Letters to the garden editors

Southern Living, Apr 1999

Starting over: We recently moved into a new house. The lawn out front is sparse and full of weeds. How can we have a healthy, green lawn?

KELLY WALLS

OCEAN SPRINGS, MISSISSIPPI

It probably sounds drastic, but you should consider starting over. To do this, spray the lawn with glyphosate (Roundup) after it greens up. Follow label directions carefully. After the grass and weeds die, rake off the debris and lay St. Augustine, centipede, or hybrid Bermuda grass sod-all good choices for your area of the Coastal South. If sod costs too much, spray and kill the grass. Then rototill the area, rake it smooth, and remove debris. Apply slow-release, starter fertilizer, such as 12-18-10, according to directions on the bag. Sow either centipede or Bermuda grass seed (St. Augustine seed isn't available), and rake again to bury the seed about /4-inch deep. Roll the soil to firm it, cover the soil with straw to prevent erosion, and water thoroughly. You should have a new green lawn within a month.

Gender-ly speaking: Are there such things as male and female dogwood trees? We planted two dogwoods about five years ago. Both are doing fine, but haven't bloomed. Others growing wild in the woods bloom profusely every spring. Why?

TOM VALENTINE

HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS

Just to drive you crazy. Seriously, dogwoods don't have separate sexes, so lack of pollination doesn't affect blooming. The problem may be due to lack of sun. The more sun dogwoods get, the heavier they bloom. Age may also be a factor. Young trees typically put most of their energy into growing leaves and branches, not flowers. Finally, your trees may be unnamed seedlings, rather than superior, named selections, such as Cloud 9, Barton White, and Cherokee Chief. Unnamed seedlings may bloom heavily or not at all. We suggest you give your trees a little more time.

Andromeda malady: My Japanese andromeda growing in a semi-shaded location is putting out lots of new growth. But the older leaves along the lower branches and those on the interior of the shrub are turning brown and dropping. As a result, the plant is getting quite leggy. What should I do?

CATHERINE KOZLOWSKI

FAIRFAX STATION VIRGINIA

It's normal for a broadleaf evergreen like Japanese andromeda (Pieris japonica) to shed some older leaves each year. However, plants growing in shade often "open up" and become leggier than those in sun. Sprinkling some azalea-camellia fertilizer around your shrub this spring should help it bush out. But some other options you might consider are pruning it back to reduce legginess, planting lower-growing evergreens around its base to hide the legginess, or moving your andromeda to a sunnier spot.

Unbearable okra: My okra never bears. When it gets tall enough, the leaves turn brown and fall off finally leaving only stems. What am I doing wrong?

HELEN THOMAS

MENA, ARKANSAS

Two guesses. First, if you grow okra in the same spot every year, you make this normally carefree plant susceptible to soilborne diseases, such as verticillium wilt. This disease begins by drying up the lower leaves and proceeding up the stem. There is no chemical control. The only solution is to plant okra in a different spot each year. Another possibility is you may be planting okra too late in the season. Okra plants normally lose their bottom leaves by late summer and stop bearing. Try planting an early-producing selection this spring, such as Annie Oakley, which bears in only 50 days. Tip of the month: Before planting tiny seeds, spread them on a baking sheet, and press a wet piece of string over them; the seeds will stick. Then stretch out the string, place it in a shallow planting trench in your garden, and cover with soil. Few seeds are wasted, the string eventually decomposes, and the seeds come up in straight rows. SANDY FOSTER

RIVERDALE, GEORGIA