The 2023 Lawn, Garden, Landscape Party Discussion

[tamarack]

14 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

@tamarack @dendrite or others.

 

are oak trees “water seeking”. I want to get an oak tree for the front yard, as its completely sun, all the time.

Will this be okay with my well in the area?

 

would you go with another tree?

Oaks seek water (well, all trees do that ) but some oaks tolerate wet soils better than others - swamp white oak, perhaps pin oak (its Latin name, Quercus palustris, means swamp oak), some of the others from the white oak group.  Oak wood is strong, and they are generally well rooted.  I personally would avoid the Populus genus - aspens, poplars, cottonwood - as they have weak wood, irritating seed fluff (June "snow") and shallow roots.  Red maple will grow almost anywhere, and its colors have been called "the flame of the autumn woods".
More than you need to know . . . 

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

On 6/23/2023 at 11:41 AM, tamarack said:

Oaks seek water (well, all trees do that ) but some oaks tolerate wet soils better than others - swamp white oak, perhaps pin oak (its Latin name, Quercus palustris, means swamp oak), some of the others from the white oak group.  Oak wood is strong, and they are generally well rooted.  I personally would avoid the Populus genus - aspens, poplars, cottonwood - as they have weak wood, irritating seed fluff (June "snow") and shallow roots.  Red maple will grow almost anywhere, and its colors have been called "the flame of the autumn woods".
More than you need to know . . . 

I have a couple of October glory red maples planted in the back yard, and they are finally starting to come around. Even at a small size, beautiful color in the fall.

 

I wouldn’t mind going with another maple in the front, how far away from the well would be a safe distance? Or is that not even really a factor at all?

[dendrite]

12 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

I have a couple of October glory red maples planted in the back yard, and they are finally starting to come around. Even at a small size, beautiful color in the fall.

 

I wouldn’t mind going with another maple in the front, how far away from the well would be a safe distance? Or is that not even really a factor at all?

I would think maybe 30-40ft would be sufficient? Red maples are nice, but there's just something about a large fiery sugar maple out front that I find stunning.

[tamarack]

17 hours ago, dendrite said:

I would think maybe 30-40ft would be sufficient? Red maples are nice, but there's just something about a large fiery sugar maple out front that I find stunning.

Especially since there's already some red maples.  A sugar maple turning yellow/orange/red would make a colorful mix with the reds.

[dryslot]

Decided after all the rain we've had flooding my garden and my newly seeded lawn behind it, I decided to run a gutter on the shed roof, Capture the rain water in a barrel and use a pump with Pex tubing to irrigate the garden with still the city water option, This should take care of 85% of the flooding problem back there.

[Professional Lurker]

Decided after all the rain we've had flooding my garden and my newly seeded lawn behind it, I decided to run a gutter on the shed roof, Capture the rain water in a barrel and use a pump with Pex tubing to irrigate the garden with still the city water option, This should take care of 85% of the flooding problem back there.

Nice! Looks like a small fortune in shark bite fittings.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[dryslot]

8 hours ago, Professional Lurker said:

Nice! Looks like a small fortune in shark bite fittings.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk
 

Not cheap for sure.

[STILL N OF PIKE]

Waited a extra 32 or so hours this week to mow (compared to the Friday am usual ) and it made a considerable difference in length . I’m guessing most of that was weather related 

[dryslot]

Can't even mow here with all the standing water leaching out of the ground, Pumped 50 gallons out of the garden, But the garden is thriving big time.

[dendrite]

Yeah I bought a 50lb bag of 46-0-0 urea to fertilize my pawpaws. I was dissolving it in multiple 1 gal water jugs at a time using collected rainwater and was spreading it around the trees with the watering can yesterday morning. I got about 3/4 of the way through when I saw the dark clouds coming. Over an inch of rain later, I think all of the urea is flowing down the Merrimack right now.

I'll do it again sometime this week when the yard isn't ponded and the ground isn't sloshing when I walk through it.

