How to we navigate mowing the lawn in the dry summer months?

Ron Wilson gives great lawn and garden tips as we head into the hotter and dryer months

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lush my Legacy Retirement Group dot Com phone line and
say good morning, Same Day Special Time in the Garden
with Ron Wilson. You ever had Cardinals pizza in North.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Louisbourg, Ron, I have not, but I have heard that
they do not serve forks.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
They don't serve forks.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
No forks for your pizza.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
I would agree with that.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yes, we talked.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
We talked about that. The menu everybody I think on
the show besides me, uses a knife and fork with pizza.
I just you got to use your mits on that.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
That's right. I'm with you one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah. So you're gonna be at Oakland Nursery and you're
at the Columbus location this weekend, correct tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, it's always a lot of fun and we'll see
what happens there. But yeah, like you know, the showers
are going to move through here and there. But we
have never been rained out twenty three years, oh boy
during the show. So you know, we'll see what happens.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, that's you. Just uh, maybe put the WHAMMYE on it.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
No, No, I'm confident. I'm confident, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
And this is your this is your last this is
your last live appearance of the season. I do believe
it's at the Oakland Park location Oakland Nursery tomorrow broadcasts
and live go out and see Ron rain or shine
at ten tomorrow. So let's get into the gardens. Let's
get into the lawns. You mentioned the rain ron. I've

(01:21):
not yet had to drag out the hose. You know,
we did have a bunch of dry days here this
week and some warm days. Thought about it, and I'm
watering the plants but not the lawn. How should we
approach watering the lawn this summer as we get into
some warmer tempts and some drier stretches.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
You know, I think the good general rule of thumb
is if your law would like about an incher rainfall
every ten days or so for optimum growing conditions. So
if you're you know, you're really like your lawn. You
really want to keep that thing nice green, You don't
want it to go dorm and et cetera, et cetera,
about it as your rainfall, and it's best to try to
do it all at one time rather than a little

(01:59):
bit every day. If you do a little bit of
every day and you're that water tease, well, you know.
What happens is your your lawn and winds up having
roots at the very top of the soil, et cetera,
et cetera. You set it up for problems down the road.
So when you're gonna do it, Mike, you know, do it,
you know, all at one time, or maybe once you know,
three days, and do it again in another four or
five days, once again, but somehow come up with that

(02:21):
one inch of rainfall of mother nature doesn't have provided
for you, and do it nice indep But other than that,
if you can do that, you'll carry your lawn through
the summer with no problem.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Is this the time of the year we need to
worry about grubs in the yard? And if so, is
it too late to do something about it?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well, you know, no, it's As a matter of fact,
timing is great. You know. You hear from a lot
of folks right now saying, you know, I had grub
damage last summer late summer. First question is are you
sure it was grub damage? Always check to make sure
that was the problem, because there are other diseases that
can cause your law to die out and patches. But
if you did, by chance have them in the fall,
they're obviously going to be there again this year. Now

(02:57):
the adults have already hatched out of the ground. Those
beatles are flying around everywhere. They're mating and they're starting
the later eggs now, and you'll do that June, July
and August. There are grub preventers that you put down now,
and this is perfect timing. Put your grub preventer and
make sure when you go to your local garden center
you say grub prevnter that you put down now. Water
do inn really well? Well, that's the key, and that'll

(03:20):
last about ninety days, so it carries you mid July,
mid August, mid September for that egg laying period and
so it stops them right at that age stage. So
you know, we don't have any problem at all. Now.
If some of them make it through and you still
have a little bit of grub damage in September October,
you come back with a grub killer which works in
the twenty four hour period knock them out at that point.

(03:40):
But grub prevnters are applied right now. Perfect timing. But
the key is getting water done really well.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Ron I had a discussion with my neighbor and these
are the kind of discussions that we have now is
I would start to get up in age. I mean,
I'm now all of a sudden bird watching and I'm
doing I'm a world class you know, yard putter or
things I never thought I would do ten or fifteen
years ago. But these are the conversations we're having now
about clay chips in the bottom of flower pots to

(04:09):
help drainage. Neighbor says, don't do that. I've done it
and have had no problems. But have you ever heard
of using clay chips in the bottom of your flower
pots to help with the drainage?

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah? Oh yeah, people do that, and they do the
gravel as well. And by the way, I think I've
known you for twenty three years. I never thought you'd
be that kind of a homeowner either. But nevertheless, thanks,
But never though, no, I always knew that was going
to happen with you for some reason. Just tell But anyway,
no doubt you know. That was an old fallacy or

(04:42):
myth of gardening bit back then, is that if you
put gravel or clay chips or something at bottom of
the pot, it helps it to drain better. Well, guess
what the Ohio State University actually did scientific research on
this one and found out that by using things in
the bottom of your pot to help improve drainage actually
slowed it down and made it worse. The only thing
it did was that and wait to the bottom of
your pot. So we don't do that anymore. That's been

(05:04):
thrown out the window. Don't do the gravel or the
play chips or whatever unless you're in a real high
wind area and you want to put a little weight
in the bottom of it and that'll help out. But
otherwise we don't do that anymore. It's out the window.
Have you been successful doing it? Do it? That's okay.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
So that's the excuse I'm going to use with my
neighbor is that because my flower pots are on the
back deck, so I'm going to use the It's to
prevent against the wind damage.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
That's it. There is a reason for doing it. So
you're covered.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, just don't tell him that he was right, because
that I'll never hear.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Oh, absolutely not, I'll never hear.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
The end of that River birch had a question come
in from Seawn in Grove City. Get the the clump
river birch trees, and he says it's got a lot
of yellow leaves and green veins and this kind of
growing in that way. What is that a disease? What
causes that? And should he do something about it?

