Preparing for fall

It’s definitely time for me to answer some reader questions. These three questions seem to be the hot ones for fall this year when it comes to indoor and outdoor plant care.

“My cedars are turning brown from the inside. Are they dying and what can I do to save them?”

Good news, you don’t have to do anything. (I always love a low-maintenance answer!) After such a hot and dry summer, your trees are shedding some of the older growth on the inside of the branches. This is totally normal and nothing to be worried about—unless the brown part goes all the way to the tips of the bush, then you have issues. The challenge with evergreens is that they are slow to show distress. Often, the damage is done before you even know that it is happening. Brown needles and desiccation are never a good thing,

“I brought my hibiscus inside and it lost all of the leaves even though it still flowered. The same happened with my citrus tree. Did I do something wrong?”

There are two different things happening with your plants. The first has to do with sunlight. The move indoors is always hard on plants because they go from lots of available sunlight to much less. The plants naturally will shed their leaves to protect themselves because less light means less food production. As the plants become accustomed to the available light indoors, they will start to grow new leaves that will carry them through the winter. The citrus tree sounds like it may have either gotten too much water or cold feet. As it’s been a dry summer, lemons and limes have done well outside because they prefer hot and dry. When we bring them indoors we need to reduce the amount of water or ensure that they are in a pot that drains well. Also, the temperatures inside our air-conditioned homes are colder than on our patios. Often a citrus tree that has been brought indoors will drop its leaves because of the temperature change happening at the root level. In either case, as long as the stems and branches are still green, your plant will hopefully regrow new leaves.

“My grass has turned bright yellow even though we had been getting lots of summer rain.”

Sadly, the lack of fall rain has caused your lawn to go dormant. This is pretty normal for shallow rooted Kentucky bluegrass. Kentucky blue does grow back once the ground gets some moisture. If you choose, turning on the sprinkler will do wonders for encouraging the lawn to green up. This is also a great time to top dress the lawn with new seed. Just remember, new grass needs to be watered daily for at least a few weeks.

Have a question for me about your own outdoor spaces? I’m always happy to help. @carsonarthur or info@carsonarthur.com