August Horticulture Tips	Jan	Feb	March	April	May	June
	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec

Trees

• Heat strees- Trees with brown edges on leaves, leaves curling, yellowing leaves, leaves dropping. Especially common on birch trees. Keep trees watered during dry conditions, deeply soaking trees at least twice monthly.
• Walnut caterpillars- Caterpillars feeding on foliage of walnut tree. Control with Dipel.
• Hackberry nipple gall- bumps on leaves, caused by small insect. Does not harm the tree, no control recommended.
• Fall webworm- Large, ugly webs in tree branches; worms eating the leaves. Will not kill trees, do nothing for large trees. Small trees, remove what you can reach. Remove with rake/broom or prune out. Use insecticides, if necessary, Dipel

Lawn Care

• Grub control- after grubs feeding damage has occurred or grubs are detected, use Dylox to control. August- September
• Maintain lawn through drought conditions
  1. Stop fertilizing, save fertilizer for fall application
  2. Raise mower height to 3.5 inches
  3. Keep mower blades sharp
  4. Water lightly and regularly. During the summer the roots of many cool-season grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue, tend to become shallower. It is important to apply water to the depth of the roots to avoid wasting water. Watering from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. is ideal. To keep grass alive water every 3 weeks for 15 minutes.

Vegetable & Fruits

• Blister beetles- Large grey or striped beetles on vegetable garden plants. Wear gloves to pick off or spray with Malathion to control.
• Blossom end rot- Tomatoes, brown lesion on bottom of fruit. Not a disease, caused by calcium deficiency in the fruits. For control, keep tomatoes evenly watered.
• Cabbage looper/ imported cabbage worm- holes chewed in leaves. Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is used by many gardeners to protect cole crops from chewing caterpillars.
• Squash bugs- large gray bugs feeding on cucurbits. Control with Sevin or Eight when they are small, making sure to cover the undersides of the leaves thoroughly.
• Squash vine borer- Vine crops wilting, including squash, cucumber, etc. Control with Sevin or Eight dust applied weekly to the base of the main vine.
• Spidermites- Tomatoes, leaves yellowing. Check underside of leaves for spider mites, control with Malathion.
• Remove old vegetable plants which have stopped producing to eliminate a shelter for insects and disease organisms.
• Water the garden early in the day so plants can absorb the moisture before the hot sun dries the soil. Early watering also insures that the foliage dries before night. Wet foliage at night increases susceptibility to fungus diseases.
• Many herbs self-sow if the flowers are not removed. Dill produce seeds that fall around the parent plant and come up as volunteers the following spring.
• To reduce the number of pests on your fruit tree for the coming year, pick up and destroy all fallen fruit.

Ornamentals

• Caterpillars feeding on plants, flowers. Control with Dipel or Bacillus thurengiensis
• Check on water needs of hanging baskets daily in the summer. Wind and sun dry them much more quickly than other containers.
• Clean up fallen rose and peony leaves. They can harbor disease and insect pests over the winter if allowed to remain on the ground.

General

• White flies are attracted to yellow, so use yellow sticky boards to reduce their populations.
• Every weed that produces seed means more trouble next year. Control weeds before they go to seed.
• Do not add weeds with mature seed heads to the compost pile. Many weed seeds can remain viable and germinate next year when the compost is used.