Outdoor Yard and Garden Tips
- Cut iris flower stalks down to the crown when they are finished blooming. Leave the foliage alone. If your iris are over-crowded after flowering lift and divide them. Check rhizomes for iris borer.
- Practice IPM (Integrated Pest Management) in your landscape. Do not spray your trees and shrubs preventively. This kills the predators and parasitoids that are helping to keep destructive pests under control.
- Water newly planted trees and shrubs until they become established (for about 2 years), especially in the summer and fall. Water deeply by allowing the water to soak into the soil directly underneath and around the root ball. Check the depth of water penetration into the soil by digging a small hole after watering. It should be moist about 6 inches down. A 2-3 inch layer of mulch is helpful. Keep mulch away from the trunk or stem.
Indoor Plant and Insect Tips
- Monitor houseplants kept indoors for mealybug, spider mites, aphids, whitefly, and scale. If houseplant pests are a problem consider spraying with a labeled horticultural oil or insecticidal soap. If possible, move the plants outside before spraying and when dry, move them back indoors. Discard heavily infested plants.
- Pantry pests, like Indian meal moths, grain beetles, cigarette beetles, and carpet beetles may be found around windows trying to get out of your home. These pests can be swept up or vacuumed. No chemical controls are recommended.
Thanks for these tips. What about daffodils? Is now a good time to dig them up and transplant? Mine seemed crowded and not getting enough sunlight where they’ve been planted. The leaves have browned and died off but I’ve placed markers so I can find them again.
The best time to move spring flowering bulbs is in the fall, but if they are crowded you can go ahead and move them once all the foliage has died down. There is more information about bulb planting and care on our website.
Thanks!
Emerald Ash Borer concern. The County (Montgomery), took off the tops of a large Ash tree in my back yard but only trimmed to a height they set. Like 35 feet or more above the ground. I tried to have them cut lower at least down to my privacy 6′ fence height, but they would not. That was a while ago, 4-6 months? Now that same large tree (splits at the ground into 2 trees sort of), has an infestatoion of what I believe to be Carpenter Ants. There is sawdust material all around the trunk and on ledges of the bark all the way down from the top. That half was never cut properly. It appears to have been broken off and is jagged with exposed wood at the very top. That is where you can see the first signs of the sawdust. Unless it’s coming out of many levels horizontally. From what I’ve read it is a huge colony or colonies of Carpenter Ants. They eat wood and prefer weakened (already diseased?), trees with nearby moisture, that they can live in above water. My community in Olney, Md has seen an unprecedented amount of storms and rain over the past 2 years and an unprecented amount of population expansion.
Will the county or any tree experts or any State or Federal agencies assist homeowners with the costs involved in trying to now stop this pest and prevent them from eating the wood of my fence, my shed, my deck, and my house? This community, Olney Crossing in the Williamsburg Village section of Olney has been dealing with population overgrowth and inadequate roads for years in my opinion. Copied from an internet search under FIsher Investments and ‘Negative Effects of Population Explosion’. See here: Rapid population growth leads to the environmental change. Rapid population growth has swelled the ranks of unemployed men and women at an alarming rate. Due to this, a large number of people are being pushed in ecologically sensitive areas such as hill sides and tropical forests. It leads to the cutting of forests for cultivation leading to several environmental change. Besides all this, the increasing population growth leads to the migration of large number to urban areas with industrialization. This results in polluted air, water, noise and population in big cities and towns.
Thank you.
S Lumpkin Olney, MD 20832
Is there an explosion of borer diseases & infestations Now in Montgomery County, Md? What other counties are effected? Asking government for assistance is useless. Our rver growing population here Has new tax needs to support the also growing government jobs. Some of our yards have acquired streams we did not have 5 years ago. Land has been altered. Pollution is too high (all kinds), the roads very inadequate, I’m afraid to say. Thank you, again. SL
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