2021 Lawn and Garden Thread

[buckeyefan1]

34 minutes ago, Avdave said:

Getting some spring color popping up in the yard thanks to our warm weather last week

The pear and apple trees are blooming, red buds are sprouting, daffodils are beautiful, tulips and azaleas will be blooming soon too. I’m putting some grass seed down tomorrow and I think I’m gonna use 5 gal buckets for the garden this year. Only because I will be able to control water intake and I can move them if they’re not doing well  

[SharonA]

Got a late start to the season yet again, mitigated in part by lots of stuff coming back.  Since this is a rental with severe HOA restrictions on what's visible from the street, we're limited to what can be grown in the itty-bitty backyard that's 75% deck and 25% deer, with a couple of small terrace-retaining-wall spots, one of which is in afternoon scorcher full sun and the other in "gets a little slice of morning" sun. 

The morning-sun plot is right up against the deck and the drippage aka "water puddles here forever" spot near the faucet.  It is home to the happiest clustered mountain mint the world has ever seen.  Last year I put in a 4" stem cutting that had just started to root, and ended up the season with a 3x4 shrub that was THE party place for every pollinator around.  It died back, I pruned it hard, and it's come back across a 2'x2' patch, is already a foot tall and ready to rumble.  Thankfully it's a Georgia native so I'm not too stressed if it gets out of the terrace area.

Pineapple sage overwintered despite zero protection from the cold.  I didn't even try to overwinter it, but the house/microclime-bubble/genetics/SOMETHING protected it enough during the hard freezes.  Fingers crossed that this year it will bloom BEFORE the hummingbirds head south for winter.  It's a beautiful shrub with huge gorgeous sprays of flowers, with blooming triggered by day shortening.  Maybe starting out with a large established root system will prompt it to bloom earlier rather than work that leaf growth?  Please?

This year the container obstacle course outside the door and along the walk is already established ... sedums, hyacinths, Stokesia, catmint, fuschia, Sciabosa, black-and-blue sage & another pineapple sage (this one overwintered indoors and it never went dormant), all came back and are joined by echinacea, dragon's tail radish, daffodils, dwarf & full-size sweet peas, nasturtiums, native hibiscus, red hot poker, canary creeper, black-eyed susan vine, catnip, indian pinks, and half a dozen others.  The passionflowers looks like they'll come back again, despite a couple still being in their original little 1-gallon pot and only one of them being Z7 hardy.  The sweet peas have been a nightmare of dampoff and slow-to-grow, and the nasturtiums are leggy as all get-out.  My plan had been to have both of these in bloom for when the hummingbirds returned from migration, but they're weeks away.

Inside the seed start mat is packed full and the block tray has literally A-to-Z: alyssum, bachelor buttons, basil ... zinnia.  This weekend is starting a few dozen more of other flowers,and uppotting the coral honeysuckle I picked up at the Chattahootchie Nature Center's native plant sale yesterday. 

Plan is for some friends to take extras off my hands, and whatever they don't want gets hauled over to the community gardens and donated.  I ended up 2020 with gobs of excess seed.  This year's goal is getting rid of it.

 

 

[PantherJustin]

Has anyone had any experience with “Tenacity”? I’ve wanted to try it .... I’ve been experimenting with  “NeXT” system with the Air8/D-Thatch/Green Punch/Humic-DG too “Get my dirt right” as a Local YouTube Celeb would say and I have a thick stand of turf about 90% spread but that 10% of Random Weed is just annoying me. 

[PantherJustin]

[Avdave]

Im just jealous you have green grass and it isnt bermuda crap we have here. I hate bermuda

[PantherJustin]

33 minutes ago, Avdave said:

Im just jealous you have green grass and it isnt bermuda crap we have here. I hate bermuda

I hate Bermuda as well... and it seems any new home that’s new construction ect or anything with Sod that’s what they just throw down .... and for 8/9 months a year it’s golden brown so idk 

[Avdave]

16 hours ago, PantherJustin said:

I hate Bermuda as well... and it seems any new home that’s new construction ect or anything with Sod that’s what they just throw down .... and for 8/9 months a year it’s golden brown so idk 

Yep, its all they use unless there is an irrigation system in place and then you can have fescue which is what I miss the most.  This bermuda creeps into my shrub beds and any opening it can find.  

[NCWX]

I had the perfect yard 3 years ago... Then Florence hit.  I think the amount of salt in the rain screwed the soil.  Now I have weeds and bald spots.... I have no clue what to do. My grass was centipede.  Everyones yards look the same except those who have put down new sod. I can't afford that.  Any ideas?

[Snow dog]

10 hours ago, NCWX said:

I had the perfect yard 3 years ago... Then Florence hit.  I think the amount of salt in the rain screwed the soil.  Now I have weeds and bald spots.... I have no clue what to do. My grass was centipede.  Everyones yards look the same except those who have put down new sod. I can't afford that.  Any ideas?

