Watering

Caterpillars In The Lawn: Sod Web Worms and Army Worms are eating lawns right now. Signs of this pest are areas in your lawn not growing like the rest of the yard and the grass blades have chew marks or are eaten down to the nub. Also, flocks of birds in your yard feeding is another sign. Use Cyonara Hose-End for a quick kill, or Thuricide for organic control. Reapply as needed.

Landscape Watering: It’s always better to water your plants and lawn during the first half of the day, anywhere from 1 or 2 a.m. in the morning through to 10 a.m. in the morning, when the city require all sprinklers be turned off. Early morning watering is best because winds are the lowest, temperatures are the lowest and humidity is the highest, allowing for less water evaporation and runoff. And remember, city rules state we can (and should) only water our landscape one day a week. You can use a tuna fish can to measure how much water you’re getting out with your sprinkler. Texas A&M recommends clay loam soils get one inch of water once a week.

Brown Patch Fungus is also active after all the recent rains. To avoid cosmetic damage, spread Bayer Fungus Granules or F-Stop to the lawn. If the fungus is not present, and you’ve had fungus issues in the past, you can apply as a preventative. Disease is always easier to prevent than cure. Fertilome Liquid Systemic Fungicide II can also be sprayed to areas that are suspicious and just beginning. Spray two feet beyond infected areas and re-apply after heavy rains, or as the area appears to be growing. Fungus will remain active through the fall and winter with shorter days, damp nights and rain with cold fronts. Nature’s Blend organic compost spread over the areas will also help prevent, and will aid the area in recovering quicker from the damage. If you don’t choose to treat through the fall and winter, your lawn will recover on its own in spring.

Care For Succulents In The Fall: As our days shorten and cool, your succulents will need less water and no fertilizer until spring. Watch for hungry caterpilla

No Need To Wait… Plant Hardy Trees And Shrubs Now!

The roots of hardy plants grow during our cool months even though their leaves may be changing color or falling from their branches. This provides a better root system so they thrive in spring and can survive the long, hot summer. Live oaks, magnolia, cedar elm, hawthorns, holly, sage, junipers, roses, just to name a few, are winter hardy and would be appropriate to plant now. Perennials like lantana, turks cap, and ornamental grasses also benefit from planting during the winter months.

Are Your Tropicals Looking Winter Worn?

Hot weather tropicals such as hibiscus, bougainvilleas, esperanza, plumbago and many more suffer from the sudden temperature drops in the winter. Even though we have not had a freeze, the last really good cold snap made our plants look pretty bad. The leaves turn yellow and brown and most plants also suffer lots of leaf drop. This is normal so don’t be alarmed. In late February to early March you should cut all these plants back one third to half their size and fertilize. They will flush out with new spring growth and you will never know they looked so bad over the winter. The beauty of spring!!

Our Thoughts On Winter Watering

Since the temperatures are no longer in the 90’s and plants are not actively growing they require less water. This includes the lawn. Change your watering schedule on the lawn and established shrubs to every 2 weeks slow and deep instead of once a week. Potted plants no longer need to be watered everyday. Most could go every 2-3 days. Night-time dampness and fog helps to keep moisture in the soil. By changing your watering habits you help to reduce fungal problems which are prevalent with these conditions.

Dull Mower Blades Damage Lawns

Take the time now to sharpen mower blades, pruners, hedge shears and loppers.In the next few weeks it will be time to prune and a sharp tool will make for a better trim. If your mower blades are dull the grass tips will appear shredded and have a threadlike appearance. Dull mowerblades rip and tear the grass blades leaving a brown look across the lawn. Look closely at a blade of grass. The top edge will show split ends. It means the blade is dull resulting in harm to grass. A sharp cut will leave the lawn looking healthy and green. Do not mow your lawn when the leaf blades are wet. The same is true for pruners. If your pruners are dull when you cut your plants, the tissue is shredded and torn which leads to fungal issues and an overall unhealthy appearance. The plant has a harder time leafing out with new growth as well. Take the time now to insure your tools are ready. We carry a Corona Sharpening Tool to sharpen all pruners, hedge shears and loppers.

Continue To Be Water Wise

The weather is still cool and with misty, wet days, plants don’t need additional watering. As days get longer and temperatures increase be careful not to water too much. All established plants will be happy with once every two weeks watering through February. Beginning in March to April as the temperatures warm up even more, once a week is sufficient. Remember to water slow and deep, but not very often to establish a deep healthy root system. Your plants will thank you, and so will your water bill. Of course annual color with smaller roots systems will need to be watered more often, but all established trees, shrubs, and tropicals will appreciate time between watering. Let’s all train our landscapes to be

water wise.

A Breath Of Spring!

With the last few days of sunshine and

warmer temps, we are all getting antsy to get outside. Fresh shipments of plants are arriving weekly to our stores so here’s a list of some here and some to come in soon.

