Crabgrass prevention is important in lawn care, and timing is key to ensuring success. Knowing when to apply pre-emergent herbicides and other products can help you prevent crabgrass from taking over your lawn. Understanding the best times for application will also help you save money by avoiding unnecessary treatments.

The time for crabgrass prevention is late April and early May. Dill’s Greenhouse carries the Preen and GreenView lines of crabgrass herbicide and fertilizer. The most important thing to remember about timing for crabgrass prevention is that if you wait too long, you may end up with a new crabgrass season.

Crabgrass is an opportunistic annual weed that will grow in your lawn’s thin and bare spots. The first crabgrass to germinate is going to be the seeds that are laying on a south-facing slope, next to the house or next to a sidewalk where the reflection of the sun has heated up the soil to such a point where the crabgrass is ready to germinate. And then it’s going to continue to germinate, kind of like waves hitting a beach, all the way into the early part of the summer.

Crabgrass can take over your lawn, but a little action controls it. Learn how to get rid of crabgrass and how to prevent crabgrass from returning by asking the knowledgeable staff at Dill’s Greenhouse.

Spring is a great time to reseed your lawn. And most homeowners like to match the grass type that is currently growing.

Lawns and in central Ohio, as well as most of the state, are a combination typically of Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, fine fescue and turf type tall fescue. So it’s usually not just one single type of grass.

The only thing that’s going be a lot different than texture is a fine fescue, which has a very small diameter blade.

Another situation could be that your established lawn has become more shaded because of tree growth over the past 20 to 30 years. Your grass type has maybe shifted more towards the fine rescues that probably were there to begin with.

Grass varieties that we have today are so much better than the ones that were around 30 years ago. One of the things you’ll notice when you put down new grass seed, those newly seeded areas will look dark green, and may even start look better than what your existing lawn looks like.

Plump, juicy berries are now easy to grow in your backyard on bushes that are resistant to most pests and diseases, and can produce for up to 20 years.

How to plant blueberry bushes.

• Select a sunny, sheltered spot.
• Blueberries thrive in soil that is acidic. The soil pH should ideally be between 4 and 5.
• The blueberry is a shallow-rooted plant, so it requires a soil that holds moisture, but also drains well and doesn’t stay wet. Watering needs fill the surface pockets that are minute in size, and the soil needs to hold the nutrients and water.
• Mix organic matter into the soil before you set your blueberry bushes.
• Bushes should be planted as early in the spring as possible. If available, 1- to 3-year-old plants are a good choice.
• Dig holes about 20 inches deep and 18 inches wide (about twice as wide and twice as deep as the roots of the plant).
• Space bushes about 5 feet apart in a row, with at least 8 feet between rows.
• Set the bush in the hole with its roots spread out. Don’t plant the bush any deeper than it grew in the pot.
• Pack the hole tightly with soil.
• Apply fertilizer one month after planting, not at the time of planting. Apply ½ ounce of a 10-10-10 fertilizer in a band around the plant 6 to 12 inches from the crown.

Do not let them go dry in the middle of summer. They just they will not put up with that.

Humans aren’t the only fans of blueberries. Blueberries are a favorite snack of hungry birds, so it’s recommended that you protect blueberry bushes ahead of time with netting or other methods.

Have you ever considered trying window boxes across the front of your house? The soil mixture you use is extremely important in the success of how well your plants will do this season.

Above all, don’t use garden soil. You want something that’s going to hold the moisture, because window boxes drain pretty well. Using a moisture control potting mix would be the ideal choice.

For flower choices, nothing looks better than lots of color and plants that hang over the sides. Consider something like the wave petunias. Add a little bit of vinca vine that will also hang down or sweet potato vine.

Make sure that the window boxes don’t dry out. If they are situated under a big overhang, that’s going to keep them from being watered from the rain. You’ll need to make sure you keep the boxes watered, so they don’t dry out and put the plants in a daily stress.

