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November 17, 2005
Lawn care
A tree with wet rot should be removed as soon as possible as this fungal disease spreads to other trees, writes Zahrah Nasir
Q: I live in Lahore and have termites in my lawn. Can these termites cause the grass to go brown? Also, what should be done to keep the grass green and healthy throughout the year? Are chemical fertilizers the answer to this?
A: Termites are a difficult problem to eradicate and, sadly, I do not know of any effective organic method of doing so. Termites can cause the grass to go brown as they tunnel all over the place, sometimes just under the surface of the soil, and these tunnels cause the grass roots to dry out and eventually die off.
To maintain a healthy lawn I suggest the following: it should be thoroughly aerated twice a year, autumn and spring are the best times. If the lawn is not too large you can simply stab it all over the place with a full size garden fork, letting the tines of the fork reach about four inches into the soil. This allows air-borne nutrients and water to reach the roots of the grass better.
Next, immediately after aerating, spread a light covering of sweet earth or garden peat over the entire lawn and then thoroughly water this in. Some of this new material will naturally fall into the holes made by aerating but this is a good thing as this also helps to feed your grass.
I do not advocate the use of chemical fertilizers at any time. To maintain a healthy lawn the grass has three main nutrient requirements and these are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, all of which are available in an organic form or, alternatively, you may be able to find a suitable organic lawn food from your local supplier.
Another way of keeping the grass healthy, if it is a small area, is to soak animal manure in a drum full of water for a few days then drain off the liquid and water the lawn with this at monthly intervals around the year. The residue in the drum can be used elsewhere in the garden. The only drawback with the manure water method is that even if you can tolerate the smell, it disperses after a few hours which may not make your neighbours too happy!
Q: I have a small garden but no matter what I do the grass is never green and the roots are
dry. I have put in new soil with fertilizer. This is good for a few days but then the grass becomes dry again. I water it every alternate day. Please suggest what should be done.
A: It sounds as if you should consider replacing your troublesome grass with one that is of a more enduring nature. Why not give some thought to replanting the area with low-growing, ground cover plants such as arabis, asarum, cinquefoil, dicondra micrantha,
hedera, mentha requienii or vinca minor. You did not mention which part of the country you reside in so I cannot be more specific.
Q: I have a problem with a lonely mango tree in my garden. The tree started fruiting when it reached three years of age but now it only blossoms and the blossom turns black and drops before any fruit is set. How can I overcome this problem?
A: I am surprised that your mango tree fruited so quickly as they generally do not start fruiting for at least six years if grown from grated stock or 10 years when grown from seed. It is therefore quite possible, if you are certain of its age, that it fruited far too soon and may not do so again until it is more mature. These things can happen!
Q: I am having problems with my lemon trees. One tree has died and had to be taken out and I think it was suffering from wet rot which you wrote about in a previous article. Now another one is half-dead, but one part is surviving and is giving fruit though the fruit is now of a very small size. I also have five more lemon trees, two in pots and three in the ground. These are all healthy but I am concerned about them catching this disease. What can I do?
A: The damaged, yet still fruiting lemon tree, should be removed as soon as possible as this fungal disease will most certainly spread to all of the other lemon trees in your garden over a period of time.
The reason the suffering tree is only producing small lemons is because it is under tremendous stress from the disease which it has. After removing it, do not, under any circumstances, re-plant another tree in exactly the same spot as fungal spores may very well be present in the soil there. You can, of course, plant a flowering shrub or something else to fill in the gap.
Q: I live in Islamabad and I have seen many houses here where poison ivy is thriving well. I also want to have this creeper for my house but I am concerned about its effect on health. I have read somewhere that it can cause some health problems especially skin-related ones. Is poison ivy really poisonous?
A I think that you have mistakenly identified Virginia creeper as being poison ivy. Poison ivy, botanically known as ‘Rhus Radicans’ is a member of the Sumach family of plants, bushes, trees and creepers. It is well known, particularly in North America and Canada for its gorgeous autumn colouring and this spectacular show of oranges, reds and crimsons, is shared by the Virginia creeper which I have observed climbing up houses in both Rawalpindi and Islamabad areas.
Poison ivy is poisonous and causes a virulent form of dermatitis on contact. Virginia creeper, on the other hand, is perfectly harmless.
Q: I am interested in adding a water feature to my garden in Rawalpindi but have not seen any article, guidance or information on this subject. Could you please help in advising a do-it-yourself approach as I am sure there would be many people interested in such a weekend project.
A: Thank you for this valuable
suggestion. I will put on my thinking cap right away and do an article on this
subject in the very near future.
Send your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com Answers will appear in a future edition of ‘The Review’.
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