Meet Mike in person!
- Saturday April 30, at 1:30 p.m., at Greenstreet’s in Lothian, Maryland;
- Sunday, May 1, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Greenstreet’s in Old Town Alexandria (more information on both events);
- Saturday, May 7, at the K&B Hardware Lawn and Garden Palooza; 912 Forest Drive, Annapolis. Chemical-free lawn care at 11 a.m. and prize-winning tomato tips at 1 p.m.
Spring bulbs: Be sure to leave the leaves alone
Many of our spring bulbs have sprung; the flowers on our tulips, daffodils and such are fading or gone. To ensure their return next season:
- After the flowers are shot, cut off the bulge at the top of the central stalk to prevent a seedhead from forming. (Don’t cut the stalk down low; just remove that bulge at the top.)
- Then give the plants a gentle feeding with compost, worm castings or a light organic fertilizer. (This is the only time spring bulbs should be fed — never in the fall.)
- Then be patient; you must leave the green leaves alone until they turn brown so that they can absorb enough solar energy to fuel the growth of next year’s flowers. And don’t tie up the leaves; putting bulbs in bondage limits photosynthesis — and reveals more of your personality than you might have intended.
Habitat for carpenter bees = more tomatoes for you
Sarah in D.C. writes: “I have carpenter bees burrowing into my back fence and going up under the siding on the back of my house. I don’t want to kill them, especially since I’ve heard they are great pollinators. But I don’t want them in my house, either.”
They are excellent pollinators, Sarah — especially of backyard tomatoes, so try and provide some alternate housing: Drill starter holes a few inches deep into big blocks of unfinished soft wood (pine, cedar, redwood) with a 5/8 inch drill bit and hang these “nesting blocks” in areas that face south and are protected from the rain.
Oh; and don’t be overly concerned: These bees don’t cause structural damage with their tunneling. And they generally choose wood that isn’t in the best condition, so it may be time to paint that fence and maybe have someone check out those eaves. (Don’t worry about the bees; they don’t sting!)
It’s ‘Happy Compost Day’ all next week!
International Compost Awareness Week is May 1-7 — did you get a card for your black gold? It certainly deserves one!
Compost made from yard waste is the perfect plant food and soil improver; and it makes an attractive, trouble-free mulch. It even prevents disease when spread under garden hypochondriacs such as tomatoes, roses and lilacs.
And it’s really easy to judge the quality of compost: Good compost should have no off smells of any kind and be a rich black color, with few to no original ingredients visible.
Note: Composted manure is not compost, and it’s often misused by people who don’t understand the limitations of manures. (For instance, horse and poultry manures inhibit flowering and fruiting; you get really big plants but very few tomatoes.)
Feed your lawn legally!
It’s lawn-care season again — time for me to remind you of the new laws in Maryland and Virginia that limit the number of times you can feed your lawn and the amount of nitrogen you can apply at each feeding.
The new laws — designed to help the poor, beleaguered Chesapeake Bay — also forbid adding phosphorus (the worst water pollutant) to your lawn unless a soil test shows that it’s absolutely necessary. But don’t despair — these new laws are actually a guide to good lawn care; overfeeding is as bad for your grass as it is for the Bay
Here’s a fabulously readable recap of the law in Maryland. Virginia’s law mirrors the one in Maryland and has been in effect since July 2014.
It’s easy to stay true to the new lawn care laws in Maryland in Virginia and still have great-looking grass, because feeding is the least important aspect of lawn care.
What really makes a lawn look great is:
- Cutting ONLY with a super-sharp blade;
- always leaving the clippings on the lawn;
- never cutting a lawn when it’s wet or in the middle of a dry and hot summer heat wave;
- and never cutting lower than 3 inches.
Dull blades shred the grass instead of cutting it, and “crewcuts” are the leading cause of bare spots and weeds.
So get sharp, stay sharp, cut dry and cut high!
