“I was pruning my Japanese Yews and a dust like substance started going everywhere. Then I noticed small brown nodes all along the stems. What is that and how can I treat it? Don’t want to lose my plants!”
Those nodes are the male flowers and the dust is the pollen. And now, you’ve been pollinated!

“If I need to spot treat a few weeds in my lawn, including wild onions, which weed killer do you recommend? I will be feeding the lawn late April.” - First, thank you for what you’re doing. Feed the lawn when it needs to be fed, spot treat the weeds when they need to be treated. I like Bonide’s Weed Beater Ultra. Covers a lot of different types of weeds in the lawn, including those wild onions, works at cooler temperatures for earlier or fall spot treating, and you can reseed 2-3 weeks after using it!

“I have a bazillion black and red striped bugs crawling on the south side of my house! Help!! What do we do?”
Chances are those are Boxelder Bugs and they have become one of the newer home invasion bugs – seeing more and more of them every year. Not much you can do – hose them off, spray with soaps, but as the weather warms they will move out to feed on Boxelder seeds (suck the juices from them), as well as ash, alder, apple, buckeye, honeysuckle, lilac, linden, oak, spirea, strawberry, plums and more. (Don’t cause any harm to the trees but can reduce fruit quality)

“We are interested in growing some berries in containers on our deck and wondered if you had any suggestions?”
BOY DO I HAVE SUGGESTIONS! My theory is if it grows in the ground, chances are you can grow it in a pot as well. And that applies to fruits and berries. With the increase in container gardening interest as well as seeing smaller gardens, plant breeders are developing more and more ‘edibles’ that naturally stay smaller and easy to grow in pots or take up less room in the garden. Just as an example, ‘TopHat’ and ‘Peach Sorbet’ blueberries are dwarf, self-fruiting, and generally stay under 3-4 feet tall. Very hardy and easy to grow in containers. ‘Raspberry Shortcake’ is a new dwarf thorn less red raspberry, again perfect for containers. Also look at figs in containers, both Zone 6 hardy selections like ‘Chicago Hardy’, and Zone 8 varieties (not hardy here) like ‘LSU Fig’ which can be overwintered in an unheated shed and grown outdoors in the summer. Pomegranates, citrus, dwarf fruit trees – these are all possibilities for container gardening!

“I heard you mention spraying fruit trees at bud break and how important that was. What is bud break?”
Great question! Bud break is when the buds on the stems begin to enlarge and open up. If you’ve been dealing with various diseases on your fruits, many of the fungicidal sprays need to begin at bud break and carry thru fruit set, and in many cases, beyond. But those first 6-8 weeks or so is very important for controlling many of the diseases on fruits. Mancozeb, Captan, Fungonil, Sulfur, Copper, Infuse are a few of the fungicides available. Make sure the disease you’re trying to control is on the label. For fruit tree growers, look at Bonide’s Complete Fruit Tree Spray. It has insecticide and fungicide and a chart when to spray!

“I have chickweed, henbit and another weed growing in my landscape beds and thin areas of the lawn. What should I spray them with to get rid of them?”
Use a rake and rake them out before they flower and set seed. Those started growing last fall, so not letting them seed is the first step. Using a pre emergent herbicide in the landscape beds next fall will help control some of the seeds from growing. And get the lawn thicker. Thicker lawn and those winter annual weeds can’t grow there. By the way, the 3rd weed you mentioned – I’m guessing it’s Hairy Bittercress. Google and see!
“I didn’t get to dormant seed my lawn. Can I still seed this spring?” -Absolutely! But the goal is to seed as soon as you can – so when the weather is right, it gets up, growing and rooted in before the weather gets hot. So get on it this week if you can.

“Is it too late to apply a pre emergent to the lawn?” Absolutely not! Now is the time, so have at it. Remember, if you dormant seeded or plan on spring seeding, use the Step One for Newly Seeded Lawns.

“I want to get started with my new vegetable garden. What can I plant now?”
Fruits, berries, asparagus, horseradish, potatoes, peas, onions, and of course all the cool season crops such as Pak Choy, Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Cabbage, Collards, Kale, Mustard greens, Swiss chard, Spinach, and Lettuce. And do remember – most all of these can be grown in containers as well, so just about anyone can enjoy planting crops of early season plants! Give them a try!