THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503100107
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G14 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: GARDENING
SERIES: WEEDER'S DIGEST
SOURCE: ROBERT STIFFLER
LENGTH: Long : 286 lines
I recently bought a home with an established yard, beautiful landscaping, perennial garden, trees, shrubs - everything. I am thrilled, except I have one major problem - my lawn. I have a weed that I have been unable to identify in any lawn-care book or information center. I have large patches in the front and a few starting in the back.
I tried hand-pulling this weed, but although it lies primarily on the surface, it was very time-consuming, and the weed has started to come back already. Where it is established, the roots are very thick and the main system, with tuber-like roots, can run under the turf and come up again several inches away.
I am sending you a sample. It creeps across your lawn strangling everything in its path, even Bermuda grass. It reminds me of ``Wandering Jew'' - a light, greenish-yellow color although some spots in the yard are a deep, dark green. It puts out a tiny little white star flower and produces seed pods where the plant branches out.
One neighbor told me the only way to rid yourself of it is to kill the entire lawn, till it under and start over. I hope this is not the only solution.
Sandy Dyer, Chesapeake
Your weed is Virginia Buttonweed, a real pest that seems to be increasing throughout this area. If it's salve for your wound, Virginia Tech researchers report it can take two years to clear out. Weed killers have no affect on it. You must use Roundup on it, and then replant with grass seed over the bare spots. Virginia Buttonweed reseeds in the ground so even after you kill it with Roundup, you'll have new plants the next season. Either pull them up or again kill with Roundup and re-seed. Several years are required to get a good lawn again.
The alternate is to have a lawn full of buttonweed rather than grass, and it can happen.
National Gardening magazine recently reported that researchers at Iowa State College used Twenty Mule Team Borax at a rate of 5, 10 and 20 ounces in a gallon of water to cover 1,000 square feet of lawn. They found that 20 ounces per gallon worked best. This killed perennial ground-cover weeds. Perhaps you'll want to try that.
My husband and I planted 32 white gumpo azaleas in March 1993. The plants seemed vigorous and healthy. We watered often and gave them Miracle Gro regularly. Blooming was fair for first-year growth, but the plants began dying that July and were all dead by September.
We replanted 32 white gumpos in March 1994. The plants grew even better than in 1993, and the blooming period was also good. In August, they began to die. Now several are brown and leafless.
The soil was tilled before planting in 1993, and peat moss, topsoil and manure were tilled in. Pine straw mulch was applied over pine bark. The area receives partial sunlight, much of it filtered through loblolly pines. We also installed a soaker hose to facilitate frequent waterings. There are 20-year-old boxwoods behind the azaleas and a double row of impatiens in front. The impatiens were gorgeous, knee-high and thick.
Could the impatiens be absorbing all the water in the plot? The azaleas look drought-stricken. Is there anything we can do to save the remaining plants? If not, do you have suggestions for a replacement plant that is evergreen, low growing and flowers for a longer and later time than our Formosa and George Tabor azaleas? Thanks for any help you can give. Your column is one of the best parts of the Sunday paper.
Maria H. Jennette, Timberlands Unlimited, Windsor, N.C.
Yours is a complicated problem, but here are suggestions and questions from the experts at the Hampton Roads Research Center. Did you plant the azaleas too deeply? That will kill them. Also do not use Miracle Gro on them, because it has too high a salt content for azaleas or camellias.
The experts also suspect you incorporated so much organic matter in the soil that it is now unstable and has a salt problem. Or the azaleas may have died from a lack of water. Even though you watered faithfully, the water ran through the soil too quickly to be absorbed.
Finally, the first azaleas you planted may have been infected with phytopthera, a horrible root-rot disease that infects the soil. Test the area by planting vinca or begonias, both of which are resistant to phytopthera. There is no known cure for this disease except to plant disease-resistant plants until the disease gradually loses its killing power.
I am employed with a local clearing construction firm. Recently we have started grinding our clearing debris in a tub grinder to reduce our landfill dump cost.
The debris is mostly stumps, limbs, brush and non-sellable timber. When run through the grinder, the product is a fair to excellent mulch, depending upon the time it takes to separate and screen it. I have heard many people say not to use the mulch, especially around a house, because it is not treated and will draw termites. Is this true? If so, with what should it be treated?
E.R. Waterfield, Virginia Beach
Virginia Tech experts say there is no economical treatment for such mulch. But they say it's safe to use if you do not get it closer than 6 to 12 inches from a building. Also do not apply too much. No mulch should be deeper than 3 inches.
Pine bark mulch is not treated with any termite-resistant substance, and it is sold by the truckload as garden mulch.
Can you help me with the name of a bush that comes up in the spring in my flower garden? A sample is enclosed. It grows 4 feet tall and is very pretty when it blooms in late September. Honey bees and wasps are all over it then. I also saw it by the pond at the Norfolk zoo. Is this something I need to cut down or will it stay this size? Can it be trimmed?
