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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