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2021 Mid-Atlantic Garden, Lawn, and Other Green Stuff Thread


mattie g
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17 hours ago, Eskimo Joe said:

Bamboo, Ivy, Kurdzu, Mint, and Chinese lantern flowers are the WORST plants. They find a small spot and just flourish. I know of several community gardens that outright ban these plants and make members sign a waiver agreeing to not plant these species in a community setting.

Phragmites. UGH

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21 hours ago, mattie g said:

 

There's also kudzu, which does much the same thing in creating huge canopies.

Kudzu. I cant stand that stuff. It has taken over so many spots in the Carolinas and Georgia.  It is just killing all sort of trees and native plants in the woods. For some reasonm the more hilly terrain it is, the more it is noticeable. It just takes over everything. 

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3 hours ago, Avdave said:

Kudzu. I cant stand that stuff. It has taken over so many spots in the Carolinas and Georgia.  It is just killing all sort of trees and native plants in the woods. For some reasonm the more hilly terrain it is, the more it is noticeable. It just takes over everything. 

SIDEBAR: I earned my FCC license in the fall of 1984 (start of my freshman year of college) so I could work the graveyard shift at my college radio station, and instantly learned about a new indie group called "R.E.M.", whose debut album entitled "Murmur" that released the previous year, featured a cover picture of a field in Georgia being overrun by...kudzuI've loved R.E.M. ever since, not necessarily because they featured that noxious weed on the haunting cover of their debut album, but because I just love most of their music.  ;) 

rem-murmur-album-cover.jpg.335bdd70859cad078dafac5fa4cdbf64.jpg

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1 hour ago, Avdave said:

Kudzu. I cant stand that stuff. It has taken over so many spots in the Carolinas and Georgia.  It is just killing all sort of trees and native plants in the woods. For some reasonm the more hilly terrain it is, the more it is noticeable. It just takes over everything. 

It’s a shame really.  Ironically the USDA’s Soil Conservation Service is primarily responsible for the problems in the South (and now just as bad up here too).  They planted it in the south in the 19th century to help with soil erosion.

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3 hours ago, vastateofmind said:

SIDEBAR: I earned my FCC license in the fall of 1984 (start of my freshman year of college) so I could work the graveyard shift at my college radio station, and instantly learned about a new indie group called "R.E.M.", whose debut album entitled "Murmur" that released the previous year, featured a cover picture of a field in Georgia being overrun by...kudzuI've loved R.E.M. ever since, not necessarily because they featured that noxious weed on the haunting cover of their debut album, but because I just love most of their music.  ;) 

rem-murmur-album-cover.jpg.335bdd70859cad078dafac5fa4cdbf64.jpg

REM is one of my favorite bands, and though not on Murmur, “I Believe” is one of my favorites all time songs.

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3 hours ago, nj2va said:

It’s a shame really.  Ironically the USDA’s Soil Conservation Service is primarily responsible for the problems in the South (and now just as bad up here too).  They planted it in the south in the 19th century to help with soil erosion.

Many of our problems have been created by trying to get rid of a problem.

I knew an old lady that swallowed a fly...

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3 hours ago, nj2va said:

It’s a shame really.  Ironically the USDA’s Soil Conservation Service is primarily responsible for the problems in the South (and now just as bad up here too).  They planted it in the south in the 19th century to help with soil erosion.

IT is crazy how it has just taken over in the mountains and elevation regions of the south. Once again something else not thought through before releasing it.  

Its awful, it really is

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Potted up three each of all my tomato seedlings and four of my jalapeños.

Finally transplanted into bigger pots my indoor basil, cilantro, and parsley. These are more of an experiment/practice since I’d like to be able to have fresh herbs all winter long.

Need to make some room on the heating mats before I can start anything else, so I can already foresee picking up a couple more mats and another lamp to keep up with everything. :lol:

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12 hours ago, mattie g said:

Potted up three each of all my tomato seedlings and four of my jalapeños.

Finally transplanted into bigger pots my indoor basil, cilantro, and parsley. These are more of an experiment/practice since I’d like to be able to have fresh herbs all winter long.