Lime, lime, and more lime!  That should neutralize the soil, and allow you to get the grass going again...

[magpiemaniac]

Bring in or cover the plants Wednesday and Thursday nights.  It’s going to get cold.

[frazdaddy]

2k lbs of fertilizer a year is finally starting to pay off. Luckily the cold didn’t hurt the water plants.

[magpiemaniac]

35 minutes ago, frazdaddy said:

2k lbs of fertilizer a year is finally starting to pay off. Luckily the cold didn’t hurt the water plants.

Idyllic place you have there.  I like the koi pond and big front porch.

[frazdaddy]

Just now, magpiemaniac said:

Idyllic place you have there.  I like the koi pond and big front porch.

Thank you sir. I have kept fish as a hobby since I was 15. We love to sit outside so porches on all sides and lots of other seating areas around the place.  It's lot's of work but it gives me peace after a long week.

You made it to any games yet?  Boys look really good and we just might win the presidents cup

[Avdave]

2 hours ago, frazdaddy said:

2k lbs of fertilizer a year is finally starting to pay off. Luckily the cold didn’t hurt the water plants.

It looks awesome there Fraz. Lawn looks great and the fish pond and hot tub area looks awesome

[magpiemaniac]

1 hour ago, frazdaddy said:

Thank you sir. I have kept fish as a hobby since I was 15. We love to sit outside so porches on all sides and lots of other seating areas around the place.  It's lot's of work but it gives me peace after a long week.

You made it to any games yet?  Boys look really good and we just might win the presidents cup

I sit outside a lot, too.  We have two big rockers on the front porch.  As a matter of fact, I plan to replace our outdoor ceiling fans tomorrow.  The original ones are acting all sluggish and getting noisy.

Every time I check for (the very limited) tickets, the only ones left are for the nose bleed sections.  It’s just not worth the bother.  Hopefully, we’ll return to full arenas in the fall.  Winning the division would be huge.

[frazdaddy]

17 hours ago, Avdave said:

It looks awesome there Fraz. Lawn looks great and the fish pond and hot tub area looks awesome

Thank you sir. The work really starts now,  oldest daughters wedding here in the fall. Lot's to do.

[frazdaddy]

9 hours ago, magpiemaniac said:

I sit outside a lot, too.  We have two big rockers on the front porch.  As a matter of fact, I plan to replace our outdoor ceiling fans tomorrow.  The original ones are acting all sluggish and getting noisy.

Every time I check for (the very limited) tickets, the only ones left are for the nose bleed sections.  It’s just not worth the bother.  Hopefully, we’ll return to full arenas in the fall.  Winning the division would be huge.

We went once. Got lucky with club level seats. It's just not the same. If we could tailgate we would go back but I may wait and get the season tix for next year.

[magpiemaniac]

Our garden has been great this season.  We’ve had to water it more due to long stretches without rain, but we have cucumbers, zucchini, and peppers coming out the wazoo.

[robrofox]

I'm envying you guys because I'm living in an apartment and I don't have a garden haha. My wife keeps telling me that I should get a rope swing like the ones from https://www.growgardener.com/best-rope-for-tree-swing/ and we literally don't have the space for it. Maybe one day, we will be able to own a house and this problem will be gone, but until then, I'm trying to make a paradise out of what we have. Thankfully, she is so supportive and understands this. One day, I'll own a garden full of trees and all sorts of plants, and I'll make sure to post some pictures of that

[SharonA]

Ooooops.  Life got Super Busy and I forgot about this thread.  Also didn't have much time for the garden.

My home office, where I work full-time, overlooks part of the back deck that is full of planters.  One is 130qt capacity and gets a dozen blue hyacinth and scarlet runner beans clambering up a wire trellis to make a living wall.  It was a huge success - again - and provided tons of entertainment.  I had picked up some Coral Sage (S. coccinea, an Iowa-sourced pink version of the Georgia native Scarlet Sage) and had a 90qt planter with some of that, plus several pots.  It took off and was a huge hit with the hummingbirds and bees.  Also with the Jojo spiders, which took over this year.  I had zero native garden-orb spiders, just Jojos everywhere.

The mild fall and weird winter left a lot of plants confused.  On Christmas Day I still had three different Salvia still with flowers, including Pineapple Sage which is not noted for surviving Zone7 - last summer was the first time I've had it successfully overwinter outside.  Thunbergia alata (Black-Eyed-Susan Vine) still had a flower and several buds.  One Gerber daisy that the deer had somehow missed, and a couple of marigold flowers completed the out-of-season blooming experience.  The owner here hired a yard guy for the front yard, and the wood mulch he put around the trees sprouted up a huge colony of stinkhorn.

The bearded iris had a dozen bugs killed by the last freeze.  I hope that wasn't this spring's allotment coming in early.