NEIL SPERRYGardener's Mailbag

Dear Neil: I have two yaupon hollies that are a couple of years old. One is deep green and the other is yellowishgreen. Does color mean anything other than lack of something? I’ve attached a photo showing both plants.

A: The plant with the yellowish-green leaves has apparently struggled just to get started. It’s been in the ground long enough to benefit now from application of an all-nitrogen fertilizer just as you would give your turfgrass, as well as an ample and ongoing supply of water from now until fall. You might even try one application of a high-nitrogen, water-soluble plant food for even quicker results.

ANNUAL BLUEGRASS

Dear Neil: I have this really fine “winter” grass that stays less than 5 inches tall. It has dozens of little seedheads. I’ve been trying to pull it up, but there is so much of it. What is it, and how can I deal with it?

A: You have annual bluegrass, or Poa annua. It’s come up here a few weeks ago, but so many have asked about I decided to bring it back. It’s a cool-season annual weed, which means the only thing you can do is to apply a preemergent herbicide before it starts to grow. Timing for that is the last week of August through the first week of September. Apply Dimension, Halts or Balan granules following by a general watering at that time to prevent germination of the seeds. There is no way to eliminate the plants once they start growing in early fall. Just wait it out now. It will soon die in the heat of late April and May.

TOO SHADY FOR TURF

Dear Neil: I have a 100-year-old historic house with several trees around it. I’ve been unable to get grass to grow. Some folks say there is a fungus raging. Others tell me it’s too shady and that I need to plant a groundcover. Still others tell me I should till up the area and bring in new soil — that it will grow back. What can I do that won’t break the bank?

A: Without a photo I can’t be sure, but I would doubt that it is caused by a fungus. I get this question many times each week (and have for decades), and it’s almost always due to lack of sunlight. St. Augustine is our most shadetolerant turfgrass, but even it requires five or six hours of direct sunlight daily to hold its own. I have a great deal of shade at our house due to large pecan trees, and I’ve replaced all of our turf with mondograss (monkeygrass). I bought the first 2,000 small pots of it, but since that first year I’ve propagated my own transplants. We now have a quarter-acre. I like it because I can blow leaves out of it easily (no runners to catch the fallen leaves). As for tilling and adding soil, you don’t want to do that for fear that you would damage the root system.

Have a question you’d like Neil to consider? Mail it to him in care of this newspaper or email him at mailbag@sperrygardens.com. Photos submitted with letters must not come from previously published material and may be used for publication. Neil regrets that he cannot reply to questions individually.