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It’s time to answer a
few more of your great emailed gardening questions. As we get closer to
lawn care season, many folks are asking about natural or organic
alternatives for feeding the lawns. Here are a couple options you may
consider:
This year, you will find
several natural or organic granular lawn foods available at your local
garden stores. One has been around for years, and really isn’t anything
new. It’s called Milorganite, and can be used for lawns, as well as trees
and shrubs. It’s even labeled for use in the garden. Milorganite also has
the distinction of doing a descent job repelling deer and other critters
from the yard. Feed and repel the natural way!
And one of the
forerunners in natural and organic plant foods, Espoma, offers their all
natural lawn food, a 7-2-2 formula…slow release, longer lasting, and also
contains beneficial microbes to help improve your soils.
And if you’d like to
feed and prevent weed seeds from growing, you’ll also find the ‘Weed
Preventer plus lawn food’…made from corn gluten meal, an all natural weed
inhibitor, as well as giving your lawn a natural shot of nitrogen for that
good green color.
I’m also getting a lot
of questions about when to apply the systemic insecticides (Bonides Tree and
Shrub Insect Control or Bayers Tree and Shrub Insect Control) to ash trees
for protection against the Emerald Ash borer.
The chemical being used
in both products is Imidacloprid, and usually takes as long as 30 days or
more to work its way throughout larger ash trees. The adult Emerald Ash
Borer begins to emerge in mid May, so for maximum protection, these soil
drenches should be in place around the base of the tree mid March thru mid
April for proper movement up into the entire tree.
And remember, this
protection lasts for 12 months, and will need to be applied again next
spring. |
