General landscape questions

[fishinchicks]

It is time to pay attention to the outside, now that we have pretty much completed our inside remodeling. Not to mention the tours that will be stopping at our farm this summer...

- I like the look of raised flower beds, but hate running the weed eater against the edges. What do you all do to make it easy to keep grass trimmed around edges? Something the mower could go over?

- The shrubbery we have around parts of the house looks pretty rough after a couple of tough winters. How much damage can the average spirea handle without needing to be replaced? Some have over 50% damage.

- The last place that drew up a plan and planted our shrubs did okay, but we wanted a little more color than just the average bushes with a few hostas thrown in. On an east facing side with dappled sunlight after 10:00 am, would it be bad to take out some of the half dead bushes and plant more flowers?

If anyone has advice or tips to share, I would welcome them! We are really good at growing things on a large scale, but not so much the small home garden size.

[Nainoa]

Ever looked into Heuchera's... I think there are some pretty colorful ones that will tolerate morning light and dappled shade.

As for mower friendly landscaping... I just use an outline of bark mulch and then get really surgical with the mower.

[pureinsanity]

It is time to pay attention to the outside, now that we have pretty much completed our inside remodeling. Not to mention the tours that will be stopping at our farm this summer...

- I like the look of raised flower beds, but hate running the weed eater against the edges. What do you all do to make it easy to keep grass trimmed around edges? Something the mower could go over?

- The shrubbery we have around parts of the house looks pretty rough after a couple of tough winters. How much damage can the average spirea handle without needing to be replaced? Some have over 50% damage.

- The last place that drew up a plan and planted our shrubs did okay, but we wanted a little more color than just the average bushes with a few hostas thrown in. On an east facing side with dappled sunlight after 10:00 am, would it be bad to take out some of the half dead bushes and plant more flowers?

If anyone has advice or tips to share, I would welcome them! We are really good at growing things on a large scale, but not so much the small home garden size.

You can prune the Spirea. I would wait until after its done blooming. You don't have to but at least you can enjoy it. Should be coming up pretty soon!

Look into different species of barberry bushes if you want to get some different colors. These shrubs can produce awesome color in the fall! The nice thing about them is they have thorns. This keeps the rabbits and deer away from them! You can get different sizes that range in how tall they can get. You can also prune these back (be careful picking up the scraps after pruning)

I am a fan of day lillies over hostas. I think hostas have no curb appeal. You can get many day lillies in several different colors. Each of them have different blooming patterns as well. Some will bloom only once or twice. others will keep blooming all summer long. The nice thing about these is just like hostas they can be split when they are bigger. They are also hard to kill. Also all mentioned above are minimum maintenance. Basically tend to them once or maybe twice a year and that's it.

[pureinsanity]

As for the raised beds. Retaining wall block. If you use wood the weed whacker will do a number on it.

[LightningBG]

Could also use wood sides on the raised beds, then surround the box with one row of pavers, that the edge of the lawnmower can go right over.

[Steve Foss]

Could also use wood sides on the raised beds, then surround the box with one row of pavers, that the edge of the lawnmower can go right over.

That's what I had in mind, too. Kill or pull the grass around the raised beds and set the pavers or line of brick down into the soil so it's flush with the ground. You'll still have to spray or pull out grass working its way between the pavers, but that's pretty low maintenance.

You can actually cut the spirea right off at the ground right now and it'll sprout back with new growth. It is a very hardy group of shrub species. You will, of course, not get any blooms this year, but if you cut it before it grows much, it'll put all its energy into the new growth.

I'm a fan of both hostas and daylillies. We have tons of both. With a few hours of morning sun followed by dappled shade the rest of the day, either will do you just fine. If you have a deer problem, go with the daylillies. Deer LOVE hostas.

If you don't get habitual strong winds on your east-facing area, get a pink and a white bleeding heart for some wonderful color and variety. Sounds like you have the perfect light for them there, but they do suffer if it's windy a lot.

Hydrangea also will do well in that location, and there are some really cool varieties out there. Quite old fashioned looking as well, if you like the heirloom feel.

If you have a sunny location, try a mock orange shrub. Wonderful white flowers and very fragrant, as long as you make sure to select a variety known for its scent. Most do have nice scent, but a few cultivars don't. Mock orange is another oldtime garden staple.

I'm also a big fan of forsythia shrubs. They bloom right away in spring before the leaves come out, and it's very cool in late April (in your neck of the woods) to have those bright yellow flowers about the same time the daffodils are blooming. Forsythia will want plenty of sun, too, but do OK in partial shade.

[fishinchicks]

Steve, I like the way you think! Those are exactly the types of plantings I would love to do. I have fond memories of flower beds filled with bleeding hearts at my grandparent's house. It is windy here, so I would have to be careful on where I placed them. We don't have too big an issue with deer in the yard, just bunnies.

Thanks, everyone! Now I just have to face the monumental task of ripping out rocks and old landscape fabric to regrade before any plantings can be done.

[Steve Foss]

Are you going to get rid of the rock totally?

In the day, I laid tons and tons of that small landscape rock over fabric for ornamental shrub beds. But I have to acknowledge that, as a gardener/horticulturalist, I never liked the combo. Never looked very natural or attractive to me.

