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Hi, guys!
Although planting is typically considered a spring activity, fall, which is only a week away, is a great time to plant perennials.
Allowing plants to settle in now means they’ll emerge sooner and be stronger next spring. And since the weather is getting cooler instead of warmer, plants won’t need as much water or TLC (unless you’re in the southern hemisphere, in which case it’s spring, so you can go ahead and plant, anyway).
Many nurseries and garden centers offer end-of-season, two-fer and even three-fer sales in late summer and autumn. The perennials may have been sitting on the shelf since spring, but as long as plants and their roots are healthy, they’re likely good buys.
To ensure you don’t bring home a dying plant, slip it out of its pot and check that its roots aren’t brown, black, mushy, smelly or slimy before committing.
Stay tuned next week for my primer on “ungirdling” pot-bound plants.
And here are some fun facts that might surprise you about fall foliage (hint: leaves do not actually change color in fall).
📬 Ask Jessica
DEAR JESSICA: I have creeping Charlie on my property (half acre of lawn and 450 feet of shoreline on a lake). How do I find someone to fix the problem? Do you have any contacts here? —Howard Seiden, Georgina, Ontario, Canada
DEAR HOWARD: Unfortunately, I cannot recommend anyone to clear your property of invasive weeds, but I wonder if the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness might be able to point you in the right direction. It’s the closest Canada has to the U.S.’ cooperative extension service.
In any event, I can help.
Creeping Charlie, also known as ground ivy, is a member of the mint family, which alone speaks to how invasive it is. Left unchecked, it will return year after year and, under the right conditions, spread like wildfire and form a dense mat. Those conditions must be changed to stand a chance against it.
Ground ivy thrives in shade and when soil pH is outside the 6.3 to 6.8 range. In addition, bare spots in the lawn or a mowing height that is too low pretty much roll out the welcome mat for the weed.
The plant is unique among turf weeds in that it senses variations in light intensity and adjusts new growth to move toward the most favorable conditions, but it is also adaptable to other conditions.
These steps will discourage the weed:
1. Never cut the grass lower than 3 inches.
2. Have your soil’s pH tested and apply amendments to bring soil into the required range of 6.3 to 6.8. This is important because grass can’t benefit from soil nutrients or applied fertilizers if the pH is too high or low.
3. If tree branches are overhead, prune them in March to allow more sunlight to reach the lawn.
4. After correcting these cultural conditions, seed the entire lawn once a week, beginning in early spring, until the grass fills in and chokes out the weed. If they are appropriate to your property’s conditions, opt for hard and fine fescue grasses, which, once established, will become almost impenetrable.
I would avoid using toxic herbicides, which must be repeated annually for a few years and typically provide only mediocre control against ground ivy, anyway. Even so, if you don’t correct the underlying problems, the weed will likely return. Also, you should know that the chemicals indicated for use against creeping Charlie will injure stoloniferous grasses like Zoysia.
Got a gardening question? Ask it here.
💡 If you do one thing this week…
If black spot or other mold, fungal or mildew diseases infected your plants this year, thoroughly clear fallen leaves and debris from the ground, bag them tightly and dispose of them in the trash (don’t compost them). Otherwise, the pathogens will overwinter in the soil and re-emerge to attack your plants again in spring.
👏 Sunday shoutout
Rich Sankovich of Winchester, Virginia, says he’s “keeping it dirty” by growing tomatoes; yellow and green string beans; lemon, Armenian white and Straight Eight cucumbers; orange peppers; basil; golden and Detroit red beets; gold onions; and butternut and spaghetti squash in these tidy raised beds. He already harvested the last of his snow peas, carrots and zucchini, and is on his second beet planting and 4th, 5th and 6th bean crops of the season.
Rich says the beds, which use “less water, nutrients, labor and space” than rows, did not experience erosion from Tropical Storm Debby, which hit his area over the summer. As a bonus, he says, his feet remained dry after the storm, thanks to gravel he installed between the beds.
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📰This week in my Associated Press gardening column
I write a weekly gardening column for the AP, so you might have seen my byline in your local paper (or news website) — wherever in the world you happen to be. In case you miss it, I’ll post the most recent here every week.
THIS WEEK: Renovating the lawn, step-by-step
LAST WEEK: Ready to preserve your harvests? There are easier ways than canning
BEFORE THAT: Got pruning remorse? Here’s how to fill in those bare spaces
ONE MORE: Hammerhead worms are toxic, invasive, and a threat to earthworms
You can read all my AP gardening columns here.
📚📺🎵 Random things I enjoyed this week
😬 So, my dentist asked me if I grind my teeth at night. At night? I grind my teeth all day! I’m a pretty proficient clencher, too. Guess who has a new night guard.
📺 I got hooked on Netflix’s “The Perfect Couple” and watched all six episodes in two sittings. It’s a mindless, soapy, summertime whodunit starring Nicole Kidman, based on the book of the same title by the beach-read queen, Elin Hilderbrand.
🚶♀️Miguel and I have increased our walks to 2.5 miles in our unmercifully hilly neighborhood.
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@jessicadamiano on Facebook
📧 How’m I doing?
I welcome your comments and suggestions, so please send them along — as well as any topics you’d like to see covered and questions you’d like answered in the Ask Jessica section.
I’ve been aerating and overseeding for years and it does help. I still get crabgrass but the lawn tends to stay thicker and greener longer throughout the summer.