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Schip laurel
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Date Posted: Mon, Sep 13 - 6:48 pm
- This is a response to the question about Schip laurel. Assuming poor drainage isn't the issue, you can drop off a sample at the Henrico Cooperative Extension off at 8600 Dixon Powers Drive. This is how the agent described the sample material to submit. 'We need what we call the good, bad and ugly. We don’t want just a dead portion. We want the sample to include the transition from bad to good.' You could also check out this link below from the University of Md. that lists several problems that might occur with a Schip laurel planting. https://marylandgrows.umd.edu/2019/01/07/qa-whats-wrong-with-my-cherry-laurel-shrubs/ Good luck!
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Sckip Laurel wilting and drooping
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Date Posted: Tue, Sep 07 - 4:11 pm
- I have some skip laurels that are wilting and drooping. There are two large shrubs in the midst of 30 total. One that is really bad is between two that are perfectly healthy. These were planted about 13 years ago. I lost one last year. That was a new plantings. This one is old and the surrounding shrubs are fine. I’d like to get a sample sent to a lab to test for a bacterial or fungal infection and or have someone come out to take a look I’m happy to take pictures and send it please let me know you can call me at 415-417-9997 that is my cell phone or email is fine too thanks look forward to your response.
- Hello there, Sorry to hear this. This plant is generally without problems as you know. I've reached out to an extension agent to get the process of getting your sample to the clinic in the works. It may take a little longer than usual since Richmond is without an agent at the moment. I've reached out to Henrico. If you don't see a posting here with that information in several days, please send me another email as a check in. Thanks for your patience. I hope we can get you the answer you need.
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Dog-proof ground cover
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Date Posted: Wed, Aug 18 - 2:06 pm
- Hi! We have a small back yard (no trees) in the Museum District that faces southeast. It's mostly dirt and crabgrass. We also have two dogs. Can you recommend a good, tough, affordable, relatively "dog-proof" ground cover? Something relatively soft that will be okay for bare feet would be idea, if I'm not asking for too much. Thank you!
- Ok, we'll have to laser focus to meet the requirements. I think a planting of dutch clover might do the trick for you. You're probably familiar with it, it tends to pop up in lawns frequently. You're going to have to kill the crabgrass before you attempt anything else. I generally suggest covering the area with tarps, newspaper, and/or cardboard to smother the weeds. However, this process could take a couple of months and you want to plant the clover about 6 weeks before a frost. If your space is small you could remove the weeds by hand, that would be quicker. Throw the pulled weeds in the trash, you don't want weed seeds winding up in your new clean space. Till the earth you've just cleaned up and spread the seed! Next-water. The clover will sprout in about 2 weeks. You'll need to keep the seed bed moist. Once the clover goes through a winter it will be established. Then you want to weed whack or mow the clover once a month when it's actively growing to keep the planting nice and thick. This choice would be the most cost-effective way to establish a walkable ground cover. An added benefit of clover is that is adds nitrogen to your soil. Of course, there are many other interesting choices for a sunny ground cover. You might want to experiment adding other plants and creating a bit of embroidery. There's always scotch or irish moss, mazus, ajuga, speedwell, or even creeping thyme, to name just a few other possibilities. Good luck with the project!
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City Tree Removal in Front of House
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Date Posted: Wed, Aug 18 - 2:05 pm
- The city recently removed a large elm from the sidewalk area in front of our house (3200 block of Grove Ave). Do you know if we are allowed to plant in that space? If so, what would you recommend? Thank you!
- Good afternoon! Thank you for your question. I had to do a little research on this one, as I have never experienced this at my property. Fortunately, the city addresses this on their Public Works website, where they provide information on their Urban Forestry program (I provided the web link below). This website provides information about the Municipal Tree Policy Ordinance. Under that section, you will see a list of Forms. There is a Form called Application for a Street Tree Planting Permit. I have included that link as well. You will need to download that form and submit it to the City for approval to plant a tree. The City typically plants elm trees or maple trees, and either would be a good choice. It appears from the Application Form that a city staff arborist must approve your species selection before planting. You may also want to contact the City to see if they have plans to replace that tree, before you go to the expense of planting one yourself. But if they do have plans to replace it, it may be a while before they would get to it. If you're like me, you'll want to go ahead with a replacement this fall which is the best time of year to plant new trees. But be sure and complete/submit the application in the link below, and hopefully a City staff arborist will contact you soon. http://www.richmondgov.com/PublicWorks/UrbanForestry.aspx. http://www.richmondgov.com/PublicWorks/forms/applicationNewStreetTreePlanting.pdfa. Best of luck with this! Feel free to follow up with us if any other questions or concerns.