Need to make some room on the heating mats before I can start anything else, so I can already foresee picking up a couple more mats and another lamp to keep up with everything. :lol:

Since I do more marinating and grilling year-round than ever before, I've really wanted to try growing my own fresh herbs. Our neighbors have done so successfully for years...but since I kill most things I try to grow, I've been hesitant to try.

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On 3/11/2021 at 10:14 AM, WxUSAF said:

Bamboo is the worst. You probably need a landscaper. You could try a very thorough mechanical removal with some targeted roundup application yourself and see how things go? But you’ll eventually probably lose the battle.

We’re closing this morning on the house and I signed a contract yesterday with a landscaper - they’re going to remove the bamboo and plant 3 large Nelly Stevens’ Holly bushes for privacy.  Looks like they will use an excavator to dig up a few of the root balls, cut down the remaining shoots, treat with herbicide, and cover with landscape fabric to drown out what isn’t dug up.  It was the middle road in terms of cost vs digging up all the roots...I almost passed out when given the cost of that.

I’m excited to get started gardening and doing some mini landscaping projects now that we’ll have an actual yard.  One of the first weekend projects in April I’m going to do is run wired landscape lights in the backyard and adding landscape spot lights to illuminate a few of the trees in the front of the house.   

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1 hour ago, nj2va said:

We’re closing this morning on the house and I signed a contract yesterday with a landscaper - they’re going to remove the bamboo and plant 3 large Nelly Stevens’ Holly bushes for privacy.  Looks like they will use an excavator to dig up a few of the root balls, cut down the remaining shoots, treat with herbicide, and cover with landscape fabric to drown out what isn’t dug up.  It was the middle road in terms of cost vs digging up all the roots...I almost passed out when given the cost of that.

I’m excited to get started gardening and doing some mini landscaping projects now that we’ll have an actual yard.  One of the first weekend projects in April I’m going to do is run wired landscape lights in the backyard and adding landscape spot lights to illuminate a few of the trees in the front of the house.   

Congrats to you, big day!! Hope the contractor's bamboo prevention plan pans out. Love the landscaping fabric idea...am considering that for our two large-ish front garden beds, which will undergo a turning and re-mulching within the next several weeks. My wife spent most of Sunday afternoon trying to pull the chickweed in just ONE bed....shite was extra virulent this year, and I'm tired of it getting worse every year. Holly bushes...ugh. They are pretty (at certain sizes) but I uniformly despise cleaning up after them as I'm always piercing my gloves/hands.

Also, I'm a huge fan of landscaping and indirect lighting outdoors -- would love to see a pic or two in the future if you don't mind sharing. Wired is usually best, but we've found some great solar-powered options in recent years, too -- soooo many options, in fact, now! One of my favorite projects a few years ago -- our backyard's rear border is outlined by a 150' stretch of tall, sterile, barbed-wire-topped fencing courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard C5i facility next door. A really ugly, 1950s era fence, and while it's "OFFICIAL U.S. GOV'T PROPERTY," I'd always wanted to better integrate it (or hide it!) in our surroundings. Several Christmases ago, I found solar-powered, 75-foot sections of tiny white lights and lined the top of the fence with a couple sets, from end-to-end...it added an air of "clean and trim" to that damn fence, and looked so nice I've opted to leave them up year round.

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Oh, my yard is so happy with all of this rain right now....

Re: lighting, I had my front yard completely renovated in summer 2019, and while the whole thing was extremely pricey, I am so glad I had wired lighting put in. Kind of hard to see it in this pic, but... (lights along the path and around the little patio close to the house, and up-lighting under the birdbath and the two service berry trees.
 

IMG_20200310_191838.jpg

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9 hours ago, jacindc said:

Oh, my yard is so happy with all of this rain right now....

Re: lighting, I had my front yard completely renovated in summer 2019, and while the whole thing was extremely pricey, I am so glad I had wired lighting put in. Kind of hard to see it in this pic, but... (lights along the path and around the little patio close to the house, and up-lighting under the birdbath and the two service berry trees.
 

IMG_20200310_191838.jpg

Yes, low voltage lighting is excellent.  I love the bump in the path around the tree.

