Need Advice on how to take back my flower beds etc
rjinga
5 years ago
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rjinga
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Need advice,,,feeding, manure, pruning, etc
Comments (2)1. Wetting the foliage is fine if it will dry promptly. Washing off aphids is a good idea. Don't get excited about aphids when they return next spring. The harm they do is minor. 2. Plant Tone is excellent. Or you can apply 3"-4" of manure once a year. 3. Traditional advice is not to pile fresh manure over the canes. 4. We don't know the length of your growing season or the severity of your winters. I try to keep my roses growing and blooming into the fall but avoid heavy feeding. 5. It's OK to just pull the flowers off and also OK to cut just above any leaf joint. I do the former if I want the plant to get bigger, but take some stem when it is getting too tall. If roses form hips (fruit) this will reduce the repeat bloom. 6. I doubt that companion plants affect disease in roses, except if the planting is so overgrown as to reduce air circulation and delay drying, then they would increase disease pressure. Other points-- If roses are to continue growing and blooming, they need water every 3-7 days, depending on soil and climate. If you have abundant water, use it. Otherwise the plants will go semi-dormant after 2-3 weeks. No point in fertilizing if you aren't watering. Do you have foliar disease problems? If so, what? Rose diseases are uncommon in most of Arizona. Nobody here recommends the Bayer All-in-One product that you are probably using. It's cheap fertilizer with a massive dose of chemicals that may not be needed and, if needed, are more effectively applied as spray....See MoreNew to gardening (flowers) & need advice on how to start out.
Comments (3)Good advice. I would add that although the idea of plants around the base of a tree is very attractive, that is often one of the very most difficult places of all to plant. You have to contend with tree roots which get in the way, need to be protected from disturbance, and which will gobble up every bit of fertilizer and water they can get their roots on, leaving your smaller plants hungry and thirsty. I would advise you to dig one flower bed somewhere in your yard that gets at least full morning sun. Start out with a realistically manageable size, but dig it well and add plenty of amendments, any one or combination of these: chopped leaves, grass clippings (not ones with seed heads!), compost, manures from cows, horses, or chickens (well aged), soil conditioner, etc. The key is organic matter and plenty of it. When I am building a new bed in my red clay, I plan to use approximately 5 pounds of amendments to every square foot of garden space. This is an easy figure when I am buying bagged amendments. Bags are convenient and manageable but cost more. When I'm building a big project, I buy amendments by the truckload. The people at the yard can help you figure what you need. Once your bed is built and your soil is ready, plant. If you want the bed to look good year round, include a few shrubs, evergreens, if possible. Then do some research: read books on SOUTHERN gardens (The Southern Living Gardening Book is a must), and haunt the forums here. You will be able to find lots of ideas for plants. I am going to list some of my favorite perennials and annuals here in east central Mississippi for you. Have fun and good luck! Perennials: Amsonia taberaemontana Verbena, Snow Flurry Shasta Daisies Day Lilies Knockout, Homerun, and Drift Roses Hydrangea Paniculatas: Limelight especially Durantas: Variegated and Cuban Gold Tibouchinas Crinums (bulbs): repeat bloomers Mystic Spires Salvias Salvia farinacea, Victoria and Evolutiion Rain Lilies (Zephyranthes. bulbs) Rudbeckia Maximas Cupheas Helianthus Hibiscus, Crown Jewels Pink Muhly grass Purple Fountain Grasses (pennisetums) Annuals: Zinnias, both great (Elegans) and Small (Profusions and Zaharas) Vincas Pentas Celosias: This year I am trying a tall one called Cramer I can tell you that all of these perform extremely well here with minimal care. They all have a very long bloom season. But, the only way to know for sure what does well in your garden is to try! That's half the fun....See MoreI need to do a total renovation of my flower beds!!!! Weed invasion!
Comments (7)when you hit the wall ... one option is to build a nursery bed... or use the veg patch late in the fall .. remove all your perennials.. bare rooting and removing the invaders... plant in the nursery ... and go at the evil weed patch in your preferred method.. personally.. i would round up it all ... then come spring.. move the plants back to the bed.. if you feel you have destroyed the bad stuff ... if you want to learn how to use RU ... start a post in the perennial forum.. appropriately titled ... do harvest seed from the reseeders this fall .. if you need to know how to do that.. new post in the annual forum ... i think you really need to mulch ... and you can do that.. and have the reseeders... if you limit the spaces for such .... in other words.. reduce you unmulched soil to a min.. so you can reduce the areas that will need weeding ... another alternative.. is to harvest seed.. and start them in flats ... and move them into the mulch as young plants in early spring ... check out the winter sowing forum ... ken...See Moreelevating soil in existing flower bed advice needed
Comments (4)Misty, pretty much the only things where you can cover up the crown would be things that root all along the stems, and as far as I know, all the things you're talking about won't do that, so they'd all need to be dug and replanted higher up. Covering the crown of most plants will kill them. If they were tomatoes you could just add soil and let them root along the stem--but that's not what you have! I have, with a few things, been able to stick a shovel under them on a few sides and manage to "elevate" them, and then "pack" soil into the void I've created under them, but I doubt that that would work with big plants. It may sound like a big project, but if you do parts of it at a time it might not seem like so much work! MIGHT not! Having said all that, with my hardy hibiscus--'Disco Belle'--when I pulled all the nasty rock mulch out from the crowns of the plants I DID fill in the "depressed" area with soil, so, technically, you could say that I buried the "crown" (a couple inches) deeper, but with hibiscus there's not really a crown like with most other plants--it's more like "buds" like peonies. When I've done it, a couple times, it was over winter or in VERY early spring, before there was any growth visible at all, so, basically, what I was doing was just burying the "root" a little deeper where the new buds would form for the next year's growth, so when they started growing in spring the new "shoots" just grew up thru the soil to form the above-ground stems when they got to the surface. No guarantees! But it worked for me! If you try it do it when they're TOTALLY dormant. With hibiscus the depth of the "buds/eyes" doesn't seem to make any difference as to whether or not they'll bloom! I repeat! No guarantees! Good luck with your project! Maybe some day we'll get to come back at a swap to see "all your new improvements!" Skybird...See MoreUser
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