Editor's note: Throughout the growing season, Mike Hogan, OSU Extension Educator for Agriculture & Natural Resources in Franklin County, will answer gardening questions submitted by Dispatch readers. Send your questions to hogan.1@osu.edu.

Q:  I just planted some Barberry bushes in my side yard and my neighbor thinks that these shrubs are invasive and should not be used in home landscaping. Is this accurate?

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A:  Several different species of Barberry (Berberis) have been widely used as a landscape plant, especially in areas with heavy deer pressure, but it is invasive. These non-native deciduous woody shrubs may look pretty with their dainty flowers and red berries, but they are invasive because birds eat the seeds and spread these plants over a wide range. 

These plants are shade-tolerant and can quickly colonize wooded areas, making it difficult for native species of woodland plants to germinate and flourish. These plants also spread by underground rhizomes that grow above ground shoots from the roots, resulting in thick, hard-to-manage stands of this plant. 

Additionally, some new research has shown a relationship between high tick populations and the presence of Barberry in the landscape. For these reasons, Barberry is not the best shrub to use as an ornamental in the home landscape.

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Q: My lawn turned brown in late June, when it was 100 degrees and we did not have rain for several weeks. Now that we have had several inches of rain, most areas of the lawn have turned green, but some spots are still brown. Should I fertilize or re-seed the brown spots?

A: It is always helpful to remember that lawn grasses are actually cool-season plants which prefer cooler soil and air temperatures. That is why our lawns are thick and green in the spring and fall months and we see the “summer slump brown” in our lawns during the hottest and driest months of summer when lawn grasses can go dormant.

If frequent rains do not return, try irrigating the brown areas with a lawn sprinkler to see if the increased soil moisture greens up the brown spots. If these spots remain brown, the grass plants in these areas are likely dead, and not just dormant.

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We do not recommend fertilizing the lawn in the hot dry summer months as lawn grasses are not growing quickly and fertilizer applications at this time of the season could burn the foliage and increase the potential for some foliar diseases on lawn grasses.

Summer is also not an ideal time to seed or re-seed lawn grasses, as the high temperatures and reduced soil moisture are not very hospitable to young grass seedlings.

One of the best time of the year to seed lawn grasses is late summer and early fall, generally after Labor Day. Weather and soil moisture and temperature conditions in September and October are typically favorable for germination of grass seed and root development of young grass seedlings. This time period is also a good time to apply fertilizer that will help lawn grasses begin to develop root reserves for the winter months.