Dayton "Dirt' August 22

Aug 22

Fall is fast approaching with Labor Day only 10 days away! Fall is a good time to plant many trees, shrubs and perennials as the days are shorter and more soil moisture is available for root growth.

No, you won’t see much if any “top” growth of plants but the action underground is substantial.

Trees and shrubs planted in the fall will almost gain a year over spring-planted plants as root growth will continue until soil temperatures fall below 40 degrees F. Additionally, plant roots will begin to grow in March when soil temperatures begin to rise above 40 degrees F especially with a good blanket of insulating snow on the ground!

The early spring “push” of roots works well to establish plants before the hot and usually dry summer as the time when it occurs is normally when soils are too wet to work or plants are simply not available for planting.

Please do keep in mind the following rules to avoid planting in fall and that is the following should not be fall planted unless the plants have been previously spring dug or are in a container.

1. Birch Trees
2. Most Magnolias
3. Dogwoods
4. Fragrant Viburnums
5. Redbuds
6. Japanese Maples

If you’re one of our garden club members, remember to use your Dayton Dollars by August 28^th as after this date they will not be valid!

If you would like to join our garden club, you may sign up online or step in the store to do so. The advantages for your are the special sales and discounts, Dayton Dollar rewards and informative newsletters on gardening topics mailed to you three times a year.

The advantage for us is to have your name in our file to directly market to you which lowers our advertising cost! Don’t worry, we don’t need your social security number or your credit card info on file as these are your own personal, private business!

Another item to keep in mind is that we will never sell or share your name with other mailing lists or bombard you with numerous mailings as we’re sure you have quite enough flooding your mailbox now!

Fall (September) is the best time to repair your lawn or sow a new lawn for which I’ll give you more info in my next blog.

One more thing before I go. Please check your lawn at least once a week for evidence of grub damage between now and September 15^th. Check for discolored patches of lawn, digging by animals, especially skunks and for patches of sod that will lift off the ground as grubs have eaten all the roots.

Healthy grass will tolerate a few grubs (3 or less per square foot) but if you find more than the tolerable amount, treat the lawn with Dylox by applying it with a spreader and watering it in well.

The grubs will be killed within one to two weeks and save you from lots of back-breaking work and/or hundreds of dollars to repair unchecked feeding damage by grubs or Japanese beetles and European chafer.

So long for now.

Tom