Black Kow Composted Manure
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5 years ago
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klem1
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Planting Thuja Green Giants in Sand
Comments (7)Sariethecanary, A couple of things stick out in your post. The first one is the relatively large size of the trees. Maybe an instant height was more important than height in say five years, but I just want to point out that your trees will probably take much longer to get established than smaller trees. Also, planting them is going to be a lot more work. You'll especially need to be careful to address any potbound (future girding) roots. Smaller trees would have likely outgrown these larger trees within just a few years. I would never advise starting with trees that large for Green Giants unless instant size was the primary concern. The second red flag is your idea of amending the soil. This has been shown to be of no benefit, and often counterproductive, in almost all situations. Unless you can amend a very large area, you'd be better off not amending your soil. If you have the ability to amend a large area, it probably wouldn't be as potentially harmful, but still might serve no real benefit. If you do amend, amend lightly and over as large of an area as you possibly can. IMO, it would be best not to fertilize your trees when planting. Trees don't often need to be fertilized and improper fertilization can be problematic. As a general rule, I would only fertilize trees and shrubs when a soil test was completed and indicated the need for a certain fertilization program or, at least, when a need was indicated from observation. Your idea to use mulch is a great idea. A 3" layer of organic mulch can be highly beneficial for all kinds of reasons. Mulch can improve soil fertility and texture as it breaks down, prevent germination of many weed seeds, reduce competition for food and water from grass and weeds, prevent damage from mowers and trimmers, help to maintain soil moisture during dry periods, aid drainage by preventing surface crusting and sealing, keep roots cooler during hot summer weather, help to moderate soil temperature fluctuations, reduce frost-heaving, reduce certain soil-borne diseases by preventing soil and fungi from splashing onto foliage, and improve the look of the landscape. As for ensuring soil moisture, you should definitely verify soil moisture until your trees become somewhat established and before each watering (until you have a good feel for the situation without checking). Take a look at the document linked below. Be sure not to miss the information about watering in section 12. Here is a link that might be useful: Planting a Tree or Shrub...See MoreGetting ready for next year
Comments (4)Oh, yes. The bed on the left is four feet wide and will eventually run around three sides of our front yard. It will be exclusively for daylilies. The overflow will be in the bed to the right, which wraps around the house and currently contains some 300 daylilies planted much too closely together. We do most of our work in the yard after five pm when things begin (usually) to cool down, or very early in the morning....See MoreLima Beans (fordhook) 101
Comments (4)Personally, I would take the "6 plants per square foot" with a grain of salt. Limas are very vigorous, spreading, deep-rooted plants - even the bush varieties. Furthermore, all of the varieties in the link are baby limas; large-seeded limas (like Fordhook) require more space. When I grew Fordhook 242 in my garden, I used 6" spacing in the row (as recommended) and rows 2 feet apart. When the plants were mature, the growth was so dense that the beans were hard to find, even as large as they were. Fordhook is a very good lima, IMO. They need full sun & plenty of heat to produce. As with any bean, avoid the excessive use of nitrogen... you'll end up with thick foliage, and few beans. In a container, they might need a balanced fertilizer early, but don't over-do it....See MoreLeaves on tomato plants turning whitish color
Comments (8)Dawna, With tomatoes, it happens. It has happened to me a lot, especially before I started raising my own. When you find good-looking tomato plants and bring them home, you have no way of knowing if they have been hardened off at all. And, unless you're buying from a nursery that raises their own plants (increasingly rare these days), it doesn't do any good to ask. Generally you'll just get a blank stare if you ask "Have these tomato plants been hardened off?" I don't have the problem much since I raise my own seedlings and am very careful to properly harden them off as they transition from the indoors to the outdoors. Sometimes, though, when I have them really well hardened-off, we'll get a really cold spell and I have to move them back into the house for 2 or 3 days straight, and that undoes the hardening-off process, putting me back at square one. And, if I don't watch carefully, the wind and/or sun will burn them the first day they are back outside again. Sadly, there on your hill, you will always have a lot more wind than I have here in the valley, for example. We have friends on a hill less than 2 miles from us and the amount of wind they have is unreal. It will be blowing like gangbusters at their house, and will be as still as can be at ours. One advantage of living on the hill, though, is that you can watch funnel clouds coming from a long ways off. A few years ago they called and said to hurry over and watch the tornadoes, so we did. Isn't that awful? But, the tornadoes were coming from our southwest and were on a path that would take they several miles northeast of their house, so we weren't worried they'd come our way (and they didn't). There were several funnel clouds in the air that day, but they hardly touched down at all, only doing a little damage near Hickory Creek at Hwy 77 and also on the northeastern edge of Love County near Lake Murray. I still can't believe we sat on their porch and watched the approaching funnel clouds. I hate that the chickens are such a problem. Your poor tomato plants are having a hard time getting starting this year, aren't they. Sounds like it is time to plant a windbreak? Our first couple of years here, before my trees and shrubs had had time to grow much, I put up a chicken wire fence on the south and west side of the garden and grew morning glories on it for a quick wind break, and put cannas about 4' outside the chicken wire to also serve as a windbreak. That gave us a break from the summer's winds, which for us tend to come out of the south most of the time, and out of the west to southwest during thunderstorms. For several years, I had my corn blown over almost every year. Now, finally, I think, the trees and shrubs are large enough that maybe this year the corn won't end up lying flat on the ground. I hope. Dawn...See MoreJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
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