Drummers Garden Center & Floral

We carry the same high quality Ramy seed (from Mankato) that we have always sold.

It’s Prime Time, Seed New Grass Now

That’s right, the days between mid-August and mid-September are the absolutely perfect time of year to get new grass up and growing from seed. It all has to do with the magic combination of hours of daylight, average temperature, morning dew and soil temperatures. If your lawn looks like it could use a little tune-up with an overseed or if you need to replace small or large patches, now’s the time.

Here’s how to go about it. For new areas, prepare the soil by roughing it up with a rake and removing any rocks and large lumps of soil. Unless your soil is very compact there is no need to dig up the soil or till it. Be aware that the more you stir up the soil, the more weeds you’ll get. If you’re adding top soil, incorporate that with your existing soil with the rake.

Sprinkle the seed atop your prepared soil. If you’re seeding by hand, we like to say put it on at the same rate you’d put salt & pepper on eggs. If you put the seed on too thickly, the new grass will have too much competition from itself. If you’re using a spreader, please consult your spreader booklet or us at the store.

Once the seed is down, go over the area with the back of the rake. This step ensures the grass seed is in firm contact with the soil but not buried. Then water the seed in and keep that seed bed moist for the next 30 days. If all goes well you will have cut your new grass once or twice before you put the mower away for the season.

Now, if you miss this perfect timing window but want to get grass going by next spring, don’t despair. We can also show you how to do a dormant seed, using the same seed, later this fall. Using this method you will have grass coming up next spring long before you could get into the yard to put down new seed.

Other great fall activities to help lawn growth are aeration and fertilization along with hand weeding. A fall application of fertilizer is key to helping the grass plants winter well and green-up sooner in spring. If you only use one application a year, this is the best time.

When you aerate, use the plug-type aerator rather than just poking holes in the lawn.These aerators can be purchased or rented. Just leave the plugs on the lawn surface after they are extracted and they will soon disappear. The graphic below helps illustrate the effectiveness of plug aeration.

Consider more than hostas or plain mulch for brightening shady areas under trees

If you’re reading, at left, about growing grass and feel frustrated about how hard it is to do that under the shade of mature trees, perhaps it’s time to try a different tactic for those areas.

Certainly you’ve seen wonderful collections of hostas planted under the shade of trees but not everyone is a big fan of that look. There are lots of ideas of how you can improve the looks of these areas.

Let’s start with the basics. Please do not add any soil on top of the surface of these areas because it will threaten the health of your trees. Also, keep in mind, you may need to do some watering depending on plant selection because the trees themselves will “steal” most of the water available to the area.

So from there you have a number of choices that can be done alone or in combinations. You can certainly incorporate some early blooming bulbs. That will give you color right away in the spring as or after the snow melts. Lily of the Valley is also a fragrant and good looking bulb that can become a groundcover in shade.

Then you can move on to consider a number of types of ground covering perennials. Most of them flower but some don’t.

Groundcover can be combined with larger perennials like hostas or ferns but those are certainly not the end of perennial choices for shade. Many ferns don’t spread and have great color like this Japanese Painted Fern.

Shrubs are also a consideration. We are happy to help you with these choices because sometimes our signage doesn’t have enough room to indicate they do quite well in shade. So, as always, rely on us to give you accurate information for your particular needs. Yew is an excellent evergreen choice for shade. Otherwise the fall blooming ash leaf spirea is another good choice.

You can imagine these plants in combinations or use them alone for great success in shade.

Still encouraging you to plant and enjoy the garden

Congratulations to many of you who have learned how to grow vegetable crops in late summer and fall. Recently one of the most popular crops to plant in fall is your own fresh garlic. It’s a long wait. Harvest isn’t until the following July but it’s surely worth it!

We featured our garlic seed grower on our facebook page recently and his crop is just delicious.

Of course planting garlic, which must wait until late September at least, isn’t the only thing you can do in the garden now.

Learn more about gardening activities for fall at our upcoming classes in September. We are planning a panel discussion to help you navigate and learn more about how fall garden chores can benefit you next spring. Bulbs is also a topic of discussion at another class.

Don’t forget to plan to enter our annual salsa contest or our vegetable growing contest.

