk through the woods without any fear of picking up a bloodsucking hitchhiker.
Your Honey Do — and DON’T — List
- If you planted garlic in the fall, be sure to clip off the scapes — the little bulges that appear at the top of the central stalk. Chop them up and use them in cooking just like garlic.
- Pick snap and snow peas early and often to keep the plants producing; don’t let the peas swell up and get big inside those edible pods.
- Keep cool-season crops like lettuce, spinach, peas and pansies well-watered to try and help them get through early heat waves.
- Harvest lettuce and peas as early as possible in the morning to get the sweetest taste.
- Do not feed cool season lawns like bluegrass and fescue between now and the middle of August; summer feedings just burn up cool season turf.
- And do not cut that grass any lower than 3 inches; a scalped lawn will be the first to brown up and die when summer days are hot and dry.
