Hi everyone. I have found that the only conditions this wire-grass won't grow in aggresively (it would try to grow on the Moon if given the chance) is full shade, so I mulch very heavy, and regularly pull the runners that still come as I water. We never use any chemicals, so we accept that some weeds are going to happen. Once the fig tree spreads out to a nice bush it also helps to shade itself at its base and reduce weeds naturally. I've had far more trouble with weeds around the blueberries, because they don't naturally shade their base much, so we use land scape fabric and then heavy mulch (pine bark and pine needles) at the base of the blueberries. Best wishes to all. John North Georgia Piedmont

The topic is Japanese maple trees, not tender non-woody annual or perennial plants like tomatoes or sunflowers!! The reaction to herbicide drift will be very different between the two types of plants. One will react to the herbicide virtually overnight with browning, drying and death. The other will not die unless it is directly sprayed with herbicide and even something like gylphosate or concentrated brush killer will take multiple applications to kill an established woody plant like a tree. This is not supposition but fact......documented by literature and confirmed by several decades as a professional horticulturist!

You have centipede in California? Is that a new trend since the drought? 99% of all the centipede is in Florida and still that's not very much centipede. It grows best in terrible soil with terrible care. It needs almost no fertilizer. People say that once every other year you can drag an empty fertilizer bag over it and that's enough. It loves the acidic soils like they have on the east coast. I would think St Augustine and bermuda would be the main go-to grasses in the Central Valley. Some water restrictions are fairly enlightened and some are guaranteed to kill everything if you follow them. Ours are horrible. We can water from 7am to 9am and 9pm to 11pm on one day per week. Well, who's around in the morning from 7-9??? You'd have to be retired. I suppose you could use timers (and I have a good one). But timers don't work for veggie gardens and plants located around the yard. That leaves 2 hours in the dark to get your watering done. In San Antonio we could water from midnight until 10am and from 8pm to midnight on your day. Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.

what??? ... i thought you were removing the hugely overgrown trees that are stuffed in the corner ... sitting on the roof ... and soon to be completely out of proportion to the house ... i would cut them to the ground.. and apply a stump killer.. as i would not be replanting in that corner ... and if you are going to take that one out.. you should probably take out its mirror image on the other side ... where are you ... with specificity .. z7 could be GA... NY..the pnw .... AZ ... etc ... big city name good enough ... except for the pnw .... the next planting season is fall .. most of us can not plant in july and august ... and make things easy on us ... or the trees .... your whole landscape.. looks like it was planted when the house was built ... you have a bunch of overly mature.. overly sheared plants ... i think you should rethink the whole thing .... and be sure.. it doesnt have to be all done at once.. make it a 3 to 5 years plan .... so if a JM is going to be the center piece of that bed .... what about the rest of it .... define a goal ... and work to it .... when planting trees... its best to plant them once .... and not have to be moving them.. in a year or 3.. when you come up with some other plan .... see link on planting.. as a general primer ... note first section is timing.. and that is dependent on location .... ken https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub