June lawn and garden tips.

This is the time of year when your geraniums and petunias can suddenly stop blooming. When you look closely, you’ll see what looks like black pepper on the leaves and you’ll see tiny holes in the geranium flower buds.

The problem is a tiny worm, called a budworm. You can help control budworm with biological insecticides containing BTi, such as Dipel and Thuricide.

These products will control all kinds of worms and caterpillars, including tomato horn worm. It takes care of the worm problem and won’t hurt your crops. If you choose, you can hand pick tomato horn worm. When you see the leaves start to disappear off your tomato plants, start looking for a large green worm. Once you spot them, it’s easy to pick them off by hand.

Early June is a good time to repair bad spots in your lawn. Rake up the area you want to reseed or sod. Spread some compost or peat moss over the area you’re patching. Apply your grass seed evenly, then cover the seed about 1/4" deep with compost or peat moss. Water thoroughly and keep the area moist until the seed germinates.

This is a handy tool to have. You can use it to hand aerate chronic trouble spots in your lawn. Aeration helps break up the soil and gets air down to the roots.

Applying Revive™ now will help your lawn use water more efficiently and stay greener during the upcoming summer months.

If you have dandelions and other weeds in your lawn, now’s the time to apply Fertilome’s Weed-Out Plus. This will feed your lawn and get rid of broadleaf weeds, including dandelions.

This is the time to start fertilizing your flowering annuals with Fertilome water soluble 20-20-20. You should feed container plants, including hanging baskets every 7-10 days. Annuals planted in the ground can go a little longer between feedings. Plan to feed these plants every 14 days. Some other things to watch out for this time of year. You might see grass starting to grow amongst your iris and phlox. You can use Grass B Gon ready-to-use to get rid of the grass without harming your perennials.

Start checking your roses and other ornamental plants for powdery mildew starts to show up. Powdery mildew looks like white, talcum powder on your roses, lilacs, phlox, etc. Powdery mildew can also affect vegetables.

Prune your plants to improve air circulation; avoid watering overhead especially late in the day and spray the affected plants with sulfur. For help with your unique lawn or garden question, stop by our Diagnostic Center. We’ll find the right solution for you.