Lawn Care

Here is a couple of natural products to kill those weeds without using pesticides. Try Vinegar to kill those unwanted weeds in flowerbeds and cracks of the sidewalk or driveway. The vinegar at the grocery store is usually 5%. You will need 20% vinegar (acetic acid ) to kill weeds effectively. We carry Natures Guide 20% Vinegar Weed Control in a Ready to Use spray bottle and also by the gallon. It is applied undiluted to unwanted weeds in flowerbeds and vegetable gardens. It can also be used in the lawn for weed control, but remember it is non-selective therefore it kills everything, including your lawn grass. For waxy leaves you may want to add a squirt of dish soap as a surfactant to help it stick to the leaf surface. Give it several days to work and all the weeds are dead. We also carry Molasses. Did you know molasses controls nutsedge? Drench problem spots with Liquid Horticultural Molasses at ¼ to ½ cup per gallon of water. Start with about a gallon of drench per 9-10 sq. ft. This simple technique fires up the microbes in the soil and the nutsedge simply fades away. It takes a while to work and requires at least 2-3 applications. As opposed to toxic chemicals, it makes the soil healthier with every application. It also stops the development of the nodes or nutlets underground.

-Deanna

We had a wonderful long wet spring, but now the heat has hit and rains have reduced; it’s time to get back to once a week lawn watering. We need to maintain moisture to keep our plants happy and healthy. Watering slow and deep, at least 1 inch a week is good. We recommend using a tuna fish or cat food can with a 1″ mark inside to measure the amount of water your sprinkler puts out.

Place the can in the path of the sprinkler and when water is up to the 1 inch mark, that tells you how long you need to water with your sprinkler type and water pressure in your neighborhood. New plantings will need to be watered more often, so please use a moisture meter to determine their needs.

You should fertilize again now, as heavy spring rains have washed out much of the soil nutrients. Using Milorganite, Medina Growin Green will not encourage excessive growth, but give your yard the nutrients it needs for the long hot days ahead, and organic fertilizers will increase soil ability to capture and retain moisture.

-DeAnna

It seems everywhere I turn I see bugs. Chinch bugs in the grass, worms eating bougainvilleas, scale on irises and lilies, mealy bugs on tropicals. To spray, or not to spray? That is the question. We need to raise our tolerance of what is acceptable in our landscapes. A few bugs here or there or a little plant damage is all o.k. Did you know that only about 5% of insects are bad? Many insects are even beneficial. This fact is the reason you must decide whether or not to spray. Lots of times nature will take care of itself if you wait a few days. Keep your plants as healthy as possible, and you will not have many insect or disease problems.

First, make sure you have the right plant in the right place, proper sun exposure, correct spacing of plants to insure air circulation, regular feeding, mulched beds, watering. All of these things reduce stress and result in perfect growing conditions for your plants keeping them happy and healthy. We call it IPM or Integrated Pest Management. If you do determine you need to treat a problem insect, start with the least toxic approach.

Insects and disease go for the weak and stressed plants first.
A few aphids can be controlled with a blast of water.
A cluster of mealybugs on the tips of plants can be remedied by pruning and discarding the area.
Using Insecticidal Soap, Neem Oil, or Thuricide sprayed on plants with insects is your next approach.
Never spray everything just because one plant has a problem.

So look around your yard; see what’s happening. If you’re not sure whether you have a beneficial or a problem insect, just put a sample in a ziplock bag and bring it to us. We will help identify the bug and tell you if you need a control solution.

-Deanna

It likely is not working properly! Just like your mower needs the sparkplug adjusted, oil changed, blade sharpened, and maybe a wheel or starter rope replaced, things will go wrong with your irrigation system. But since it operates while you are in bed, you don’t know what needs fixing. I had not operated my sprinkler system since October last year due to the rains, and before starting it up last week, I did a maintenance check. I have Program D on my controller programmed with no start time , 2 minutes on the first valve, and 1 minute on every other valve. I turn the dial to Program D and manually activate, then go around the yard with a pad and pencil and note all problems. Some newer controllers have a test function built in, very handy.

