Johnsons's Garden Centers Text File document - copyright 2002
PDF file available at http://www.johnsonsgarden.com/newsletter/gardentips.html

Garden Tips
July 2002
Marty Johnson, President, Johnson's Garden Centers 
   and Kansas Certified Nurseryman

LAWN FERTILIZER
    South-West Green Maker is the perfect lawn food for all types of
turf varieties this summer. It contains three types of nitrogen which
is released over a period of 3-4 weeks. It is released by moisture,
heat and microbial activity in the soil. With its high iron and sulphur
content it will green up the lawn with out making it grow too much.
Be sure to keep the fertilizer off concrete surfaces or the iron will 
stainthe surface.

IRON STAINS ON CONCRETE
    Now you can remove iron, rust and scale stains from concrete,
decorative rock and stucco with ferti-lome Klean-Crete. This new product
from the good folks at ferti-lome is 100% biodegradable and comes in a
professional strength ready-to-use spray bottle. Klean-Crete also
removes leaf, grass and berry stains from concrete.

POND FISH
    Be sure and stop by the stores to see all of our new pond fish. We
have Premium Comets (dark red goldfish), Sarasa Comets (fancy white and
red goldfish), Standard Koi (brightly colored, affordable Koi) and
Butterfly Koi (beautiful, long fish with longer fins). Most of these
fish are from 3-6" in length and range in price from $5 to $15. These
fish really add a lot to your pond enjoyment. For the kids, be sure to
pick up a tadpole for your pond and watch it turn into a bullfrog.

BORERS
    Borer control has been a dilemma since the removal of Dursban from
the homeowner market. We now have Hi-Yield Kill-a-Bug II, which I think
will be a great replacement for Dursban in the fight against borers.
The label presently lists only a couple of types of borers but the
commercial product available only to professionals has a much broader
label. Also, new this year from ferti-lome is Borer, Bagworm, Leafminer
& Tent Caterpillar Spray containing Spinosad which is a
naturally-occurring compound found in soil bacteria. This product should
work on most borers.

ELIMINATE BERMUDA
    Start thinking about spraying out bermuda grass later this month
with Super KILLZALL. With a couple of applications, this product kills 
actively growing bermuda grass in several weeks and allows the seeding 
of fescue by early September. Super KILLZALL is a non-selective herbicide, 
which means that it does not "select" the type of plant it kills. It will 
also kill your desirable turf varieties such as fescue and bluegrass. 
This is not too much of an issue when you are planning to overseed anyway. 
Be sure to add Hi-Yield Spreader Sticker to literally coat the leaf surface 
and get a much quicker kill. Without Spreader Sticker, just droplets of 
the productremain on each leaf and more of the product will run off the 
plant.

GRUBWORMS
    Hi-Yield has introduced a new grubworm control containing Mach 2.
Mach 2 is an acronym for molt-accelerating compound halofenozide and
controls white grub larvae. In 1998, it received the Presidential Green
Chemistry Award from the U.S. EPA. This product is most effective when
used in late June through August. If you wait until August to treat your
lawn after the damage has occurred, use Dylox for a fast kill on the
adult grubs. If the damage is severe, then fall re-seeding must be done
to repair the damaged lawn.

BROWN PATCH DISEASE
    After the heavy rains the past few weeks, I have noticed some brown
patch starting in my fescue lawn. When the long days of summer arrive
and the night time temperatures stay in the 70s WATCH OUT! The fungus
will really spread. To help prevent the spread of brown patch, the #1
thing you can do is to water your lawn early in the morning, allowing
grass blades to dry before night. Dry grass at night will help stop the
spread of the disease. It is also advisable to apply a fungicide. Either
the ferti-lome Systemic Fungicide containing Banner or the Hi-Yield
Fungicide Granules containing Bayleton would be a good investment in the
health of your lawn.

NUTGRASS
    In the moist areas of my lawn I have noticed nutgrass or yellow
nutsedge. Unlike grass, sedges have triangular stems and the leaves are
three-ranked instead of two-ranked, which means the leaves come off the
stems in three different directions. Yellow nutsedge is pale green to
yellow in color and grows rapidly in the spring and early summer.
Because of this rapid shoot growth, it sticks up above the rest of the
lawn only a few days after mowing. Nutsedge loves moist, damp areas in
the lawn or landscape. Treat with ferti-lome Crabgrass Killer containing
MSMA. It will do a pretty good job, but it may take a couple of 
applications. A newer product called Manage seems to be more effective
with only one application.