Lawn and Garden Tips for July

Cobb County Extension staff member Louise Weyer assembles a list each month of tips for keeping your lawn and landscape in good order. As summer heads into high gear, following Louise's checklist of tasks can  improve the odds of your yard's shining through to fall.

Louise's Tips for Trees and Shrubs for July includes this information:

• Spring-planted trees and shrubs need an inch of water each week. Irrigate in dry weather.
• Mature trees need deep watering; they can lose leaves if they have inadequate water.
• Prune Knock-out roses.
• Remove dry flowers from butterfly bush to encourage more blooms, and remove flowers from shrub roses as they fade.
• Remove suckers from the base of cherry, apple, crape myrtle, dogwood, and crabapple trees.

For annuals and perennials:

North Georgia Gardening Symposium, Feb. 26, 2015

The 2015 North Georgia Gardening Symposium is set for Thursday, February 26, at the North Metro Campus of Chattahoochee Technical College.

For landscape professionals, the Symposium provides for 5-hours pesticide re-certification credit for category 24 licenses or 1-hour pesticide re-certification for private applicators. It also has been approved for 5-hours (CEUs) for ISA Arborist and Municipal Specialists.

For everyone who attends, the Symposium offers a great opportunity to enhance garden and landscape knowledge and skills!

This year's offerings will help gardeners and landscapers avoid common mistakes in using broad-leaf herbicides, learn to diagnose common tree disorders in the landscape, and use the best and most innovative sustainable practices in landscape maintenance, and more.

8-8:30 a.m.                    Registration/Check-in 
8:30-9:30 a.m.               Herbicide Effects on Landscape Trees and Shrubs, by Paul Pugliese, Bartow County Extension
9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.      Creating Tough Turf, by Becky Griffin, UGA Extension Urban Ag Associate
10:30-10:45 a.m.            Break
10:45-11:45 a.m.           Tree Scene Investigation, Mary Carol Sheffield, Paulding County Extension
11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.   Break for lunch and vendor visits 
1:15-2:15 p.m.                New Diseases, New Products, What Else is New?, by Dr. Jean Williams-Woodward, UGA Extension Plant Pathologist
2:15-3:15 p.m.               Sustainable Landscape Practices, by Dr. Bodie Pennisi, Extension Landscape Specialist
3:15-3:30 p.m.                Break
3:45-4:15 p.m.                The Latest and Greatest Plant Introductions, by Rex Bishop, Chattahoochee Technical College
4:15-4:30 p.m.                Pesticide re-certification/evaluation

The course fee is $35; lunch and breaks are included in the fee.

To register online, scroll down the list of courses for Continuing Professional Education to choose the North Georgia Gardening Symposium class and register. Also, you may call 770-528-4550 for more information or to register for the Symposium.

Manage Spring Dead Spot with Fungicide Application Now

Did your Bermudagrass lawn suffer from spring dead spot disease this year? The UGA Extension publication "Identification and Control of Spring Dead Spot", by Extension specialists Alfredo Martinez, J.B. Workman, and F. C. Waltz, explains that the disease is especially prevalent after a hard winter, such as the one we experienced last year. This means that any Bermudagrass lawn affected this past growing season had plenty of company.

Even though it may seem counter-intuitive, chemical controls for spring dead spot (SDS) should be applied in fall, when soil temperatures are still above 60 degrees F, according to Martinez et al. This application can help prevent re-emergence of the disease next year.

SDS first shows up in late spring. The publication says this about signs of infection: "As turfgrass 'greens up,' well-defined circular patches of dead, bleached-out grass are noticeable in affected areas. Non-infected bermudagrass resumes growth, accentuating the infected areas."

The authors add, "Patches can get larger year after year." To avoid this outcome, altering cultural practices to promote good health of the lawn is important. One practice in particular is to avoid  applying more than a half-pound of nitrogen fertilizer per thousand square feet after mid-September; another is to consider applying a potassium fertilizer, at the rate of one pound potassium per thousand square feet, in fall.

The Turf section of the Georgia Pest Management Handbook, homeowner edition, by Extension homeowner IPM specialist Elizabeth Little, agrees with these recommendations, and includes a listing of currently recommended products for controlling SDS. Regardless of the product selected from the list, be sure to follow label recommendations and safety precautions.

The Turf section of the handbook linked above, which also contains information about insect and weed control in lawns, lists specific cultural practices that can help to manage SDS:

• "Avoid late summer or fall applications of nitrogen fertilizers which may enhance disease severity.
• Use ammonium sources of nitrogen fertilizer from spring through early August.
• Control weeds in affected turf to enhance recovery from spring dead spot.
• Apply moderate to high levels of phosphorus, potash, and minor elements.
• Improve drainage of turf.
• Reduce thatch.
• Use preventive fungicide applications in late September and October."