Window boxes take a little bit more management than the same plants in the ground, but well worth the effort!

Wild onions in your yard. What to do?

Wild onions (Allium canadense) can be found in many gardens and lawns, and wherever they are found, a frustrated gardener is sure to be found nearby. These difficult to control weeds are the bane of many gardens, but with determination and a little hard work, you can get rid of wild onions once and for all.

Wild onion plants are difficult to control for two reasons.

First, because they grow from bulbs and bulblets, which break apart from each other easily, so it is difficult to remove an entire clump without leaving some roots behind.

Second, the thin waxy leaves make it difficult for herbicides to stick to the leaves and, even if it does, the wax makes it difficult for the herbicide to penetrate into the wild onion plant.

Killing wild onions starts with removing as much of the clump of wild onions as possible. Don’t try to pull the clump of wild onions out of the ground. The small bulblets are designed to pull away from the mother plant when pulled, which leaves extra bulbs in the ground that will rapidly regrow. Instead, dig the clump out of the ground with a spade or a trowel. Throw the entire clump away. Do not try to shake excess dirt off back into the hole and do not compost. If you do, this will only respread the wild onion bulblets back into your garden.

Keeping them mowed down or cut off is another way to controlling them. By keeping them under control with mowing, you’re simply discouraging the foliage so they can’t remanufacture the bulb.

And over one or two years they will simply start to go away.

Seed packets are an essential part of gardening and can be used for multiple seasons.

Your seed packets from over the past few seasons may or may not be worth using this season, depending on where you stored them, and the type of seeds they contain.

Seeds are alive, but they don’t live forever. When you buy a packet of seeds, government standards assure you that a minimum percentage of them are alive. You can find the packing date stamped on the packet.

Vegetable Seeds

The best storage: Low temperature and low humidity slow biological and chemical reactions and slow the seeds’ aging. Try sealed canning jars in your freezer.

Sow it or throw it: Seeds differ in how long they remain viable. It’s not worth sowing celery, parsley, or parsnip seeds after they are over a year old. On the other hand, two years can be expected from packets of carrot, onion, and sweet-corn seed. Three years from peas and beans, radishes, and beets. And four or five years from cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, melons, and lettuce.

Flower Seeds 

The shortest-lived are delphinium, aster, candytuft, and phlox. Packets of alyssum, Shasta daisy, calendula, sweet peas, poppies, and marigolds can be reused for five or 10 years.

Give them a test: A yearly germination test is a good way to check whether an old seed packet is worth saving. Each spring, count out 15-20 seeds from each packet to be tested. Spread the seeds between two moist paper towels on a plate. Invert another plate over the first plate to hold in moisture and keep them in a 75-degree place.

After a couple of weeks, peel apart the paper towels and count the number of germinated seeds If very few germinated, head to your garden center for some new seed packets.

Knowing what type of seeds your seed packets contain can help you determine if they are still worth using this season or not. Different types of seeds have different shelf lives and it’s important to understand these differences before planting them in your garden.

Dill’s Greenhouse carries a great selection of heirloom, organic, and hybridized seeds. Don’t waste your time with old seeds. Stop by and ask our knowledgeable staff all of your questions.

We often get this question at Dill’s Greenhouse…

Is there any kind of perennial ground cover that is not too intrusive, that could grow around my plants slowly, that would it look a little nicer, and I could manage?

The answer is yes, “but.” The “but” part is that you’re going to be adding one more plant to the area. However, you can add a uniform cover of that same plant.

You may be putting yourself into a position to have to do some strategic weed killing. Use a little sponge, an oil can, however you can drip the weed killer on.

One perennial to try is ajuga. It’s also called carpet bugle. There is a green form, and there is a beautiful burgundy form. There is also a blended form of burgundy and cream. It grows roughly 2 inches tall. The flower will stick up to about 6 inches. It’s a fairly rambunctious perennial plant and will spread nicely an uniformly, while not really taking over like invasive plants do.