With these rains the lawn is beginning to grow and the weeds are not far behind.  Some of the earliest emerging broadleaf weeds have begun to emerge.  The biggest problem with weeds in turfgrass is reduced aesthetic value, although some weeds can out compete turfgrass when management is reduced.  Smooth and large crabgrass, yellow foxtail, and annual bluegrass are the most frequent annual grass weeds in turfgrass.

Why in the name of all that is horticulturally holey do we continue to see mulch piled around tree trunks to stratospheric heights? What is the appeal? And, why can't we stamp out these mulch monstrosities despite years of educational efforts?

Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsute)

 

While temperatures remain cold, and even an occasional snow flake takes flight, there is weed that is giving it is all this spring. That weed is hairy bittercress. While it has been lurking in gardens all winter long, it is flowering its little heart out and setting seeds right now in northwest Ohio.

 

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Driving south on I-71 on Wednesday, I was mesmerized by a deep purple veil creeping across fields like smoke on the water. The purple haze, all in my eyes, made me wanna drive 'til I ran out of highway into the purple sky.

Our slowly developing spring is a real boon to us procrastinators. If you exercise caution by performing a close inspection of what lies beneath, there may still be time to make a non-selective herbicide application to control Poison Hemlock without wiping out preferred plants that have not yet sprung for spring.

Astronomical spring is marked by the vernal equinox. I mark "entomological spring" when overwintered Eastern Tent Caterpillar (ETC) moth eggs hatch. That's why I always collect a few egg masses in late winter and hold them outside (in the shade) so I can monitor for this supernal event. It began happening today at around 12:00 p.m.

Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB) is potentially the most devastating non-native pest to have ever arrived in North America. The beetle kills trees belonging to 12 genera in 9 plant families. This includes all native maples, a preferred host. Successful eradication is essential to avoiding a catastrophic loss of trees on a scale never before seen in the U.S.

The rise of "mud chimneys" produced by Burrowing Crayfish has long been one of my favorite harbingers of spring. I've recently observed several of these mud edifices peaking just above turfgrass in southwest Ohio. While none had yet reached catastrophic lawn mower blade-bending size; spring is definitely in the air.

White Pine Weevil is one of our sneakiest conifer pests found in Ohio. Females spend the winter out of sight cooling their six heels in the duff beneath their pine or spruce targets. As temperatures warm in the spring, they climb their hosts to feed and lay eggs in the terminals. Sap oozing from small holes in the terminals is a calling card of this weevil.

Red twig or yellow twig dogwood! Who knew? When people think of dogwoods, they typically think of flowering dogwood or maybe Chinese dogwood. However, there is a whole world of dogwoods specifically selected for their twig color in the winter. Against the snow as a backdrop, they can be stunning.