Anthracnose is a fungal disease that infects the newly emerging foliage.  Because it is a fungal disease, it is more prevalent during periods of moderate to heavy rain.  The lesions that form on the leaves are large dark brown irregularly shaped areas of necrosis (death) that can be mistaken for tar spot.   This fungus can also attack twigs and cause cankers that results in dieback. 

Control of this pathogen is usually unwarrented.  The lesions are usually only an aesthetic issue.  One cultural practice that will reduce the amount of spores travelling around, is to pick up and dispose of any leaves that have fallen to the ground.

Tar spot is another fungal disease that effects Maples.  It too is merely an aesthetic issue and does not require fungicide applications unless you really don’t like the way it looks.

Let’s address designing with perennials.  Perennials only bloom for a limited amount of time.  Two weeks is pretty much the norm. So one of the most important design elements is timing. A successfull garden will have something with color at all times. It can be blooms or leaf color.  One should also consider how the garden will be viewed.  If it is an island bed for example it will be viewed from all angles so the tallest plants should be in the middle with the shortest on the edges. If it is a garden against a fence you will want the height at the back of the bed. Another characteristic to consider is texture.  You will want to include fine, medium and coarse textured plants to give the bed character and depth.  You should also keep in mind  plants that are going to bloom at the same time and make sure that the colors do not clash.  Some perennials can be cut down after they complete their blooming and then re-bloom to extend their color.  Light is another factor that needs to be considered.  Is your garden going to be sunny, shady, or partially shaded?  Then investigate the soil to see if its sandy, clay, or loam.  You will also want to find out if the area is soggy, wet, moist, or dry.  Once you have all of this information, you can start to think about the types of perennials you want in your garden.  Because perennials only bloom for 2-3 weeks, your garden needs to include plants that bloom at all different times of the year.  Starting with the minor bulbs is great because they bloom in early spring, some even before the snow has left the ground. Next will come the early spring blooming perennials like Euphorbia, Pasque Flower and Bleeding heart. After that plants like Poppies, Foam Flower, and Virginia Bluebells. The next phase of color may come from Lupine, Roses, and Coralbells.  Including perennials with colorfull leaves helps to lengthen the color show as well.  After the spring color is done we move into summer with shrub Roses, Campanula, Yarrow, Bee Balm and Hyssop.  Fall has its challenges, but again using perennials with colorfull leaves like Chocolate Joe Pye Weed can help.  Some of the fall blooming species include Sedum Brilliant, Mums, Black Eyed Susan and Purple Coneflower.  If you have a shady spot filling in the gaps with ferns and hostas is always a good idea.  The only drawback to Hosta is that deer love them.  If you have deer that munch on your plants do not use Hosta.

It may sound daunting to the novice to design a perennial garden.  There are several books that may help.  The best ones include a color chart that tells you height, sun preference, water preference, and timing  of each perennial in the book.  One I have used extensively is Taylor’s Guide to Perennials.  Of course you can always hire a professional designer to do it for you.  If you don’t know a lot about plants, that is probabaly the way to go.  Whatever you do, don’t get discouraged.  We all need colorful plants in our lives and there are ways to achieve that.

Another type of damage that happened this past winter was rodent damage.  The snow started falling in Novemeber and lasted until June (just kidding) I think it was finally all gone by April.  With the exception of the above melting, there was a lot of snow for a long time.  The rabbits, voles, mice, and deer ran out of food.  The deer ate plants they don’t usually eat like Holly and upright junipers.  The rabbits chewed off the tips of branches a lot higher up on the plant than they usually can reach.  The voles and moles, made their homes under plants like low growing junipers, and stripped the bark off of the branches which caused the branches to be girdled and die. 

Is there a solution to these problems?  Well mouse bait, fences and repellents are the only things that help, unfortunately they need to be applied before the damage occurs. Next year if you had problems in any of these areas this year, you need to put these physical barriers and poisons in place prior to the start of winter.  It just goes to show you, it’s always something.

Facts about vegetables:  Vegetables like sun.  They will do best if planted in the full sun.  If you are like me and have very little full sun in your garden, you can put them in partial shade, just be aware that they will take longer to mature and you may not get as much produce.  One way to combat this problem is to plant early and keep things covered in cold weather.  Another way to increas production is to build a raised garden so you are not competing with the surrounding trees and shrubs.  Raised gardens are also easier to work with especially if you make them no larger than 4′ wide so you can reach from one side to the other.  One more way to combat a partially shaded garden is to buy plants rather than seed.  These will mature quicker and produce sooner.  Another method for early ripening is to pick plants that have a shorter maturity date.  There are tomatoes for example that will mature in a shorter amount of time.

Preparing the space.  It is best to encorporate compost in the garden especially if your soil is clay or sand.  If you have the perfect silty loam soil you probably wouldn’t need compost but 99.9% of us do not have that kind of soil.  If you do not have your own compost bin (shame on you) you can purchase compost at your local nursery (Reder Landscaping) by the yard.  Rototill the compost into the area and then grade it smooth to make a nice bed for sowing or planting your vegetables.  One way to plant your veggies is to build hummocks for them.  By this I mean your rows will be a little higher than the space in between.  This is especially usefull if you have a wettish soil.  If you have a dry area I would not recommend it.

Planting: plant your seeds or seedlings according to label requirements.  Keep in mind that they will grow and they will do this quickly.  Some veggies take up a large amount of space.  Some veggies need a trellace or something to climb on.  Some veggies need a cage, like tomatoes.  Put the trellaces and cages around the plants as soon as you plant them so you can train the plant on the structure and not struggle to get it on or in there once it has grown 2 feet.  Some people think that you have to plant your veggies in straight rows.  This is not true.  In Europe they plant their veggies among their perennials and it adds another dimension to the perennial garden.  It is not advised to plant them with shrubs or trees as there is too much root competition and shade.