Live oaks, cedar elms, Italian cypress, burr oaks, wild olives, mountain laurels are here.
Hardy shrubs like hawthorns, boxwoods, pittosporum, Japanese yew here now
Baskets and tubs of geraniums, double impatiens, Mona lavender, and stocks arrived this week with color.
Favorite perennials like lantana, Mexican heather, and salvias are here now with more coming!
Basil, cilantro, mint, thyme, chives, parsley here now with more varieties early February
More tomato plants and seed potatoes are here now
Peppers will be later in February as the cold night temps will stunt the plant to not produce peppers.
Fresh Floratam St. Augustine grass coming this week to Airline store.

THERE’S FUNGUS AMONG US.

With all this rain, our plants are happy to be well watered. But lurking around the corner are the fungal problems bound to happen, especially with roses, squash, and gerbera daisies. Use Fertilome Systemic Fungicide for control of powdery mildew, black spot, etc. It also works best as a preventative measure to stop the problem before it happens. If you’re an organic gardener, try using Serenade Fungicide instead. -Marta

We have a fresh shipment of Ladybugs and Beneficial Nematodes!

Fun facts about Ladybugs- Ladybugs aren’t really 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. 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.

Beneficial Nematodes are microscopic creatures that live in soil where they feed on the eggs and larvae of soil borne-pests. They’re voracious predators of fire ants, fleas and white grub worms (the grubs that eat plant roots). Beneficial Nematodes are the ideal organic pest control because they’re a naturallyoccurring predator of pests but they don’t harm plants, animals or people. They’re completely non-toxic and they’re easy to use. You mix the nematodes with water, and then put the solution into a watering can or sprayer. A hose-end type sprayer is fine, as city water is fine to mix with the nematodes. Speaking of water, beneficial nematodes do need rain or supplemental watering in order to live and reproduce in your soil, so they’re not appropriate for dry land farms or completely xeric landscapes. Spray them out now to establish a colony to feed on ants, fleas and

grubs.

–DeAnna

Fresh Sprouts

Love fresh sprouts, but can’t eat them fast enough before they get old? That was my problem before I got my Botanical Interests Seed Sprouter (sold at our stores). Now I grow my own fresh and healthy sprouts from USDA Certified Organic seed, when I need them and only as much as I need. So easy, in just 7″x7″ on my kitchen counter.

– James

Oak Leaves Will Fall

If you haven’t noticed before, this is the time that live oak leaves turn and fall. They are fine when used as a mulch in shrub beds, but should not be allowed to sit on the lawn, as they can inhibit soil warming and healthy new growth of grass.

–James

Companion Plants For Your Veggie Garden

Planting certain kinds of flowers in your veggie garden can not only attract pollinators like bees and butterflies, but can also help you get rid of pesky insects in your garden. Borage has bright blue flowers, and repels tomato hornworms. Marigolds have a certain compound in their root system that repels harmful nematodes. Catnip is said to keep flea beetles away, so is great to plant near Eggplant and Okra. And last but not least, radishes keep squash borers away. We carry most of these plants in seed form, so be sure to sprinkle them in the garden now!

–Marta

10 Reasons To Mulch Gardens & Landscapes

1. Provides an excellent source of organic compost that offers nutrients for your plantings.

2. Insulates the soil around new plants from fluctuating spring temperatures.

3. Prevents soil erosion from water runoff during heavy downpours.

4. Retains moisture during the dry heat of the summer, which means less watering.

5. Suppresses weed seed germination and weed growth which can rob water and nutrients from landscape plants. Be sure to mulch 3-4 inches deep.

6. Beautifies the landscape, giving beds a manicured look.

7. Encourages earthworms to move in for improved soil structure and nutrient recycling.

8. Protects trees and shrubs from being damaged by lawnmowers and weedeaters.

9. Prevents soil borne fungus from splattering onto the leaves of plants.

10. Bark mulch can decompose over time, thus adding valuable nutrients back into the soil. In essence, mulching is time-released composting.

-DeAnna

Aphids on Milkweed: If you plant tropical milkweed to help the monarch butterflies (and for the beautiful flowers) sooner or later you will get aphids. You can hose down the infested milkweed tips with a sharp stream of water, knocking most of the aphids off (away from your other plants please). But if you see a substantial number of aphids looking brown and bloated instead of just fat and sassy, you may choose to

leave them alone. The brown, bloated ones have been parasitized by a tiny braconid wasp, whose larvae will eat the insides of the aphid, metamorphose into a wasp, and hunt down scores of aphids to lay eggs on, continuing to destroy aphids with no supervision from you. -James

Too much rain on roots? My walking buddy sent me a photo of her unhappy Jatropha and wanted to know what the problem was. We believe the constant moisture over the last few months caused the roots to rot which caused the plant to drop foliage (a plant is programmed by mother nature to drop foliage if roots are suffering).

Now that the sun is out and soils are drying, we recommended she cut the plant back one half and be stingy with watering. Most likely it will flush with new spring foliage and be good to go.

