Jesse Jenkins

Garden Do’s:

Do prune back plants now 1/3 to 1/2 before the flush of new spring growth.
Do prune back roses, removing all twiggy growth and dead canes.
Do apply Weed & Grass Stopper with Dimension or Amaze granules (pre-emergents) to prevent more weeds from sprouting.
Do spray lawns for broadleaf weeds now with Weed-B-Gon Hose End that is safe for Floratam St. Augustine.

Garden Don’ts:

Don’t prune back Indian Hawthorn, Climbing Roses, Carolina Jessamine or Azaleas until after the Spring bloom.
Don’t use Weed and Feed in your lawn if you have trees and shrubs since they are a broadleaf also.

Last year I planted my hummingbird and butterfly garden with over 30 milkweed, Turks cap, passion vine and native lantana. It grew beautifully in the back corner of my yard, and I pretty much just left it alone. Since now is the time to prune, I rolled up my sleeves, got out my pruners and started to go to town. Oddly enough, as I was whacking back a lantana I noticed in my peripheral vision movement all around me. So I stopped pruning and sat down and started to meditate. After about five minutes of sitting still, I opened my eyes and was absolutely floored! Every bug I have ever seen in my life was there in my garden. There were honey bees and bumblebees, fritillary butterflies and big bold monarchs, assassin bugs, ladybugs galore, orb weaver and large wolf spiders, a praying mantis, mud-dobber wasps, horseflies, house flies and soil gnats. And about 150 monarch butterfly caterpillars! It was like an optical illusion. The more I sat still, the more I saw everything moving around me. Not only were there bugs, but there were toads, lizards, and a bold mockingbird that decided to land not five feet from me. Of course there were aphids and whitefly, but I watched as ladybugs flew down and began to munch them all up, and a praying mantis was going to town on the flies. It was absolutely astounding! All this life was in a 10 foot by 10 foot bed. If you have a section of your garden that you can let be pesticide free and 100% organic, please let it be! You’ll be amazed by what life does in the garden when you’re not looking.

-Marta

Have you been working the soil in the flowerbeds or vegetable gardens and found small grubworms? I have seen lots of cases this past week from customers who are finding them in the beds and also in the lawn. If you are seeing dead areas in the lawn, dig down with a shovel width size sample 6 inches deep and count how many grubs you find in that one square foot area. If you find more than 4 in a square foot area, it is recommended to treat. To treat for grubs organically, now is the time to spray out Beneficial nematodes. The soil needs to be kept moist to keep them alive and multiplying. Bayer 24 hour or Triazicide are 2 granular chemical products that can be spread and watered in to kill them. If you find them in the vegetables garden we carry Hi Yield Vegetable and Ornamental Insect granules. Killing the ones you see now will lessen the population soon to emerge, turn into a June bug, mate , lay eggs and start the cycle all over again. Treat now to kill existing grubs, and remember the end of April to the first of May will be time to spread the Bayer Season–long Grub Killer to give you 3 month protection.

-DeAnna

In the plant world, the most common way to win the game of life is “grab the sunlight before your neighbors.” The tips of the branches produce a hormone that suppresses sprouting of side buds further down the stem, so plant resources are directed to make the tips grow up taller and faster.

That may serve the purpose of the plant in the wild, but we would rather see our plants full and bushy, with more tips full of blooms rather than fewer but taller tips. So this is the prime time of year to remove those tips (and thus free the side buds to sprout) to create the plant aesthetics we desire. A perfect example would be a hibiscus plant that is maybe 6 feet tall, but has dropped a lot of leaves and is looking a little bare and stemmy. By cutting just 4” to 6” off the ends of the branches now, you will increase density and number of shoots and blooms. If you need to control overall size, you can certainly prune back much further and achieve the above benefits as well.