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Uh? That happens a lot with riverbirchs and some other
trees in the areas well. And of course I can't
be one hundred percent without seeing the tree. But right
now we are seeing a lot of cases of chlorosis
in the leaves and that's where it's a lack of
nutrients getting after those leaves to get the photosynthesis going
and get those nice and green. And there's a lot
of reasons why this can happen. I mean, could be

(06:16):
root decline, PhD, the soil, lack of moisture, whatever it
may be to get those up into those leaves. So
you have to look at all those factors. But you
can also supplement and this is typically what we wind
up doing, supplementing with like iron sulfate. Iron sulfate helps
to bring the pH levels down, which is what you need,
and I ads the iron at the same time. And
homeowners can do this without calling in the arbus and

(06:39):
you can just read instructions follow around the base. Arbusts
can come in and actually do an injection for an
immediate source of iron. Sometimes it's magnesium, but most of
the time it's iron, and then do the iron sulfate
for a long term. So you know, if you've caught
it this is just the first time you see it,
you want to do what you can to correct it
because iron chlorosis or magnesium chlorosis over time can take

(07:01):
out a tree of cause it's a decline and you
don't want that to happen. I do remember in River Birch,
those are individual trees, so you got three or four
trees actually competing with each other right in that clump
for whatever nutrients are in that area. So so this
is pretty common with River Birch.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
I didn't know that that. I didn't know they were
all individual trees. I thought it was just one that
grew up that way. That's interesting. You'll learn something new
every day on the show. Ron Wilson, host of in
the Garden. You can hear him tomorrow at ten. You
can see him tomorrow at ten at Oakland Nursery on
Oakland Park in Columbus. So this is the time of
year where we deal with bugs and specifically mosquitoes. Ron

(07:38):
and you know, we know standing water is where they breed,
and if you've got you know, a bird bath or
other areas in the yard that don't drain well with
standing water, that could kind of create some issues with mosquitos.
Is there anything we can do to get rid of
those mosquitos without harming any of the good bugs in
the yard.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
That's a great question, you know, if you can't correct
the drainings, and that is the major issue. And remember
mosquitoes don't fly all that far, so they're either coming
from your yard or your neighbor's yard. But if you
have area your neighbor of course, but if you have
areas that hold water, you can actually yourself. They're called
the mosquito dunks and mosquito bits. It's an all natural

(08:21):
insecticide that you can actually put in the water. You
can put it in your bird fountain, you can put
it wherehere they're standing, where you put in your fountains
or ponds or whatever. It's all natural and he only
goes after the eggs of the mosquitos, so it's very
easy to do. Again, all natural, you can do it yourself,
and that really does help to cut the populations down.
You can bring someone in like Mosquito Joe and all

(08:42):
of those folks that do that, and tell them that
you want to protect them. They'll do natural sprays and
not get around your pollinator plants and all and try
to correct it as well. But for standing water, if
you can't correct it, look at the mosquito dunks and
the mosquito bits available at your local garden centers. Really
easy to do and doesn't affect the environment. Besides going
after those mosquitoes, my.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Wife bought some citronello plants that she put on the
back deck. Do those work?

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Don't get me started? Oh boy, no, they don't. And
that's as a matter of fact. I have had that
on my notes for all spring at all the all
the gardening shows, and I've never had time to sit
out and actually do that as a segment. But that's
one of those gardening myths out there that there is
no plant scientifically proven that works as a mosquito repellent

(09:31):
or insect repellent. What's interesting is the oils in the
plant may be part of a mosquito repellent, but unless
the oils are released, and how do you get them
to release to crush the leaves you hit it with
a stick, whatever it may be, to release the oils.
Are you going to do that all the time. No.
As a matter of fact, you've seen all these plants,
including the citronella, which is a scented geranium, seen mosquitoes

(09:52):
actually land on the plants.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
So what I'm hearing. So what I'm hearing right now
is I am o for too. I'm over too on
the clay chips and the flower pots, and my wife
is over with the citronella plants. I mean, short of
ripping off a leave and rubbing it on your neck,
it's not going to do any good exactly.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
But you know what, it's a beautiful plant. It's wonderful.
If you do crush the leaves, it smells great. It's
great little bit of flour on there as well. So
that's it. Those are all great plants to plant, just
don't count on them. Keep the mosquitas away from you.