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...
Brown Bermuda Lawn
Q: Why is my bermuda lawn brown? The tips of the grass grow green, but the grass near the soil is brown. When I mow the grass each week it is brown for a few days until the tips of...
Blueberry Plants Diseases
Q: I have a long row of mature blueberry plants. For the past two years, all of my berries have turned brown and dropped just prior to maturing. I theorized this was mummy berry disease so I replaced all the...
Deadheading Flowers
Q: Should all flowers be deadheaded when they wither? Do I just cut off the dead bloom or snip the stem? A: I think most plants look better when the dry flowers are removed. The usual method is to make...
Cottonseed Meal – In Garden
Q: Will cottonseed meal from a feed store work the same as the cottonseed meal I purchased from a garden center? It is much cheaper at the feed store. A: They are exactly the same thing. Products sold for fertilizer...
Fescue – Crabgrass Control with Siduron
Q: Can you explain how a fertilizer/pre-emergent combination using the chemical siduron can control crabgrass seed germination and not fescue? A: University of Georgia weed expert Tim Murphy says: Siduron belongs to the urea herbicide family. Most members of this...
Lawn – Fertilizing in Winter
Q: My lawn company wants to apply urea fertilizer to my bermuda lawn in January. Isn’t this too early? A: UGA turf expert Clint Waltz says: It’s best to withhold any nitrogen application to warm-season turfgrass species until soil temperatures...
Microstegium (Basketgrass, Stiltgrass) – New Disease for Possible Control
Microstegium is a terribly invasive grass in shady gardens. The great news is that researchers have identified a disease that has potential to control it! News release: In 2009, a previously undescribed disease was found on the nonnative invasive annual...
Compost Tea – Does It Work
Linda Chalker-Scott is a scientist at Washington State University who researches common garden claims and comments on their usefulness. Her thoughts on compost tea are printed below: WSU Master Gardeners are often asked about compost tea (and other products) but...
Flowery Branch – History
When I remarked on the beautiful name of a local town, a caller promised to send me its history. Here it is! —————————————————————————- Flowery Branch Chartered in 1874, this little town is one of the oldest in Hall County. It...
Maple – Black Trunk
Q: I have a maple tree on which the trunk is turning black. Should I be worried? A: Art Morris, Master Arborist for Bartlett Tree Experts says he sees this quite a bit. Dark staining of maple tree trunks is...
Meyer Lemon – Bloom Time
Q: I think my Meyer lemon tree is confused! It is flowering and has baby lemons started in winter. I pruned it last January, hoping the new growth would stimulate flowers in April, but just got more green foliage. What...
Pollination Requirement and Seeds in Citrus
(The source of this material is unknown. Please email if you can find it.) Seeds are produced in the plant kingdom, generally, as a result of pollination. Many of the commercial species in the citrus genus, are self-fertile, meaning that...
Dogs – Eating Pears
Q: We have a pear tree in the backyard which we don’t do much with. This year it was loaded with pears. When the pears starting dropping we noticed that our dogs took interest in them. We soon noticed that...
Spider Mites – On Citrus (Orange)
Q: Our 8-year-old son was 5 when he stuck a seed from his Clementine orange into a flower pot with old potting soil in it. We all kidded him, telling him that it would never grow. And just like in...
Cryptomeria – Losing Limbs (Dieback)
Q: I have several ‘Yoshino’ cryptomeria trees in my back yard. They are very large, maybe 25 feet tall. About two years ago, I noticed that one of the 5 had some brown patches on it. The about a year...
Wax Scale – On Camellia
Q: I found this growing on a Japanese maple and camellia bush in my front entryway. It looks like a tiny blob of bird poop but is attached to the plant at the joints and seems to be a deposit...
Blueberry Growing – With High Calcium
Q: I would like to plant blueberries in what was my vegetable garden. I had a soil test done by the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension and it came back that I had high Calcium (1088 lbs/acre). Will I be...
Citrus Leafroller – Identification
Q: On my citrus tree I found one leaf strangely “sewn” into a pocket. As there was nothing inside the pocket it has me stumped. A: My guess is a leafroller moth. There are several hundred moths of this kind....
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...
