Battle painful weeds and plan your garden

April showers bring May flowers, but what do May flowers bring? For the extension office, May brings lots of gardening and lawn questions.

The one question that has been the most common the past few weeks is control of spurweed or burweed. Spurweed is a low-growing winter annual. Spurweed germinates in the fall and grows throughout the winter. With the arrival of warmer temperatures in the spring, growth is accelerated and the spiny burs are produced that can cause injury to humans. There is nothing like walking in the yard barefoot on a warm spring day and stepping on a spurweed. If you have a centipede, St. Augustine or zoysia lawn, the best time to control spurweed is during the first of October with Atrazine. Putting down a pre-emergent application of Atrazine will prevent the spurweed from emerging. Atrazine can also be used as a postemergent on centipede and St. Augustine. If you have Bermuda grass you will need to apply a postemergent application of bentazon or a 2-4, D. A postemergent application should be applied after the weed has emerged in the fall.

There have been many questions to our office the past few weeks about vegetable gardening. Good gardening begins with a plan. When you are making a plan think about the location of the garden or raised beds. Vegetables need full sun, well-drained soil and about 1-2 inches of water a week. A plan will also help you with crop rotation, which in return will help you with disease management. Vegetables of the same family should not be planted in the same spot year after year, but rotated throughout the garden. Think about the variety that you want to plant. Is it a hybrid or heirloom? Hybrids have breed characteristics such as disease resistance, while heirlooms have unique colors and flavors. Do you want a few to eat throughout the summer or do you want to can? Determinate vegetables produce most of their fruit at one time, which makes them good for canning, while indeterminate varieties will produce throughout the season. Throughout the season you will need to scout and be observant of your plants. Look for insects, insect damage and signs of disease. The best management plan for a pest starts with correct identification of the pest. Your local extension can help identify the pest and develop control strategies. As stated before, vegetables need 1-2 inches of water per week. It is best to use a soaker hose or drip irrigation. While overhead sprinklers are convenient, they wet the foliage and can increase your chances of disease. If you are watering with a hose, direct you watering to the base of the plant. Fertilizer for vegetables should be tilled in before planting and then added again when the plants begin setting fruit. I hope these tips will help to make your vegetable garden a success. For more information check out UGA publications on vegetable gardening at www.extension.uga.edu/publications/ or contact your local extension office.

This story was originally published May 22, 2016 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Battle painful weeds and plan your garden."