UGA Vegetable Gardening Publications
With food prices high, folks have been thinking about growing some of their own food. Food gardening is not hard and it doesn’t have to take much room in your landscape. You can even do it in containers! These gardening publications are available on the Internet or ask for a...
Shrub – Transplanting 1-2-3
Most shrubs and trees should be transplanted when the demand for water is least, in late fall or winter. Since many roots will inevitably be lost, they need many weeks to regenerate themselves before the hot, dry blasts of summer arrive. If you are contemplating moving a plant that would...
Shrub – Pruning Calendar
The Home & Garden section of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution published a very nice pruning calendar several years ago. When viewed on a sheet of newsprint, it was gorgeous. When reduced to fit onto a sheet of typing paper it was impossible to read. I imagine you didn’t keep...
South Africa Adventure – 2014
As many of you know, I led a group of gardeners and spouses to South Africa in 2010. The memories of that vibrant, beautiful, surprising country still linger in my brain! We had such a good time I’ve decided to lead another group trip there in January, 2014. Want to...
New Gardening Books
I regularly receive interesting-looking gardening books from publishers. I don’t have time to read them all or give an intelligent review but I know they would appeal to many gardeners. These are some of the books I’ve gotten recently. You can click the link under the book cover images to...
Birds – Harmful Ingredients in Peanut Butter Suet
Q: You talk about making a suet mixture for birds. My concern is with the Crisco, lard, & peanut butter, that you use. Would you research the ingredients in these products? The main one I’m concerned about is Propylene glycol....
Meyer Lemon Tree – Hardiness
Q: I recently purchased a beautiful Hybrid Meyer Lemon tree. The accompanying tag said it was hardy to minus 20 degrees. I don’t think that it has ever been that cold here so I planted it outside. Can I believe...
African violets – Online resources
Q: I am trying to find out what local retailer or online nursery retailer offers SEVERAL varieties of African violets. Online websites offer descriptions of many types of African violets, some with different foliage, etc. I would like to try...
Blackbird – Dropping Feces in Pool
Q: We are having problems with black birds defecating in our swimming pool and do not know how to resolve this. We watch them fly over the pool and drop feces. Is there anything we can put in the pool...
Vegetable garden – Till in Rye
Q: I have raised beds for vegetables in which I planted annual rye grass as a green manure. When should I till it under in order for it do do its thing providing nitrogen to the soil? I’ll probably put...
Organic Lawn Care – Fertilizers
Q: I’ve been reading some lawn care forums on the internet where many people advocate an organic lawn care program. For fertilizer, a protein based feed, such as alfalfa or corn meal is used. It supposedly works by feeding the...
Vegetable garden – Using Pre-emergent
Q: Could you please tell me what I can put in my vegetable garden before I till the soil to keep from having weeds and grasses take over this year? I try to plant a nice vegetable garden each spring,...
Japanese Bloodgrass
Q: This grass appeared in one of my flower beds three years ago. It is massively aggressive, and has choked out everything in the bed. Frequent attempts at pulling it up are futile. It is about waist high, tough, like...
Native Azalea
Q: I have a large area of this flowering plant growing at the back of my property. The plant looks like honeysuckle of some variety. Could you help me identify it? A: The flowers certainly resemble honeysuckle but you have...
Wood Bridge – Building
Q: I am making a small wood bridge to go over a creek about 1 1/2 feet wide. Is there a book that you know of that tells you how to build it ? A: Here are a couple of...
Vines – Growing on pressure-treated wood
Q: Is there anything about pressure treated wood that would discourage vines from growing on it? A: I have never heard of anything about pressure treated wood repelling vines. I just finished a trellis that has several pressure-treated components and...
Scarlet Hibiscus – Propagating
Q: Last Saturday on radio you talked about a Hibiscus coccineus. I have had one of those hibiscuses for several years and never knew the real name. My question is, how do you propagate them? A: Theresa Schrum replies: “I...
Black Rat Snake
Q: I found two black rat snakes tightly wound around each other in one of my bluebird houses. They stayed about a day and then departed. I have a good idea what they were doing! A: This is certainly different...
Perennials – Liming
Q: How do I apply lime to an established perennial garden? A: Just scatter it over the top of the plants then rinse it off the leaves. A ballpark amount to apply is 4 lb. per 100 sq...
Fire Ant – Control in Pastures
Q: We would like to treat our 84 acre farm pastures for fire ant mounds. We don’t have any livestock there but we mow them regularly. Our two dogs, though, are trained on the fields. We can’t stand how the...
Balloon Flower
Q: I have a flower growing in my yard that I would love to buy more of. It was here when I bought the house and I haven’t been able to identify it yet. Can you tell me what it...
Dark Winged Fungus Gnat – Larvae
Q: Recently, large groups of worms have been crawling onto our patio from the lawn. It is hundreds of them moving as a single unit. When sprayed with insecticide, the cohesive group breaks up and they die quickly. The next...
Maple – Epicormic Branches
Q: I planted a sugar maple a year ago. Buds had already formed when we had a hard freeze in March. The buds never opened. I only see one small group of leaves near the base of the tree. My...
Weeds – Identification with Pictures
Weed control in the landscape is a tough business. You have to know a lot about the weed in question just to get started! As in most situations, a picture is worth a thousand words. Websites Preen has terrific weed...
Diagnosing Holes in the Yard
Sometimes many heads are better than one when it comes to solving a problem. Wade Hutcheson, my Extension colleague in Spalding county, gets plenty of calls from the citizens of his area asking his help in identifying various holes in...
Brown Patch – Diagnosing
You have brown patches of dead grass in your lawn. Is it the common lawn disease ‘brown patch’ or is it something else? The answer is important: if it is brown patch you probably need to spray with a fungicide....
Bermuda – Weed Control
BASIC INFORMATION: Weed Identification Pictures General Turf and Weed Info Lawn Care Calendars THREE METHODS There are three primary methods of controlling weeds. Any one method, when used alone, will not usually control all of your weeds. To consistently control...
Lawn – Timing Pre-emergent Herbicide
One of the sourest phrases that can be directed at a child or adult is “I told you so!” Whether you touch a hot match, leave tools out in the rain or lift cinder blocks all afternoon, someone is usually...
Crapemyrtle – Pruning
One of the most confounding arguments I face is whether and how to prune crapemyrtles. They are mercilessly “murdered” by unaware landscapers and homeowners each winter… yet they still bloom in summer. Some people even believe a crapemyrtle won’t bloom...
Lawn – Growing in Shade
OK. I admit it. I have given up. I came to the conclusion that grass just would not grow in the corner of my lawn near the ornamental cherry trees. The shade there is so dense that my grass, no...
Lawn – Leveling
A new home in my neighborhood had bermudagrass sod planted in March. By May, one area was a perfect checkerboard of straight lines, composed of weedy plants, surrounding the individual squares of sod. Evidently the sod installers were in such...
Bermuda Grass – Disease – Brown Patch
Brown patch is most prevalent on bermudagrass which has been heavily fertilized when night temperatures are above 68 degrees and day temperature are above 80 degrees. Dead patches of grass may start small but can grow and join together to...
St. Augustine Grass Seed – Where to Buy
Q: Please tell me where I can buy St. Augustine grass seeds. Our lawn has some now and we like it a lot, but we’re having trouble finding seeds. A: You can’t buy St. Augustinegrass seed. The plant is very...
