Its the time of year in San Antonio, I have to pick up the leaves from the grass. I used to dump them in the zeroscaping, but after I started that, I started to fight fungus on my red tips. Hate to throw away the leaves. Any body know how I can dump them in the zero scaping and not get fungus or other diseases?

To answer your question about fungal disease, all cornmeal products prevent this. Horticultural cornmeal is one of the best.

Two things to consider in dealing with leaves. First, it would be better for the grass to just mulch up the leaves with a mower. Second, a compost pile full of leaves is a great thing.

Finally, xeriscaping is a planting technique. It involves planning and installing plants, generally native, that require little added time like mowing and resources like water. Red Tip Photinia (Fraser's Photinia) is not a xeriscaping plant and in fact is a cross between the Chinese and Japanese Photinias. This cross is beautiful but carries a significant suseptability to fungal problems even after years of success. Go to the main page of DirtDoctor.com and look up Red Tip Phoninia to get some great information about how to save them.

I hope I've helped.

I do not have room for composting. Guess mulching the leaves into the grass is the answer. Putting down some Concern pre-emergent and Medina soil activator, soon as the rain stops later this week. Put it on top of the mulched grass?

Appreciate your explanation of zero scaping. What we have tried to do is maximize shrub beds and minimize grass. Juat starting in organic care. Fired Chem lawn.

You might look at Howard Garrett's article on Sick Tree Treatment in the main part of his website. Red-tips are supposed to respond to that treatment.

I don't know what Concern is but I'm going to assume it is a corn GLUTEN meal product. If so I would mulch/mow, water for at least an hour, and then put it down. Then don't water for as long as you can stand it.

I collect leaves from my neighbors about this time of year. Then I mix them with horse manure from my daughter's stable and let them compost for a year. Next year they are great to use. If you don't have room to compost, then just mulch/mow your leaves into dust and let them collect in your lawn. Apply ORDINARY corn meal at 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet to keep all garden fungus to a minimum. You can get ordinary corn meal anyplace you can get corn GLUTEN meal. Both of these meals are also organic fertilizers so you will not need to fertilize with anything else.

Do you have room for a large plastic trash barrel on your property, Butch? If so, one or two of them can serve as an excellent composting bin. If this sounds like something you might be able to work with then run a search here in the forum for how to set one up.

~Dave