Time for a Summer Watering Tune-Up

With summer heat continuing to bare down on lawns and gardens this month, it’s a good time to fine-tune watering practices and double check all irrigation equipment to make sure it’s operating properly.

First, make sure you’re watering deeply and efficiently. After watering, probe the soil with a stiff wire or rod. It will move easily through wet soil and stop when it hits dry. You can also check water penetration by digging around with a shovel. Lawns should be watered to a depth of 6 to 8 inches. Most annuals, perennials and vegetables should be watered at least 12 to 18 inches deep. Water shrubs to a depth 18 to 36 inches, depending on how tall they are. Trees should be watered to a depth of at least 3 to 4 feet. Deep watering leads to deep roots and plants that can better withstand heat and drought.

Next, check your irrigation equipment. If you have an automatic sprinkler system, watch it run. If necessary, adjust spray patterns and fix broken sprinklers. Also check drip lines for clogged emitters.

Repot root-bound container plants. Lastly, refresh mulches, making sure you’ve got a good 2 to 3 inches around trees and shrubs.

Keeping the Summer Garden Beautiful and Bountiful

Summer's here, and the garden should be looking great. But summer heat can wear on plants as much as it can on you. It's time to be vigilant with watering, fertilizing, planting and general maintenance. Protect vegetables from insect pests with Bayer Advanced™ Complete Insect Killer for Gardens Ready-To-Use.

Harvest vegetables like beans, squash and cucumbers regularly. Most will stop producing altogether if over-mature fruit is allowed to stay on the plant. Share the excess with friends and neighbors. Replant bean and corn, even squash, for late-season harvest. Later in the month, plant cool-season crops for fall.

Deadhead (removing spent blooms) to keep new blooms coming. If spring plantings have started to fade, replant quick-blooming annuals like cosmos, zinnias, marigolds and vinca.

For other gardening opportunities in your part of the country, visit What To Do Now in the Interactive Tools section at BayerAdvanced.com.

Controlling Lawn Diseases

Properly identifying and controlling diseases in your lawn can be one of the more challenging aspects of lawn care. Left alone, diseases like brown patch or dollar spot can quickly turn a beautiful lawn into a splotchy mess, or worse. Even trained experts can have trouble identifying a lawn disease. Without correct identification, a disease can be difficult to control.

But if you take a thoughtful approach, know when to ask for a little help, and get familiar with the conditions under which common lawn diseases thrive, you can beat them. Here are the simple steps to control common lawn diseases.

Identify the disease. This seems obvious but it is often not as simple as it sounds. Some lawn diseases, such as rust, are pretty easy to identify. But others look similar and may take a trained eye to properly identify. You can, however, do a little homework and narrow the possibilities.

Almost all lawn diseases are caused by fungi. Each type of fungus thrives under specific conditions, usually a combination of heat, humidity, light and moisture, and may occur only at a specific time of year or in a certain region of the country. Some diseases only attack specific types of grasses. Others thrive when the lawn is not being properly cared for, whether it’s getting too much or too little water or fertilizer, isn’t being mowed at the proper height, or has developed a thick layer of thatch.

If you get to know a little about what different lawn diseases look like and the conditions under which they thrive, you can often identify them or at least narrow the choices. Visit the Disease Identifier and you’ll find helpful tools, including photographs, for identifying many lawn diseases.

Seek assistance. If you still can’t positively identify which disease is infecting your lawn, take a sample of the turf to your local nursery or cooperative extension office. A 1- to 2-foot piece of sod, taken from the edge of the diseased area, is usually best. (Ideally, half the sample should be healthy grass; the other half should show symptoms of the problem.) Write down the type of grass you have, how old it is, how you care for it and the specific symptoms you have seen and when. If necessary, some state cooperative extension offices will send the sample out for lab testing.

Adjust lawn care practices. Once a disease is properly identified, you can often adjust how you care for your lawn and create conditions that are less favorable for the disease and more favorable for healthy growth of your grass. For example, heavy thatch encourages the development of many diseases, including brown patch and dollar spot. Aerating or dethatching helps reduce the problem. Over-fertilizing and improper watering also encourage disease. Care for your lawn properly and many diseases won’t be serious problems.

Overseed with resistant varieties. If a lawn disease becomes a persistent problem, you may want to switch to a different type or variety of grass. Turf breeders have developed many new varieties that resist common diseases. Your cooperative extension office or local nursery can give you specific variety names.

Use a fungicide. Get the upper hand on the most common lawn diseases by using Bayer Advanced™ Fungus Control for Lawns Granules. Bayer Advanced™ Fungus Control for Lawns Granules will cure most diseases and provide up to 2 months of protection against further infection.

Zone in for Fast, Long-lasting Mosquito Control

Controlling mosquitoes takes a multipronged approach, and Bayer Advanced has all the weapons you'll need.

To kill mosquitoes where they hide in lawns and foliage, use Bayer Advanced™ Mosquito Killer Concentrate in ready-to-spray or concentrate. It kills on contact and provides protection that lasts for weeks. It also kills fleas, ticks and 58 other nuisance pests.

To kill flying mosquitoes, use Bayer Advanced™ Mosquito Killer Plus Outdoor Fogger. It kills on contact and lasts for hours ? ideal for treating outdoor areas where you work and play. Plus it kills over 15 other flying and crawling pests including flies, gnats, spiders and ants.

To kill mosquitoes before they emerge, use Bayer Advanced™ Mosquito Preventer Granules which kills mosquito larvae in 24 hours. Just sprinkle it in standing water. Approved for water gardens, birdbaths and fishponds.

More tips on controlling mosquitoes, see this month's feature story at BayerAdvanced.com.