what's all that strange brown stuff? Oh, bare ground....haven't seen that here for a long time.
apologies for the fuzzy focus Gingerland, still learning new phone, plus I was really tired and just reached over and snapped it. That's regrown from overwintered bulbs from last spring's buy. The GIngerland bulbs were sprouting when I got them all out of storage, the only ones of about four kinds.
Yardening June 2015
No, that's his finely ground mulch.
OK fine, maybe my joke was a bit lame...! Just sayin, I cannot look at that and not plant something.
;^)
Yeah, trust me, you're not alone. I look at all that room in that bed and start drooling. The other side of that bed has a beautiful japanese maple and some small shrubs. He really needs a few shrubs on this side too.
Maybe I can make a deal with him. I'll fill that bed up for him if he shows me how me made the edge so perfect. :)
Wow, that IS a really nicely edged bed. I think it helps to have a very healthy lawn.
Haha Sally! I'm not sure what all that brown stuff is either?
I am sure the edge being so perfect was created by that "edger digging tool"--
the one that is half-moon shaped--you step on it--and dig in--and Voila!
You have a perfectly edged bed.
Jill, or someone, posted a link to this tool above.
Don't be fooled that this is what it will look like a couple weeks from now...
Just reality!
It's looked like that since I moved here in February, Gita. I doubt a couple weeks will change it unless his property is the epicenter of a 7.3 earthquake or something.
I hate those half moon edgers. I've broken two in the past. I haven't seemed to find one that can hold up for a while. There were some nice ones at Lowe's or HD last season but I can't find them now.
I'd say in addition to that tool, making a sharp edge like that also involves having ground that isn't super hard, being lucky not to hit any rocks, and a bit of skill. I think I'll practice using one of those on one of my neighbor's yards first. :)
I think Gingerland is my favorite caladium, too.
Josh has a power edger the type with a blade in it that you use to run around walkways and such. We usually have him come over once a year and run it around the walks. Last year I wanted to remove some sod in the secret garden, he ran it around the yard and then I removed the sod in that area. It made just that type of sharp edge in the lawn.
My Mantis tiller can be used as an edger, although I've only ever done so along the front of the veggie bed. I think a lot of upper body strength is needed for precise control. It's stashed away for now, though, until I can handle the vibration again.
CAM, your neighbor's bed looks like it uses some sort of pound-in metal edging... have you looked closely at the edge? Crisp edges like that tend to show off the lawn, so that might appeal to you.
Definitely no edging, Jill. Just dirt. Shadow may make it look like edging material.
I use a sharpened square spade to edge, you get a very clean edge from that. There is a trick to doing it and I will share it when we meet at Cam's. I'll also bring my 4" angle grinder along if anyone wants a square shovel sharpened. It not only can be used for edging but cutting sod and quickly ridding weedy patches, much like a winged wedge.
Jill, keep a small mattock or sharp hoe handy and patrol the area where you removed those alianthus trees. Even treated they try and sprout for a couple of years. I've even tried injecting them with Round-up with only moderate success.
We've been lucky on rain lately, early last week we had 0.8"s, On Fri. (I think)2.3"s, and this week at least 3 times, 2@ 0.5"s and 1@1.4"s. That's why I've not been posting, too busy catching and keeping up, by the end of the day I just crash. Cam's right the lawn is as green as April and needs mowing at about 5 days.
Yeah, Ric... we got another .75 inch last night and we've had easily 5 or 6 inches of rain this month. YAY for the lawn and the plants but BOO for my knees and back. hahaha
Yeah lots of rain for sure. Looks like this Saturday will be decent rain too.
Mark had to mow within a week's time last.
Darn- some of us from work have tickets for the Orioles on Saturday. Buck Showalter Garden Gnome night!
I'm trying to make this thread last until July...
I bought a bag of lobster compost today at ACE Crain Highway, for the tomatoes. After he loaded it though, he pointed out another product, I forget the name, but made by the lobster compost company, says it has tons of good stuff- lobster, kelp, etc. He showed me photos of a comparison they did at the Edgewater store with various bagged mixes growing tomatoes and flowers. Really cool the the Edgewater site is so motivated!
Lobster compost!? How cool, never heard of that one before... now I need to go read about it. :)
http://www.coastofmaine.com/mn-bumpercrop.shtml
Here's the company. Pretty sure this Bumper Crop was the one the guy was recommending.
Excellent link, thank you Sally! I will make it a point to have Tori look for that at work today; looks like a line of products we should be carrying at work. =)
Looks like nice company. I am going to look at the Compost Cam...
This message was edited Jun 27, 2015 6:22 AM
Rose of Sharon down! I walked outside this morning and found this ROS across the stairs in my backyard. Its roots are still in the ground, so I assume it just became too top-heavy to stay upright.
Now that it's reached a height where the branches are going to flop when soaked, I have to decide whether to cut it back and hope it regrows in a sturdier way, or dig it up and replace it. I want something tall enough to block our view of neighboring houses, so I'm leaning towards the latter.
