help fix a 'polka dot garden' that's totally out of control!
bosewichte
3 years ago
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Suzanne Central Pa 6a
3 years agobosewichte
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Shrubs out of control
Comments (15)littledog, thanks first for the compliment on my, well, big dog. *G* He's my boy, always out helping me. In fact, we *just* got in from the front hedge, barely in time to escape the sudden rainfall that just started. Good thing I pulled my head out from the middle of the hedge to look up. 'Cause, you know, Wolfhounds melt in the rain. Just ask them. ;-) The holly I'm undecided about, but it's on a back corner and we're the only ones who ever see it, so it can wait for a later decision. And yes, that's a redbud next to it. I have many dozens of them of varying sizes and states of decay all around the yard. We've cut down the oldest/weakest of them, we're tending to the ones still remaining, and for the most part I'm pulling up any new ones that spring up from the ground. The yard is a little over an acre, but I don't need or want 400 redbuds. But they have interesting shapes, break up some visual space here and there, and I think if I can get a few of the young ones coming up in places I find acceptable that it might be fun to shape them a bit. I like the giant bonsai look they can have. The boxwood is harmless, and mostly withstanding vast amounts of Wolfhound urine, so they'll stay. They just need a different shape and some care. I believe I should start by getting into the middle of the shrubs and cutting out anything dead, as well as a few of the oldest/thickest branches, down near the base if possible, right? From what I've read it seems like I need to open them up a bit so light and air can get in? Since they've suffered years of hedge trimmers, should I also thin out the "top" areas, where there are clusters of offshooting branches near the tips? Or should I leave that area and just thin out from further into the bushes? Yes, we have a ton of shade, and that's AFTER having a half dozen very large trees removed and the rest thinned out and cleaned up. Another half dozen or so old growth trees are going to have to come out probably in the next 2-5 years. They're mostly not very good trees...a few hackberry, a few mulberry. I have to figure out if and where we'll do any replacement trees. I think the pics were taken on an overcast day (since that's mostly what we had the last few months...haha...I seem to recall ducking out a few weeks ago between storms to take those pics). Some areas do get a fair bit of light in the middle of the day, some do not. The front fence line, for example, is in sun most of the day in the summer, other than getting some patchy shade from the magnolias that are in the middle of that fence line hedge. That fence line really must have something there blocking the view of the street, providing some privacy, and keeping the dogs from seeing every little thing that goes on outside the yard. The house, on the other hand, I don't necessarily need to hide. But the way the walkways are set up around the house, it would seem odd to me to have grass in those areas. I like the cottage-garden feel that the yard currently has, I just want it to be under control, as opposed to just being entire mayhem, which is what we have now. And I want to be able to see out my windows, which in most rooms I can not right now. All I can see out the windows is damned photinia branches. The photinias on the front fence I started tackling today. Right now I'm just cutting out about half of the growth on them. I'm cutting them back to just a bit lower than I'd prefer them to be, cutting out dead wood, clearing dead leaves from the magnolias out of them, cutting branches out of the fence, and anything that seems to be really overly long with only one leaf on the end. I WISH I could just cut them down to the ground right now, but I don't really want to remove all the privacy. I HATE the photinia. I think it's ugly, grows too fast, and is just unsightly. I have some hibiscus in the corner by the gate that I'm trying to free from the photinia as well as from some honeysuckle. And I have what I believe to be some more hibiscus popping up further down the fence line under the photinias. Can hibiscus fill in enough to provide some privacy? Or would it be too sensitive to being rummaged through by the dogs? I've got some other beds in the yard that I'm in the process of removing. One is the bed in front of the house, in front of the walkway, that encloses a tree (I think that one's a hackberry, can't remember). That will open up the front of the house some. I cut out all but one of the shrubby things growing there this morning, and still have to pull out whatever vine ground cover is there, and remove the wood rails. There's another large "bed" that encloses a bunch of trees on the west side of the house, that just makes that whole side crowded. The tree guys removed a lot of the smaller shrubs and trees there when they were working (I told them to feel free to get rid of anything in their way on that side of the house...haha), but I'll cut out a bunch more probably in the next week, and again remove the wood rails making up the edge of the bed. That will make it easier to get through that side of the yard, and we can just let the grass move in over there. And at some point I really need to deal with the giant bed, with its thousands of bulbs (seriously...thousands) of unknown type. But I'm still putting off that particular challenge. *G*...See MoreHypoestes phyllostachya (Polka Dot Plant?) help
