Sunrise Landscape Designs

    I can’t say when I have been more grateful for rain!  My lawn has become so crunchy it hurts to walk barefoot on it and some of my newly transplanted shrubs have dropped their leaves.  I have grown tired of watering and my plants and lawn are showing the effects. 

   The lawn will bounce back quickly with this nice, long rain but the trees, shrubs and perennials might take a little longer.  If you have plants with no leaves or your perennials have no green parts above ground, do not assume they are dead.  Be patient, it is possible for new leaves to appear this fall or even next spring. 

   Evergreen trees do not rebound if let go without water for too long.  Once a conifer tree starts to turn brown, it is too late to bring it back.  It will die in a very short time.       

    If a conifer has a slight yellowish tinge to the needle color, you can remedy that.  That is typically a sign of nitrogen deficiency.  The tree can be fertilized with evergreen tree spikes or a granular 12-12-12 fertilizer.  Within 2 weeks the tree should look a healthier shade of green. 

   Do you like weeding the garden?   After a good rain, and the soil is loosened up, I sometimes enjoy pulling weeds.  It can be a relaxing chore if you see easy progress.  Lately though it has been quite dry and the weeds frequently break off when pulled on.  That leaves behind a root system that will grow an even healthier weed!  

I know the trend is to go green but there are times when I find it more practical to use a few chemicals.  Which one do you use?  Here is a good rule of thumb.  If you are spraying grassy-type weeds, a product containing glyphosate, like Round Up, will work great.  If the weed is broadleaf, and that includes most every other weed you will find, a Brush Killer product should do the trick. 

There are always exceptions and weeds that are very difficult to kill.  Ortho makes a Poison Ivy killer that works quite well.  If you have tough weeds to kill, a second or third application a few days apart helps a lot.

    Keeping weeds out of your lawn keeps them out of your garden.  A lawn full of dandelions will spread into your garden very easily.

I was asked a great question this week that is a common problem in West Michigan…

Q: Do you have any pointers for growing grass on sandy soil with no underground sprinkling system? How about those shady areas too? Dan, Grand Rapids

A: In order to fix up an existing sandy lawn, there are a few routes you can take. If your goal is to eventually attain a lush lawn, either start over with 3-4″ of topsoil or you can gradually feather on top soil every year to richen the soil.
Another route to take would be to rake grass seed into your lawn every spring (May 15-31) with a mixture of blended grass seed. This will help with both sandy and shady lawns. These seed blends usually come with a fair amount of annual seed mixed in that will die out with the fall frost. Just sprinkle a generous amount of seed around and rake it in a bit if you can. You will need to keep the area moist with a sprinkler while the seed is germinating.

If these ideas don’t work for you, you may want to try a different ground cover that is better suited for the site conditions.