Planting at the base of a Maple Tree
onthebrinck
11 years ago
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lisanti07028
11 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Reviving St. Augustine with newly planted Maple tree
Comments (8)I'm here. Zone 8 in Texas...you can't be far away. Growing St Aug is very easy once you get the hang of it. There are three elements to it. Watering, mowing, and fertilizing. You did not mention mowing but I suspect you were mowing way too low and that's why your grass died. Otherwise, if your grass was being mowed at the highest setting on the mower, then watering an hour a week, all at once, should have been enough to at least keep it alive. St Aug will do a good job of filling in the areas that are dead now; however, not good enough fast enough. In the spring (late February) I suggest you get some pieces of St Aug sod to cover the areas where it is dead now. They will be a dollar per piece. Get the Floratam variety if you can find it. If you are in San Antonio, Milburger's nursery carries it. They have Floratam Fridays. Putting the sod down is all you need to do to keep new weeds out. St Aug is amazing like that. When you put the sod down, walk on every square inch of it to make sure it has good contact with the soil underneath. Roots will not grow through the air to reach the soil below. Also water it 3x per day for 10 minutes each time. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are perfect times to water. Do that for about 2 weeks and then back off. Eventually in the hottest part of summer you should be watering for an hour a week. If you did that last year and did not get good results, then you need to water more. I water for 3-5 hours per week to get 3/8 to 5/8 inch with my oscillating sprinkler. I am in fairly deep shade on shallow, limestone soil. You'll have to adjust for your conditions. Do not fertilize the new grass until after you have mowed it for the second time. That ensures you are fertilizing actively growing plants and not dormant plants. Mow at the mower's highest setting. You will NEVER have to mow it at any other height. Ever. If you decide to use organic fertilizer, you can apply that in Feb. If you decide to use synthetic fertilizer, you can fertilize in March after the second mowing. Then fertilize again with either one on Memorial Day. If you want to apply fertilizer in the summer, the only choice is organic because the synthetic might burn. Organic will never burn. Do that on July 4th if you do it. Then fertilize again on Labor Day and Thanksgiving. Those are all easy dates to remember. None of this should impact your tree at all. Other than that do not use any weed killers or preventives. If you are mowing at the highest setting and watering infrequently, you should never get weeds. The weeds to watch out for are the broadleaf weeds. While St Aug will out compete grassy weeds, it will not out compete broadleaf weeds. Anything that looks like clover needs to be pulled before it gets started....See MorePlants & Misc that start with 'E' 2008 Photos
Comments (3)Yes, Sharon, everyone else seems to be busy this year. Hopefully they will contribute yet. I love looking at pictures others post, whether it is one or ten pictures. So, here is my E's..... E is for Estevan. I drove out to Estevan, Saskatchewan and spoke at the local garden club, on perennials in June 2008. I showed a slide presentation of an assortment of perennials I grow in my yard and then also brought along perennials I had divided out of my yard that were labeled, priced and available to purchase by those in attendance. Since there is no local nursery in Estevan to buy perennials at, just Canadian Tire and Walmart, the selection of perennials I brought along went over extremely well. I really enjoyed that trip. E is for Empty. First is a picture of my old plywood and painted cupboards, empty of everything, and awaiting removal from the kitchen. Next are the Empty new cupboards. Huge and wonderful!!! We moved the fridge to be in the center of where the old cupboards were and made the new cupboards the same depth as the fridge. The corner cupboard now holds all the large tupperware. E is for Edge of garden. This picture was taken in spring 2008. I landscaped this area fully in the fall of 2008. I placed a daylily between each tulip, mulched with flax and in the background beside the platform I planted irises, semps, an ITOH peony, more daylilies and other various perennials. E is for Entrance. This is the entrance to our sunroom. The original old door (that was on the small porch that we ripped apart and replaced with a sunroom) will be eventually replaced with patio doors of some sort as you can see on the outline on the sunroom. E is for Eating....This squirrel was in the oak trees just outside our sunroom one day. He was very upset that I was by the window inside taking pictures of him eating. But, I got some good pictures of him, including one I am currantly using as my screensaver. E is for Ewes awaiting their turn to be sheared at our neighbors in May. Emerald Lace Plectranthus is a new purchase last summer for my plectranthus collection. I found it at Superstore, of all places. Epimedium (Bishops Hat) is so dainty. Etoile Violet Clematis is climbing on an old wicker headboard in the flowerbeds. I found the wicker a few summers ago at my daughter's apartment block leaning against the garbage container. After a week of it still being there I decided it looked better in my yard with clematis climbing