-Sally

Caterpillar alert: I have had several customers bringing me Tussock Moth Caterpillar from their oak trees. The creamy white hairs on the caterpillar are long and bristle-like and spread out in tufts down the sides. Two long, sharp black pencil like hairs protrude near the front and rear and these hairs are connected to poison glands, which excrete venom on contact. Contact with the venom may result in itchy irritation. You can spray your tree with Hi Yield Thuricide Concentrate or Natural Guard Spinosad Hose-end. We also carry Spinosad in a concentrate Fertilome Borer, Bagworm, Tent Caterpillar and Leafminer Spray. Both of these products are organic and safe to use on all plants. Thuricide

reacts with the cells of the stomach lining of the target pest causing them to not be able to feed within hours of ingesting. They eventually die from starvation. Spinosad is a contact kill, but still safe and organic for all plants.

-DeAnna

New Tree Do’s and Don’ts!

Do plant the tree at the right depth, with the top of the root ball as high or slightly higher than surrounding soil.
Do eliminate competition from lawn by clearing the grass out a minimum of 18″ (more is better) from the trunk and keeping the cleared area mulched.
Don’t “volcano mulch” the trunk of your new tree, 2″ of mulch over the roots and 1″ or less touching the trunk.
Don’t let a string trimmer get close enough to strip off the bark of your new tree.
Don’t use “weed-and-feed” fertilizer near your new tree.
Don’t excessively prune all lower growth off your new tree thinking it will make your tree grow up faster; it will actually slow growth of roots, trunk diameter, and height.
Do check watering frequently through the first summer and water as
needed.

Spring Insect Explosion

With the warm wet days of spring, the insect population explodes. Mother Nature multiplies at an amazing rate. Aphids, scale, thrips, and caterpillars of every size and shape have appeared. Do not hesitate to prevent these insects now.

We talked a couple of weeks ago about using the Bayer Tree and Shrub Protect and Feed as a drench to prevent the big spring bug invasion. Well, it is upon us, but still not too late to treat. We have plenty in stock, so come see us soon.

We are also hearing a lot about snails, slugs, pill bugs and cutworms out in enormous numbers. As soon as we plant our pretty spring flowers these bugs look at it as their own breakfast buffet. A safe and effective organic treatment is Monterey Sluggo Plus. Safe to use around vegetables, fruit trees, citrus, berries, flowers, ornamentals and all landscape plants. 1 lb. treats 2000 sq. ft. and lasts up to 4 weeks. Evening is the best time to apply the bait as pest travel and feed mostly by night or early morning.

Life has Never Been So Easy!

“A month ago, I installed a “Livin’ Easy” Rose in one of my front beds. It started out at about 18″ tall. Now, its 4 feet tall and full of bright orange 4 inch blooms which smell wonderful! The “Livin’ Easy” Rose is very “gardener friendly”, even for beginners. I look forward to many years of this wonderful Floribunda’s show. For roses and for other flowering plants, I recommend Maestro Rose Glo as a great source of nutrition to keep ’em blooming and looking their best!”

-Matt

Time To Treat For Grub Worms

Time to treat for grub worms. Did you know, grub worms come from June bugs? Grubs are the larval stage of the brown June Beetle that flies around your porch light every Spring. If you notice a large number of these beetles, you may want to consider treating your yard with Bayer Season Long Grub Control. It works to kill grubs for approx. 3 months. Grub worms eat the roots of your grass during the early spring and summer causing the area to die. You can literally roll your lawn up like a carpet. If you have grubs each year, then it is likely you will have them again. Taking precaution now is better than waiting till late summer or early fall and seeing the damage already done. An organic solution is to spray out Beneficial Nematodes. Each sponge contains 5 million nematodes, enough to treat 2000 sq. ft. of surface area. Reapplying these nematodes monthly will help to build the population for effective control of grubs and fleas through the summer. If do not want to treat or are unsure if you have the problem, just watch your grass closely. Any areas that look dry and wilted but the rest of yard does not, it could be grubs. Dig down and look. If you find more than 4 grubs in one square foot of area, then you should treat with Bayer 24 hour. If no grubs are found, and the ground is hard and dry, then check your sprinkler to make sure it is watering that area as evenly as the rest of the lawn.

-DeAnna

Mom’s Favorite Flower

Every year around this time, I think about how much my Mom has done for me. When I drive back home to visit her, I always look for her favorite flower (which of course is a weed!). Much to my Dad’s chagrin, I arrive home with a bushel full of Queen Anne’s Lace. If I could, I’d buy her enough Queen Anne’s Lace to make a whole bed of it for her, but generally nurseries don’t sell too many weeds! For Mother’s Day this year, instead of buying your Mom cut flowers, why not find out her favorite flower and come to Gill’s. We’ll help you take that flower and make a gift that lasts not just a few weeks, but for years.

Marta

Watering

No Need To Wait… Plant Hardy Trees And Shrubs Now!

Are Your Tropicals Looking Winter Worn?

Our Thoughts On Winter Watering

Dull Mower Blades Damage Lawns

Continue To Be Water Wise

A Breath Of Spring!

THERE’S FUNGUS AMONG US.

We have a fresh shipment of Ladybugs and Beneficial Nematodes!

New Tree Do’s and Don’ts!

Spring Insect Explosion

Time To Treat For Grub Worms

Mom’s Favorite Flower

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