October: Autumnal winds are starting to blow bringing in cooler temps and shorter days.

Monthly Reminders by oscar on Thursday, October 9, 2014

autumn plants Autumnal winds are starting to blow bringing in cooler temps and shorter days. Because the seasons are changing, now is the best time of year to pamper your plants and re-energize your soil. See below for our current October To-Do List:

FEEDING AND FERTILIZING

Now is the best time to fertilize all around your garden. From trees all the way down to ground covers. Feed your evergreen plants, shrubs and especially your fruit trees. They need feeding/fertilizing about four times per year.
There’s just enough time to apply pre-emergent treatments. If you want to apply any organic weed control, time is of the essence. Do not delay.
Test the pH of your soil. Do you know whether your soil is acidic, alkaline or neutral? Allow us to come by and determine your soil’s chemical composition. Different plants require different pH levels, so once you know your soil’s pH, you can plant plants that will thrive in that particular soil. Or, you can also amend the soil to expand the range of plants you can use.

LAWN

It is always a good idea to mow regularly in order to control weeds. You can never go too short.
De-thatching and aerating your lawn would be very helpful for your lawns’ health.
Top dressing your lawn would strengthen the root systems, and it also would be handy for fungal problems. Fungi can be a intensely problematic during this time of year. Please note: In order to control fungal issues, make sure you don’t water your lawn at night.
Some trees such as Crape Myrtles should be treated during this time of year for Powdery Mildew.

PESTS

Mosquitos: natural pest control is an option that we’d love to discuss with you. Ever thought of attracting some of Austin’s famous bats to your home? They sure do love feasting on those nasty little pests. It’s worth considering.
Pay attention to dead or brown spots on your lawn. You could have a grub infestation. Let us come by and assess.
Believe it or not, there is such a thing as a beneficial nematodes Again, let nature’s food chain work for you. Beneficial nematodes feast on and control over 250 different species of insects that spend some part of their lives underground. They are a very efficient and kill most insects before they become adults. This includes many common lawn and garden pests such as grubs, fleas, mole crickets, japanese beetles and weevils, etc.

CLEAN UP AND MAINTENANCE

As fall comes to an end and winter draws near, you may find clumps of leaves in the most problematic places, i.e. your drains, gutters, pools, etc. Call us to clean out and haul off any offending fall foliage. We can even compost it and create mulch for your lawn.
Consider a winter clean-up. Have us come by to manicure your trees. We would remove dead branches which aids in creating balance once your tree starts regrowing again in the spring. We can do the same with your shrubs.

PLANTING

It is now a great time to plant vegetables like beets, broccoli, kale, cabbage, carrots, etc. Fall is also a great time to plant herbs like bronze fennel, Mexican mint marigold, cilantro, parsley, sorrel and dill. Flowers that like to be planted during this time of year are pansies, petunias, Forget-Me-Nots, Indian Blanket and the like.
Don’t forget: the grass in your lawn will soon stop growing and become dormant. One option is to overseed with rye grass. If you decide to overseed, it is a good idea maintain your feeding and fertilization schedule so that your existing grass comes back strong and lush in Spring.
If you’re consider planting any trees, it is strongly recommended that you do so as soon as possible.

ADDITIONAL PROJECTS

If you want to expand the variety of birds around your house, you might want to consider getting some bird feeders. Since Halloween is just around the corner, don’t forget to save those seeds and replant them. Nothing better than harvesting your own pumpkins for the season. Happy Autumn! and the crew

TAGS: Fall, fertilizing, lawn, pests, pH levels
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November Week 2: Pest Prevention

Weekly Garden Guide for November by oscar on Friday, November 8, 2013

Image by http://www.mofga.org/

Botanica’s Weekly Garden Guide for November

Week 2: Pests

Welcome to week two of the November gardening season. If you are still planting and fertilizing this week, that’s ok. Keep up the great work! If you’re done with last weeks project then now is the time to look at controlling those late Fall, early Winter pests.

Right now caterpillars are filling their bellies before their big butterfly debut. Many people have planted butterfly larva friendly plants like milk weed to attract caterpillars, but there are lots of pesky moth larva that could make a mess of your collards, kale, lettuce, corn, beans and tomatoes.

I always recommend trying to be diligent with using only organic and natural treatments for your garden; maintaining a healthy environment for your family and the beneficial little helpers in your garden. We’ll touch more on this particular topic in the coming weeks. For now, let’s focus on a natural remedy to discourage those caterpillars that are chewing on your veggies. What expensive, exotic, natural deterrent am I going mention first? Cardboard! Surround the base of the plants with cardboard. Caterpillars are much too sophisticated to be seen living in a messy, cardboard strewn garden and will promptly pack up and head to your neighbor’s garden instead. Only kidding, I haven’t figured out WHY they leave after the garden has been cardboarded, but it works.

Pluck off the all the big catties that you can see, and for the remaining eggs and larva I recommend a bacillus thuringiensis treatment. This safe, bacterial agent also known as “BT” will make short work of the stragglers. If you want to dispose of the adults you’ve collected, you can use a water and dish soap mixture on them. They hate baths. If your conscious can’t handle that method of “disposal”, you could relocate them about 200 – 250 yards away from your garden, where the birds will do the dirty work for you.

The Texas Agricultural Extension Service has a great guide to common caterpillar pests right HERE.

Be sure to cut back the damaged leaves on your veggies and rake away debris so you have a tidy, healthy garden again.

Thanks again for tuning in! Come back next week for our discussion on irrigation during this dry spell and don’t forget to send in your garden questions and concerns before the third thursday so we can help you out in our Botanica End of the Month Q&A Session. We are looking forward to seeing your progress during this wonderful winter.

TAGS: bug spray, caterpillars, centex, Central Texas, larva, moth, November, pests
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