Comments (16)Hi, Sarah - don't worry about 'fitting in'. Everyone is always anxious to help a fellow grower who's in need. A couple of things I noticed, one of which isn't too important, but the other is, is that lifting your pots can be an extremely effective way to gauge the moisture content of the soil. The soils I use are so porous that it's very difficult to over-water, yet I have at least a dozen plants I check regularly by lifting them to see how heavy the planting is, which instantly tells me if they need water. That technique works best for smaller plants in light pots. The second issue that I think warrants additional discussion is whether or not the effluent (water that has exited the drain hole) needs to be removed from the collection saucer. You can decide, but I left this, which directly addresses that issue, on another thread yesterday: The reason we are wisely instructed to flush the soil when we water so a significant fraction of the total volume of water applied when we irrigate exits the drain hole are two. One is to help ensure the entire soil volume is moistened, but equally or even more important is the fact that this practice purges the soil of accumulating solubles (salts) that make water/nutrient absorption increasingly difficult as the TDS/EC levels (salt levels) become more concentrated. At best, too high concentrations of solubles in the soil solution spoil the appearance of foliage, usually first becoming manifest in burned root tips and leaf tips/margins, at worst in the collapse of the plant. We need to note though, that the soil the plant is in needs to be able to support this type of watering w/o the grower having to be concerned about extended periods of impaired root function due to soggy conditions, or worse, root rot getting a hold because of the same concern. Isotonicity is the process by which the level of dissolved solids in the effluent in a collection saucer will quickly balance or equalize itself to/with the level of dissolved solids in the soil solution. When there is a 'connection' between the effluent in the collection saucer and the water in the soil that results from a wick dangling in the effluent or the fact that a part of the soil is in contact with the effluent, all the solubles in the collection saucer will find their way back into the soil solution until the level of solubles in the effluent is equal to the level of solubles in the soil solution. If you take a new sponge that is saturated with fresh water and stand it on end in 1/2" of salted water or fertilizer solution, using an inexpensive moisture meter you can measure the increase in electrical conductivity at the top of the sponge within a very short time - seconds - a clear indication of isotonicity at work, of the fact that salts in the effluent will quickly reach a balance with the salts in the soil solution. So, not removing the water from the collection saucer ensures all the salts flushed from the soil can make their way back into the soil unless the connection between the soil and the effluent is broken. Best would be to water over a sink if plants are small enough & return the plant to the collection saucer after the pot has stopped draining, or for larger plants to set the pot up on 'feet' or blocks that are inside the saucer, the object of which is to effectively lift the soil above the effluent in the saucer, high enough to ensure the connection between the effluent and soil or any wick you might be using is broken. I hope that was helpful. Welcome to the forum - have fun! Al...See MoreTicks out of Control????
Comments (38)They, like chickens will choose your front porch over any chicken house you build for them, no matter how fancy it is. When I lived in another state and lived way out in the sticks in a primitive cabin that my father and I built - I had just about every animal you can consider keeping (I worked as a zookeeper at the time, if that gives you any idea about what I am referring to). The cabin was only partially constructed and before I left on a vacation I left the flock of ducks and chickens and guineas with a large gravity fed feeder so that the neighbor kid didn't have to come down the dirt road and check on them every single day. I also left a similar feeder set up in the living room of the cabin for the large group of stray cats I rescued and tended to. I thought I had the entry door positioned where only the cats could see it. I had spend many evenings "training" the cats how to get in when the house is locked up tight. I proceeded to go on a two week camping trip to the Rocky Mountains, foolishly thinking that all would be well back at the homestead. I drove up the driveway on my return wondering where all my flock was off to since no one met me as I crested the hill - they normally came flying out of the brush to great me and beg for dinner whenever I came home from work. As I unpacked and listened for them I worried that some varmit had come by and killed each and every one of them. There was no sign of them anywhere. Then I heard it. The clanking "buckwheat, buckwheat, buckwheat!" of the guineas. Only it was muffled as if they were somehow far away but very close at the same time. I found all 20 of them along with all the other fowl inside the cabin where they had evidently lived for most of the two weeks. I guess they caught wind of the cat food and thought they might like the way it tastes rather than regular old scratch grain so they broke through the screen door and worked their way in through a small opening. How they convinced all the other birds to follow them I'll never know. They were out of water and obviously pissed about it, with all the screaming they were doing. It took me two weeks to round up all the cats. I never saw the neighbor kid again (wonder what they did to HIM?). I don't think I ever found all the "evidence" of their "vacation" behind all the furniture. So glad I moved. Never again....See MorePolka Dot plant has no bottom leaves left
Comments (3)*Don't allow the plant to sit in the effluent that exits the drain hole. * Do this: immediately after a thorough watering, hold the pot in one hand over the sink, lawn, or over-sleeping significant other and move it downward, then sharply reverse the direction to upward. You'll immediately note that a good measure of 'excess' water will “continue downward in a straight line” and exit the drain hole. The sharper the reversal of direction, the more water exits the drain hole. When you have repeated the exercise until water no longer exits the drain hole on the reversal of direction, you will have eliminated all excess water and your plants will regard you with a newfound sense of awe. * Don't water until a tell stuck deep in the pot comes out barely moist or dry. See below. * Have you fertilized? You should be, regularly. I suggest you use Dyna-Gro's Foliage-Pro 9-3-6. You won't find a better choice. *Repotting into a fast-draining highly aerated medium would likely do wonders for your plants and your ability to keep them healthy. This should be helpful. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al...See Morececily 7A
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