Create your own landscape design
By ROBERT KESSLER Penn State Cooperative Extension Franklin County office

COMING EVENTS

Sept. 22 - 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Preparing Yard for new year, Franklin County Cooperative Extension, Chambersburg

Sept. 29 - 10 a.m., Pavers Workshop - Horticultureal Garden Center, Franklin County Cooperative Extension, Call 263-9226.

Oct. 2 through Nov. 13 - 7 to 9:30 p.m., Principles of Landscape Design Classes, Franklin County Master Gardners, Franklin County Human Service Building, Call 263- 9226 for information.

Oct. 6 - 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., House Plants and Propagation, Franklin County Cooperative Extension, Franklin Farm Lane, Chambersburg.

Oct. 13 - 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fall Bus Trip, Bartram's Fardens and Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, Call 263- 9226 for information.

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DESIGNING YOUR

LANDSCAPE

The Penn State Master Gardeners of Franklin County will hold a series of workshops this fall for homeowners interested in learning more about landscape design and creating your own landscape design. The series is for both the owners of houses with existing landscape and for brand new homes. The goal is to teach you the basics of landscape design and for participants to develop a working plan for the landscape on your property. We will teach you how to select plants that will fit into your landscape and create the look that you want. Much of the course will focus on selecting the right plants. We will also discuss the use of stone and other "hardscape" topics.

The workshop will start on Tuesday, October 2, and will run weekly through November 13, when they will help you review your plan. Topics to be covered will include the Basics of Landscape, The Do's and Don'ts of Landscaping, Use of Water Features and Native Plants, Choosing the Right Shrubs, a field trip to visit a home with a large number of trees and shrubs and how to select the right tree and how to fit them into your landscape.

The eight workshops can be taken all together for a total of $40.00 or you can pick a few classes at $10.00 each. Registration forms are available at the Franklin County Extension office or you may call (717) 263-9226 to register. Most of the classes will be at our office at 181 Franklin Farm Lane in Chambersburg.

WATCH OUT FOR SPIDERS

This is the time of year when we see spiders in our yard. That's not meant to be a bad thing. It is that they have gotten to full size and are feeding a lot on other insects. The dew in the morning clings to their webs so your attention is drawn to them.

It is important to remember that most spiders are harmless to people. They will avoid you more than you will avoid them. Occasionally people do get bitten by spiders because they are threatened in some way by your accidental touching them. As fall starts, many spiders may start to look for places to hunt for food and could end up in your house. To help prevent this, be sure all the seals around your doors are tight, especially basement windows and seal these properly with caulking. Be sure to check the door sweep, which is the rubber seal on the bottom of your entrance doors. If it is damaged or worn, you should correct this problem. Not only will it allow a spider to come into your home, but cold air can enter too, costing you money.

Insecticides are not recommended inside your home for spiders. Most won't kill existing spiders. The best control is to vacuum it up when you see it.

CONTROLWINTER

ANNUALS

If you look closely at areas of your yard and garden, you may start seeing small weeds like chickweed and henbit or downy brome grass starting to grow. These are winter annual weeds, which means they start growing now and they survive through the winter and then next spring they really take off and become a really big problem because of their rapid growth.

The best way to control these weeds is to mechanically remove them with a hoe or rake or use the tool of your choice. The root system is very small now and they are easy to dislodge. Once you do this, they will die and it is unlikely that more seed will germinate, so your spring weed problem will be solved this fall with this cultivation. If you have a vegetable garden and these weeds are showing up in the bare areas, do a light tilling of the surface to kill the weeds.

If you want to add organic matter to your garden, you can wait and then when the leaves start falling you can till chopped up leaves into the bare soils of the garden, which will decompose rapidly in the spring. Do not use large quantities of leaves for this as you can cause some growth problems for your spring vegetables. One to two inches of chopped up leaves will be enough to increase organic matter. The tilling process will get rid of your winter annual weeds.

CONTROLBROADLEAF

WEEDS THIS FALL

The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler. This means that the broadleaf weeds in our lawns will be storing carbohydrates into their roots to use for food over the winter and to start to grow next spring. This downward flow of nutrients makes fall a much better time to control weeds because they take the herbicide with the other nutrients going to the roots.

Broadleaf weed control comes in either a liquid or in granular form. For broadleaf weeds, you should use a product that contains 2, 4-D and dicamba. It can also have other products in the mix too, but these are the most important for most broadleaf weeds. Liquid form can be purchased in a concentrated form, which you mix with water and put in your one and one-half gallon sprayer and spray your weeds. Another option is to purchase a hose end bottle to your water hose and spray the lawn with weed killer. This is a harder method to use because it is hard to know if you got enough on and if you covered the whole area. It also may be more spray than you need unless you have a very weedy lawn. If you only have scattered broadleaf weeds in your yard, your best choice is to buy a quart or a gallon container that has its own sprayer. These are called "ready to use" sprays because no mixing is required and it is easy to store if you have some unused product.

If you have a lot of weeds in your yard, you can also buy a granular product that is often weed killer and fertilizer together. These need to be applied when the foliage is wet because the herbicide needs to be absorbed through the leaves. Apply the material early in the morning when there is dew on the grass.

To get the best results from either the liquid or the granular, you should apply the herbicide two to three days after you mow and you should not mow for three to four days after application so the herbicide can be properly absorbed and translocated into the roots of the plant. Never use these materials if rain is in the forecast in the next 24 hours after you spray. You should see results in a few days after you spray.