Many other ornamental plants in our gardens would benefit by this treatment now, such as Texas sage, Mexican heather, most salvias, ligustrum and viburnum hedges, esperanza (if you prefer a bush over a small tree) and many more. But please do not prune tall growing crape myrtles this way. Most horticulturists consider a graceful sinuous branching pattern to be a more desirable aesthetic in the tall varieties of crape myrtle, valued over increased blooming, with the exception of the dwarf varieties.

If you have pruning questions (or other questions), please give us a call, or email us a question and a photo to helpatgills@gmail.com or post a photo and question (or a brag!) on our Gill Landscape Nursery Facebook page.

-James

Now is the time to kill any weeds that have popped up in the lawn. The weather needs to be warm and sunny for 3-5 days with no rain or water on the lawn for Weed B Gon to work the best. It comes with a hose-end applicator on the bottle and enough to spray over 2500 sq. ft of lawn area. Do not mow first, but do make sure the lawn is watered well before spraying. And yes, it is safe to use on Floratam St. Augustine. Give it a full 2 weeks to work its magic and by then the grass should be out of winter dormancy and it will be time to fertilize.

–DeAnna

Ladybugs aren’t true bugs at all, they’re beetles. There are almost 400 different kinds of ladybugs in North America. Female ladybugs can eat as many as 75 aphids in one day, they also like to eat scale, mealybugs and spider mites. Ladybugs smell with their feet and antennae. A ladybug’s jaws chew from side to side instead of up and down like our jaws. The color of a ladybug’s spots begin to fade as it gets older. Ladybugs are most active when their body temperature is 75 degrees or warmer. A ladybug’s bright color warns birds that it does not taste good. When a ladybug flies, its wings beat 85 times every second. Female ladybugs are larger than male ladybugs. Aphids are the first pest to hit in the spring, and they love the new growth on plants. Buy your ladybugs now and keep them dormant in the refrigerator till your first outbreak of aphids, then release a few hundred at a time, preferably after sundown.

-DeAnna

If you have a Hackberry tree or a sago palm you know what I am talking about. Hackberry trees get wooly aphids every June that drip black sooty mold all over everything below the tree. Use Bayer Tree and Shrub Protect & Feed as a soil drench for 9 month insect protection. Since I have been treating my neighbors tree in March or April I have not had to spray to protect my yard, vehicle, or lawn furniture from the soot. If you have sago palms, use it to prevent and kill all the white bugs on the tops and bottoms of the fronds. They are called Asian cycad. This insect has been around since the year before the snow, so be diligent and treat to help rid the city of this pest.

image c/o Auburn.edu

-DeAnna

Last fall I received a phone call from Emily Dodd with GROW Local South Texas asking if Gill’s would sponsor BAWKtoberfest 2015, their annual backyard chicken coop tour. Her energy was contagious and we said yes! We were pleased to continue our support of GROW Local South Texas when we agreed to sponsor their 4th Annual Farm to Table Fundraiser Dinner which took place on March 5, 2016. Their dinner, where every possible ingredient is locally raised or prepared, was a beautiful evening outdoors at the Art Center of Corpus Christi’s courtyard.

The four course meal included hors d’oeuvres, fresh mixed greens with Yellow Rose Honey dressing, a traditional seafood paella and chocolate flan.

GROWing local food is what they are all about. Their goal is to promote, educating about and celebrate local foods. The organization’s Executive Director, Aislynn Campbell, says “I wanted to eat and feed my family the cleanest, most sustainable and thoughtful food I could find. What I found was a community that said if you want it to be here, make it…and we’ll help.” Four years later, Grow Local South Texas not only runs the Corpus Christi Downtown Farmers’ Market and BAWKtoberfest, but they have also created The Learning Garden, their community teaching garden that is home to field trips, and an after school program and “Living Local Summer Camp” for some of our neediest youth.

Thank you Grow Local South Texas! Now I think I’ll go munch on a carrot out of our pots of carrots we have in our backyard!

-Sally

Jesse Jenkins

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