Ask An Expert
Need information? Send your question to Cheryl Moore-Gough, Zone 4's Technical Editor for Horticulture. Cheryl is a past Extension Specialist—Horticulture for the State of Montana, and co-authored five books on gardening with her late husband, Dr. Robert Gough.
Send your questions to Cheryl or mail to the address on our contact page. Please include your city and state, as they may have a bearing on Cheryl's answer.
Lawn Grass and Dog Pee
I am thinking about replacing the grass in my yard with something I don't have to mow once a week. I have a dog who uses the yard and figured that was something to take into consideration. What do you recommend?
You did not say how large your lawn area is. If the area will become a kennel area for the dog there is no plant that will survive the urine and trampling. If the area is large, then you could plant some crested wheatgrass that won't have to be mowed quite as often as Kentucky bluegrass/fescue mixes. Creeping junipers make good groundcovers but will not take kindly to foot traffic and a dog running about them. The urine from male dogs will damage bushes, and from female dogs, grass and other groundcovers. Hardscaping the area might be something you should consider, but certain hardscape materials will heat the yard considerably in summer. Good luck.
Rocks in the Garden
My Husband and I are finally putting in a garden this year. As we started to dig, we are hitting a lot of rocks!! My husband is digging away but making slow progress. I am 6 months prego and not as helpful as I would like to be. Should he borrow the neighbors rototiller and forgo the shovel? Are we digging in a bad spot? Any advice would be very welcome because I would love to get the garden going and save my poor hubby from killing himself.
I don’t know how large the rocks are or how many you have, but I know they are always a big problem for gardeners. If they are fairly small a rototiller may be the answer, but you will still have to pick out the rocks. Be sure you get a rear-tine tiller so the weight of the engine lies directly in front of the blades. Rear-tine tillers are easier to handle than front-tine tillers in rocky or hard ground. If the rocks are too many or too large for the tiller and hand-picking then consider raised beds. These are simply made, rest above the poor soil, and are filled with a good mix of soil/peat moss/and other amendments. Raised beds warm faster in spring and allow for earlier planting. So, if the tiller doesn’t do the job, go to the raised beds and be a happy gardener.
Tomatoes by August
I am doing my best to get red tomatoes by early August (under my cold frame), and am wondering if they would pollinate faster if not covered by the cold frame?
You have your work cut out for you if you want ripe tomatoes by early August. For fruit you must have pollination and fertilization first. Tomatoes are able to self-pollinate (no insects required) so long as the plants are exposed to shaking by wind or by mechanical means in order for the pollen to drop onto the stigmas. Tomatoes grown where there is absoutely no plant movement will have poor fruit set. It won’t hurt if you shake the plants a couple time each day for added insurance. You did not state whether your frames are opened or closed. I suspect open, for closed frames this time of year will toast the plants. Assuming they are open there should be no problem with self-pollination. However, temperature may play a part here. Flowering and fruit set in tomato is best at day temperatures between 70°F and 85°F and night temperatures between 60°F and 70°F. At day temperatures above 90°F set will be decreased, and above 105°F will not occur at all. Also, warm nights promote vegetative growth at the expense of fruit growth. Since your plants are in an enclosed space pay particular attention to temperatures and try to keep them cooler. After the fruit have set the optimum temperature for their maturation and coloring is 70°F to 75°F. The bottom line here is that your frames may be too hot in summer for best tomato growth unless you have taken steps to keep them cool. Finally, depending upon cultivar, tomatoes require from 35 to 60 days after set to ripen. That means that with even the very earliest cultivars, in order to have ripe fruit by early August the plants would have had to set fruit by early July at the latest. I wish you good luck with your crop and applaud you for having a garden.
Aspen Suckers, Onions and Rhubarb Bolting, Cherry-Plums
Can I spray the aspen shoots coming up in my driveway or will it kill the aspen tree?
My onions and rhubarb are bolting. Do I pinch off the flower heads? Someone said that rhubarb bolts early when it needs to be fed. Is that true?
My cherry plum tree blooms and blooms, but no fruit. It is not supposed to need a polinator, any ideas why no fruit?
You can spray the aspen suckers in your driveway as long as you use a contact herbicide, which will kill only the tissue it contacts. A systemic herbicide such as glyphosate or 2,4-D is taken into the tree’s vascular system and could damage the mother plant as well as the suckers.
Onions and rhubarb can throw seed stalks this time of year as a response to daylength and prior chilling. Seed set on either of these plants will utilize nutrients that might otherwise be put into bulb and petiole formation. You are correct to pinch off the flowers on onions, but leave the stalk. Cut out the entire flower stalk on rhubarb. Rhubarb bolting has little to do with insufficient fertilizer directly, but crowded plants are more apt to throw seed stalks.
Cherry-plums are a mixed bag of surprises. The true cherry-plums, sometimes called plum-cherries, are hybrids between native plums and Prunus besseyi or between the Japanese plums andP. besseyi. Unfortunately, the term "cherry-plum" is also sometimes applied to the bush cherries and that confuses the issue. The true cherry-plums are very hardy, drought-resistant, bloom late (making spring frosts less of a worry), come into bearing early, hold their fruit well, and ripen them relatively early in the season. They are considered better flavored than the native plums. However, they are generally short-lived (about 10 years), poor pollen producers, self-sterile, and produce small fruit that does not keep well. The hardiest varieties include 'Compass' and 'Opata'. Because they are self-sterile you should plant at least two varieties to provide adequate cross-pollination.
Pear Trees
I highly appreciate your recent column on fruit trees in Zone 4 magazine. I wonder if you might be able to suggest sources for the pear varieties you suggest in the article, as I have not been able to locate them at local nurseries?
My backyard is not large, and my wish is to form a pear arbor with two trees. Doing so is my best hope to fit them in the space I have. As an in-town resident I think I can push the envelope a bit from what is trustworthy in more rural areas.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
It’s always better to purchase trees from a locally owned nursery. While pear varieties can be even more cold hardy than apple varieties, the trees are not usually planted in our area because of the tremendous fire blight problems they encounter. That’s likely why you are having so much trouble finding them for sale locally. First, ask the staff at your local nursery if they can order pear trees for you. If they can’t then place your order with one of the many mail order nurseries offering them for sale. Here are only a few of the many nurseries carrying pear trees.
- St. Lawrence Nurseries: www.sln.potsdam.ny.us
- Stark Bro’s: www.starkbros.com
- Nature Hills Nurseries: www.naturehills.com
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