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John Harrison
John Harrison is the Owner/Operator of In the Garden in Pittsburg. For more information or to reach John please call 620-231-4545.
Lawn, Garden & Landscaping
2012-04-20 09:19:27
Prevent plants from dying
A: Last summer was the second hottest summer we’ve had here locally on record I believe. Even worse, we had an unbelievable number of days well over 100 degrees. The number of days over 100 degrees really puts a lot of plants in stress. When a plant goes into stress you may be able to see the damage, for example a lot of yews and arborvitae turned brown on the tops or west side of the plants. This damage was easy to spot and happened while it was still very hot. In some cases you couldn’t tell until recently some trees have not re-leafed out this spring. We really didn’t have a winter and it wasn’t the winter but actually the summer that killed the tree. The stress from the heat weakens the trees and then bugs, viruses, and fungus can more easily attack the tree. You cannot always see the damage when it happens, but when we have extreme weather plants suffer just like people. My advice to gardeners is this, all plants have a weakness; it might not like a dry spot or maybe it needs a sunny spot. There is no prefect plant and when you have weather that is very extreme like too dry, or too wet, really cold, or too hot you are going to loose some plants. Find a tree or shrub you like. Then find out if they do well in our area. After planting it, provide it with some TLC and hope for average or less extreme weather.
 
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