Glad to share back-breakingly learned info! Avoiding others' mistakes is so much easier than following in our footsteps. Different grasses behave differently, and some are much harder to keep separate from bed areas than others. Knowing how it's getting into beds is the key to controlling it. When starting a new line separating grass from cultivated bed area, I use a shovel to sever all stem and root ties of the grass, between the two areas. Plunge it straight down, along the length of the new line of separation. We have several types of creeping grasses in our yard, but if the plants are severed, then truly removed or smothered in the bed area, a line of bricks laying on the ground is enough to maintain the border. Occasionally a stem of grass can find a low spot under a brick (lr landscape timber) to exploit, but that's easy to fix by picking up the brick, pulling that stem out, not something I do often, or that takes much time. Laying the bricks tightly together also helps, which does make round edges difficult because a weed trimmer can't cleanly sever anything trying to creep over the top, stems usually find the leap between the gap by the corners very easy to make. If you're not able to keep grass out by simply laying bricks on the surface, especially since you're working with a curved line, you can reinforce it with those fugly plastic things that hook together. Buried so only the top inch or so is above ground, the bricks can be laid around that, giving you a border that goes under ground about 6", and also includes the width of the brick on the surface. That should make maintenance easier, much more difficult for grass to break into the bed, something you would monitor when mowing/trimming. When mowing, aim the discharge away from beds, so grass seeds aren't flung into beds. Doing at least the trimming around borders before grass makes seeds, possibly between mows sometimes, helps reduce the amount of grass seed that gets into beds also. The wind can blow seeds into beds sometimes as well, but grass sprouts are easy to pull when small, much harder if left to form a patch. When pulling grass, try to get all of the roots. Many types of grass can keep growing from little bits of root left in the ground. HTH you stay grass free in your beds with the least amount of effort!!
Thank you, Purple. I notice my lawn guy had blown grass into my beds. I didn't say anything as I am still working on them and trying to figure out but I didn't realize how much work that would cause me so I will definitely ask him not to have grass blown into my beds. I am going to change the brick design on the main flower beds.
You will have a beautiful yard in no time. Have to agree about the weed guard fabric. Thick newspaper or cardboard will be better. Don`t cover the roots to thickly with the mulch. They need to breathe. Try red oak or pin oak for shade trees. They should do well in your area especially the pin oak. I have two that were planted 7 years ago at about 4ft tall,, now they are about 20 and 25 ft. Red oak grows slower than pin oak but both are excellent shade trees and live a long time.
Thank you, Mart! I need all the help I can get. My back yard has no trees and would like some shade back there.
Crape Myrtles are native to down my way. Could we have an update on their progress? It's important to prune them right, especially when either juvenile or old.
Brisbane, I ended up moving them to my flower bed instead of in my yard. I planted 2 English Ivory Trees (I thinks that's their name). They stay green all year round. My crape myrtles look bad right now so I will update you once Spring hits if they survived being moved.
Hello everyone, I am here of course to seek some help on my tall crape myrtle. I bought 2 15 gallon crape myrtles in March 2018. One of them is doing really good and will bloom soon. Question is about the other one which looks like it is dying. It all started 1 month ago. I was watering regularly to both the trees. One day I noticed droopy leaves and started watering little more than usual. Thenbit got back to normal and a week later the leaves turned yellow and not crunchy and are falling. In between I did ferlize a little on recommendation of ace people. Please see the pictures. The bark is still green inside. What can I do to save it? How much should I water? Thanks.
Stop watering they are dropping leaves because they are drowning. Crepe Myrtles are native to hot, dry places and when settled in will live on what rain they might get. Are they still in the pots or have you gotten them put in the ground? They really need to be in the ground if possible. When they are first planted they need to be watered using a root waterer that makes the roots go deeper and become settled in for a long life. If they were planted in cool weather water them once a week.....if they were planted in hot weather water 2-5 times a week. After about 2 months stop watering unless you experience a severe drought. They are not native where I live but love our hot, dry weather, mine are each over 40 years old. They were 10 years old when we bought the house and I have not watered them at all.