This is what I found in my yard:

Valve 4 had a head that was grown over with grass, and could not rise up, so all water was just running over the curb (quick fix, just cut around with a serrated knife to sever the grass runners).
Valve 7 had a head with a nozzle twisted 90 degrees (another quick and easy, grab the nozzle with Channelock pliers and twist it back so all water is going on the lawn, instead of half of it into the street).
Valve 12 had a head with a nozzle plugged with a bit of trash, so the head would pop up but no water coming out. This was a much more technical fix, that is, bopping the popped nozzle on the head gently but persuasively with the afore mentioned Channelocks until the trash was ejected and a good flow resumed. If this fails, you will need to keep a hold of the head as the water flow is shut off, screw off the plugged nozzle, and clear it by blowing back through the orifice, or poking a thin wire or broom straw back through it.

I recommend performing this test once a month, to most efficiently utilize water and to avoid discovering sprinkler malfunctions by finding dead patches in your lawn. You should also seasonally adjust your controller from one day a week operation in summer to once every two weeks in fall, and then turn it off for winter, only activating manually every 3 or 4 weeks if there has been no rain, or immediately preceding a forecasted hard freeze event. Replace your program backup battery as needed. Otherwise at any power outage your program, including the current date and time, will be lost and you will need to reprogram. This video from Texas A&M on the Cycle Soak Method describes how to set your timer for best utilization of water, but recognize when he says 5 to 6 minutes run time, that is for spray nozzles, and you will need a longer run time for the valves that supply water to rotors or drip tube.

-James

Over the past few weeks there have been numerous inquiries about whiteflies on trees. However, these insects are not whiteflies. They are actually a large infestation of Asian wooly aphids. Wooly aphids are small white insects that fall off hackberry trees and appear to float in the air. They suck the sap out of the leaves and secrete a sticky residue called honeydew. As a result, a black mold, known as sooty mold, covers the leaves, stems and possibly the bark of the tree. This black sticky substance covers the hackberry tree, and it can cover any plant or object underneath it. When I see black soot on certain plants that are not prone to any specific insect, I always ask, “what’s above this plant”? I will usually find a hackberry tree nearby. It does not have to be directly above, just nearby. This black soot gets on vehicles, lawn furniture and anything else in the fallout zone.

To control the problem, insecticides are not always necessary, but they may be justified when honeydew and sooty mold become intolerable. If the tree is small enough to spray, you can use spinosad. For larger hackberry trees, it may not be feasible to spray the leaves with an insecticide for control. It is possible to use a systemic insecticide such as Bayer Tree and Shrub Protect and Feed applied as a root drench around the base of the tree. Systemic chemicals take several weeks to move from the roots into the leaves. Systemic insecticides should be used in the spring shortly after the leaves emerge and again in late summer for longer control. I usually treat my neighbors tree in April since wooly aphids appear every year in June to July. That way I am sure the chemical is still at its optimal control strength.

Another option for control is to remove the host tree from the landscape. This will immediately eliminate the problem since these aphids only damage hackberry trees. The down side to systemic insecticides and tree removal is the hackberry is a wonderful tree for birds with its berries. It is also the host plant for the Snout butterfly. Most importantly, now you have the information needed to make the best decision for you, the tree and the environment.

-DeAnna

Some of you remember Stuart as an infant in his baby carrier, plopped on the sales counter at our Airline store while I ran the cash register. Some of you remember his working in your garden or helping you select your Christmas tree or coming to your home with James on a house call. We laugh out loud when we recall Stuart, around 10 at the time, diagnosing chinch bugs in a customer’s yard. He clearly was paying attention to his dad. And then there was the time, at about the same age, when he suggested that we start staying open 24 hours a day, allowing inventory to be stocked while customers were asleep! We haven’t implemented his system, but we recognize it has merit. As a young boy, Stuart travelled with us on tours of plant growers around Texas. James, Stuart and I would jump in the grower’s vehicle and drive the fields, trying to find the best plants for our garden center. James and I devised a system for grading plants, A+ being the best to F being the worst, all recorded on paper, but never revealed to our salesperson. On one of these trips, Stuart announced to the group that he thought the dwarf pittosporum was a C grade. We covered up his comment as best we could, but laughed later. Bottom line, Stuart lived Gill Landscape Nursery from a very early age.

