Gardening Tips for August by David Barkley (August 2005)

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Lawn Care:

• Watch for chinch bugs in St. Augustinegrass and be prepared to apply Baygon or various types of pyre-throids such as Tempo, Talstar, etc. for best control.
• Fertilize the warm seasoned grasses with 1/2 to 1 pound of actual nitrogen, except Centipedegrass. Late applications of nitrogen may cause winter kill or cold injury to Centipedegrass.
• Watch for mole cricket activity - small tunnels at the soil surface. Top Choice (fipronil) is usually applied for mole cricket control in late May. You may also use Talstar and other labeled pyrethroids as needed according to label directions.
• Large Patch disease control applications should be applied when soil temperatures decrease to around 70 degrees which will usually be sometime in mid to late September.

Landscape Plants:

• Powdery mildew on Crape myrtles: Pay close attention to your crape myrtle foliage. Banner or Bayleton may be used to control Powdery Mildew if you notice a white powdery substance on your Crape Myrtles.
• Help your crape myrtles lose weight this summer. As the flowers fade, tip prune them. This will encourage new, dense growth and more flowers for late summer.
• Annual Flower Beds: A closed canopy will shade out many weeds. Periodic cultivations will suppress many weeds. Mulches will suppress many annual weeds.
• Unpruned plants are good candidates to be blown over in a thunderstorm. Also a good summer trim will encourage new growth and possibly more flower buds for late summer or fall. Several plants to consider for midsummer clean up are: Tansy, Hollyhocks, Mexican Bush Sage, Santolina, Comfry, Catnip, Queen Anne's Lace, Fennel, and Thyme. Remember to keep a 3 4 inch layer of an organic mulch throughout the perennial border. Also keep any insect pests under control and fertilize if necessary.
• If you are growing summer color plants in containers, it will help to keep a water saucer under the pot. Pots will not dry out as quickly. It will also help to add peat moss and soil to the pine bark media to hold moisture. Be sure to mix the amendments together thoroughly before planting. Watering frequency will be greatly reduced.

Landscape Tips:

Spring flowering bulb catalogues are arriving, so it must be time to start thinking about next years' garden. Now is a good time to design that garden, but wait until it cools off a bit to actually do anything. Spring flowering bulbs are best planted in late October through November. If you don't have anything else to do, go ahead and take a soil sample.

Late Summer Renovation: After 4 or 5 months of growing, many landscape beds are probably in need of a good weeding and edging. Most plantings would benefit from a total late summer renovation. This would include hand pulling the annual weeds and grasses and spraying a contact herbicide on the tough perennial weeds and grasses if you have any.

Perennials and most woody plants can stand a tip pruning or even a heading-back trim. Some perennials will probably need staking.

Re edge the plant beds, apply a pre emergent herbicide if necessary and add a fresh layer of mulch.

There's no reason why we shouldn't try some of these plant combinations in NC landscapes.

For Summer:	Lantana:	Miss Huff's Hardy, Radiation, New Gold
	Annual Hibiscus:	Red Shield
	Silver Dollar:	Eucalyptus cinera
	Egyptian Starflower:	Pentas lanceolata
	Sweet Potato:	Ipomoea Blackie
	Wormwood:	Artemisia Powis Castle
	Narrow leaf Zinnia:	Zinnia angustifolia
By late July, many bedding plants that were installed in May have had it. You may consider renovating these beds with a fresh planting of the following:
	Cosmos:	Bright Lights, Early Wonder, Imperial Pink
	Zinnia:	Goodness, Torch
	Marigold:	Tagetes Snowdrift
	Cleome:	Cherry Queen
	Annual Vinca:	Pretty in Rose
	Alyssum:	Cheers Rose
Excellent Fall Blooming Perennials:
	Sage:	Salvia madrensis
	Mexican Bush Sage:	Salvia leucantha
	New England Aster	Aster nova- angliae
	Swamp Sunflower	Helianthus giganteus
	Tartarian Aster	Aster tartaricus

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