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A reader’s letter from Myrtle Bank
complains of solid fungal growths in her lawn, which she would like to eradicate.
Toadstools, puffballs and mushrooms of all types thrive in lawns with poor fertility and
often poor drainage. Controlling these fungal growths
can be as simple as applying gypsum to improve the drainage and spraying with a fungicide
to get rid of the current crop. But unless drainage is improved they will return. Another
suggestion is to fertilise your lawn. Fungi will not grow in the presence of a high
nutrient regime, but your lawn will and actually expects to!
The Citrus Black Aphids are multiplying in large numbers at
present and should be controlled by a spray of PestOil™ or an insecticide knockdown,
such as Malathion or Maverick®, if they are in plague proportions. You can of course wash
them with a powerful jet from your hose if they are accessible, since they are not mobile
enough to be able to get back there before marauding ants gobble them up.
You may have noticed last week in my seeds to sow, that I
did not recommend Poppies to be sown just yet, but if you did and wonder why they are not
germinating, it’s because the soil temperatures are still too high. Either put your
poppy seed into the crisper of your fridge for 3 weeks then sow or if you have already
sown, put the container, wrapped in a poly bag into the crisper for 3 weeks, then outside
remove the bag, water and they will germinate rapidly.
You can also do that for all those seed such as, Primula,
Pansy, Antirrhinum, Alyssum, Sweet William, Stocks, Lobelia, Calendula and the annual
Gypsophila, that I mentioned and it will get them all to germinate at the same time.
If your summer vegetables are on their last legs and you
are about to remove them over Easter, dig the soil and leave it rough or broadcast some
Broad Beans over the site, to be dug in as a green manure crop in 10 weeks time. |