Stuart has always been adventurous. I’m embarrassed to say friends would report seeing him on his bike, all over Corpus Christi. He loved exploring. He loved seeing other neighborhoods. He loved seeing the way others lived. His earliest out-of-town adventures included fishing with his brother Trevor at his uncle Lanny’s “Baja Laguna”, kayaking on Texas rivers, exploring around my parents’ cabin in Colorado, camping with his dad, brother and grandmother on Matagorda Island, exploring South Texas brush in Ingleside, and many, many trips to the beach with his dad. As he got older, he worked to travel, often alone. Between school and jobs he travelled to countries in Europe, Central and South America. On one of his surf trips with his dad to Ecuador, he met two women from Seattle. After getting to know Stuart, they recommended he move to Seattle. They thought he would like it. He had finished his degree at the University of Texas and was working in Napa, California.

Stuart packed his bags and moved to Seattle. He started working in the landscape industry, and then moved into carpentry. Stuart has always had a great appreciation for fine craftsmanship. He found good people to work with, he started from the bottom learning the trade, and eventually began purchasing his own tools, the best he could find. He now works with Ambrose Construction, managing beautiful residential remodels and additions.

Stuart met Anne in February of 2013. She hadn’t been in Seattle long. They found they had a lot in common. They both love good food and literature; they both love the outdoors and adventure. Plus she’s very pretty with beautiful blue eyes. Anne also has travelled to many foreign destinations with her parents and lived in Indonesia. Anne works in a public relations firm, representing independent restaurants in Seattle. She is a skier, runner & yoga instructor. She is kind, gentle and smart, she loves Stuart, and she’s about to become our daughter-in-law!

So…that’s an update on our son, Stuart. You know, the day he was born, James’ and my lives changed forever. He has truly been a joy for us, someone who is always on our minds, someone with whom we look forward to spending time with. Even though Stuart doesn’t live in Corpus Christi anymore, he is still a part of Gill’s. He knows and loves our Gill family. He continues to help us think through work challenges. He is always there to celebrate our successes.

One more thing… Anne and Stuart are doing a bike tour of Indonesia for their honeymoon. Happy, Happy!

-Sally

We’ve talked about weeding and prepping the soil. You should also have a plan on where to plant since we discussed crop rotation. So now the fun begins. Time to get those tomatoes and peppers in the ground or into pots.

Add Bio-Tone to the soil when planting. It helps promote strong, healthy plants with larger root systems, promotes bigger blooms, and reduces transplant loss. It will make your plants blast off. I was amazed how my plants responded last year.

Then, in 3-4 weeks, begin feeding monthly with Espoma Plant tone to maintain healthy plants throughout the season. It contains feather meal, poultry manure, bone meal and greensand. It also has beneficial bacillus to help fight fungus and disease in your plants. Since plant roots are used for water and nutrient uptake, use Mycorrhizal fungi to improve root growth, soil structure and plant establishment. How can you go wrong?

These few simple steps will get you on your way to having healthy, happy plants. So don’t wait too long to get the garden started. You will be rewarded with those first tasty tomatoes for Thanksgiving dinner.

And just remember, the longer you wait to plant, the bigger the plant you will need to buy. We have awesome 4.5 inch and 1 gal. tomatoes and peppers ready to go.

-DeAnna

Anytime between mid-September and mid-October is prime time to fertilize the lawn, trees, shrubs, vines and groundcovers. Fertilizing while it is still warm is best because plants are still in their active growing season and taking up the nutrients provided. Once the weather starts cooling down plants begin going into dormancy and therefore are not as likely to take up the nutrients needed for the fall and winter. Remember to water in the fertilizer with at least a ½ inch of irrigation. Never depend on the rain to water in your fertilizer, because as you know, it never rains when predicted, and also never gives us that perfect ½ inch. It either rains too much, too little, or not at all. Making sure the timing is right and proper amount of water is applied assures your lawn of getting the full benefit of the nutrients it needs to maintain healthy leaves and roots for the dormant season. We carry our Gill Lawn and Garden and also several organic lawn fertilizers. Never use Weed and Feed if you have any trees or shrubs in the yard. Trees are a broadleaf just like a weed, so it will try to kill them as well. Weed killers and weed preventers can be used in October once our temperatures moderate in the 80’s. We will talk about them more as the season approaches.

-DeAnna

Lawn Care

Footer