I was told that I cannot plant anything near a nice walnut tree we have growing in our yard.  How come?

All walnuts, hickory and pecans produce a chemical called juglone, which can be toxic to other plants.  It's usually minimal in all of these trees except the Black Walnut, which is why many plants planted within the root system of a Black Walnut struggle to live, yellow, and most of the time die.  To find a list of plants that will or will not grow near Black Walnuts, visit ohioline.osu.edu for more info.

I had some trees cut down, but the roots keep sending up suckers.  How do I get them to stop

In open landscape beds, spot treat them with Roundup or Kleenup.  In the lawn, spot treat with a broadleaf weed killer and keep mowing regularly.  Some trees may take 2-3 years before the roots starve and stop sending up suckers.  One other note - if you can see or know where the surface roots are, hit them with an ax (parallel to the root) and try to chop or crack open the root.  This will help speed up the decaying / dying process.

We treated our lawn for grubs as directed.  But the beetles are back with a vengeance.  What do we do?

First, remember to treat for grubs only if the grubs have been a problem to the lawn.  Controlling grubs in the lawn may reduce the number of beetles in your yard by a teeny weeny itsy bitsy percentage - as beetles fly great distances just to grace you and your plants with their presence! 

The leaves on my Rudbeckia are turning black.  What's happening?

They can get leaf diseases - the two most common are caused by the fungus Septoria and Cercospora.  Cultural control includes preventing overhead watering, don't water on cloudy humid days, clean up infected foliage in the fall and pitch.  Combine that with a preventative spray program of a fungicide, and you should be good to go (use Mancozeb or copper based products).  If it continues, you may need to pull the planting and replace with another type perennial.

We are installing new landscape beds in our yard and were wondering, do we still need to apply a pre emergent herbicide in those beds, now that summer is here?

YES!  Weed seeds are blowing into the beds all the time.  Preparing new beds will turn up new seeds that may have been laying dormant for years.  So by applying Preen now, you'll stop those weed seeds before they ever get growing.  Our landscape crews will apply a pre emergent to new beds right on into the fall.