Q:Can pine needles be used for mulching tomatoes, peppers and bush beans? Or should I use shredded bark?

Answer: Pine needles are great mulch for vegetables. Of course, pine needles are finer in texture than shredded bark, so they are likely to decompose quicker.

In a vegetable garden that would be good because you could incorporate them into the soil at the end of the season, adding to the organic matter.

This decay can affect the acidity of your soil over time, so every two or three years, have your garden soil tested to make sure the pH isn't getting too low.

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Q:I read with interest your advice on preventing chickweed by using a pre-emergent. I wonder if this will work equally well on violets and clover in my lawn?

 

Answer: I'm afraid not. Chickweed is an annual, so when it dies in the spring, it will never come back. However, all of the seeds it dropped will germinate the following fall. A pre-emergent kills the young seeds as they try to sprout.

Unfortunately, violets and clover are perennials, rather than annuals. Consequently, a pre-emergent will not prevent them.

The best thing I've found for violets and clover is carfentrazone. This is a relatively new herbicide that is found in several products, like Speedzone.

April is still the best time to control violets, so you may want to wait until next spring to attack them. By midsummer, they are too mature for the herbicide to be effective.

Clover can also be treated in the fall, but your timing has to be based on whether you need to overseed your fescue. Just be sure to follow the label carefully.

Having said all that, more and more people are recognizing the benefit to having clover in lawns. As a legume, clover has the ability to meet some of the nitrogen needs for the fescue, reducing your need to fertilize as often. It also provides valuable nectar for bees and other pollinators.

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Q:I know that Leyland Cypress has been overused, and now I have problems. I planted 30 of them five years ago as a screen. I gave them plenty of space so they wouldn't be overcrowded. I have been able to control bagworms by picking them off.

 

Now I have started getting canker borers in some of them. I trim out dead limbs as they appear, but have lost one tree and am afraid I will lose more. Is there anything I can use to save them?

Answer: I'm afraid your symptoms sound like either Seiridium canker or Botryosphaeria canker. Both of these are serious diseases that affect Leyland Cypress.

While there are no good chemical treatments for either, it would help to have the disease diagnosed. Pruning out infected branches is certainly the first step.

However, I would suggest you take an infected branch, one that still has some healthy needles but shows the symptoms you're seeing, to your local Extension office.

If they can't identify the disease, ask them to send your sample to their disease lab at Virginia Tech.

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Q:We just finished harvesting our potatoes and now have a large area in one garden with nothing growing. Can you recommend any fast-growing flowers or vegetables that will produce in late summer or fall that we could plant now?

 

Answer: Many of the spring crops can be planted in late July and early August for fall harvest. Salad greens, English peas, radishes and broccoli are a few to consider. Crops like these can get started in the late summer heat, but they will mature in the cooler weather of September and October.
Richard Nunnally is a freelance writer and speaker as well as host of WCVE's monthly gardening show, "Virginia Home Grown." Questions can be sent to tdgarden@comcast.net or P.O. Box 3690, Chester, VA 23831.