Gardening Q&A

Q:This spring, I was given a dogwood standing 6 feet tall and 2½ feet wide, which I have planted beneath a large hawthorn. It seems to be a happy plant. However, I just realized that its projected size is 20 feet by 20 feet. My lot is quite small. Will I be able to contain this dogwood with pruning? A plant that grows to about 10 feet by 10 feet would fit better in my yard.

Answer: While you can certainly prune your dogwood, trying to keep it to half its normal size will require constant pruning that will put the tree under a lot of stress. Every time you do heavy canopy pruning, you reduce the leaf producing surfaces, which are vital to absorb sunlight to make food for the roots.

Because it sounds like you recently planted it, you might consider relocating it this fall while it's still small and before its roots have time to spread. I wish I could be more encouraging, but it will be easier to deal with it now, rather than later. Q:I planted a blueberry bush last fall. It looks great, but it's not producing any berries. Is there anything I can do?

Answer: I'm not surprised that your blueberry bush is not producing yet. Many plants will spend the first growing season setting roots and getting acclimated to the new location. The fact that yours looks good is testimony that it is getting adjusted to your site. Because blueberries produce on growth from last year's wood, it will probably be next year before your plant starts to produce fruit.

Commercial growers don't harvest blueberries until the third or fourth season. This is to allow adequate time to shape the plant for maximum production. Yours should set fruiting wood this season and start to produce a small amount of fruit next year.

Q:We have tons of anthills in our grass. We have treated them with granules. However, they always come back. Sometimes we have ants inside, as well. Can you recommend a solution to get rid of them for good?

Answer: A former entomology professor at Virginia Tech used to say; "Ants have been around for millions of years -- we aren't going to eradicate them. The idea is to learn to manage them."

In the yard, the best attack is to treat the hills with something that will soak or seep into them.

I have used Sevin, liquid or dust, and found it to be very effective. The idea is to kill the queen. If you put material on the surface of the soil to kill ants on contact, the queen simply lays more cells to replace the ones that don't make it back to the nest. If you saturate the hill, you'll get the queen and end the colony. Because Sevin doesn't kill on contact, it is carried on the bodies of the workers, and they infect the nest.

As for your indoor ants, weather extremes (like really hot or really wet) cause ants to seek shelter indoors. There are some very effective baits on the market for indoor use. The baits include a slow-release insecticide that attracts the ants, allowing them to carry it back to the nest, where it kills the queen.

Q:I recently heard that you should not put eggshells in your compost bin because of the risk of salmonella. But I'd always heard that eggshells were good in compost piles. What do you think?

Answer: It's fine to put eggshells in your compost pile.

However, many sources warn against putting whole eggs in the pile. This is more of an odor issue than one of salmonella. The heat build up in a compost pile should prevent any problems from the small amount of egg residue that may be left on an eggshell. If it gives you peace of mind, you could certainly rinse them before putting them with your scraps.

Richard Nunnally is a freelance writer and host of WCVE's monthly gardening show, "Virginia Home Grown." He can be contacted at .