How difficult to take out these junipers? (Zone 7B, Birmingham, AL)
We had these junipers planted 10 years ago as the slope was too hard to mow (wrong kind: I had asked for Pacific blue). They have spread onto our neighbor's property, but they probably have appreciated them as well since they don't have to mow that area, either. However, the woman has found vines to be her solution to everything, and it's a nonstop battle keeping them from taking over our yard from front to back.
A landscaping company was going to remove the junipers and plant some shrubs there instead, but long story short, they didn't. And they didn't even clear out the vines as they had promised: they said they never go on a neighbor's property.
So how big of a job do you think it would be to have someone else come out, dig those up, and plant something else there? You can see the utility boxes in there.
My plan is that if we have small shrubs or perhaps dwarf tea olives planted (we have one in front of the house), she couldn't let her vines just take over because the vines would be more obviously out of place--and she does have a lawn crew come every week to mow and trim who could maintain them.
How much obligation to we have to her in doing this? I would of course tell her what the plan is, but do we need to replace sod where it would have stopped growing with all the vines and junipers? Being Bermuda, it will certainly come back in time.
In the photos below, all the new growth sticking out to the left and up in the air are from the vines on her masonry wall.
Those are Miss Huff lantanas around our junipers which the landscaping company told me will grow up high enough to cover the junipers and look very nice. I love Miss Huffs, but this just looks messy to me.
Comments (6)
josephene_gw
5 years agoRelated Discussions
How long does air layering take??
Comments (16)Describe the "small mound next to the girdled area, please. Are you describing callus tissue? Air layers don't get "irritated or distressed" when rubbed, but 'checking' them can result in unnecessary breakage of roots. If you use clear wrap to hold your rooting medium in place, then wrap that with aluminum foil to keep the sun from over-heating the medium or impacting root development, there should be no reason to peek. The roots will be conspicuous enough once they start growing. Also, some plants are genetically predisposed, even in the tropics, to stronger growth at certain times of the year - often it's in the rainy period. If the plant you're layering does exhibit cyclical growth patterns - try starting your layers about 1 month before you expect the strongest growth. It's difficult to suggest where you might be able to improve things if we don't know what you're doing. Watering an enclosed air layer daily sounds like a LOT of water, so you might be failing because you're asking the roots to transition back and forth between appropriate moisture levels to too wet; or, the medium might be consistently too wet. But that doesn't explain the dead branches. When you layer, you cut completely through the cambium down to the xylem. The plant can then still transport water and nutrients upward through the xylem to parts distal to the layer. Downward nutrient flow and polar flow of auxin terminates and collects in tissues immediately distal to the top ring of the layer, which is where roots should form. Tips: A) If you establish a layer on a branch or stem that isn't vertical, make your top and bottom cuts so they ARE horizontal. This means the cuts on a round branch that is say 10* to a vertical axis would be slightly elliptical, while a branch that's 60* to a vertical axis (30* to the horizon) would be would be much more elliptical. The reason for this is, the flow of auxin (stimulates rooting) is polar. Auxin will always find its way to the lowest part of a cut, which is where rooting will occur; and often, it might be the only root that grows from the layer site. You'd be better served if a multitude of roots emanated directly from the upper ring of your layer cut. B) You can help ensure success by applying a tourniquet immediately below wherever you want roots to grow on a branch. As soon as you see a bulge forming above the tourniquet, sprinkle an appropriate powdered rooting aid on the end of a piece of electrical tape. The rooting aid should cover enough tape to wrap one revolution around the layer site. The tape should be 2-3 times as long o/a as the part that's covered. Use a piece of string, a zip tie, or other method to secure the tape so it remains in place. Blanching (excluding light) the future layer site stimulates root initials to 'preform' and the rooting hormone and added moisture levels under the tape contribute significantly to the collective boost. You'll find a lot more info here. Al...See MoreHas anyone tried 'Al's gritty mix' for conifers?
