Dealing with the drought
By John
Fulton
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[April
04, 2013]
It's been said the effects of
drought linger for up to seven years. After the scorcher we had last
year, effects can already be seen. Most of the ill effects are seen
on lawns, trees and shrubs. Here are a few early spring pointers for
dealing with the damage done.
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For lawns, what you see is what you get as far as live plants
and dead ones. We had an amazing recovery in most lawns last
fall. Hurricane Isaac saved the day in the "nick of time." A few
more weeks, and we truly would have been starting from scratch.
For now, assess the size of dead areas. Areas larger than about
a foot across will not fill in this year on their own, so some
additional seed should be planted quickly. Scratch in 2 to 4
pounds per 1,000 square feet by using a garden rake. Start by
raking, spread the seed, rake again, then tamp it down and hope
for better growing conditions this year. Just make sure you
don't apply crabgrass preventer, since it will kill the seeds
you want to germinate as well as the crabgrass.
As for trees
and shrubs, some damage is already evident. Other damage is
going to become apparent over the next few years. If plants
don't leaf out by mid-May, the story is probably written (and
that means they are history). The best thing to do is to keep
them growing aggressively by applying fertilizer at the lawn
rate -- about 8 pounds of 12-12-12 per 1,000 square feet of drip
area. If you are fertilizing the entire lawn, that is
sufficient. The trees will actually get the nutrients before the
grass.
Garlic mustard
Garlic mustard is considered an invasive species, and some
states have declared it a noxious weed. Illinois hasn't declared
it such, at least not yet. The problem with garlic mustard is
how quickly it spreads. It spreads so quickly it tends to choke
out much of the desirable undergrowth in timber areas. At this
time of year, the plants are still in the rosette stage
described below, but they will soon begin to extend their flower
stems if they are in their second year of growth.
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Garlic mustard is a cool-season biennial herb with stalked,
triangular to heart-shaped, coarsely toothed leaves that give off an
odor of garlic when crushed. First-year plants appear as a rosette
of green leaves close to the ground. Rosettes remain green through
the winter and develop into mature flowering plants the following
spring. Flowering plants of garlic mustard reach from 2 to 3 1/2
feet in height and produce buttonlike clusters of small white
flowers, each with four petals in the shape of a cross.
Control of garlic mustard is somewhat difficult. Seeds can remain
viable in the soil for at least five years. Small amounts, including
the roots, can be pulled up. Garlic mustard can regrow from root
material. For herbicides, glyphosate (Roundup) is the most often
recommended. Remember, glyphosate kills broadleaves and grasses it
gets on. There has been some success with 2,4-D LV400 where there
aren't concerns with other understory plants. Very large patches
have been controlled with fire, but that completely destroys the
understory of timbers. Remember to monitor areas for at least five
years due to the seed dormancy period.
[By
JOHN FULTON,
University of Illinois Extension]
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