Q: I have a front yard flower bed. Can I successfully plant petunias by broadcasting the seed there? When is the best time to do it? — Gary Taylor, email
A: Petunias certainly can be grown from seed, but it's usually done indoors or in a greenhouse. If petunia seed are planted in the spring, when the ground is finally warm, it takes several weeks to get flowers, possibly mid-June. By contrast, you can buy flowering petunia plants at a nursery in late April. For a front yard bed, I'd buy the plants.
Q: Our zoysia lawn has a low spot where rain runoff pools. Can I add a couple inches of sand to absorb all that moisture? — Heike Romig, email
A: Sand doesn't absorb moisture, it only fills the low spot. If you use pure sand, zoysia grass will have a hard time growing there because roots don't grow well in sand. It also will become too dry in summer. Fill the hole with a 1:1 mix of gritty sand and planting soil and apply sod there in May.
Q: I understand that cross-pollination is not of concern to the current plants, but the seeds are affected: If you replant those seeds next year, then you'll have Franken-veggies. But what about cross-pollination between varieties of the same plant? — Katie Cope, Bryson City, N.C.
A: It's the same result in both situations. Different varieties of the same vegetable do cross-pollinate and do affect the genes in the seed, leading to unpredictable results from those seeds the next year. Seed producers raise the same variety of a vegetable in a controlled plot, so the seeds you buy are genetically pure and predictable.
Q: I have two blueberry bushes. The last several years, the fruit has been too bitter to eat. How can I sweeten them up? — Tim Allison, Marietta
A: Here are three tips:
1. Make sure they are in full sun all day. Blueberries use light to make sugar, so the less light, the less sweet the berries will be.
2. Don’t fertilize heavily. Use a slow-release organic fertilizer like Milorganite, Holly-Tone or E. B. Stone. Fast-release fertilizers like 10-10-10 push the plant to produce more fruit than it can ripen successfully.
3. Keep birds off. They recognize ripe fruit better than you and they start “picking” each day earlier than you. Don’t drape netting onto the bush. Construct a square scaffold from PVC plumbing pipe to keep the fruit and twigs away from the netting. Make sure the netting goes down to the ground on all sides. Check the netting each day to be sure no birds are caught. A berry is ripe when it falls into your hand when you touch it.
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