Weeding has been the biggest challenge for me this year as well. Normally, I do the fanatical early spring weeding marathon and then spend 3-4 hours every weekend pulling weeds and keeping the gardens neat and clean. Unfortunately, this year DH and I have been installing a flagstone patio and have been spending weekends for the last couple months trying to get that finished by summer. IT'S FINALLY DONE!! Now I can turn my attention to fighting those dreadful weeds, especially, the willowherb, shotweed, and blackberries. However, I have been trying to, at least, go out there for an hour or two each weekend or in the evening to pull the ones that are starting to flower before they go to seed. I, too, have been trying to establish ground covers on the areas of bare dirt using ajuga, corsican mint, wooly thyme and kinnickinick. I have found, if you keep the ground covers weeded (ha!) while it is getting established, it does a great job in keeping the weeds down in those areas. But, as always, in getting anything established, you have to keep up with the weeding. Now that we are finished with the patio, I am looking forward to spending a couple of full weekends pulling weeds and spreading bark mulch, and hopefully, relax in the garden (a little)!

that blueweed looks like bugloss we have around here. I think they are pretty. the ones I saw were growing next to the railroad tracks. I don't understand why people spend so much money putting chemicals down to get rid of moles, voles, weeds and such. I mean they spend all this time and money to get a lush green lawn only to have to mow it constantly because they fertilized it to death. I mean what is up with that? don't people realize that by eradicating these things they are throwing everything out of balance and wonders of wonders they wonder why their grass is dying when there is a mild drought. And of course by killing off the beneficial insects and rodents they have to extra treat for pests on their lawns, and of course these are toxic and cause all kinds of health problems and enviromental damage you don't directly see, and in fact they found that many people were getting sick from pesticides which they didn't attribute to the pesticides until all other things were ruled out. I have dandelions, our bees just love them, we have violets growing in the lower pastere, of course I wish they didn't take up so much space away from grass. I like sweet joy pye weed, and all the goldenrods, and I love those ironweeds, and honeysuckles which grow in the woods. They smell wonderfully all summer long. I like the fact that my grass doesn't have disease or pests problems or problems when we have the occassional drought, while everyone is watering like crazy when it doesn't rain for a while I don't have to everything keeps growing all I have to do is mow occassionally. I have moles voles bugs galore and yet no problems that I know of or can see. the little voles are cute, I used to have horses and I put the manure in the corner of my pasture, and they took up a home under the pile after it aged awhile, and when I went to dig up some to put on the garden, there must been a hundred that came from under the pile. they ran every which way. I have moles too as I can tell by the raised parts, but that is no problem when I mow it flattens those spots. there are few weeds I don't like, even poisen ivy is not a problem as I seldom react to it and when I do I do so only very mildly. I love virgina creeper for it's leaves and how it changes to red in the fall and how it tally's up the trees and is red while the trees are still green, quite beautiful. they also hide the ugly posts that line the pasture. Anyway weed I would love to have around is the queen of the prairie it is quite spectacular, and of course I would love the giant reed type grasses I see growing around here they grow more than 10 feet. I feel like I am walking in a jungle. RR

"By going around the drip line and cutting the roots at the depth of a good sharp spade is similar in effect to pruning the ends of the branches, it stimulates further growth and branching of the roots." Sorry, but is this really what you want to do in a planting hole where you are going to put a young plant? Fill it with rich loamy soil and watch the alpha tree take it over. I think the book "Gardening in the Shade" by Horticulture magazine had a good article on how to tread in this delicate balance. She recommends basically the same thing as the Rock Garden Society: create planting pockets of organic matter and sand on top of the existing soil. As long as you: 1)do not cover a large area of tree roots, 2)limit it to a few inches deep, and 3)keep the planting medium light and humusy, not heavy clay, it should not adversly affect the tree. She made lasanga style planting areas with leaves and manure. She did find that the organic matter needed sharp sand or, after a few years of breaking down, it would become too dense and wet. After reading her article, I won't dig into the tree roots anymore to stuff things in (because the tree roots will grow back in even greater numbers) unless I dug a big enough hole to support the plant for a good two years (until it can compete) and lined it with newspapers. Personally, I would be hesitant to use a copper treated product - I don't like the thought of that stuff making its way into my water supply, not to mention the question of how long will it inhibit both the tree and your new planting. While I agree that we should be looking to plants that are naturally suited to compete with the tree roots, we do still have to give them a fair start to give them a fighting chance. Even a tough plant will need some soil of its own to get established before it takes on a mature planting. It is just a babe in the wood. Just my two cents.

The size of coarse perlite , 1/8-1/16 in size is good. Some seeds like to be surface sown,and need light to germinate. The above mix works out to 2 Parts Perlite to 1 Part (Bark fines or Sphagnum Peatmoss). I use a 50/50 Peat/Perlite mix of ProMix HP for seed starting. Also use bottom watering for seed germination. The seeds are sown on growing medium surface, a mulch of perlite,grit ,or sand is used to cover seed. This keeps a humid,but not wet environment around seed. Also keeps stems drier, and prevents damping off problems. I not sure if salvia like surface sown without the mulch layer. I have grown CA Black sage, and CA White Sage. Many Salvias need light for germination, just press into suface of soil mix. Can mulch with perlite later after gemination has occured. germinate-salvia-seeds Addition: It was found that Clay Pot Irrigation worked well for Seed propagation for remote sites http://scc.wa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/AlternativeIrrigationSystemsForAridLandRestoration_Bainbridge_.pdf