OH, Muddy! so sorry to see that! I guess ROS are pretty shallow-rooted
to have this happen. The roots may also be damaged in this kind of a fall.
How old was your ROS?
I would opt for "the latter" too. You could replace it by a nice Crepe Myrtle.
There is one across the street from my house that is a big tree.
They cut it back several years ago--but it re-grew in no time at all--
just fuller and bigger.
look--just behind the light pole....
edited to say that the tree itself is already very old.
The cut-back was just the radiating stems above the main trunk,
Then each of the cut back stems made a new bunch of radiating new stems,,,etc,,,
This message was edited Jun 27, 2015 10:15 AM
Thanks, Gita. I hadn't thought about the roots being damaged, but that's a good possibility.
I'm not upset though; I was thinking of replacing it with a native tree that would get a little taller anyway!
I was thinking about another Amelanchier (Serviceberry), but the one I have - Amelanchier x grandiflora ‘Autumn Brilliance’ - seems to have some sort of disease so I'm not sure. If it's cedar-serviceberry rust, it's going to be a problem because there are lots of cedars nearby.
I do have a lovely Redbud tree sitting in a pot on my patio, thanks to Sally....
The ROS may have just been overwhelmed by the recent rain.. my dappled willow flopped down a couple of days ago, and its branches are all floopy. I'm hoping it will recover its more or less upright form when the ground is less saturated.
I was always pretty sure that ROS were taprooted. At least the little seedlings are that I have tried to pot up for the swaps. Muddy, my ROS did that same thing a month or so ago and has not yet recovered. I have been trying to think of what to do with it as well. I was thinking that I would tie all of its branches together and then tie those to a stake and see if it strengthened itself over the winter. I know that every year our Honeylocust old wood cannot support the weight of the new wood, especially in the rain. Since it's a young tree, it looks like a floppy mess. It always 'hardens up' in the winter though and straightens out. Not sure if the same would be true for the ROS though since this is the first time I've encountered this issue. If it was the case, I'm not sure why it didn't happen in previous years as this year has not been a year of unusually significant growth.
Just had a thought go through mu head.....
All this rain we are having may have accelerated the growth of
all the new branches, which may then be week and not hardened off
enough to hold up to the weight of the wet leaves and blooms blown sideways.
Like i said--just a thought.........:o
I think you're right, Gita. Everything's growing so quickly! For example, the Azaleas I pruned a week ago have 6" of new growth on them already.
I don't know, my ROS still looks like donkey poo and it started while we were in drought, before all the rain. I didn't get time to tie it all up nice this weekend. Hopefully the extra day next weekend will help in getting a bunch of yardening done. I've been too busy installing all these shrubs. I planted a ton of shrubs in this new bed I'm doing and haven't had much time to do anything else. I have one more shrub to plant and a bunch of freebie irises from my wife's grandmother's hair dresser.
All shrubs and trees are 25% off at the HD. At least right now.
May be just for the 4th week? To get rid of some stock. I don't know...
The "season" is, kind of, drawing to an end.....
g.
Wife's grandmother's hairdresser. ..sounds like you have a reputation
Haha...well I didn't want to go all in to it but my wife's grandmother's hairdresser is actually a neighbor of the woman I did the landscape project for. Somehow my work there came up into conversation during one of my GIL's hair appointments. Small world and she wanted to know if I'd take some freebie irises. I'm not quite sure what color they are but was told there were two different kinds; one blue and the other tan. I'll fit them in the middle of two witchazels I just planted in the new Loblolly bed.
Word of Mouth man, can't beat it! =) Are you suuuuuure you're not looking to do this work "for real"?
< =D
Oh boy, a Loblolly bed, I love those things!!
"Haha... my wife's grandmother's hairdresser is actually a neighbor of the woman I did the landscape project for..." hahaha it got even better! It'll be fun to see what you got.
Yeah it was quite the string of people there.
I love Loblollies too! I know they are quite common where you all live but they are rare up here. And yes, I'm sure I'm not looking for to do landscaping as my FT job. It is interesting though, one of my wife's friend's Mom is trying to sell here late husband's Bobcat for $2500 with front end loader and skid loader attachments. Seems pretty cheap.
wife's friend's Mom's husband...
You're enjoying this aren't you Sally?
:-)
I think we should start making up a country song using Jeff's descriptions of the relationship from him to these people he is describing LOL.
Haha...Yeah where are the rymers here? Maybe Gita could put it in a song for us.
Yah, the husband of the mom of my wife's best friend
Had a Bobcat for sale, and I heard of it when
They were chatting over coffee and the next thing I knew
I'd bought it and was looking for a landscaping crew
Oh, I've started my new business but have nothing to plant
My wife's grandmother's hairdresser learns my landscaping plans
She says her old irises need divided,
Free plants! I get on my Bobcat and off I ride.