New home owner needs help with yard and landcaping.

15 years ago

Not sure if this is the right place for this thread or not.

My wife and I bought or first house and I need some advice. My lawn is in bad shape among everything else. I've read the Scotts Lawns book and am confident that Billbugs and White Grubs have caused most of the damage. I was thinking I would use Merit/Fert in the spring. My lawn is mostly St Aug., but Bermuda it taking over in the damaged areas. Which it OK I think that is what I want to overseed with in the spring. I'm concerned that shad will be an ongoing problem as my trees mature with Common Bermuda so is there a Hyb. Bermuda that does well in the shade or should I seed as well/totally with a different grass? What I like about Bermuda is that it is a fine blade, thick, and doesn't use a lot of water.

I believe my trees are Live (Encino?)Oaks. One is doing ok the other not it has stuff growing on it. Some on the trunk begins with a L... I believe its ok but can be a sign of a problem I guess. Some of the smaller twigs have "cancer" looking knots growing on them and then there is also green "tumble weed" looking thing growing on the one also. I've done a bit of trimming didn't remove more then a 1/3 of the tree mostly thinning it out cut the branches growing upwards and deep watering. I don't know what else I should be doing to help them along.

Bushes and what not. I have no clue was to what these are called or what I should be doing as far as trimming, ferts., and ETC. A few of them not pic'ed are growing well think, but need to be trimmed back some. I just don't know how I should do it. A few other are barely growing and some of the leafs look bad don't know what to do about them.

And last there was the vine growing all over my bushes. I cut it way back, but it growing right next to one of the bushes and I'm not sure what to do to kill it and not the bush. In the pic you can kind of see the 2 "Trunks" of the vine about 6" long now with some leafs small leafs growing out of them right in front of the bush.

Thanks for your help.

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Comments (2)

louisianagal
15 years ago
Hi dozerboy, let me see if I can help a little. First things first, don't panic, and don't start fertilizing and all just yet. My advice would be to find your local county agent office, or your local university agricultural extension service, which generally have a branch dealing with helping homeowners with their landscape concerns and veggie/fruit growing. If you read a Scott's lawn book, or even talk to a local garden center, in my opinion, they will try to sell you a product or a system, not necessarily out of a malicious intent, but feeling the customer wants a quick fix. I'm not sure exactly where you are and what zone, and your climatic conditions, becoz Texas is a BIG state, but in lots of the south, the grass is winding down now and should not be fertilized. Sometimes it is a good idea to "winterize" your lawn to get it ready for the cold season, and I beleive it helps the roots, but not a fertilizer for top growth. Your county agent will know this and the exact time for you to do this. And when to fertilize next season, and probably several times in the growing part of the season. Actually your lawn doesn't look real bad to me. You sort of have to decide if you are going to do a program of lawn care with these winterizers, fertilizers, and herbicides for weed control, or go organic (which is what I recommend). Visit the other forums like lawn/turf and organic lawn. Don't be in a hurry. As to the oak trees, they are very young and look good to me. The white stuff is probably lichen and is probably not a problem, the little balls are probably galls and probably ok too, the tumbleweed stuff looks like spanish moss to me, not a problem at all, and usually desirable and attractive on oaks in the south, but you could have mistletoe which is not a good thing, a definite parasite. I would again recommend you share the pics with a county agent type person familiar with your area of Texas. You may want to remove the tree rings and just use some mulch, and realize that most lawns will not grow well in shade, as the trees mature. You will most likely need to grow a ground cover or other shade plant under there in years to come, again not something to worry about right now. May I suggest visiting the Renegade Gardener website (just do a search) and he has some funny and helpful landscape tips. Ok, the shrubs look like ligustrum (the large ones), maybe some little hollies or boxwood and liriope (the grassy one). I would just remove the yellowing leaves. I would water when there hasn't been a good rain in a week, I would deep water at the roots. I would watch the drainage, does it drain well or stay wet. I would go organic, adding compost, and keeping it mulched. I am not an horticulturist, botanist, or expert by any means, just a gardener x 26 years. Hope some of this is helpful to you.
Laurie in north Mississippi, formerly New Orleans
dozerboy
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for the tips my big concern was the tree after 1/4 of my yard just died during a hot spell thanks to the grub damage. I know it took 5 year of neglect from the previous owner to get the yard in the shape it is now, so I expect it will take some time to get it back in to shape.
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Ok, wow. I mean WOW! You're getting the wrong advice on every front. St Aug would THRIVE in that shade. The grass died because they didn't water it. Actually it might have died the first time from a disease left to run out of control, but in any case, the solution now is new sod (NOT SEED) and water. That cheap builder grade bermuda is only one notch below the very best bermuda grass you can buy at any price. The reason it is cheap and "builder grade" is that it is easy to grow and every grower in Texas grows it. The supply of that stuff is inexhaustible, but you cannot get a better turf grass without paying through the nose. The name of it is TIF 419 or TifTurf, or something like that. It has been around for 40 years or more and is very popular. The more expensive TIF varieties are only used in professional sports stadiums. I should note that ALL seeded varieties of bermuda are basically common bermuda, not the TIF hybrid. Thus if you start with a TIF lawn, you should never reseed bermuda into it. The common bermuda looks like a weed in a hybrid turf. Here is a picture of common bermuda invading a TIF turf. Note the common is bluer in color, coarser, and has a different growth habit. It's a mess once you have them mingled. If you have already seeded with common bermuda, I would not attempt to install a hybrid (sod) lawn without a lot of prep to kill the common. June is the time to take on that project. Whatever you do, do not fall into the trap of watching all the golf TV where they are urging you to get out and do something to the lawn. Bermuda needs hot soil to do much of anything to it. The reason your neighborhood lawns might look cheap is because they don't know how to care for them. Bermuda needs a LOT of maintenance to keep it nice. It should be mowed to about 1 inch high, 2x per week and 3x per week during the spring flush of new growth. It also needs heavy fertilizer applied monthly all season long. Most people are unwilling to do what it takes to make bermuda look great. Having said all that, I still prefer a St Aug lawn if you can keep it watered. All lawns need exactly the same amount of water to keep them looking nice through the summer. That amount is one inch per week, applied all at one time. The problem with St Aug is if you fail to water it for 3-5 weeks, it can die on you. Other grasses will go dormant first, but St Aug just dies. That's what happened in your yard. Bermuda would never grow in your shade, but St Aug should do fine. In fact, St Aug will take over your yard even if you have bermuda now. You would have to keep the St Aug mowed at the mower's highest setting and allow it to invade the bermuda. Bermuda cannot invade into tall St Aug because the tall St Aug provides too much shade for bermuda. But if you mow the grass at the lowest setting, then the bermuda can invade just fine and will give you a mess. Absolutely DO NOT rototill the soil in prep for a lawn. You might want to rototill for a vegie garden but never for a lawn. The tilled soil will take 3 years to settle, and it will settle unevenly. There is hardly anything worse than mowing a bumpy lawn.
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New home owner needs help with yard and landcaping.

Comments (2)

louisianagal

dozerboy
Original Author

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New home owner needs help with yard and landcaping.

Comments (2)

louisianagal

dozerboyOriginal Author

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dozerboy
Original Author