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Lawn options-seed or sod
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Date Posted: Wed, Aug 18 - 2:00 pm
- I’m trying to decide what to do about my front lawn. It’s a little under 60 square yards. Everything is killed off and tarps are covering the ground now to keep weeds from growing. There is no shade, all day sun. I would like to know if Tall Fescue is the best choice and also should I seed or sod. Cost is not the issue since it’s a small area. I hope you can give me some advice.
- Well, I know you didn’t ask this but what about foregoing a lawn and planting a dooryard garden instead?. I’m not much of a grass person. A patch of clover is more to my liking, at least it gives the honey bees a place to land, adds some nitrogen to the soil. Maybe a combination of a lovely shrub border, a small tree, a mix of tall and low-growing perennials, groundcovers? Since it's a small area the expense wouldn’t be staggering and you can always phase in the plantings. Something to consider.... That being said, I think you’re doing a good job of preparing for a fall planting by covering the space and killing off the weeds. If I haven't persuaded you to take a different approach, I’ll try to answer your question about seed or sod. You didn't mention why your lawn was "killed off". Is there an issue with the soil? If so, you should request a soil test kit from the Richmond VA Cooperative Extension Main Office: (804) 786-4150. The results will let you know what, if any, amendments you'll need to add. I think the choice of a tall fescue is fine and fall is a good time to start a cool-season grass. When purchasing seed, check the bag to make sure you are buying all seed and no filler. Look for the two Virginia-Maryland labels affixed to the package so you know you are buying seed mixtures or blends which comply with the quality standards of the Extension Divisions of Virginia Tech and U of MD. First, you'll need to prep the soil. Remove all the dead weeds you've killed by covering and make sure there are no roots left in the ground. This can be tedious but it will pay off in the long run. Work in any amendments your soil test dictates. Add a layer of compost, you can till it in, or if your soil isn't compacted, adding 1-2 inches to the surface should suffice. Grade the soil with a rake so the surface is smooth and uniform. At this point you can seed. Disburse the seed with a spreader and go back and forth across the lawn, then in a perpendicular direction, attempting to get an even amount of seed across the surface of the lawn. You can add another fine layer of compost so that there is good contact between the seed and soil. (For a larger lawn you would roll the seed at this point.) Then you'll need to water immediately thereafter and continue to water until the seed germinates. (Be careful when watering, keep the soil moist, don't wash the seed away.) After that a total of 1-2 inches of water a week should keep the grass in good spirits. Hand pull weeds. An established lawn could take up to 2 years with seed. If this doesn't sound like fun, you can clean up the soil as above, amend as needed, grade it with a rake, and lay sod. Do not let the sod dry out. You'll need to water the sod daily for a couple of weeks (of course, less if there's rain). During this period the sod will be putting down shallow roots into your soil bed. Avoid walking on the sod during this period. After about a month the sod will have established a better root system. Around this time it will need to be mowed. Set the mower to 3 inches. The sod will provide a quicker route to a nice green lawn if the expense is acceptable. I hope I've covered all your options. Good luck with the project!
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August Beauty Gardenia
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Date Posted: Wed, Aug 18 - 1:59 pm
- I have purchased an August Beauty Gardenia shrub and would like to give it the best chance to thrive in my yard. Would it be better to plant it in a spot with the most sun (also near the house), yet fairly exposed as no other plantings near, or in a bed which gets a good amount of sun and has established hedge (hollies) which may offer protection from the elements? Thank you in advance for your help.
- What a beautiful plant selection! You’ll enjoy the long blooming season of this plant, and of course their wonderful fragrance. In terms of best location, you should keep two things in mind. First, to ensure a prolific bloom all summer, you want to maximize early day sun exposure. If one of your described locations is on the east side of your yard and gets several hours of early day sun, that would be ideal, especially near a walkway or porch where you would enjoy the fragrance. I would try to avoid a location that is fully exposed to our late afternoon hot sun during July/August. Secondly, consider your soil and drainage in selecting your location. Gardenias like evenly moist acidic soil which provides good drainage. You want to avoid planting your gardenia where its roots would compete for moisture with nearby trees. The bed with hedge hollies would be fine if you have several hours of early day sun there. If you are planting your new gardenia this time of year, be sure and add plenty of organic matter to your soil, mulch around your plant, and provide plenty of water during this last phase of summer. Enjoy your beautiful plant, and let us know if further questions!
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Cilantro regeneration
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Date Posted: Wed, Aug 18 - 1:45 pm
- I had to go out of town and my cilantro got neglected. What can/should I do now? It has gone to seed and there are no more leaves. I cant figure out how to insert a photo or I would.