on it. Eenie Weenie Daylily has a 1.75" golden yellow flower and only gets about 10" high. It is a great plant for a perennial border along with You Angel You Daylily. E is for Edge. Here is the Edge of a daylily, Light Years Away. Notice the gold Edge on it. Entrapment Daylily is just a new purchase last summer... Exotic Candy Daylily is also new last summer... El Nino Hosta has thick bluish green leaves with a white edge... Elegans Hosta is planted at the base of a maple tree which apparently is not a great spot for it according to the discussions on the Hosta Forum about maple trees and hostas. Next summer I plan on watering it faithfully and we will see how large it will get then. Here is the Elegans Hostas flower... Emerald Tiara Hosta is looking good already. It is making a nice little display in the flowerbed. Erromena Hosta is a bonus hosta that I got from Floral and Hardy in 2007 with my order of daylilies. Now for a few irises... Elfin Magic is a white MDB iris. Extra Iris, MDB, is so very bright and cheery. I love it! I know that you posted a picture of it Sharon, but I had to show my pictures too since it is one of my favorite irises. Top view... Front view of Extra Iris. Eyes For You Iris was an iris I received by mistake on an iris order. It is a burgundy colored SDB. I think it would look very nice next to an iris, such as Forever Violet. Now, lilies... I only have one lily that is a new one to bloom this year...Echo lily is a very dainty lily. Erubescens Orostachys I just bought this past summer. I wonder how it will like our cold winters here... Emily Carr Rose is only two years old. This flower was blooming on the plant for a long long time. I have one sedum that starts with E...Ewersii Sedum... Sempervivums will change color throughout the year. There are a few E Sempervivums here in the yard. Edge of Night Semp in the fall of 2007. Same one, Edge of Night, in the spring of 2008. This picture is a bit fuzzy, so I will retake it this spring. notice though the difference the time of year makes to this sempervivum. Eureka Sempervivums flower... I missed taking a picture of the semp itself. hmmmm...next year. El Cid Tulip is a very colorful tulip. No two flowers are the same. Hope you all enjoyed the pictures. Off to getting my F's ready to post. Brenda...See MoreWhen to prune newly planted maple tree
Comments (9)I'm no expert on this, but I think I would leave it. It's gone pretty far, and as said above, would probable do the same thing all over again. There is a larger Autumn Blaze in front of where I work that is about a 12" trunk, that does not have the standard central leader, and is branched repeatedly where several leaders originate from one location in kind of a disc shaped arrangement. Then in late Jan we had the worse ice storm at the location I have seen, and about the worst on record. Guess what, the Autumn Blaze lost 2-4 relatively minor branches not more than a couple inches thick, and that was all. This with some formerly large probable 30 inch diameter sugar maples reduced to mostly trunks. Now I'm sure, the tree not being nearly as large as the sugar maples made a difference, but still it's a mature tree that came through the WORST ice storm essentially unscathed. On a side note, I am currently working on one in my yard, that was just plain screwed up. Partly my fault, partly not. In fact it was a tree that I gave up for dead, as I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. Finally I remembered when we bought it that the nursery worked had sprayed "wilt proof" on it, for the ride home. Leaves got thick, and slowly disintegrated, and then died. Grew a few more back, but same think leaves, and very short internodes. Finally figured out it was probable 2,4 D herbicide damage, and that it had not been sprayed with wilt-proof at all. Last spring I noticed that buds set before I bought the tree were growing (all be it slowly), while the buds set afterward were not behaving normally. Little more research, and 2,4 D concentrates in the apical meristem (the growing points), and so could have concentrated in the buds set AFTER I bought the tree. So out come the pruners, cutting all the buds and branch ends set after I bought the tree. Low and behold the tree springs to life, and grows well till mid-summer. Added up to about 2.5' on some branches. Even got some decent russet orange-red fall color from it. So now the tree is still lopsided, still has a kind of crooked central leader that leans to one side, but it is on the road to recover, and I will be able to turn it into a very nice tree. This all is to say, that these trees are VERY TOUGH, and that it may very well turn out better than you expect. Also these trees seem to be more resistant to ice damage than many would give them credit for. Arktrees...See MorePlanting very closely around base of maple tree - dry shade
Comments (5)A word of caution, katiezub. I'm not speaking from experience, as I have only oaks. However, I am helping a friend plant a shade garden in a bed that has sugar maples, and in doing research and asking around, I've read/heard that planting too close to maples may be detrimental to the tree. I don't know if it matters what kind of maple, but I just wanted to pass this along as something for you to consider. Perhaps you should stick with shallow-rooted plants, like maybe a groundcover like ajuga. Good luck! :) Dee...See Moremad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
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