The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
15 Basic Ways To Landscape Your Homepage
Often bottle-type spray guns are obtainable in inexpensive kits with two or three rerillable bottles of chemicals. Many small kits are sufficient to take care of all spraying needs in the average garden for a year or more. Refills cost little.
Spray nozzles should be regulated or held at the proper angle in order to thoroughly wet the foliage. Do not apply sprays or dusts during unusually hot, cold, wet or windy weather. Spray on a sunny warm morning. Apply dusts in early morning w hen atmosphere is quiet and foliage is moist with dew. Many types of inexpensive dusters are available at your local nurseryman.
New and improved sprays are constantly being introduced to the market. Consult your nurseryman or agricultural advisor for the best spray for specific purposes or problems and carefully follow the manufacturer's recommendations.
Why Climate Is Important
CLIMATE is the greatest single factor in all plant growth. Temperature, rainfall and wind are significant parts of climate, and all affect the suitability of a plant for any particular section of the country.
All plants in their homeland are hardy, but the average garden contains many plants which originally came from a different climate. Some plants are hardy, others merely root hardy, and a few are tender.
Only plants should be used in your garden which are known to be hardy for your particular region. Always try to buy plants raised from cuttings made in your own region or a climatically similar one.
Material propagated in your locality is more likely to have become acclimatized than if the same plants were raised from seed purchased from a warmer region.
This is particularly true of many evergreens. The reverse holds true when plants grown only in colder climates are planted in warmer regions. Such plants do not always die but remain stunted for years.
Some plants despite their known tenderness may often be used if their location is given careful study. Cold air always reaches the lowest part of your ground with the greatest intensity. If you attempt to grow any tender plants give them an elevated position with an overhead ceiling.
Ordinarily, if plants are climatically suited for your region they will go through winter with a minimum of damage. If this cannot be done then they simply are not hardy to your particular climate and attention should be turned to more suitable plants.
With any plants the effects of winter's ravages may be lessened to some extent by mulching. Often alternate thawing and freezing does more harm than actual cold. To lessen this effect mulches are beneficial in reducing the depth to which frost penetrates the ground. Use almost any of the organic-mulch materials, such as leaves, manure, hay, corn stalks, peal moss, straw, or pine needles. Apply when the upper inch or two of soil has frozen and winter has set in.