Upcoming Events

Seeding Fescue Lawns: Techniques for Terrific Turf

Thursday, Aug 21, 6:30-8:00 p.m. County Horticulture Agent Neil Tarver will teach the essentials of seeding, overseeding, and maintaining your fescue lawn, at UGA Extension/Cobb County, second floor, 678 South Cobb Drive, Marietta, GA, 30060. Free and open to the public, but please preregister by calling 770-528-4070, or email Cornelius.tarver@cobbcounty.org.

All About Bluebirds - and More

Tuesday, Sept. 9, 7:00-8:00 p.m.  Presented by Master Gardener Jim Bearden as part of the ongoing Gardeners Night Out presentation series of the Master Gardener Volunteers of Cobb County, at West Cobb Regional Library, 1750 Dennis Kemp LN, NW, Kennesaw, 30152. Free and open to the public.

Thyme to Read

Friday, Sept. 12, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. Monthly meeting of garden-oriented book club, sponsored by Master Gardener Volunteers of Cobb County, will be held at the Training Room of the Cobb County Water lab, 662 South Cobb Drive (at the intersection with Atlanta Rd.).  September’s book will be A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson. Free and open to the public. (October’s book will be The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton.)

The Joy of Bluebirds

Friday, Sept. 12, Noon-1:00 p.m. Presented by Master Gardener Jim Bearden as part of the ongoing Lunch & Learn series of the Master Gardener Volunteers of Cobb County, at the Training Room of the Cobb County Water lab, 662 South Cobb Drive (at the intersection with Atlanta Rd.). Free and open to the public.

Indoor Plants

Thursday, September 18, 10:30 a.m. to Noon. Presented by Cobb Extension horticulture staff member Amy Whitney, at UGA Extension/Cobb County, second floor, 678 South Cobb Drive, Marietta, GA, 30060. Free and open to the public, but please preregister by calling 770-528-4070.

ALSO, come to the Marietta Square Farmer’s Market and meet Cobb Extension staff and some of our Master Gardener Extension Volunteers. We will be there on August 30 to answer questions on canning, food preservation, lawns and gardens. Bring sick plants (or large pieces of them) for help with diagnosis and treatment options, and bring bugs for identification.

ALSO, applications for the January 2015 Master Gardener class are now being accepted. Visit the website of UGA Extension in Cobb County to download an application.

Irrigation Basics, Guest Post by Becky Griffin

We tend to take our irrigation systems for granted, setting them up and forgetting about them.  Ideally, irrigation systems should be inspected by a certified irrigation professional once a year.  The underground pipes and delivery systems can be complicated.  Oftentimes, irrigation is set to run after we have left for work.  We could have a problem and not even know it.  March is a great time for a basic homeowner irrigation check.

Basic Irrigation Checklist

 
1.       Check to see if the system is set to run at the appropriate time.  The 2010 Outdoor Water Use Guidelines allow automatic irrigation systems to run between 4 PM and 10 AM.  Ideally, for turfgrass the system should run between 5 AM and 9 AM.  This mimics dew time and allows the turfgrass to dry off before the heat of the day.  It is also the best time to minimize water evaporation.  
 
2.       Turn the system on.  Is there adequate overlap of water?  Notice any dry spots.  You may need to adjust sprinkler heads to achieve equal coverage.

3.       Check sprinkler heads.  Are they all working?  Sprinkler heads are easily damaged by lawn mowers.  These may need to be replaced.

4.       If something is obviously clogged it may be the sprinkler head nozzle or the sprinkler head filter.  Sprinkler head nozzles may become clogged with soil or cut grass.  To run efficiently, these will need to be cleaned.  Inside most sprinkler heads is a filter.  Over time this filter may become clogged, especially if the system runs on well water.  Filters can be cleaned with compressed air or replaced.  
 
5.       Notice the pop-up sprinkler heads.  Are they popping up?  Are they high enough?  Over time the ground may have settled and the heads may not be at the correct level for effective watering.  

No need to water the sidewalk!

      6.       Check that no water is being sprayed on non-target areas such as driveways, streets and building.  Problems here may just require a simple nozzle direction adjustment.

7.   Make note of any run-off. If the water is being delivered too quickly, it might not have time to soak into the soil, and you may be sending hundreds of gallons of water down the street. If run-off is a problem, you may need to adjust the delivery rate.

Remember that turfgrass needs just one inch of water per week.  More turfgrass problems are related to over-watering than to under-watering.

Becky Griffin is a program associate with the  UGA Center for Urban Agriculture.