All Saturdays in August we will be closing at Noon. Enjoy the HOT Weather!!!
*********** We will be closed on the 4th of July*******
We use to tell the kids, “Sundays are Family Fun Days at Paul Swartz Nursery” (that would mean they would be working on Sundays). Well, no more! We have pondered long and hard and even though we only did 2 months of Sundays in the spring, along with the other 6 days of the week, it was tough! Life is short and we want those Family Fun Days spending it with our Family relaxing!
Pruned roses produce almost twice as many flowers as those plants that don’t get pruned.
Start at the bottom and work your way up. Wear gloves to protect your hands. Remove any dead, shriveled, black, diseased or broken wood.
Make the cuts on an angle, about 1/4″ above buds. Tea roses should be 6″ – 8″ long with 3 to 5 strong, healthy canes per plant. Prune floribundas to 8″ – 12″ in length with 8 to 10 strong canes per plant. Just remove about 1/3 of the growth on shrub roses and you are done!
Don’t worry about making mistakes, it’s hard to kill a rose with bad pruning. Prune less in the beginning, you can always go back to cut more.
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Summer is a great time for an addition of mulch to your planting beds for weed prevention and better soil moisture retention (2-3” layer). Be very careful not to mound the mulch up around the trunks of trees, as it can kill the tree.
Maintaining good soil moisture is important – especially for new plantings. New plantings typically take about 6 weeks to get some new roots established and watering can be less frequent and more at each application. Ideally, a good, slow, deep watering is required about every 7-10 days for trees and shrubs after they are established. Newly planted B&B and container plants need to be watched very carefully during that first 6 week break-in period after planting or until they have had a chance to get rooted in. The easiest method of checking to see if a plant needs water is to stick your finger in the soil it was planted with, and if it feels dry – water it, and if it feels moist – skip watering it. Typically sprinkler systems do not work well for establishing new plantings unless they are putting water on the roots where needed.
Spring 2014
Crabgrass Control In Your Lawn
Crabgrass is a summer annual plant that germinates in the spring and produces a large amount of seeds in the summer. In October the plants drop their seeds which will lay dormant in the soil and germinate the following spring. Crabgrass likes full sun, warm temperatures and weak or open areas of a lawn. Crabgrass has a very course texture, is light green in color and weakens the health of your lawn. Crabgrass turns purple in fall and dies with the first frost leaving unsightly skeletons throughout the lawn.
The key to controlling crabgrass in your lawn is preventing it from germinating. Applying crabgrass preventer will provide you with good control if applied at the correct time. Once crabgrass has established, pre-emergence herbicides will not be effective. Crabgrass will begin to germinate when the soil temperatures reach the mid-50s, with the majority of the germination occurring when the soil temperatures reach 60-70 degrees. Another indicator of crabgrass germination is as the Forsythia starts to drop their blooms. So when the Forsythia is in full bloom, the pre-emergent herbicide should be applied. Depending on the several factors, the pre-emergent herbicide could last 2 to 3 months, so if applied too early, a second application can be done.
Cultural control of crabgrass can be done by providing proper nutrients to your lawn with regular fertilization and keeping your mowing heights at 2 ½ to 3 inches high. The best defense against weed invasion is a thick, healthy lawn. A thick turf canopy will shade the soil and reduce the number of weeds seedlings able to germinate. Thin or bare areas of the lawn should be reseeded in the fall once any herbicide residuals are no longer present in the soil.
Lawn seed should not be planted less than 4 months before or after pre-emergent crabgrass herbicide is applied. Please carefully read the herbicide label before application.