When it comes to gardening, a lot of questions come up, including the best way to keep pets away from plants, maintaining your lawn and keeping the dandelions at bay.
Here are some gardening questuions and answers:
What is the best way to keep out cats and chicken form playing on your plants?
Aside from using physical barriers, such as physical wires or fencing, you can plant some deterrent plants, including rosemary, lavender and citronella, Colin Matassa from Robert Plante Greenhouse told CTV Morning Live’s Stefan Keyes.
“Plants that have a bit of a stronger odor, stronger scent, they don’t like it as much,” Matassa said.
He adds that not only those plants do the job, but also they look nice in the backyard.
You can also use something called “Blood Meal,” which is a gray powder you spread on top of the soil, recommends Matassa.
“They don’t like the smell of that either,” he added.
He also recommends putting a layer of mulch in your garden, noting that this would make the soil less attractive for cats and chickens.
“They can’t dig through it much easily,” he said.
Is it too early to overseed an established lawn?
Now is the perfect time to start overseeding your lawn, he says.
“No, it’s not. It’s the perfect time to do it. The temperatures are nice. The ground is warming up,” he said.
Matassa notes that it’s also important to make sure you use a high quality grass seed.
And when it comes to watering your lawn, he wants you to water everyday for two weeks until the seeds germinate and the grass starts to grow.
“After that, you can cut back. If it’s raining, you don’t need to water at all,” he added.
Overseeding is the process of adding grass seed to the lawn without turning the soil.
How do I get rid of dandelions on my yard?
If dandelions keep coming back, you have to manually remove them, Matassa says.
“So, get rid of them. You can use little gardening tools to pull them out manually,” he said.
Another thing you can do, is to use a specific spray to hinder their growth, he recommends.
“You can also use the weed be gone spray to help you get them out,” he added. “(It) targets the dandelions. It won’t kill the grass that’s around it.”
Maintaining a healthy lawn, keeps the dandelion away, he says. And to do so, you can use a lawn fertilizer.
“Because if your lawn is healthy and lush, it’ll out compete the dandelion,” Matassa said.