Q: My crape myrtles have flowered and are dropping seeds. Can these be gathered and planted?

Rick Wood, email

A: You won't get a high percentage germination but since the seed are so numerous you can plant a hundred and be happy with the dozen that result. Collect the seed pods from branch tips and place in a paper bag.

Keep dry and shake occasionally. Most of the seed will fall to the bottom of the bag. Plant them in a sunny bed next spring when soil temperatures are above 70 degrees, usually in late April. You'll get a few sprouts by July. Fertilize lightly but don't move them until the following spring, when they have stronger root systems.

Q: I've started mowing the hybrid bermudagrass of an elderly friend. It's been mowed tall with a riding mower. In her garage I found a McLain reel mower, which I repaired, but the grass is too thick to cut with it. How do I get it down short again?

Al Villarreal, email

A: You have to train the grass to grow lower. Just as you'd train a dog to sit and roll over, grass can be trained to behave in a civilized manner. Riding mowers can't be adjusted to mow as low as hybrid bermudagrass prefers. The result is a lot of hard-to-cut stems that are two inches above the soil. Get a rotary mower and begin reducing your cutting height by one notch each week. At the lowest rotary mower setting you'll likely be able to start mowing with the reel mower at its highest setting. You're aiming for a mowing height of 1 1/2 inches, which is the ideal height for hybrid bermudagrass in most situations.

Q: This is our first time planting corn. We have gotten a lot of corn but were wondering will the corn stalks produce more corn or is that it?

Can we plant more?

Michele Sarti, Morgan County

A: Once the ears have been harvested, no more will appear. When I was a kid, the end of corn harvesting meant it was time to chop the stalks down to feed the cows. You can plant snap beans, Irish potato, cucumber and squash now and get a good harvest by late fall. Corn takes 80 - 100 days to mature so there is not enough time to plant it and get some ears to eat. I've collected several good University of Georgia gardening publications at http://xrl.us/GARDENPUBS.

Q: What causes green circles of grass that grow higher and darker than

the rest of my meadow? They appeared very quickly, just after I cut the area last week. This is a mystery to us.

Gwen Gazaway, Coweta County

A: You are seeing fairy rings. They're not gathering places for magical beings, just areas where decomposing fungi have been fast at work. As they eat the grass clippings where you mowed, nitrogen fertilizer is released, causing the lush grass. Oftentimes mushrooms will appear after a rain. Your fairy rings are classified as Type 2, having green grass but no ring of dead grass nearby. This is good news, because a ring of dead grass caused by fairy ring fungi (Type 1) is difficult to treat.

When seen in lawns, a light application of fertilizer to the whole area will mask the green rings. In your case, you can leave the rings alone and let nature take its course.

Listen to Walter Reeves Saturday mornings on WSB-AM (750) from 6 to 10. Call 404-872-0750 or e-mail georgiagardener@yahoo.com to ask questions. Tune in to Walter on "Gardening in Georgia" at 7 p.m. Thursdays and 12:30 and 6:30 p.m. Saturdays through October on GPB.