Weekly Gardening Tips
April 5, 2008

• Lighting in the garden can be both functional and artful. Outdoor lights can make walks and steps safer, and decks, patios and backyards more secure. You can also add drama to your yard or garden by highlighting architectural features or specimen plants. Use outdoor solar lighting, fluorescent or low-pressure sodium lights that are more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs.
   
• Bats are great for mosquito control and you can attract them to your yard with a bat box where they can sleep during the day. Put the box up in early spring and check www.batcon.org (Bat Conservation International) for information on the color to paint your box and where to locate it. Inspect your home and seal any openings larger than ½" so bats won't nest in your home. And remember not to touch or handle any wild animal, especially one behaving strangely.
   
• Dormant oils or horticultural oils are successful at controlling leaf-curling aphids, over-wintering mites, insect eggs, caterpillars and some scales. Spray trees and shrubs before bud break and when the temperature is over 40 degrees F. The oil interrupts the insects breathing, causing them to suffocate.
   
• Cut back Russian sage, butterfly bush and blue mist spirea (Caryopteris) when new growth appears at the base of the plant. Ornamental grasses should also be cut back to 6"-12"; it may take a hand saw to cut through old foliage.
   
• Core aerate your lawn to improve water infiltration, reduce soil compaction and control thatch. Water the lawn before aerating if there hasn't been snow or rain and the soil is dry. Leave the cores on the lawn to decompose or rake them up and add them to your compost pile.

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