What would you like to see  Phil The Gardener show you how to do?

A few video tips that are coming to you are:

How to aerate your lawn.
How to change a sprinkler.
How to choose and install a sprinkler nozzle.
How to edge your lawn with a shovel.
How to prune your rosebush.
How to sharpen a mower blade.
Do you have a particular gardening problem you would like to see Phil The Gardener feature?

Leave your idea or problem in the comment box or on this page.

http://philthegardener.com/questions/

Grass is generally very hardy as long as it has enough water to sustain
it thru the blistering August heat. Depending on the soil, a well maintained
lawn will need to be watered every other day.

Don’t water grass between 9:00 am. and 12:00 midnight.
You will be wasting water due to evaporation and when the ground
is hot the water will steam the roots, increasing the chances for
fungus and diseases.

The other thing I see people doing is running their irrigation so
long that it will run down the gutter for 30 minutes to an hour.
Hey people, the concrete won’t grow so why water it?

Fungus is a good thing in the right place. It helps break down the woody fibers in your compost pile.

But when fungus attacks your plants, thats a different story. Fungus can be devastating to your plants. For example if your roses are having trouble with fungus, try an organic tip, use a milk solution to control the fungus.

Milk can control Black spot and Rust on your roses. You can use a 1:1 solution on ornamental garden and houseplants. You will have to experiment with the strength of the solution. It will vary with the problem. A one part milk, nine parts milk sloution will be weak enough that you may need to treat every 3-4 days. A 1:1 solution may last a week. I find that skim milk goes thru the sprayer nozzle better than whole milk. The butter fat in whole milk can plug the nozzle.

Planting vinca after pansies has been a long time problem. The main disease that affects pansies and vinca is Phytophthora parasitica. The fungus enters the plant at the soil line mostly in warm wet conditions.

This can be passed on to vinca thru the soil. The crown turns soft, watery, and greenish-brown killing the whole plant. There is another soilborne fungus Thielaviopsis basicola called Black Root Rot. The fungus is found across the southern part of the United States in a wide variety of temperatures.

Proper application of fungicides may control Pythium or Phytophthora root rot. Root diseases can be minimized by not planting vinca directly after the pansies are finished. Root fungus thrives when the plants have poor drainage, are over watered, and over fertilized. It is better to wait a year and use another plant along with a fungicide to control
root funguses.

An application of fludioxonil, iprodione, PCNB, thiophanate methyl or triflumizole in a drench will help to reduce spread of the disease from pansies to vinca. Always fungicides apply according to the directions
on the label.