Just a note: The store will be closing starting at 6 p.m. beginning on Monday, Aug. 29.

Click on the schedule at left for a complete listing of our fall activities.

Also, don’t hesitate to let us know if you’d like to see a class or event offered for you or your group.

Color to enjoy now

You can achieve color on your patio, deck or garden now with fall mums and asters plus pansies and snapdragons. These plants are a good investment because they will last well through the cool days and nights of fall. Try some if you haven’t.

Here’s another option to try, Ohio Goldenrod. This little known native has the largest and showiest blooms of any Goldenrod. It’s hardy in zones 3-9. It is distinguished by its compact 3-4′ form; wide, lush green foliage; and flat-topped clusters of vivid yellow flowers. This prairie native prefers moist sunny sites, in wet meadows and along riverbanks, but is tolerant of most soil types.

Just so you know, goldenrod is n ot th e plant agitating your allergies at this time of year. That’s ragweed with is pictured at right.

Or why not try a Weigela as a new shrub in your collection. Although they have heavy bloom in spring, they sporadically rebloom through the season and that color can enhance your late summer landscape. We can offer you Weigela in a wide range of sizes from 2′x2′ to 6′x6′. These shrubs offer attractive, bell-shaped flowers that attract hummingbirds. Although some have green foliage, some Weigela offer bronze foliage, or variegated foliage for further interest.

Discounts are aplenty now

Almost all of our plants are discounted now and we still have a great selection of items to help you start, work on or complete a project.

Please click here to view our specials at our website on annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees.

As always we are available to help you with your selections and plans.

Will it live? What will it look like?

These are the questions going through many minds as we show customers around our lot.

A person experienced with growing a certain plant can feel confident about the outcome of a certain selection and purchase. However, I know some of you feel less at ease when looking at our stock.

I know it takes some imagination to understand how a plant will look at home now and in the future as it grows. We want to assure you we are willing to help you envision this process.

The other thing is that these are young plants, growing in pots on a table or gravel lot. Sometimes you may wonder if they will turn out nicely. That’s why we explain how to use these plants, where they will perform the best and why we offer our warranty that they will survive their first winter.

Here’s an example of a plant that might look a little like an ugly duckling. Go ahead and click on the picture to see it in full. You might be thinking, “Really? You think this will look nice?”

Well, yes, truth be told, this Abies concolor, or White Fir, will grow to be one of the most beautiful and coveted trees in the landscape. If you’ve shopped our Christmas trees, you’ve seen these beauties offered as cut trees. Some of the finest examples I know can be seen on the campus of St. Olaf College in Northfield.

In the garden now

- Keep deadheading your perennials following bloom. The hostas at left would benefit from removal of those lingering flower stalks. This will help the plant focus energy on root growth rather than seed production.

- Feed the hummingbirds. Their southbound migration is about to begin and they need lots of energy for the trip and along the way. Ensure the food is always fresh, changing it as often as every 2 days. Even if you haven’t had a feeder out this year or had been unsuccessful in attracting hummers last spring, you will likely see birds feeding now.

- Stop fertilization of roses, perennials, trees and shrubs but continue with your annuals. Now that the days are getting shorter you don’t want to stimulate growth. This is the time for plants to start hardening off for winter.

- Stop any pruning or shaping of hedges and shrubs also don’t cut limbs off trees. When you prune, that encourages growth in order to heal the cut. At this time of year, any new growth or injury sites may be damaged in the winter.

- If you want to have good looking rose hips this late fall and winter like the ones at left, stop deadheading your roses now so the spent blooms can become colorful hips.

- Get the plants you plan to move indoors ready. Go ahead and do any repotting to keep the mess outdoors. Start now with systemic insect control and spraying with water or insect killers to get any insects off your plants before you move them indoors. It’s surprising what a spray of water will do. Get going with these steps now so that when nighttime temperatures start falling below 60 degrees you can move them inside.

- If you want Mums, Pansies and Sweet William (below) to come back for you in the spring, get them planted soon so they can become well established enough to survive the winter. These plants will also benefit from 4-6″ of marsh hay mulch over their tops when the ground has frozen.