mackerel_sky

It's hard to get grass to grow in shade. Fescue is your best bet, still not great, should do a ground cover like mondo grass, liriope, ajuga! Good luck

I have rose of Sharon leaves coming out! They are usually one of the last trees to break dormancy , in the first or middle of April! Just crazy! And I've seen some Bermuda sod put down over the winter, starting to green up!

I don't understand all the fuss about something you can't look at anyway!? But you best believe I'll be trying to take selfies of me , trying to get the eclipse in the picture!

The average person that does not understand that this may include watering everyday, should not plant in summer. I do it all the time as well, but know the dedication it takes to baby them. If anybody installed last summer , without an irrigation system, they most likely lost all their newly planted trees and shrubs!

That's probably a 3-5 degree zone jump for planting, Chicago is probably zone 4 or 5 and ATL is zone 8 ! You will be able to plant way more varieties of trees and flowers, that wouldn't survive Chicago winters!

You can plant trees and shrubs year round down here, fall ( Oct) being best, then dead of winter , then early spring( now), summer is worst time to plant trees and shrubs. Don't plant summer annuals yet, like petunias, marigolds and such, wait till after April 15th as a general rule! You can mulch of course, prune roses and butterfly bushes, if you have them in February. Pruning on trees and shrubs should be done in dead of winter, before they break dormancy, but now would probably be ok. Anything can be planted in pots now, except summer annuals. You can plant pansies now, and they will last through about May, they are winter annuals and die when it gets consistently in the 80s, unless you have fescue grass, don't do anything besides put down pre emergent now!

Not sure if you can mix the two! But I don't think centipede can survive much outside the coastal areas, due to its lack of cold hardiness.

I have new growth coming up from my lantanas!!! If y'all know anything about them, they love heat and just can't fathom new growth this early! The two cultivars that come back reliably for me every year are: Miss Huff and Chapel Hill Yellow!

Red buds will be in bloom by end of next week! Forsythias , in full bloom now! Just crazy! Looking forward to the Godzilla / Fartman super El Niño next winter!!

Also,CR, Bermuda sod is a quicker way! I've taken patches out of my yard, when digging a bed or etc, and dug out a little bare spot somewhere else, plant it even, like patching carpet, keep it wet for a week or two, and takes off from there!

I thought you needed the bites for the swellings!

It's the cold , the red clay doesn't slow them down a bit!! They get sneaky sometimes and make mounds in mulch or in containers and you can see the mounds as easily!

Those things look awesome! Just bought one (dormant) can't wait to see the dark leaves and see if they hold the dark color in heat/humidity! Bought one called "Burgandy Cotton" with white flowers years ago, it's almost all green leaves by July

Those things are the scourge of the earth! They've been here atleast 15 years! Discovered them the hard way when I first bought our house!

Yep, spread by stolons and will take over fescue and bluegrass, in a heart beat! And loves heat! RAH and surrounding areas, use to be in an area where fescue would do well, but given the last few years, with our very warm winters, RAH has a zone 9 climate now!

Plant a crape myrtle or a nice juniper in the center , and mulch the rest of the circle! Those are the 2 toughest trees that popped in my head! You can find crape myrtle , from 3'-40' tall and just about any color flower! I promise you there are some cool junipers, but I bet you plant a blue rug juniper there, and it will thrive! You could plant those in cement , and they would grow! These need full bright sun for atleast six hours, so if the other trees are blocking the sun, you need a plan B

Yeah, could have been a walnut tree there at some point?? So much acid in the nuts, nothing can grow under walnut trees!

That's probably pretty specialized, might have to go to like a feed and seed type of store, where they sell heavier duty agricultural stuff

Don't know why nothing will grow, just might be really poor dirt. I'd put down 2 bags of mushroom compost and take it/ mix it with the top two or three inches of dirt , over the whole area of each bad spot, should help atleast get some weeds going! What kind of grass is your yard!?

Well our 28th " threat" went north on 6z! ! Atleast it looks wet the next two weeks , with an active subtropical jet, we still need the rain!

Good answer! Also put down pre emergent in September or October, to prevent winter weeds from sprouting

I love packfan98! He's my hero!

Oh sh!t! Nam extrapolation! That's what this winter has become!!? Where's the DGEX maps!?

Where are all the nut jobs ! Winters over! Let it go!

I'm a man of my word!