- Hello there, This is always an issue with plants and time away....But since cilantro is so versatile, I don't think you have a problem. First, you can actually use the seeds for seasoning. But, if you don't like that idea, simply plant the seeds you now have and soon enough you'll have a new crop of cilantro. It's a plant that doesn't especially like hot weather (because it 'bolts' or sets seeds) so you can't have the same plant for a long season but if you just keep planting the new seeds that set you'll have a continuous crop. It's a pretty quick turnaround for harvesting the leaves, 3-4 weeks. If you sow new seed every couple of weeks you can keep that herb going through fall!!Good luck with the project!
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Planting under Magnolia tree
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Date Posted: Tue, Aug 17 - 8:49 pm
- Hi! I have a huge magnolia tree in my backyard that constantly drops leaves all over. I don’t rake very often because it takes hours and the ground just gets covered up again in a few days. I have two questions for you. The first is, should I be raking? By that I mean is there any benefit to doing so (besides aesthetic) and/or any harm in not doing it? My second question is what should I plant under the areas that are constantly covered by leaves? The few occasions I have raked, I’ve discovered that there is just dirt under all those leaves. No grass or other ground cover. I want to start raking near my back porch stairs to avoid wet leaves being piled up against the wood, but I can picture the bare dirt turning to mud very quickly if I do that. Is there any ground cover that will survive being smothered by leaves? I want to at least plant something around my back porch, but I’m curious if there is anything I can or should plant under the rest of the leaf pile. Thank you for your help!
- Hello! It sounds like you have a beautiful, mature Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora). Along with the beauty of these magnificent trees comes the never ending pile-up of their large leaves. Since you prefer to keep the area tidy (and to avoid potential rotting around porch posts), I would recommend routine cleanup with a leaf blower, and planting some nice, shade loving perennials. Once you have some plants in place under the tree, a leaf blower is really the most practical way to keep the area tidy (as a side note, if you happen to compost it really is best to shred the Magnolia leaves with a mulching mower first). As far as plant options under your tree, I would recommend any combination of the following: native ferns, hellebores, pachysandra, or hosta (if you have no deer problems). All of these plants tolerate shade, and should allow you to periodically use the leaf blower to keep things tidy. Magnolia trees have shallow roots, often near the ground surface, so take care when you do your planting to avoid damage to those roots. Good luck and happy gardening!
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Recommendations for spring vegetables in garden box
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Date Posted: Tue, Aug 17 - 8:33 pm
- We have two garden boxes planted with a variety of spring vegetables. I'd like to add a new box or two this week, but worry I've missed the planting window. Any recommendations for plants that would do well starting in June?
- Thanks for your question. It’s definitely not too late to plant for some vegetable varieties. Several good options include carrots, beets, radishes, as well as peppers and tomatoes. Chard is also an option. Carrots, beets, and radishes can be planted every 2 weeks until mid-summer for continual harvest (depending on size of your garden boxes). Tomatoes and peppers generally take approximately 60 days to maturity - check the labels on the varieties for maturity time. Chard can be seed planted until mid-summer in our zone (zone 7). Hope this helps, and let us know if further questions!
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Bunnies
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Date Posted: Fri, Aug 06 - 8:54 pm
- What is a good way to keep bunnies out of my garden? They have eaten ALL of my strawberries and are starting to gnaw down the plants. They are carving caves out of my broccoli plants and have eaten the leaves off my Brussels sprout... I put down dichotomous earth and pepper flakes to no effect. They gnawed the marigolds I put in the garden as a deterrent to a nub. They are eating the greens off my onions. They have eaten the entire stalks of all my coneflowers. My pepper plants are getting stripped. They have recently started snipping the top 2/3 of the branches on my blueberry bushes off.
- I know, it's hard to believe such benign-looking creatures can wreak such havoc....but they can. I have not had personal experience but I have heard many tales of woe. My experience has been with deer and despite the difference in size, they both seem to do the same amount of damage, actually no, bunnies are worse. The only real solution is to fence your garden. Not knowing the size of your garden, it's difficult to say how much of a project this will be. You may need to make some adjustment to the design of your garden. It could be done relatively cheaply with some fence posts and rails from the hardware store and chicken wire or preferably hardware cloth. You probably want the fence to be 2-3 feet high so they can't jump over and the wire/cloth should be buried 6 inches in the ground to prevent the bunny from burrowing under. If you have individual plants you want to protect, you can make a 2-3 ft high collar out the wire. But it will have to stay in place year round. There are other methods and products out there for consumers but many have to be reapplied frequently, if they even work. You should also have a look around the house and garden to see if there are inviting places for rabbits to hide or nest. If so, take care of that. I hope you're able to secure your plantings and enjoy the harvest!