Greetings friends. It's definitely spring even though today on 3/23/24 it feels more like winter than much of February. My target start day is next Tuesday and my hopes are that most of the freezing temperatures are behind us so I don’t freeze my truck like I did last fall. This month we will talk about some old reoccurring issues as well as develop plans for you to take care of your own health regime for your landscape, starting with the turf.
Happy winter to all. We are days from spring launch and inexplicitly that excites me like it did 46 years ago. Thanks to all of you for letting me live in such a blessed environment. That leads me to a problem because if I’m not careful with the main subject of this newsletter, Boxwoods, I will lose you.
Hello to my faithful readers, it seems all over the country, I am truly blessed by your gift of time. This is a November and December newsletter, not that there isn’t lots to talk of, but I’ve been busy spraying lawns now because the summer and early fall were so dry. Now isn’t as much fun to work but has amazing results.
October must be the greatest month to be in Morgantown. We almost can see the three piggies from here as its not too hot, not too cold, its just perfect. The trees have turned to a kaleidoscope of color unique to this region, as we watch for all the travelers reveling in what some would jadedly say is normal.
Hello friends and clients. Today is the 25th of the month and my apologies to Tim Crowe who provides the magic for making a newsletter out of a poorly written word document for its lateness. There would be no newsletter, or any tech from me without my enabler and friend Tim. This newsletter will start with a magical combination of flora in one of my client’s garden, Marie Mancini. Yes Marie, even in transition there’s great beauty.
Hello to all who are reading this August newsletter. This month we will be addressing the boxwood issue that seems to be all over our area and getting to a plan of action for next season. Also, since we do not have a pet of the month, I want to start with a shrub of the month. August would not be August without Crepe Myrtles.
Hello friends, its July and just the way we like it, hot and humid. Well, hot any way and we have been getting just enough rain to stay out of full drought conditions. Mowing’s are somewhere between weekly if your property is shady, bi weekly if you have a mixed exposure, and if you’re in full afternoon sun, mowing is needed about every 3 weeks. There is lots to read on this site about mowing but if your mower is leaving the grass 3 ½ inches or higher you can cut it 5 times a day but this has proven a hard lesson to learn.
June 2023, a month of wonders in a year so far filled with grace. Our weather dictates our flora despite our best efforts. Imagine the surprise that nature does not always, or seldom considers our little requests. I’m not sure why we are so surprised but I’m happy knowing that none of us has that control.
Happy May!! This, so far, has been a remarkably beautiful spring. I particularly like the pink snow days under the cherry and dogwood trees. All blooms have been magnificent but the pinks by far most exquisite. I have a couple repeating questions that I wish to talk about this month. One, why is all that irritating moss popping off my ground like popcorn and in many cases being replaced by grass? Secondly, if it was such a light winter why do my boxwoods and English Ivy look so bad, even dead? This month we get to meet Bogey, the wonderful companion of friend and client Jenny Degon.
I get so many questions about ticks this time of year. Because I am no tick expert, I decided to ask my good friend and veterinarian, Dr. Alex Casuccio, to contribute to The Benson Letter regarding his knowledge of ticks.
Hello spring! It was a very light winter by my memory but enough of the March cold and let's get it started. Out today for a walk with Magic and saw all the plants that normally bloom over the first six weeks in bloom all at once. It was 16 degrees this morning. I’m confused why none of the blooms seem hurt. Please, one of you explain how that can be to me.
The calendar says winter but on February 19, I smoked my food on the grill and ate outside on the patio. It’s only 58 but it feels 70 and everywhere I look, I see spring. I am one of those who think we are still going to get hit with winter but for right now the dandelions are blooming, daffodils are blooming, and my April tulips are almost ready to open. If we get hit with a hard frost at this point, there will be some damage, but nature is resilient and will survive. The fun part of February was getting to know Lilly belonging to Pervis and Peggy Major and I hope you enjoy her interview as much as I did.
Writing a newsletter about nature can be a challenge in the winter but what if the winter isn’t acting like winter. I am going to spend some time here discussing the consequences of a good winter and also a bad winter. I’m happy to say that for the first time a foreign animals creeps in to the newsletter. Yes, foreign because it belongs to my son Ian and his wife Kelly who live in New Zealand but mainly because Jet is a cat. That’s foreign to this newsletter.
December 2022 newsletter? It's hard to believe that another season has passed and Christmas is only a few days away. As the song goes the weather outside is going to be frightful, or so it's forecasted so let's enjoy the Christmas season. However, has anyone but me looked ahead to next week? Right now, the forecast for Thursday the 29th until Monday the 2nd has the lows in the 40's and the highs in the 50's.
Hello friends, this month we are going to get published a little early due to some happy circumstances happening here. I’m going to be blessed by the presence of Melissa and Jerry, and perhaps the grandkids, plus Ian is coming from New Zealand for the last two weeks of November. Covid has kept Ian in New Zealand for that duration as well as the grandkids being grown and having their own lives and careers. This will occupy the weekends and Thanksgiving and I still have lots of applications to do that will occupy the week so it’s going to be a busy, happy time. I hope you are as blessed as I continue to be.
Hello to my friends and clients. Fall is when you wish you were a mountaineer no matter where you live. Unless you are color blind, you know exactly what I mean, and I want to thank all of you for making my daily job better by your outdoor decorations. A special thanks to Rich and Susan for this idea:
I’m writing this newsletter on the 24th of September and there’s a fall chill in the air. For those of us that have been blessed to make turf management their career, it's grass planting time. Use a good Penn State seed mix from anyone and it's hard not to have excellent results. On the pest side, I’m not sure how or why but there are bagworms at work now, 3 months late, but they are. Your eyes are closer to your blue shrubs than mine so I would love a phone call or text if you have pinecones on your blue shrubs because those are bagworms. Then we get the pleasure of meeting Jack, Paul and Sandy Kokoska’s special kid, who rules Dove Street and will steal your heart as he did mine. That’s the basis of the newsletter so if you have to run, check out the photos of Jack and I’ll see you next month but if you wish to read more, let’s do it.
August has been a real weather change compared to July. When I wrote the July newsletter, I thought we were headed to severe heat and drought. It shows I should stick to growing grass and killing things! Today, I am happy to say we can talk about much more enjoyable things.
It's July and very much at this time a repeat of the weather of 2020. Instead of writing what has already been written, let's look back to our past Benson Letters. I also want to do two fun things in this month’s newsletter. I'll introduce you to a businessman I recently met and an unexpected Mountaineer cheerleader with wings.
It's June 21th 2022 and time for my most significant newsletter. It's my fondest wish you too could have the love and support that my wife, Diane, and I had. We were so blessed to find each other.
Another month has passed and our flora in 2022 just keeps getting better and better. This month we will cover the cascade of blooms from the dogwoods to the peonies. While it is difficult to pick the best of 2022, there have been no losers. We will witness moss popping from its tight ground location just like popcorn so the grass can shine. But most importantly this month, our newsletter is dwarfed by our pet of the month shared by Odus Brown and Rosanna Sikora, Mr. Wicks. Mr. Wicks will forever have a big corner of our hearts. He is Superfly in and out of his raincoat.