[HoarfrostHubb]

Mushrooms are out of control on my front lawn

 

[dendrite]

5 hours ago, dendrite said:

Yeah I bought a 50lb bag of 46-0-0 urea to fertilize my pawpaws. I was dissolving it in multiple 1 gal water jugs at a time using collected rainwater and was spreading it around the trees with the watering can yesterday morning. I got about 3/4 of the way through when I saw the dark clouds coming. Over an inch of rain later, I think all of the urea is flowing down the Merrimack right now.

I'll do it again sometime this week when the yard isn't ponded and the ground isn't sloshing when I walk through it.

Well it’s probably a good thing I had excess water flowing through the yard because the couple of trees I had on the slope, above the water table, had nitrogen damage to their newer leaves today. I ran a few gallons of water through the root zone to try to dilute it some more. Apparently 4tbsp of 46-0-0 in a half gallon of water is too concentrated for 1 tree.

I think I’ll cut back to about 1tbsp and just apply more frequently. They’re voracious N eaters, but apparently I overstuffed them.

[Ginx snewx]

55 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Well it’s probably a good thing I had excess water flowing through the yard because the couple of trees I had on the slope, above the water table, had nitrogen damage to their newer leaves today. I ran a few gallons of water through the root zone to try to dilute it some more. Apparently 4tbsp of 46-0-0 in a half gallon of water is too concentrated for 1 tree.

I think I’ll cut back to about 1tbsp and just apply more frequently. They’re voracious N eaters, but apparently I overstuffed them.

Yea 1 tbsp of high nitrogen per gallon is enough. 

Garden exploded this past week. Can't believe the size of all the hostas, just huge. 

[DavisStraight]

9 hours ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Mushrooms are out of control on my front lawn

 

Any edible?

[eekuasepinniW]

7 hours ago, dendrite said:

Well it’s probably a good thing I had excess water flowing through the yard because the couple of trees I had on the slope, above the water table, had nitrogen damage to their newer leaves today. I ran a few gallons of water through the root zone to try to dilute it some more. Apparently 4tbsp of 46-0-0 in a half gallon of water is too concentrated for 1 tree.

I think I’ll cut back to about 1tbsp and just apply more frequently. They’re voracious N eaters, but apparently I overstuffed them.

omg

I like to push my plants but still have never really gone past 1 slightly heaping tbsp per gallon of jacks professional 20-20-20.

 

[dendrite]

5 hours ago, eekuasepinniW said:

omg

I like to push my plants but still have never really gone past 1 slightly heaping tbsp per gallon of jacks professional 20-20-20.

 

Someone in my pawpaw group had good results with 3 tbsp watered in around the plants every 3 weeks. The ones that look the worst were trees that were already very green from a guy in VT. So maybe he used some kind of soil with fert already in it? 
 

The really stressed one looks a little better after a couple of gallons of water through it. The curled leaves opened back up. Lesson learned. 

[UnitedWx]

On 6/30/2023 at 3:19 PM, dryslot said:

Decided after all the rain we've had flooding my garden and my newly seeded lawn behind it, I decided to run a gutter on the shed roof, Capture the rain water in a barrel and use a pump with Pex tubing to irrigate the garden with still the city water option, This should take care of 85% of the flooding problem back there.

Excellent!  We're working on the same thing. We have an old bomb shelter in our side yard that's about the size of 2 econoline vans. Thinking of sealing it up with some sort of membrane and using it as a huge cistern. I can rig up a sump pump from there for a nice off the grid supply. The other half uses a ton of water for plants and It would be a great way to use a feature in the yard that is just taking up space

[dryslot]

Progress

[Damage In Tolland]

Tomato plants gone wild.. loving this hot wet summer . Some of them up

to my chest .. loaded with flowers and tomatoes 

[tunafish]

Anyone have any suggestions on how to catch groundhogs? 

I've been able to keep them out of my garden, but they've now made a burrow right up against my foundation under my deck.  I've had havaheart traps out with cantaloupe, lettuce, peapods, and other desirable edibles in various locations over the past month, but the juveniles are too skiddish to bother going in there.

