10 Questions I Get the Most

I tend to hear a lot of the same questions wherever I go. That tells me there a relative few issues on a lot of minds. Here’s the 10 most common:

1.) When should I prune my butterfly bush? (End of winter.)

2.) Why isn’t my hydrangea blooming? (Not old enough, flower buds aren’t cold-hardy, ill-timed pruning, soil nutrition’s out of whack.)

Artillery fungus "dots" on white vinyl railing.

3.) What’s causing those little black dots on the siding? (Artillery fungus spores from the mulch.)

4.) What can I do about boxelder bugs (or lady beetles or stink bugs) getting into the house? (Seal off openings, spray congregating masses outside, vacuum ones that get in.)

5.) Patches of my lawn are dying and pulling up like carpet. What’s going on? (Beetle grubs are eating the roots.)

6.) Greenish-gray scaly things are growing on my tree bark. What are they, and should I spray something? (Probably lichens, and no, they’re harmless.)

7.) The snow just melted and my lawn has surface tunnels all over the place. What caused it and what should I do? (Voles. The damage usually fills in… or scatter some grass seed.)

8.) My neighbor is putting lime on his lawn. Should I be doing that, too? (Not unless your soil is too acidic. Test its pH first.)

9.) How do I get rid of poison ivy? (Cut it, spray it with Roundup, pull it or all of the above.)

10.) What can I plant to make a tall, narrow evergreen screen between me and the neighbor’s? (Hinoki cypress, arborvitae, upright holly, Leyland cypress, upright yews, upright boxwoods, to name a few.)