Care: Watering and fertilizing are the two main things you will have to do.  Unless you have a huge garden, you will probably not have to worry about too many bugs.  In Midland since we spray for mosquitoes, a lot of other pests are affected too.  None the less, keep your eye out for bugs and if you see some, get them identified before you spray any chemicals, they may be beneficial insects.  Make sure you read the label on any pesticide you use and make sure it is safe for the veggies you are spraying it on.

What to plant:  This depends on your space, but if you have a small area it is usefull to plant an entire salad.  Lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrot, and maybe some salad burnet to give it a little extra punch.  Leaf lettuce is easier to grow than head lettuce.  Leaf lettuce can be harvested numerous times if you simply cut off what you need and let it re-grow. Remember the bunnies in your garden like these same vegetables so you may need to put a small fence around your garden.

Don’t be afraid to try new varieties, its fun to experiment. Some of the most fun things to try are actually what we call heritage vegetables.  They are old varieties that have been forgotten.  There are seed sources that specialize in this type of plant.   Enjoy going green.

Let’s start the process off by talking about timing.  The earlier you can get out there and do some cleanup the better.  The grass is still dormant so a vigorous raking will not hurt the crown of the plant.  It is also easier to rake at this time of the year because the grass is not growing so its shorter and easier to rake.  The first thing I do is pick up all the big branches that have fallen and then give the grass a good raking.  Raking not only removes debris from the grass, but also removes the dead blades of grass that have died over winter.  Raking also loosens up the soil somewhat and increases air circulation.  The next thing I do is prune down all of the perennials that I may have left up over the winter.  I leave up some of my perennials up because they have winter interest, or the birds like to eat the seeds out of the seed heads. I also mulch my beds with leaves in the fall so after I have cut  all of the perennials down I rake the beds out.  Next I prune any shrubs or trees that need it.  Early spring is good for this because the shrubs and trees are still dormant. Because they are dormant there are no leaves to get in your way and you can see what you are doing.   I don’t prune my spring blooming shrubs like lilacs, spirea, or clethra at this time because it will remove the flower buds and I won’t get a good showing.  After the spring blooming shrubs are done blooming, I do the pruning on those.  This way they will set there buds for the next season and I will have a great show the next year as well.  The last thing I do is empty my pond (its a small one), clean out the muck and debris, and refill it.  Its still too early for my aquatic plants but I get everything ready and then place them in the pond when it warms up.

After all the clean up is done.  I look around for any weeds that may have already cropped up, pull them out, and then apply a pre-emergent weed control to keep new seeds  from germinating.  Pre-emergent herbicides will only kill seeds so you don’t have to worry about your existing plants, but you should always check the label to make sure you are applying it correctly.  Also, you can not use this type of herbicide in an area that you want to plant a vegetable garden unless you are going to use plants.  If you are going to direct seed your vegetables they will be killed by the herbicide.  Once the herbicide is applied you can not disturb the soil or it won’t work.  It acts as a chemical weed barrier.

The last thing I do in my list of spring clean up to do’s is to bring out all of the pots and decorative items that I keep in the garden that can not be out over winter.  I dress my picnic table with a nice table cloth and I am ready for spring, summer and fall barbeques.  Have a good spring.  Next week we will address vegetable gardens.

Fall Fertilization.  If you would like to give your turfgrass a boost for next spring, fall fertilization is the way to go.  Fall fertilization, helps the lawn to recover from any problems it may have suffered in the summer.  It also helps the grass store carbohydrates that will be used next spring to initiate growth.

Fall Seeding.  We are a bit beyond the window for fall seeding, but if you really want to add some seed to the thin areas of your lawn, you can still do it but you will have to hope that this warm weather continues for a while longer.

Broadleaf Weed Control.  Fall is an excellent time to control the broadleaf weeds that may have invaded your lawn this summer.  The reason this is a good time to control them is because the weeds are busy storing carbohhydrates in their root systems and are more susceptible to herbicide application.  Apply the herbicides on a sunny day when there is no chance of rain for 24 hrs. There are many types of broadleaf weed controls available.  Make sure to wear the proper protection for the application and keep your pets indoors or off the lawn until it is dry.  You will not get to see the weeds die, but next spring there will be less of them to notice.

Core Aeration.  Golf courses in Michigan are busy with this activity at this time of the year.  Core Aeration punches little holes in the lawn to allow the intake and exchange of air.  This type of aeration helps to combat soil compaction especially in areas that have a little higher traffic pattern. Soil compaction is bad for trees, shrubs, perennials and turfgrass because it limits the amount of air getting to the roots.  Roots need oxygen and CO2 exchange in order to survive.

Winter will soon be here, unfortunately for us gardeners, so next week we will discuss winterization for your trees, shrubs and perennials.

     The reason that spring and fall are great for planting is that the weather is cool so the plants are not transpiring as much and thus losing moisture at a rapid rate.  There is more moisture through rainfall and other sources in the spring and the fall.  In the spring we have melting snow and spring showers.  In fall we usually have fairly large amounts of rainfall.  Some people actually feel that fall is better than spring because the plants have time to get acclimated to their new surroundings, then they go dormant so they are not using as much moisture or sugars, and then they “sleep” until spring when they have plenty of natural rainfall, and time to root in before the summer heat and drought hit. 

     At Reder Landscaping we still have a nice selection of trees, perennials and shrubs in the nursery.  We are also having a fall sale.  All perennials and shrubs are 30% off and most of the trees are also 30% off.  Come on in and see what is available.  We have at least until Thanksgiving to get the plants into the ground. 

     Keep planting.