Q: My daughter is moving away. Is it feasible to transplant her asparagus plants to my garden now?
-- Charles Lipthrott, Lakemont
A: Before you go to lots of trouble, try to determine what variety they are. If they are 'Mary Washington' or 'Martha Washington', they're not worth moving. You'd be better off looking online for better varieties such as 'Jersey Giant', 'Jersey Male' or 'Purple Passion'. If the asparagus plants are one of the good varieties, dig up the crowns, leaving the ferny stems in place, and immediately replant them. You won't get many spears next spring, but your harvest will be excellent in coming years.
Q: What are the blue/gray berries on cedar trees now?
-- Lily Cantor, email
A: They are the seed cones, which most folks call cedar berries. Each one contains a couple of hard seeds. Birds love the seeds of redcedar and scatter them far and wide. You've probably noticed how many of these trees grow along fence rows in rural parts of the state. Birds deposit the seeds there after a meal.
Q: You mentioned on radio a crape myrtle that would stay short instead of growing into a tree. I'm looking for something that I can keep around 4 feet tall.
-- Helen Scott, email
A: 'Chicasaw', 'Pokomoke' and the Petite series are all dwarf crape myrtles. I've collected links from Georgia and Texas describing dozens of crape myrtle varieties, with their size and flower color, at xrl.us/crapemyrtle.
Q: I have some ants that are congregating at the top of my corn tassels. I've seen that mineral oil may rid me of them; your thoughts?
-- Jeff in Sugar Hill
A: Ants congregate on corn to eat honeydew from aphids and sometimes to attack small corn earworms on the tip of the ear. Mineral oil might kill the earworms, but it probably won't hurt the ants. Instead, spray the ears with spinosad (Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew, etc.) to kill both ants and aphids.
Q: Squash borers decimated my squash plants this year. Can I plant more this year or should I consider it a bust?
-- Kimberly Hardy, email
A: Summer squash take only 50-60 days from planting to harvest, so you have time. I describe a method of protecting squash with lightweight netting at xrl.us/squashnetting.
Q: In the last couple of months, we have noticed footlong ends of limbs on our hardwoods turning brown and falling off. Do you know what is going on?
-- Jerry and Mary Taylor, Meriwether County
A: Remember back in May when you heard the constant shriek of cicadas each day? Once the males and females found each other, the females climbed to the end of hardwood branches, made a slit in the bark and deposited their eggs. The limb tips eventually broke off, and the eggs were positioned near the ground, where they can hatch and burrow into the soil for another 13 years. The damage to trees is generally considered not to be a problem.
Listen to Walter Reeves Saturday mornings on AM 750 and 95.5 FM News-Talk WSB. Visit his website, www.walterreeves.com, or join his Facebook Fan Page at xrl.us/wrfacebook for more garden tips.
