Newbie/Lots of Basic Questions

16 years ago

We bought the house we are now living in about 2 years ago. We've been spending the last couple of years getting the interior like we like it, and now are ready to pay more attention to the outside. We just reseeded the lawn, and have now started to venture into the front area of the house. This is a mess! Along the front of the house are boxwoods and hostas. They are growing nicely, but this year, noticed they were being eaten by some sort of insect. There is no edging, and the beds were made of pine straw. Raked all that out this past weekend. Underneath, there were all sorts of insects, but the most prevalent appears to be some kind of beetle? (solid black) There were lots of those. And the previous owner had put down the black weed blockers, but it is ripped in several places. I'm not really sure where to begin. My eventual goal is to add some attractive edging and some color. But right now I just want to get the bed area healthy and ready for future plants. Obviously, we need to get rid of the insects first. Suggestions? After that, do we need to put down more of the weed blocker, or will a thick layer of mulch do the trick? Is there anything else we need to do? Not looking at adding new plants just yet, but would like to have it ready when the fall arrives. Thanks so much for answering my novice questions!

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Comments (5)

ironbelly1
16 years ago
"Obviously, we need to get rid of the insects first. Suggestions?"

Sounds like ground beetles -- which are a beneficial insect. Gardening is not about killing anything and everything you don't understand. Wise people do it to learn about and embrace living things; which are not always human.

IronBelly
mamamermaid
16 years ago
I have to agree with the pp and suggest that you NOT kill anything. I know lots of gardeners might disagree, but I think bugs are there for a reason. "Mother Nature" knows what she's doing!

Do you have a good, local nursery that you can start frequenting? They can help you with all kinds of things...what those bugs might be and how you might be able to help them find something else to munch on if you do want to keep your hostas and bwood.

If you're not planning to DO anything to the beds now - just getting them ready for future planting - I'd say rip up all the fabric, work in some organic compost (you can buy this at your nursery) and just use a 3" layer of mulch on top of that - You don't even really need any mulch now, but I like the way it looks.

You can easily go pick out some cool edging and go ahead and put that down now too. It will look nice and uniform with just the edging and the mulch. In the fall you can rake out the mulch, plant, and then add the mulch back on.

A birdbath or some kind of statue might look nice while you're waiting to plant.

Have fun!
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lpinkmountain
16 years ago
Bugs living in the ground help create healthy, fertile soil and are not a problem. If you have bugs that you see actually living on and munching your plants, put them in a little jar and call your local Cooperative Extension Service. They have a master gardener program where folks help you identify and correctly treat insect pests. They are VERY helpful.

Meanwhile, you can find some geraniums in pots on sale and put them out around the front for a color perk up.

There was a discussion here a few weeks back on types of mulch, you may want to use the search function at the bottom of the page and type in "mulch" and read over some of those discussions.

I am not a fan of weed blocker. As you observed, it gets ripped and then the weeds start in and it is a pain to deal with at that point. Also, dirt accumulates on top of the weed blocker and you still get weeds. I use mulch and a product made of corn gluten called "Preen" and a weekly weeding inspection to keep the weeds down in my beds. I also look at the soil and figure out what it needs, or doesn't need, based on my ecological training. If you're not comfortable analyzing your soil yourself, again, call the Cooperative Extension, that's what those folks do for a living. They are paid by your taxes, put them to work helping you!

Good luck and most important, have fun!
karinl
16 years ago
Your beetles may be weevils, and your hostas may be eaten by slugs. It is important to figure out exactly what bugs are doing what. If you go out after dark with a flashlight you may catch them at their dinner.

The best thing you can do is probably to pull up and discard that landscaping fabric. You are quite right that for healthy plants, you need healthy soil, and that doesn't happen under fabric.

To replace it, you don't really need fabric or mulch; just dirt is allowed. You may prefer to buy ground covering plants, however, or annuals for colour, and without fabric or mulch they are easy to put in the ground where you want them.

KarinL
Brent_In_NoVA
16 years ago
Good advice so far about removing the weed blocker, using organic mulch, and adding compost. I mostly agree on the "don't kill anything" advice...EXCEPT FOR SLUGS!!! There is nothing worse than stepping on a big slimy slug in your bare feet...yuck! ;-) I would not be surprised if slugs or snails were eating your hosta leaves. There are iron phosphate based slug control products that are fairly safe to use (plus other control mechanisms).

Good luck!

- Brent

Newbie/Lots of Basic Questions

Comments (5)

ironbelly1

mamamermaid

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karinl

Brent_In_NoVA

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