Are your Wellies wet yet?

My goodness, my wellies have been soaked through lately. If you're wondering, wellies are a line of decorative waterproof boots. But as much as my feet kept getting wet, imagine your poor plants.

I am seeing so much wilting of plants, perennials especially, that is simply due to the excessive amount of rain. It does allow you to see low parts in your landscapes that can be trouble spots. We also early onset of some fungal diseases, such as powdery mildew.

But on the bright side, The growing season has been a slow pace and the early spring flower colors have been vivid and long lived. Half of May has been cool and cloudy and half of it sunny.

Maybe today will be the start another stretch of dry, warm weather. But don't give up hope if it rains a bit more. You've got your wellies to keep your toes dry.

What is that white stuff on my lawn????

As the days warm and the grass begins to grow, many of you are finding white patches of 'stuff' on you lawn. It typically is Grey Snow Mold.

Snow mold appears as roughly circular bleached patches up to 60 cm in diameter. Soon after the snow melts, the infected grass may be matted and surrounded by a white to gray halo of fluffy fungal growth.

Control:
Avoid late fall applications of fertilizer that would stimulate succulent growth. Such growth is very susceptible to infection.

Where snow molds have caused damage, rake the matted grass in order to encourage new spring growth. Re-seed areas where these diseases have been a problem.
Applying a good quality fertilizer, like Van Putte’s 15+ will encourage new growth to help the area, and fill in any bare spots.