Question: We have beautiful Weeping English Yews in front of our house. They have done fine for years. Suddenly they have turned brown in large patches at the tips. This happened right after the recent extremely hot spell when the temperature went up to 100 degrees; however we have been that hot before and the Yews haven't turned brown before. The only thing that I can think of is that we are having our house painted and maybe the painter did something. What kind of remedy do you recommend?

Answer: I suspect the house painting caused the problem. The painting person probably laid something on top of the yews in the heat of the sun. It could have been a cloth drop cloth or even the shutters. I doubt it was a plastic drop cloth because that would have done more damage than you describe. A plastic sheet probably would have killed the yews totally. I know of one situation where a home owner left plastic shutters on top of evergreens for only a half hour in the late afternoon on a hot day and actually scorched the evergreens. You could actually see the outline of each shutter.

Just prune away the brown, dead growth and the yews should still send out some new growth to cover the damage yet this year.

Question: The Carroll Gardens Lawn Care Program recommends fall seeding earlier than other lawn care programs I have seen. Why is this?

1. In the shade we prefer for the grass to be well established before the leaves fall and raking begins.
2. Black Beauty has many advantages over other tall turf fescues. However, it has one drawback; it is slow to establish once the soil cools.
3. Most importantly, if the lawn is not well established by the spring, weed killers and crab grass preventers can damage or kill the new grass seedlings.

Question:  I have a plant that grew in a starter pot, as it turned to be a moon flower or plant. I would like to know more about this plant. After it flowers, the blossom falls off and a seed pod forms. This pod has spines all over it. I live in New Hampshire and would like some info on this plant. When to harvest the seed pods?

Answer:  I presume your Moonflower has white blooms and is more like a shrub than a vine. If so, it is a member of the Nightshade family and the plant's real name is Datura. All parts of the plant are very poisonous. Handle only with gloves and be sure to keep the seeds away from children. In New Hampshire, your moonflower will almost surely perish in the winter, but the root can be lifted in the fall, stored in a cool, frost-free place, placed in a bushel basket and covered in barely moist peat moss. Replant in the spring after the danger of frost. The seeds can be harvested and removed from the pods once the pods turn brown. In New Hampshire start them indoors in late winter. I suspect, it is too cool for Moonflower to flower prolifically from seeds planted directly outdoors in spring. Datura does best in full sun and well-drained soil.

Answer: Where I live we have only an occasional deer therefore I don't have a lot of 'at home' experience. In our store, customers asked us to stock a product called Deer Scram. We have only had it for a few weeks; but initial reports are very good and folks are coming back for more. They like it because it seems to work, because it is granular and therefore easy to apply, because it doesn't have an offensive odor, because it is 100% natural organic and because it has nitrogen-rich fertility value - in many cases eliminating the need for additional fertilization.