I know some of you out there are having squash and zucchini problems this year and you aren’t alone. A week ago, I noticed my first and most prolific zucchini plant starting to yellow and wilt. I checked the stem to see if there were any squash borers and sure enough there were a couple a cracks in the stem and some saw dust like stem bits hanging out beside the cracks. Hoping to save the plant I stuck a sharp wire into the holes hoping to kill the borers and covered it with soil (like the U.K. entomologists say). Saturday the plant was just about gone, so I pulled it up, dissected the stem and found 7 one-inch long borers about as big around as a pencil munching away! I have to admit I took great pleasure avenging my beloved zucchini plants death. Continue reading
Summertime Fescue Management
Tall Fescue is the most predominant species selected for home lawns in Kentucky and has many great characteristics such as drought tolerance, good color most of the year, and low input requirements. When compared to other species, tall fescue is the best choice for most home lawns. Continue reading
Caring for your Trees & Shrubs This Summer
Be sure to keep trees and shrubs mulched and watered through the summer months. Organic mulches are better than gravel or rubber mulches, since the organic types encourage beneficial micro-organisms in the root zone, and they don’t heat up as much. If you’ve had problems with shotgun/artillery fungus, try using pine bark mulch (i.e., nuggets) or cypress mulch, rather than finely-ground hardwood mulches. Mulch should be 2-3” deep (more would cut off oxygen to the roots), applied out as far as possible, since the lawn grass is an enemy to the tree, competing for the same water and nutrients. Never let the mulch touch the trunk of the tree, or it can cause trunk decay and vole damage to the bark. Continue reading
Growing Great Cut Flowers
A fresh cut bouquet of flowers can brighten any room and elicit happiness for any who see it. But as wonderful as these arrangements are, they are even more rewarding when you grow your own! While this may seem like a daunting task to those without much of a green thumb, there are plenty of flowers which grow well in our climate and can be very forgiving to new growers. Some of my personal favorites are zinnias, cosmos, and celosia (also known as cock’s comb). These three varieties are available in endless amounts of colors and zinnias and cosmos are known to bloom all summer long. Continue reading
Controlling Tomato Diseases
Nothing can ruin a mouthwatering tomato more than reaching for one on the vine only to find an ugly, flattened spot on it. If the ugly spot is located on the fruit opposite the stem end, it is likely blossom end rot, a disease caused by a lack of calcium that commonly occurs in tomatoes but can also affect eggplant, peppers and many cucurbits. Continue reading
Peonies a Springtime Favorite
Peonies are one of those spring time perennial flowers that are an old time favorite. These flowers are often fragrant, make for great cut flowers, and come back year after year. They come in many colors including cream, coral, crimson, pink, purple, rose, scarlet, black, white, and yellow. Peonies generally grow two to four feet in height, thriving in full sun and well-drained soil. Their sumptuous blooms will be coming to us shortly in the months of May and June. Continue reading
Controlling Tomato Diseases
Tomatoes are the one vegetable—or fruit, botanically speaking—that most of us look forward to when we plant our gardens in the spring, however; this year more than most it seems diseases are lurking around every corner threatening to destroy our harvest. There are dozens of diseases that can infect tomatoes, however, it is usually a handful that cause major problems. Continue reading
Seed Saving
In the last Seed Saver article we gave a brief introduction to some of the basic concepts of seed saving. In this edition we will continue our discussion with more information on harvesting and storing seeds that you are saving. Continue reading
Should I Fertilize the Lawn with Nitrogen?
At the first sign of green grass in the spring, it is tempting to dust off the fertilizer spreader to apply nitrogen to the lawn. If you applied nitrogen late last fall or winter, there’s no need to apply nitrogen this spring because the lawn already should be starting to green up. Continue reading
Winter Injury to Trees & Shrubs
Late fall arrived with snow and lower than normal temperatures. This was followed by warmer than average temperatures in early winter. Late winter brought the coldest temperatures in recent years. These fluctuating temperatures made it difficult for plants to acclimate. Continue reading
Kentucky Hort News 
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