Comments (16)I've been using Al's (gritty) mix with pines, junipers, yews, and myriad other conifers for well over 20 years now, and though I do do a lot of experimenting with soils, have yet to find anything that works better. ;-) I'm not self-promoting, just saying that I experiment with soils a LOT, and have yet to improve on the basic gritty mic mix. It holds LOTS of air, virtually NO perched water, ample volumes of water, is structurally very sound & durable, and it's adjustable for water retention to suit plants individually. Those are all the most desirable qualities you can have in a soil. I wouldn't use wood chips other than conifer bark as a primary fraction of a container soil for several reasons. A pH spike during the composting process is inevitable. Wood chips break down much faster than conifer bark, so when using them, N immobilization should be expected. Also. because they break down so much faster, they generate a LOT of heat during the composting process, often raising sol temps an additional 10-15* higher than similar soils with bark as their primary fraction. Of course, N immobilization with the gritty mix is insignificant and heat build-up due to composting is never a problem because of how slowly the bark decomposes AND the excellent gas exchange of the highly aerated mix. A 50/50 mix of a peat-based soil (like ProMix) and wood chips will yield a soil with the same drainage characteristics and perched water table height as the ProMix. Only when the wood chips (which are not a good choice for container media) are a very large fraction of the soil (about 80%) can you expect drainage & aeration to improve significantly. To get a visual on this, ask yourself how much perlite you need to add to a quart of pudding to get it to drain & hold air. BTW - most commercial cactus mixes actually drain poorly & support way too much perched water to be healthy for cacti, succulents, or conifers. All of the pines, junipers, and most other conifers I've grown would instantly rebel at wet media and the presence of significant amounts of perched water as the mix of ProMix and wood chips would be/have. They prefer a soil that holds little or no perched water and remains damp after watering instead of wet. I have 320 lineal ft of bench space like you see in the picture below. Most of the space is much more crowded with potential bonsai than you see, and conifers make up at least half of the near 300 trees. All are in the gritty mix; and I have no trouble keeping them happy & healthy. Al...See MoreSabal Birmingham
Comments (14)Funny, I was going to add what Jim has observed about the "right plant". You do sometimes come across a specimen that does NOTHING and another one that shows a different robustness. I actually recently acquired another Sabal minor that is actually growing in the basement under florescent for the time being. I purchased a smaller grapefruit tree a couple years back that did nothing as the other citrus trees outgrew most any container I had.--It had a similar fate to that non-growing S.minor and was euthanized in the compost pile. Might be difference in individual genetics or maybe long-standing problems at the roots that we don't see. Currently, have my share of Sabals though--and I DO like them. I also get the feeling that Sabals are especially slow growing when small and pick up in growth rate as they mature. Here's my current Sabal inventory: Sabal mauritiiformis Sabal bermudana Sabal palmetto Sabal minor Sabal 'Tamaulipas' Sabal texano/mexicano (think they're the same--?) AND Sabal louisiana (even the one in the ground survived the winter of 2011-2012 here, so being that this one is a faster growing Sabal, it holds great promise for the NYC Metro/Zone 7a/b area.)...See MoreNew 2012 USDA zones!
