• Overrun by Craneflies? Beneficial Nematodes attack more than 230 kinds of soil dwelling and wood boring pests.

• Put away your wheelbarrow and let Ground Effects apply your soil or mulch using our blower application service.

• Ladybugs will devour up to 50 aphids a day, but they also attack scale, mealy bugs, and caterpillars. As a bonus, they also pollinate flowers.

• Give your lawn a light coating of compost annually. This is called topdressing and will help build healthy turf with active microbes.

• Earthworms eat and burrow 24 hours a day! This aerates the soil, allows for easier root growth, and improves water retention. Keep this in mind when treating your lawn for "bad" bugs. You don't want to get rid of the good ones…

• Spearmint repels ants, whiteflies, and aphids.

• Mix Ground Effects soil amendments with native soils to create rich, balanced, workable soils.

• Thyme and Sage repel cabbage worms.

• Good compost has little or no odor.

• Zap slugs with a solution of 1 part ammonia and 2 parts water in a squirt bottle. Slugs will dissolve quickly.

• Use Ground Effects Garden Compost to improve garden soils, soil for new lawns, and raised beds for flowers.

• Mulch keeps soil moisture from evaporating and also smothers weeds that compete with the plants.

• Compost encourages earthworms and other beneficial organisms whose activities help plants grow strong and healthy. It provides nutrients and improves the soil.

• Wet clay soils drain better and sandy soils hold more moisture if amended with compost.

• Mulching your flower and vegetable beds will drastically reduce the amount of time spent weeding, watering, and fighting pests.

• Plants in a rock garden are generally more exposed than plants in a level bed and may need more protection in winter. It is recommended that mulch be applied before the first freeze.

• Deer remedies tend to work best for someone else. If a deer is hungry enough, they’ll eat most anything – even deer-proof plants.

• Deer love hostas, daylilies, and yews.

• Install soaker hose and then cover with mulch to prevent moisture from evaporating and conserve water usage.

• Slug bait attracts slugs, so it is not necessary to spread over a large area. Put the bait near where there is slug activity and they will find it. If you have pets, make sure to use the product that is safe around them.

• Don’t cut the foliage off of spring flowering bulbs. The leaves provide the bulb with food needed to keep it healthy and blooming beautifully the following year.

• To get single stemmed roses, remove all but the terminal or main bud on each stem when they are very small. The main bud will then develop into a large flower.

• Plants that are mulched with organic materials require less frequent waterings.

• If lawns are becoming thin and sickly, consider overseeding with a mixture of perennial ryegrass and fine fescue.

• Prune and shape or thin spring-blooming shrubs and trees after blossoms fade.

• Control rose diseases such as black spot and powdery mildew by removing infected leaves. Prune ornamentals for air circulation and to help prevent fungus diseases.

• Cut and remove weeds near the garden to remove sources of plant virus diseases.

• Prepare raised beds in areas where cold soil and poor drainage are a continuing problem. Add generous amounts of organic material.

• Place compost or well-decomposed manure around perennial vegetable plants.

• Check lawns for presence of crane fly larvae. Treat with beneficial nematodes or approved pesticides only if you count 25 or more larvae per square foot.

• Plant chrysanthemums for fall color.

• Control aphids with insecticidal soap, a hard spray of water, or hand removal; by promoting natural predators; or by using approved insecticides labeled for problem plant.

• Tiny holes in foliage and shiny, black beetles on tomato, beets, radishes, and potato indicate flea beetle attack. Spray with Sevin or use nematodes for larval stage.

• When danger of frost has passed, remove floating row covers, clean and store for next year.

• Lawn mowing: set blade at 1.5 to 2.5 inches for bluegrasses, fine fescues, or ryegrasses.

• Remove seed pods after blooms have dropped from rhododendrons, azaleas.

• Prune lilacs, forsythia, rhododendrons, and azaleas after blooming.

• Fertilize garden one month after plants emerge.

• Pick ripe strawberries regularly to avoid fruit-rotting diseases.

• Thin apples, pears, and peaches when fruit is as big around as a nickel.

• Birch trees dripping means aphids need to be controlled.

• Make sure raised beds receive enough water for plants to stay free of drought stress.

• Early morning is the best time to water vegetable and flower gardens. Water deeply and infrequently.

• Hanging baskets of flowers or vegetable plantings need careful attention to watering and feeding during extended periods of hot weather.

• Midsummer plantings of beets, bush beans, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, kale, and peas will provide fall and winter crops.

• Cover blueberry bushes with netting to keep birds from eating all the crop.

• Stake tomatoes, watch for blight (prune for air circulation, pick off affected leaves, treat with approved fungicide).

• Spray for root weevil adults on rhododendrons showing fresh evidence of feeding (notching).

• Never use Sevin during bloom period or in the presence of bees.

• Mound soil up around base of potatoes, gather and eat a few "new" potatoes from each hill.

• Dig spring bulbs when tops have died down; divide and store or replant.

• Lawns need at least 1 inch of water per week during hot summer months.

• Stake tall-growing flowering plants such as delphinium, hollyhocks, and lupine.

• Aerate lawns for more effective water and fertilizer usage.

• Plant winter cover crops in vacant space around the vegetable garden; plant winter kale, brussels sprouts, turnips, parsnips, parsley, and Chinese cabbage.

• Use mulch to protect ornamentals and garden plants from hot weather damage.

• Mid-August to early September, fertilize lawn for last time in the growing season.

• In September, apply parasitic nematodes to soil beneath rhododendrons and azaleas affected by root weevils.

• Plant garden cover crops as garden is harvested. Spread manure or compost over unplanted garden areas.

• In late fall, plant daffodils, tulips, and crocus for spring bloom. Work calcium and phosphorus into the soil below the bulbs.

• Use stakes to support tall flowers and to keep them from blowing over in high winds.

• Harvest potatoes when the tops die down. Store them in a dark location.