It's so hard to tell when shrubs and trees have been watered enough. I would have sworn I had been giving a young Dogwood adequate water, but I stuck my water gauge/ "moisture meter" in the ground and it registered dry. I left it in and watered till it hit medium-moist; it took several minutes.
Time to go buy a car load of mulch!! Edited to add and also to buy another "moisture meter"! I tested the ground around another new Dogwood on my way out the door, found it dry, watered and in the process of testing broke the tip off the moisture meter.
This message was edited Jul 26, 2015 2:56 PM
Yardening July 2015
Yep.... that's why I put well over 100 bags of mulch down this year. Previous owners hadn't mulched in a couple years and it was either very thin or non-existent in all the beds. Should only have to put down about half that amount every year from now on.
Sally, Same old same old, my back is acting up again. It was getting pretty bad so I went last week and got a shot and it felt great for a few days. I think I may have overdid it while I was feeling so good and now I am in a lot of pain. I have an appt with my Ortho guy next week to talk about surgery. I think I am finally ready to have that discussion. Thing that really bothers me the most is that poor Ric is pretty much back to doing everything right now.
I feel for you, Holly. Never needed surgery but I had lumbar pain nearly every day for 15 years when I was younger. You must have a disc bulging pretty bad to require nerve block injections and now possibly surgery. Hope whatever you decide to do works for you !
Holly, sorry to hear about your back. Do you think the surgery will be similar to what Ric had done?
Lowell was trimming some of the undergrowth in the woods to the left of the dock, and was within inches of hitting this monster. Thank goodness he saw it just as he was about to cut down the sapling that it is hanging in. Kind of hard to tell from the picture but this is big, one of the biggest we've ever seen - probably a good 2' or more in height. Bonnie got close enough to see that it is a nest full of white faced hornets.
Yes, Aspen it will be the same surgery. I have a different problem than Ric does but the surgery would be exactly the same. I remember well how rough that surgery was and how long he was laid up but I think I am finally ready to talk about it.
WOW, That was a close call on the Hornet nest.
oh, Holly! Darn it! I sure wish this wasn't happening to you!
Holy moly Terri, that could have been horrific.
I have been dealing with it for over a year now and just can't resign myself to the limitations. Depending on what Dr Dahl says I think I may have the surgery in Oct. after my scheduled vacations are over and before the Holidays begin. I will be laid up for several months so hopefully I will be ready to go by next spring.
Terri--
Remember all the trouble i had with some Hornets in my Lilac Bush last sumer?
And--the one that stung me? Such pain! Such swelling! 3-4 days worth. OWWW...
I was so worried the Hornets would return, but I guess they moved on--PHEW!
OR--maybe the Queen got killed in the winter. YEAH!!!!
I researched and learned a lot about Hornets. David and Butch were a big help.
Like--
--There are the working class hornets--and they don't sting
Their job is to build the nest for their Queen to lay her eggs in.
They were, probably, the class of Hornets that were constantly
chewing the bark off of stems of my Lilac bush. I still see the scars.
--Only the Queen will live in the "nest" for the winter. If you kill her--
there will be no more Hornets in this area. SO--Burn it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4h_DIQKPPI
http://www.fightbugs.com/hornet-nest-removal/
On and On...You can Google for more fun-watching.... Gita
Holly, I'm so sorry to hear about your back!
Good thing that Lowell saw that hornets' nest; he would have had to make a mad dash for the pond if he had cut down that sapling.
How fortunate that the hornets' nest got spotted in time to prevent a lot of stinging. Is the big one you noticed last year close to the house still occupied?
Holly Hobble....I see what you did there Sally ;-)
100 bags of mulch CAM! Crikey, that's a lot. You must have a lot of beds. I haven't put mulch out in a few years. A couple of my beds can't even be mulched during the growing season. Usually in the fall I sprinkle chipped leaves and a grass clippings over the top of several of them. I also get pine needles from one of my friends and throw those down as well.
Y'all are right about the dryness. I had turned on our soaker line Thursday night and forgot about it til afternoon Saturday. Those plants got a nice drink. That bed is tough because feeder roots from a maple invade it constantly.
Wow Aspen, that's a giant hornet next. That would have been terrible for it to have come
down. It reminds me of the Hunger Games when Katnis cuts off the limb with the 'tracker jacker' nest.
Holly, hopefully they can manage the pain until you get surgery. At least it will be over the winter when there's not much going on though.
I don't have all that many beds, Sequoia. But they are pretty wide and the were bare. I put it down at least 3 inches thick. Goes fast at that rate. The bed right in front of my house between the driveway and front door, about 22 x 7 feet... took 20 bags alone.
Cam - what kind of mulch did you put down?
I haven't bought mulch routinely, but my dad did and I saw how it gradually improved the 'builder crap' soil in their foundation beds. And I am started to grasp how it reduces my weeding time. Our big new mulch project this year has been mulching the paths around the vegetable garden. That makes it feel much cleaner, eliminates mowing, and will cut way down on weeds in the beds. Gita remarked how it looked better, bigger, or something, I think it was the mulch.
Over 100 bags and I also had a bulk deliver of 3 yards, David.
