Plus, Grumpys tipof the week to beat the Southern heat.
Question Of The Week
I live in Snyder, Texas, and have six gardenias.
Grumpy Gardener Answer:This is a very common problem that we see with gardenias.Gardeniasare like azaleas and camellias.
They need acid soil.
This means that the soil has to have a pH no higher than around 6.0.
So that means you have alkaline soil.
So if you want togrow gardeniasin Snyder, you have to fix the soil.
Maybe it hasn’t rained for a couple weeks.
Everything is looking crispy.
So when your lawn is miserable like this, why would you want to make it even more miserable?
But a lot of people do.
They go out there and they cut the grass during hot, dry weather.
This is a really bad thing for your lawn.
And some of them even take it to an extreme, they do what we call scalping.
And that means you’re cutting your grass basically down to the dirt.
What happens when you take this too far?
Two things happen immediately when you do this.
I would let the lawn grow taller.
Don’t cut it low.
Thelower that you cut your grassin the summer, the more weeds you’re going to have.
Trust me on this.
About Ask Grumpy
Ask Grumpyis a podcast featuring Steve Bender, also known asSouthern LivingsGrumpy Gardener.
