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Fall 2010 Newsletter

 
Autumn once again…...time to refresh and renew

The season has cycled around to fall once again. Time just continues to zoom by. Mother Nature has been rather brutal this summer. Temperatures soaring to 99° and above has literally cooked some plants. Others just said “ok I won’t die, but I sure as *#% won’t bloom”. The sun/heat loving plants said “ohhh, bring it on”. This season taught some gardeners that you can’t get by with putting shade loving annuals in the hot sun. As always gardening is a learning experience. We may not always end up with the results we thought we would, but we gained knowledge for the future.

Remember: it’s all good!. Even what we ourselves would deem not a successful garden or pot. Gardening can be challenging, and sometimes mystifying. But always worthwhile and enjoyable if you want it to be.

Pansies & Violas
LOVE THE COLD!

And here we are again, we have come to autumn and the opportunity to have a beautiful fall garden. Pansies and Violas are on the top of the cool/cold loving list of plants. They love the cooler temperatures, and can even go through the winter giving you a few blooms off and on during the warm ups of winter. Not all pansies will do this, but our Sub Zero ones will. The S & G Company offers a guarantee that they will survive the winter. Save your receipt and the tag..the information is on the tag for your guarantee. They will refund you up to $15.00 if they do not survive the winter.

When you are looking at our beautiful array of colors on the pansies...remember ….that the fall crop is limited and if you see a certain variety you like, get it right on the spot, we may not be able to reorder and get more of them.

Fall Decorating & Fun

It’s time to have fun! This is the time of year that you can relax without the stress that other holidays/seasons bring. Let your self go, mums, straw bales, corn stalks, gourds, and the other fun decorating things for fall will brighten the mood, and give you that break you need from too much stress!

Pots filled with pansies, ornamental kale/cabbage, ornamental peppers, marigolds, ornamental maize, sunflowers, dusty miller, millet, dianthus, snapdragons and cyclamen will turn your outdoor living spaces into magically enjoyable getaway spots!

Try to spend as much time as possible outside this fall. Winter will be coming and we will be inside for a long time!

Beginning in August Heartland Nursery transforms into a autumn spectacular. With over 80 varieties of mums, asters, ornamental peppers, dianthus, ornamental cabbage & kale, pansies and violas the greenhouse again overflows with wonderful plants for you to select from. Maybe it’s just me but I have a different ‘feeling’ planting for the fall garden and containers. It is a more relaxed time (probably because my springtime is filled with stress) and it doesn’t seem as difficult or demanding. Time in the garden is different, the days shorten and if you notice even the ‘light’ is somewhat different.

Don’t neglect a little fall clean up in the garden as well. Cut back perennials that have finished blooming, clean out and throw away plants from containers that look bad. Empty the soil from the pots into beds if you can. It is best to start each spring with fresh soil. Move unused pots into the garage or basement. Leaving them out in the weather shortens their life span. The big pots you can not move in should be emptied of soil. The freezing and thawing of soil is what will crack and break a pot. If you purchased the Crescent brand plastic pots from us they can be left out full of soil no problem. The large ones we have out in the front of the building stay out all winter! We even stick small fresh cut Christmas trees into them and they make wonderful Winter containers. Throw in a few greens around the base and a few pine cones and you’re set. You will be amazed at the ‘lift’ you get during the cold winter months when you have a winter pot out there even if it only has some greens in them.

FALL LAWN CARE

This summer has taken a toll on lawns. With all the rains we had lawn fungus ran wild. Then we had baking hot sun. All in all lawns should have some TLC this fall.

Overseeding and Full Lawn Renovation:
Fall overseeding and full lawn seeding should be done in August/very early September. Waiting will usually mean that the grass will not take hold and grow. Quality seed is a must, and buyers need to beware of the ‘bargain’ seed. Sometimes it is actually what is swept up off the floor at the packaging facilities. We have knowledgeable staff to help you select the right seed for your area when you come in, and information sheets available for you on the information rack.

Fall Lawn Soil Conditioning:
Apply Earth Right Super Stuff before you begin your fall fertilizing. Earth Right does a lot of great things to the lawn. Not only does it “soften” it up by breaking up the clay, it also conditions it so that it will enable the grass to utilize the nutrients in the fertilizer. It doesn’t do much good to apply fertilizer if the soil becomes “locked” and the fertilizer just stays in a sort of limbo in the soil. Use Earth Right Super Stuff each spring and each fall.

Another good product for your lawn & gardens and often overlooked or forgotten is Natural Guard Lawn & Garden Soil Activator. It is a product containing Humate. Humate is an organic material found in different parts of the world. It improves the quality of the soil, unlocking soil nutrients, improves soil structure, and promotes decomposition of thatch in your lawn. It looks like soil and is applied easily with your spreader. Be sure to wear some old shorts and shoes, because it sends out a black dust. When I applied mine I was wearing shorts and my legs were totally coated. It rinsed off easily with the hose but it was a shock to look down and see the mess on my legs. It is not a fertilizer but helps the fertilizer you add work better! Remember the healthier your soil is the better lawn or gardens you will have.