Dorothy Howell, Chesapeake
Your plant is salt bush or Groundsel. It will grow 6 feet high. I've never tried pruning it, but there is no reason why that could not be done. I think it's a pest, because the blooms form seed heads that make new plants all over the garden.
It, however, does bloom in the fall when little else is in bloom. And it survives in salt and brackish water, which many plants will not do.
Is there anything that will eliminate the mass of hairy roots from elm trees that grow in my flower beds? I haul in soil and dig and work the beds up before planting or putting out bulbs. But in no time, the beds are taken over by elm tree roots that are so thick that nothing can grow. Every spring and fall I have to grub with a grubbing hoe or nothing can survive in the beds. I haul out roots by the wheelbarrow load. What's your advice?
Helen Nurney, Capron
The solution is not easy, but you must dig around the edge of your flower beds down at least 18 inches deep. Then install a barrier of plastic, cement or metal. It must be thick and strong enough to stop tree roots. Otherwise, you'll be grubbing roots out of your flower beds the rest of your life. If any reader has a better solution, please share it.
In the interest of simplicity and low toxicity for your readers, here are three techniques I have found useful in fighting Bermuda grass, slugs and Japanese beetles.
For spot treating Bermuda grass in flower beds, I recommend allowing the grass to grow long and then treating it with Roundup. Put your hands in several thicknesses of plastic newspaper bags, dip them in a bucket of Roundup with a few drops of dish detergent and soak the Bermuda grass or other unwanted weeds in your flower beds. Although hard on your back, it is a much more effective way of treating weeds and Bermuda grass than spraying.
I once had a great deal of slug damage to my outside potted plants until I put wood ashes in dishes at the base of the pots. Wood ashes are also helpful to slowly correct pH problems in your lawn, caused by pine needles.
Japanese beetles like my grape leaves more than anything else in my garden. My technique is to go out early in the morning and dump the sleepy beetles into a wide-mouth jar, which is then covered and left in the hot sun. Oil is not necessary. At the end of the season, I feed the beetle carcasses to my roses. Thank you for continuing your educational, enjoyable column.
Dr. Samuel T. Selden, Chesapeake
Thanks to Dr. Selden, who has been a shaker and mover in many Chesapeake horticultural activities. With the ``weed, bug and slug season'' just ahead, his suggestions control these problems with minimal use of chemicals.
As Dr. Selden implies, pine needles often make a soil high in acid, and the potash in wood ashes helps correct that problem. With Roundup, remember that it does not work until the air temperature stays above 60 degrees.
Your Home & Garden section has helped me, because before that I learned through trial and error. Some time ago, my girlfriend and I purchased an oleander bush at White's Old Mill Nursery in Chesapeake. The man who helped us asked if we had children, which I don't, because the plant was very poisonous. My sister in Pennsylvania, who is an organic gardener, tells me the plant is so poisonous that you should not burn it, mulch it or prune it with bare hands or let the plant touch a cut area on your hands or you'd be hospitalized. I thought by the way the man at White's Nursery talked that it was poisonous to ingest, as are many other flowers and shrubs.
Can you supply some specific information on oleander and how poisonous it really may be.
Arlene Painter, Portsmouth
When you talk about poisonous plants, there is always an ``exception'' that someone knows about. Keeping that in mind, my references and Virginia Tech authorities say oleander is poisonous only if ingested. There are no other reported injuries caused by it. Oleander is widely grown in New Orleans to brighten that city's streets and is widely used along highways in California.
Animals avoid it, because their instincts tell them not to eat it. People should be as smart. Enjoy your oleander, but remember that severe winters, such as we had last year, can appear to kill it, but it usually grows back from the roots.
Please tell me what to spray on the enclosed weed to kill it. I have Kentucky 31 fescue grass in the area this weed is infesting.
Andrew J. Ely, Virginia Beach
Your problem is not a weed but moss. It is shallow rooted, and you can rake it off. But it will return if you do not correct your soil problem. Moss grows in heavy shade. If you remove or ``limb up'' trees that will allow the grass to receive more sunshine. Often poor drainage and acidic soil contribute to moss growth, so if you can improve drainage and make the soil neutral or alkaline through the addition of lime, you may eliminate your problem.
If all these fail or are not practical, plant a ground cover such as pachyasandra and eliminate the grass.
In some areas, moss is encouraged, eliminating grass and having a ``moss lawn.'' That's not my cup of tea, but a horticulture professor in Pennsylvania makes a living from his program telling about his moss lawn.
I read your gardening tips, questions and answers and comments with great interest. You have given dates and other planting instructions from time to time. I would like very much to see a calendar giving dates from January through December for a proper planting schedule. A yearly guide to plant, fertilize, transplant and prune fruits, vegetables and flowers would be most appreciated. I live in Kill Devil Hills, three-quarters of a mile from the ocean, and have had some success producing vegetables and flowers by enlarging my growing space.
Margaret Brown, Kill Devil Hills, N.C.