Yeah, Sally, previous owners apparently put down mulch in previous years so my soil on the beds if pretty rich, dark, soft, and lots of earthworms.
Last week-I mixed up a new batch of soil for potting things up in the
big, green garden cart on wheels HD sells. I like to have this soil mix on hand.
I mix together: a big bag of Organic Choice garden soil with half a trash bag-full
of my rotted, shredded leaves and a good amount of pro Mix. Then--Mix....mix....mix......
In the bag of the rotted leaves I used were so many earth worms!! --big fat ones...~3".
I was pulling them out and tossing them over my shoulder into my A/C bed.
Took a couple hand-fulls to other beds too so they can "do their thing"....
Wish I had a better place to hide these big trash bags-full of the shredded leaves
than under my shrubs at he end of the patio behind the grill.
I can only fit 2 or 3 back there...2 years later--it is really great composted stuff.
You know--can't just put them in full view somewhere....there is NOWHERE to put them.
G.
I've been using the double shredded hardwood mulch and have definitely noticed the improved soil and the weed reduction in the areas where I've been putting it down for a few years. I tend to do a heavy 2" application in an area one year, and then just a refresh the next year, maybe even the next two years, but then a heavy application seems to be needed again.
I just love putting down shredded leaves in the fall. It is a lot of work to rake them all up and run them thru the shredder. Easier to mow up the leaves with a bagger. Because we travel in the Fall so much and need to get all the tropical plants back into the GH we don't get much of a chance to shred leaves and put them down. I love mulching the beds to me it just gives the beds a finished look.
Cam - shredded hardwood, pine bark,...?
Terri--
Where do you but this double-shredded hardwood mulch?
I don't think HD has it---as I buy most mulches there.
I have 3 bags of pine bark mulch sitting around for a year already.
Guess I don't mulch very often.....g.
Shredded hardwood, David... Scott's Best - brown.
I think that's what I got this spring, but just a couple bags. I wanted the dyed mulch to gently remind me where I had actually PLANTED things versus what just came up LOL
Several of my beds are so heavily vegetated, they need no weeding at all; maybe a couple red maple seedlings but that's it. I can't stand mulching around plants so if I do, I try to keep it to when they're dormant. Come to think of it, the beginning of '14, before anything sprouted, I bought two scoops of primarily decomposed mulch. I put that over my front yard garden, rhodi garden, and 1/2 the honeylocust garden. I should do it again to the 1/2 of the honeylocust garden that got shafted. It was a good deal because I got it for about the 1/2 price they usually sell the mulch.
I have a few beds that are so full that I don't mulch them but as far as weeding there are always weeds.
ALL my beds are totally full! I would not know where to mulch.
That is, probably, why I have the 3 bags sitting around for a year...
I should mulch my large containers, though.
My Brugs need a gallon of water every day--or they wilt...
Mostly because they are pot-in-pot....Small pot where the plant is potted--
immersed into the large, decorative pot--which will have plenty of roots
in it by end of summer. Have to chop these off to remove the inner pot--
which is what will sit in my basement for the winter.
Plant will get cut back--as always...and pieces rooted.
G.
G, I get the double shredded hardwood mulch in bulk at Meadows Farms - usually 5 yards at a time.
It rained an inch here today! :D Yippee!!
I don't have to water the tomatoes for another week!
My beds haven't filled out yet, so I still need to use quite a bit of mulch. I like pine bark fines for the beds. Large pine nuggets are great for the pathways because they break down much more slowly than hardwood mulch. Large bark pieces are also good for that area between the lawn and the edge of the bed, because zoysia grass is always trying to creep into the beds, and it's really easy to pull out the zoysia runners among the bark pieces.
It's amazing how much of the mulch has "disappeared" in the last few years. A lot of it has composted/broken down, and some of it was just dug into the soil as I planted more perennials.
Well looky you....brag brag brag....LOL!
CAM, how is your battle with the skunks going? I thought about you and your motion detector sprayers today when I forgot about the one I have in the front yard and got blasted in the face today! I was mowing, so it actually felt very good : - )
I hadn't seen that guy for a few weeks and then yesterday morning I saw signs he was back again. No longer digging in the flower beds, digging in the yard away from the sprinklers now. Probably back because I water my hard frequently and my ground is softer than my neighbors who never water and their ground must be like concrete.
This message was edited Jul 30, 2015 6:36 AM
I never water my 'hard'....
;-P
8^D
!!
finally, someone with worse typing than me...
haha... that's what happens when you type messages at that time of the morning. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I could edit it but what they heck, might as well leave it for entertainment purposes.
Yeah it happens to the best of us but it's fun to poke fun at.
I don't know about you but I have a yard time watering my hard when there are so many other plants to get watered.
I'm done now, I promise =P
I wish we would get a yard rain so I wouldn't even have to bother watering my hard.
Yeah for sure but it seems we're coming into a pattern where a yard rain is yard to come buy. Hopefully not but just in case, I skipped mowing my hard this week. I figured I'd give it a break but laziness played a big part too.
I thought you were done. ;) LOL
Yeah I know but you egged me on. It was yard not to....
Ok that's it.