Saving plants over the winter…..be careful when bring your favorite plants into the house for winter. They probably need to be repotted..so do it outside where you won’t make such a mess. Use the Heartland Growing Mix for all your repotting, remember you save 10% on it when you use your purple Shopper Card. They also need to have a little preparation before you wind up bringing in a bunch of bugs! All plants coming indoors should be sprayed with Insecticidal Soap at least once. They should also be sprayed with the home made solution of 1 tablespoon Palmolive Original Green dishsoap, with 1 tablespoon white vinegar to 1 pint of water. Spray on and do not rinse off. To prevent insect attacks for 8 weeks at a time use Bonide® Systemic Housepland Insect Control in the soil. Prevention is the key...so much easier to prevent than control once you have the problem. Pick only the plants you know will be happy in the house..you only have so much space in your house and unhappy plants are messy!

Bayer Season Long Weed Control for Lawns


This product will change the way you deal with broadleaf weeds in your lawn. Up until now we have had to wait until they germinated and were actively growing in the lawns and then we had choices of a granular product used with a spreader, a liquid used in the jar with the garden hose, a pump up sprayer, or the RTU products that make life so much easier.

Bayer Season Long Weed Control for Lawns kills current broadleaf weeds, and PREVENTS new broadleaf weeds for up to 6 months! A pre emergent for broadleaf weeds! And 3 of our worst broadleaf weeds germinate and grow in the fall and winter. Dandelions, chickweed, and henbit are such horrible weeds to have in the lawn so this product will revolutionize lawn care. Just think of the time and money you will save by not having to go out and spot spray off and on all summer long for dandelions. I have sprayed this month and will spray again in spring. Each 32 oz bottle covers 5,000 square feet.

Bayer 12 Month Tree & Shrub
PROTECT & FEED


Now! Is the time to prevent heart ache and woe next spring and summer of insect attack and possible tree or shrub death due to borers, thrips, scale and aphids.
I almost lost a very old Lilac this year due to borers. So I have already used, and will yearly apply this product to that Lilac.

If you have honeysuckle, it’s almost a 100% bet you will get aphids next spring….but not if you apply this product this fall. If you have Euonymus and you have not had a problem with scale before, it’s only a matter of time. Scale is no fun trying to get rid of it. Fertilizes as it protects for a full year!

Bayer 12 Month Tree & Shrub
PROTECT & FEED


Now! Is the time to prevent heart ache and woe next spring and summer of insect attack and possible tree or shrub death due to borers, thrips, scale and aphids.
I almost lost a very old Lilac this year due to borers. So I have already used, and will yearly apply this product to that Lilac.

If you have honeysuckle, it’s almost a 100% bet you will get aphids next spring….but not if you apply this product this fall. If you have Euonymus and you have not had a problem with scale before, it’s only a matter of time. Scale is no fun trying to get rid of it. Fertilizes as it protects for a full year!
Easy to use...mix in your watering can or bucket and pour around the base of the plant...1 year of protection!


random
thoughts…...

This season brought many strange happenings. Sudden death of trees and shrubs being one of them. I lost a Holly in about 4 days. I still do not know what happened unless all the moisture this year finally caught up with it. There were no borer holes..but I did have an attack of borers on a Lilac. I have applied Bayer 12 Month Tree & Shrub Protect & Feed.

The time to feed perennials and roses is gone. They are starting to prepare for fall, so new vigorous growth is not wanted at this time. You can go ahead and start cleaning up the garden. Cut back all the perennials that look bad or have finished blooming. Remember that you will NOT mulch them over until the ground FREEZES (which is usually December).

Nutsedge has been growing abundantly this season. If you still have it now, it might be better to get rid of it in the spring when it first emerges. It is harder to eradicate if it has been growing longer than 6 weeks.

Sedgehammer is the best product to use. It takes 2-3 weeks for it to completely work and kill the nutsedge. People often think its not working because they forget they need to be patient.

Planting trees, shrubs and perennials in the fall will give you a full season head start. Roots continue to grow all winter long. For best success, plant as early in the fall as possible. Mix in Heartland’s Best Compost w/humate, and water in with Mushroom Stuff root stimulator.

If you did not do a grub application this summer it’s not too late to prevent grub damage for next year. Use Bayer® Advanced Grub Killer. It is effective for 24 hours, and that’s all that’s need to kill the grubs that are there munching away on your roots. Grubs can do a lot of expensive damage to your lawn, and preventing that is important in your lawn care program.

Rosie says check us out on Facebook. She’s in charge of that. It seems that everyone has a Facebook page.

Be on the lookout in November for the next mailer. Info about Cliff’s Christmas Bough Basket class (Dec 4th & 5th) will be in it. Sign up early...they fill up quickly.

Also info about the next point redemption that will be December 13th thru December 24th. Remember if you don’t use your points then you will lose them.

If you need questions answered this fall, please come in and see us at the info counter, and we will be glad to help you with all your questions. I look forward to seeing you all once again! Until then..
I bid you peace…………………..Sherry


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