To save your lawn, sow grass seeds soon

Garden Q&A

By Ellen Nibali and Jon Traunfeld | Special to The Baltimore Sun

September 6, 2008

I was hoping my lawn would recover from last summer's drought, but it is almost all weeds. Is there anything I can do now to get ready to plant grass seed next spring?

Don't wait to seed. Early fall is the best time to seed your lawn. Fall seeding gives your new lawn the huge advantage of going through three relatively moist seasons - fall, winter, spring - before it must face a summer. By then, it will have a good root system established and will be able to tolerate drought and high temperatures much better. See our publications, which provide step-by-step instructions on renovating lawns, plus a myriad of other turf topics.

My walnuts trees have tent caterpillar nests. I used to cut out the nests when my trees were small, but now I can't reach them. What should I do?

Those are not tent caterpillars. Tent caterpillars come in spring and make webs in tree crotches. Your trees have fall webworms, which appear primarily from late summer to fall and spin webs at the ends of branches. They are caterpillars of a native moth, and there are 75 species of predators and parasites that can kill them. This keeps their population down naturally. They rarely injure a tree.

Losing a few leaves this time of year won't hurt a tree. If you object to the webworms for aesthetic reasons, try using a long pole to open up the webs and let predators in. The webs will dry and break down over the winter.

Ellen Nibali, a horticulture consultant, works at Maryland Cooperative Extension's Home and Garden Information Center, and Jon Traunfeld is the director of the Home and Garden Information Center. The center offers Maryland residents free gardening information. Call the center's help line at 800-342-2507 or e-mail questions through the Send a Question feature at hgic.umd.edu.

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•Let monarch and swallowtail caterpillars feed on your flowers, dill, fennel, parsley, carrot and Queen Anne's lace, so they can emerge next year as butterflies

•Harvest sunflowers when the flower backs are dry. Cut off 1 foot below the flower head and hang upside down in a cool, dry place

•Have combustion appliances in the home checked regularly for proper operation and venting effectiveness

•Never idle vehicles in a garage that is attached to your house

Maryland Cooperative Extension and

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To save your lawn, sow grass seeds soon

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