You need a book, because the information you request would fill a book. Visit a bookstore and examine ``Taylor's Guide To Gardening,'' which should fit your needs. I am writing a book, expected out this fall, which will have instructions specific to this area. Also read the ``Weeder's Digest,'' scheduled to appear March 12 in The Virginian-Pilot/Ledger-Star. It will have much of the information you request.
On the Outer Banks, growing anything is different than most other places in the country. Plants grow according to soil temperatures, and your area won't agree with recommendations for other areas.
You need to divide what you grow into ``cool season'' crops, such as spinach and broccoli, which should be planted in the fall. ``Warm season'' crops include tomatoes, melons, peppers, etc. They should be planted in the spring. Your North Carolina extension office may have bulletins that will help in your specific area.
In the past, here in Virginia and in Wisconsin, I have always been successful in retaining geraniums over the winter. This year we have two beautiful hanging geraniums. They are hanging in the garage near a window. How do I ``winter over'' these plants? Do I cut them back same as standard geraniums? Should they be repotted?
George Haertlein, Virginia Beach
Since you have them in your garage, my suggestion is not to cut back or repot them. They need all the sun you can give them. They have probably already lost some leaves and that may continue. Sometimes you can save them; sometimes you can't.
Some gardeners take strong cuttings and root them to make new plants, placing the newly rooted plants in the warm house in sunshine. You might do that to have some back-up plants. Another method that works sometimes is to dig geraniums and shake all the dirt off their roots and hang them upside down in a brown paper bag in a cool dry place over the winter.
If you can keep yours in their hanging baskets in a warmer, sunnier environment than your garage, they should be ready to put outdoors again by mid-April. That would be the time to prune back one-third to one-half of their foliage.
I hope you can help with my dogwood trees. I have 5 that are sick. They bloomed nicely but then leaves started turning brown. They are under tall pines and oaks. Under the dogwoods is a large bed of azaleas. Everything but the dogwoods look fine. I put in a new well last year and everything is watered from it, including 40 potted plants and annuals that were beautiful. The dogwoods are 8 years old and very important to our landscape.
Sue L. Mason, Virginia Beach
First check your well water for salt content. There are labs in Norfolk that do that. Long Creek Road, where you live, is a sandy area that could have a high salt content in well water. That could be hurting your dogwoods, but it would also result in damage to the azaleas, which you say are fine.
The dogwoods are obviously under stress. Planting the azaleas disrupted the dogwoods' growth, because they both are shallow-rooted. Dogwoods can't take much competition. The azaleas and pines compete with the dogwoods for food, and especially water.
Have you used weed and feed on your lawn? That can damage dogwood trees. Finally, for a disease check, call your city arborist, Roger Huff (427-4461) and see if he can better diagnose the problem.
As a newly interested gardener, I gather most information from your column. I questioned you some time back about coconuts I brought here from Key West. You suggested I contact the Norfolk Botanical Garden. They never returned my call, so I used the coconuts to divide a level in my garden. My other coconuts are thriving as houseplants.
After daffodils have completed blooming, I cut off the dead blooms and cut the green tops back to 2 inches in late April or early May. Did I remove their food?
Ramik is an excellent mouse/rat poison that I bought as large nuggets from Virginia Beach Feed & Seed. I do not think the nuggets work as well for field mice, but I am having a hard time locating packages of smaller nuggets.
What is the best way to kill grubs? Something ate my geraniums. They seemed to die from the roots. I sprinkled Sevin dust over the plants once.
Our neighborhood has muskrats. I tried a trap and then Ramik, but then noticed they are digging a new tunnel 20 feet away.
Our Formosa tree has ``wilt'' and dropped its foliage. Will the tree survive? Will the sprouts that are alive around the trunk grow?
Mary Anne L. Nixon, Virginia Beach
Starting with your last question, your Formosa tree is dead. They get an infection and die after a few years growth. Suckers from their roots will die because the disease is systemic, which means it moves through the veins of the plant and affects all parts.
For your muskrats, the only cure is to trap them or get a dog. A dog will usually keep them away.
The best way to kill grubs in a container or garden is granular diazinon. First dig up some of the soil and see if you find any grubs. Don't use any chemical until you have identified the problem.
I can't help you find the small-size Ramik. If Virginia Beach Feed & Seed doesn't have it, I doubt that it's available in the area. You might call Norfolk Co. Feed & Seed in Portsmouth or Abner's Hardware in Oceana.
Daffodils should not be cut back until all foliage has turned brown, and then it can be lifted off. They revitalize themselves for next years' blooms through the leaves. I know more than one gardener who clips off the foliage soon after blooming. Bulb experts say that eventually, if you do that, they will quit blooming. MEMO: No gardening questions will be taken over the phone. Write to Robert
Stiffler, The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, 150 W. Brambleton
Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510. Answers will be published on a space-available
basis at the proper time for their use in the garden. For an earlier
reply, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Dogwoods can't take much competition for food or water.
by CNB