Comments (17)Bill, 6b isnt too bad, the data they collected included the major freezes of the 1980's so that probably lowered your zone from a 7a to a 6b. But winters like this year is what kind of evens things out a little bit since it has been a very mild winter! We got down to 13F here which actually is considered a pretty normal lowest temperature for the average mild winter, but the duration of warm weather this winter is something I haven't seen here in many years. I think that if you get colder than your zone more than 2 times in a decade, then you shouldn't be classified in that zone. After looking at NYC records, its clear that it does actually fit that definition as a zone 7b which I thought was suprising. And as for Miami, the city center definitely wont go below 35F so its a solid 10b. The more rural areas outside the city did get a freeze during that bitter 2010 cold spell, but the coastal areas of Miami only went down to the mid 30s. Florida seems like it got a bit colder with this new zone map, one of a few places that showed cooling with this zone map. But the major cities of Southeast Florida (Fort Lauderdale down to Miami and points south) is all a zone 10b now and in the 1990 map, only Miami was in a small pocket of zone 10b. No Problem Joey! Randy, I always thought that the USDA zone map should be taken as just a guide. It gives people a good idea of what kind of climate they have, and I think the zone maps are really intended for those gardeners that dont really know a lot about their climate. Gardeners like all of us are aware that the zones dont tell even half the story. Minimal temperatures during the winter are probably the most important factor for most plant's survival, especially in temperate climates, but its not the only factor. And once you get past zone 9a, I think that the duration of heat and freezes is a lot more important than minimal temperatures. Its the same reason why a zone 10b in Miami can grow a ton more tropicals than a zone 11 in Malibu! And a zone 7b in New York and a zone 7b in North Carolina are 2 totally different climates. You wont see live oaks and spanish moss lining streets here in NYC, but you might see something like that in a zone 7b in the southern states. And It seems to me like some areas are a bit more detailed than others with this map. I see a lot of detail from this map in my area, but Northern Florida and Georgia dont have as much detail it seems. For example, I would definitely consider Savannah Georgia and all of Coastal Georgia a zone 9a, but on this map about half of Georgia's coastline including Savannah is only a zone 8b. And I think that some of the more rural parts of Northern Florida are a bit too warm on this map. -Alex...See MoreCJ Mac
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoWayne, I had one company here who said the least they would charge to take them out would be $1000 (he usually charges ($1500 minimum per landscape job). Then I called a tree service that asked me to have the area marked for utilities. The owner left a note in my mail box that this is not something he would want to take out--because utilities appear to run right underneath them. I don't know how you can tell what utility is what color, but it's mostly orange which I am guessing is cable.
I don't know what to do now. Don't want to spend $1000 but certainly want them out of here. Was just about to start a new thread when I saw your reply. What I want to know is: what's the worst that could happen? If we knock out cable, Charter has to come fix it, right? Just want to make sure there's no gas lines underneath.
EDIT: Wayne, I just added a bunch of photos to my "Junipers" idea book--are you able to view them? I think I know why they don't want to touch it: the marks are yellow and orange which is gas and cable. I called 811 to ask what we can possibly do with gas lines under there and the woman told me to call the gas co (Trussville Utilities) to see what they suggest.
Junipers · More Info
Junipers · More Info
There are a bunch more photos. It was sunny and I could barely tell what I taking photos of with the glare. Our house is the red brick above. This last photo is standing in the neighbor's yard. She doesn't care about our taking them out.laceyvail 6A, WV
5 years agokitasei
5 years agoCJ Mac
5 years agoCopying my reply from a different thread:
Hey all, we got it done last week. Took a LOT longer than we expected it to take, but it looks great--except for the neighbor who wouldn't let us take up the rest of her vines on her side. We would have planted sod for her to make it look better, but she was really stinky about the whole thing. (I learned that when a Southern woman starts out with "I don't want to be ugly..." she's going to be.)And there's NO WAY these could have been taken out with a truck and a rope as one suggested above. No landscaper/tree service wanted this job at all, and we did indeed encounter cable lines. It was the neighbor's vines all wound up among the junipers that made this so hard.
Before
During:Once we finally cut all the shrubbery out--and to show how our neighbor didn't want us to touch her side. Didn't intend to use those edgers but we just happened to have them--and just enough!--to show our neighbor our intention. She was sure we were going to leave it and let it erode into her lawn. Why would we want to do that, for Pete's sake? But there was just no talking to her.
We were joking with the nurseryman from whom we purchased our plants that, this being Halloween, it DID have a bit of a coffin shape, and we could plant flowers like companies and colleges do so her name would be displayed. Like purple pansies on a field of white ones. ;-)
AfterOnce we planted the Miss Lemon Abelia. We were going to add sod at the bottom but figure that next Spring the bermuda grass will fill in. And we are NOT letting her vines take over again.
Had to go with 1 gallon abelias because of cable lines and the stumps of the junipers. They should spread out well next Spring and Summer.
waynealabama