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1 hour ago, MN Transplant said:

Yes, low voltage lighting is excellent.  I love the bump in the path around the tree.

The bump was actually a condition set by the city's arborist to approve the permit. Had to go out that far to avoid cutting any roots bigger than (I think) 2" around. But it turned out really well.

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21 hours ago, jacindc said:

Oh, my yard is so happy with all of this rain right now....

Re: lighting, I had my front yard completely renovated in summer 2019, and while the whole thing was extremely pricey, I am so glad I had wired lighting put in. Kind of hard to see it in this pic, but... (lights along the path and around the little patio close to the house, and up-lighting under the birdbath and the two service berry trees.

THIS is a breathtaking yard...so well done!! I'd park my arse in one of those Adirondack chairs with my Kindle during every spare or downtime moment!  :D 

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On 3/24/2021 at 11:24 AM, jacindc said:

Oh, my yard is so happy with all of this rain right now....

Re: lighting, I had my front yard completely renovated in summer 2019, and while the whole thing was extremely pricey, I am so glad I had wired lighting put in. Kind of hard to see it in this pic, but... (lights along the path and around the little patio close to the house, and up-lighting under the birdbath and the two service berry trees.

Stunning garden!

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Indoor tomato and jalapeno seedlings are still going strong. I potted them up and have been feeding them with 1/2 strength fish fertilizer every few days, and they seem to have taken really well to it. They've grown quite a bit the last 5-7 days, so I hope to see that continue before I pot up one more time in the next two weeks or so. I'm eyeing to get them in the ground during the last week of April.

I also turned over and topped one of my beds with an extra bag of soil a few days ago, and planted lettuce, spinach, and mache on Tuesday evening, just before the rain. Helps to keep the squirrels from digging up a freshly turned over garden, as the rain makes one bed look and smell like any other (or at least I hope it does!).

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1 hour ago, losetoa6 said:

I've always been partial to " It's the end of the world as we know it " 

And ...R.E.M. ...knew it all along :ph34r:

Agree . Great band . 1st Saw them in 95' at Hershey outdoor .I wore out several of there tape cassettes . I began listening to them in 88' 

 

(Apologies for the one-upping) I saw them in the fall of 1984 in Gainesville, FL on the Reckoning tour, a free outdoor show with the dBs opening. Huge part of my life. 

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55 minutes ago, WxUSAF said:

Just ordered a small fortunes worth of mulch to be delivered on the 7th.

Same. We're paying extra to have it spread this year, too. While we're still (barely) capable of dragging and lugging those bags around to four different beds surrounding our house, we just don't feel it's worth putting ourselves in traction for a few days after completion.

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44 minutes ago, MN Transplant said:

15 cubic yards is the most that I've ever ordered at once.  That took a while to distribute.

15 cubic yards? :lol:

I think I got 5 cubic yards last year. That stuff sat in my driveway for about 6 weeks before I finally got it all spread about. Going to limit my mulching this year since most of last year's was brand new mulching in new play and landscaped areas, plus we've got the new porch build coming up so we won't have to do any mulching in front just yet. This year will just be topping off those areas we mulched liberally last year. 

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50 minutes ago, MN Transplant said:

15 cubic yards is the most that I've ever ordered at once.  That took a while to distribute.

Damn. I ordered 8 which is the most I’ve ever done. If I did the calculations with 3” depth, I’d probably be in the 12ish range. 

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59 minutes ago, mattie g said:

15 cubic yards? :lol:

I think I got 5 cubic yards last year. That stuff sat in my driveway for about 6 weeks before I finally got it all spread about. Going to limit my mulching this year since most of last year's was brand new mulching in new play and landscaped areas, plus we've got the new porch build coming up so we won't have to do any mulching in front just yet. This year will just be topping off those areas we mulched liberally last year. 

 

55 minutes ago, WxUSAF said:

Damn. I ordered 8 which is the most I’ve ever done. If I did the calculations with 3” depth, I’d probably be in the 12ish range. 

I generally do 10 every other year.  This is an off year so it is bags only.  I don't really want to think about how much I've paid to have trees removed and then paid again to have different shredded trees returned.

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