Tag Archive | plant health care
Return Your Plant Health Care Contract For Discount
Our Plant Health Care and lawn care customers have received their contract renewals for 2020. If you are one of those recipients, I urge you to read it carefully, sign it and send it back. Note the paragraph that describes the early bird discount. If you choose to pay for the season in advance, we […]
What Insects Will We Be Fighting This Season?
Plant Health Care (PHC) professionals are our industry’s doctors. It’s their job to examine plants, diagnose any insect or disease problems and treat the plant in the most environmentally friendly way. This is a pretty tall order, and I thank them for taking on this task. Like doctors who treat humans, PHC professionals have to […]
Be Careful When You Buy Firewood For Winter
A wood-burning stove or fireplace can keep you cozy and warm. But if you aren’t careful where you buy your firewood, that coziness could come at a tremendous cost – the death of your valuable trees. The fastest way to spread tree insects and diseases is by moving firewood from one place to another. It […]
Do You Need To Fertilize This Fall?
The simple answer is yes if you had to fertilize last fall and/or this spring. If you don’t have to fertilize on a regular basis, you probably won’t have to this fall, either. The job of fertilizing is, arguably, one of the most misunderstood aspects of horticulture, and it isn’t helped by those who refer […]
Kill Weeds Before They Go To Seed
Ever notice how certain weeds like dandelions pop up in spring before almost anything else? Nature has equipped these plants with a very simple mechanism for doing that. They produce seeds late in the season, which fall to the ground and lie latent during the winter. They’re all ready to germinate as soon as weather […]
The Importance Of Soil
As if the word soil doesn’t have enough of a negative connotation, our slang term is dirt. What could be more negative? Yet, soil is the supporter of all life. It’s the medium in which plants grow. Animals eat the plants and wind up on our dinner table. And, the circle of life goes on […]
Be On Guard For Ticks, Mosquitoes And Other Pests
Your landscape may be home to insects that don’t attack your plants but do attack you, your family and your guests. Mosquitoes and ticks come to mind because they’ve been in the news lately. Mosquitoes are carriers of numerous diseases, including malaria, West Nile virus and, most recently, the Zika virus. As they suck human […]
Emerald Ash Borer & Other Tree Wreckers
Over the past few years, I’ve written a lot about the emerald ash borer (EAB). Although it sometimes seems as though it’s the only insect devouring our trees, just the opposite is true. The EAB, though voracious, only attacks a single genus of tree – Fraxinus. There are plenty of other insects out there, as […]
Store Pesticides And Fertilizers Properly This Winter
Have you applied pesticides or fertilizer this season? If so, where is the leftover material stored? On the floor of your unheated garage or garden shed? Where are you going to store them for the winter? Same place? Bad idea! Pesticides and fertilizer should be stored, preferably in their original containers, in a cool, dark, […]
Why Fertilize?
Fertilizer companies advertise their product as plant food. Who would want to starve a plant by withholding food? So, people buy the product. According to the late tree biologist, Dr. Alex Shigo, however, plants make their own food so fertilizer is not plant food. Good soil is full of minerals, beneficial fungi and bacteria, and […]
Keeping Our World Green 