I can't shoot them (residential 'hood).

I don't want to kill them in their borrow (attracting other creatures).

But I need them gone.  I've heard urine, hair, cayenne are all deterrents.  I don't want to deter, I want death (or removal) to know for sure these POS are gone. 

[dryslot]

21 hours ago, tunafish said:

Anyone have any suggestions on how to catch groundhogs? 

I've been able to keep them out of my garden, but they've now made a burrow right up against my foundation under my deck.  I've had havaheart traps out with cantaloupe, lettuce, peapods, and other desirable edibles in various locations over the past month, but the juveniles are too skiddish to bother going in there.

I can't shoot them (residential 'hood).

I don't want to kill them in their borrow (attracting other creatures).

But I need them gone.  I've heard urine, hair, cayenne are all deterrents.  I don't want to deter, I want death (or removal) to know for sure these POS are gone. 

Place the cage right where there coming out and they should walk right in it.

[dryslot]

Tomatoes GW, Picked 2 heads of cauliflower yesterday too.

[tunafish]

51 minutes ago, dryslot said:

Place the cage right where there coming out and they should walk right in it.

I've got it right at the entrance.  Even blocked off every possible escape route so they HAD to walk right in.  nope.  Wen to the other borrow entrance in my neighbors yard.  Blocking his off now, too.  Watch them dig a new entrance.  

[dryslot]

5 minutes ago, tunafish said:

I've got it right at the entrance.  Even blocked off every possible escape route so they HAD to walk right in.  nope.  Wen to the other borrow entrance in my neighbors yard.  Blocking his off now, too.  Watch them dig a new entrance.  

There tough to nab, I had to shoot one here and i'm in a residential area several yrs back with a .22 pistol.

[SJonesWX]

1 hour ago, dryslot said:

There tough to nab, I had to shoot one here and i'm in a residential area several yrs back with a .22 pistol.

yup. light off some firecrackers before and after you take the kill shot. No one will be the wiser

[tamarack]

4 hours ago, dryslot said:

There tough to nab, I had to shoot one here and i'm in a residential area several yrs back with a .22 pistol.

I thought I would need to do the same, and as we're 500 feet from the nearest house and 'chucks are unprotected in law, no issues.  However, the Havahart bagged a half grown critter (released 3/4 mile down the unmaintained road) and the adults departed once I was active in the garden.  I was glad, as they were trying to dig down under our foundation and when I'd fill their holes with stones, they would toss them back out.  They probably weren't going to burrow down the 7+ feet to get under the footing but their attempts were making a mess in several spots.

[dryslot]

3 hours ago, tamarack said:

I thought I would need to do the same, and as we're 500 feet from the nearest house and 'chucks are unprotected in law, no issues.  However, the Havahart bagged a half grown critter (released 3/4 mile down the unmaintained road) and the adults departed once I was active in the garden.  I was glad, as they were trying to dig down under our foundation and when I'd fill their holes with stones, they would toss them back out.  They probably weren't going to burrow down the 7+ feet to get under the footing but their attempts were making a mess in several spots.

They're a nuisance Tom, Tough to evict once they take up residence.

[tunafish]

On 7/14/2023 at 9:27 PM, dryslot said:

They're a nuisance Tom, Tough to evict once they take up residence.

Two adolescents trapped and relocated yesterday.  Still one adolescent left plus big momma.  Need to get them out and fill their holes before something else takes residence.

Between the May freeze, 'hogs, unrelenting mank this is a brutal year for the gardens.

[Chrisrotary12]

Anyone else under absolute bombardment from acorns?

[Ginx snewx]

1 hour ago, Chrisrotary12 said:

Anyone else under absolute bombardment from acorns?

Enjoy a great winter lol. All our Oaks are hurting. Just been a brutal last 10 years for our forests. From gypsy moths, ash borers to tropical storms and wet snowstorms they are decimated and those living aren't looking healthy. Dead trees dropped in the monsoon. It's crazy. A hurricane would probably clear cut acres and acres.