And not to get into a rock bashing thing, but I believe the combination tends to compact the soil and make it harder for the shrubs to do well long term. Not that it can't work, just that it sometimes puts one strike against the plants.

Landscape fabric does a good job of keeping weeds from growing up through it, but wind in your part of the country will certainly blow in dirt and weed seeds that nestle down into the rock nooks on top of the fabric, and I've seen many beds when I was out in North Dakota with fabric/rock that were sprouting enough weeds to feed 9 head of sheep for a week.

My preference for a long time has been no landscape fabric at all, and a shredded/chipped wood mulch. It's only slightly more maintenance over time than the rock, and the mulch will decay over the years, adding to the soil. I also just like the much more natural look of the wood mulch.

Anyway, that's just how I do it. Food for thought as you move along. Sounds like you have a project that's part fun and part hard work. Heck, that rock makes pretty OK filler for low spots/potholes in gravel roads and driveways, not an uncommon occurrence in farm country.

As for the wind and bleeding heart, if you place it between two other shrubs, as they grow up they'll offer some added protection.

[Rodbldr4fun]

You might want to consider converting to native prairie plants. They take about 3 years to get going because they develop a very deep, complex root system. But, once they are established, weeds aren't a problem and you can have various species blooming throughout the summer season. They are very beautiful, low maintenance and wonderful soil erosion control.

[pureinsanity]

Steve the problem you had was using fabric with the rock is because that fabric is more for stability in the soil. Like behind boulder retaining walls. If you are using decorative rock in beds, or along the house you should always use poly, and not the cheap thing stuff either. I even put poly under mulched areas unless its sloped greatly.

[fishinchicks]

Steve was spot on about dirt blowing into the rocks, creating an environment that weeds will grow in. I was out pruning down a volunteer tree and weeding the area that has the landscape fabric and rock combo. We had a nursery design the landscaping and put down the fabric a few years ago. They used the fabric, not the poly.

I haven't decided if we are totally getting rid of the rock (my preference, but hubby likes it). The whole area needs to be regraded, which became very evident after all the rain last fall. I prefer a more natural, or English garden look, which is not what the landscaper gave me. I met someone this weekend, and had a quick tour of her gardens. She is doing basically what I want to do. She used the same nursery that we did, and they gave her basically the same shrub selection that they used at our place. Their idea of color is different colored leaves in shrubs and the only flowers they used were hostas.

This is what the front of our place looked like last June:

The shrubs under the large windows are the ones that are about 50% winter damaged.

[Jameson]

Those shrubs, as I think you know are Spirea. They don't look to be a miniature variety, so I would say every March to cut them back to about 6 inches. They grow back very well every year.

Looks like a poorly placed IMO Ivory Halo Dogwood to the right of the Spirea. Trim it a bunch, anytime, it's a dogwood. Consider transplanting it away from the house.

Hopefully that is a very dwarf spruce to the left of the entryway. Over the years most of those varieties do get some size to them, say 5 foot diameter or more. Does it have room there? Consider transplanting it.

Looks like an arb is the second plant in to the left of the entryway. Many folks may have a differing opinion, but mine is never to plant an arb next to a house. It's fine if kept trimmed, but eventually that doesn't happen and then it gets too big and needs to be removed. Also might not have enough sun in that location to get thick and look good. Transplant it.

If you share some pics of the area to be landscaped and approximate dimensions I (and likely others) would be happy to throw out some ideas for plants.

P.S. Wood mulch next to a house gets the house very dirty when it rains. Try and keep rock next to the house and save the wood mulch for areas away from the house.

[pureinsanity]

P.S. Wood mulch next to a house gets the house very dirty when it rains. Try and keep rock next to the house and save the wood mulch for areas away from the house.

+1, specially with the darker dyed mulches. Keep in mind mulch is something you have to do year after year too! Rock is usually a one time deal if done correctly. If you get a weed here or there in a rock bed hit it with round up and be done with it.

Oh and if wind is an issue and you are worried about dirt getting into your rocks. How about mulch getting into your yard all over the place!?!? specially when its dry and light. Even down here in the metro area I've had mulch blow all over my yard. And I only had it around two trees!

[pureinsanity]

I also think those Spirea are spaced too close together. You might not be getting winter burn, you might be getting one shrub sucking up the water more then the other. Choking each other out.

Also you that dog wood. I agree it looks like a dog wood is rather large. I would cut it down, remove it or trans plant it. You might get lucky and be able to split it and have a few more Great cover for wildlife too!

[Steve Foss]

Thanks for the pic, chicks. Helps us see your situation. It would definitely take a walkaround to get a true sense of what's going on there.

Just as an FYI, PI, I also laid a lot of rock over several different grades of poly over the years. Didn't like that combo either. And not trying to get into any kind of jackpot here. Different strokes for different folks. One man's treasure is another man's . . .

Also in the FWIW category, I don't use dyed wood mulch unless a client insists on it. Hate the stuff myself. And a further FWIW, I have shrub/perennial beds that I mulched with wood chips/shreds that went four years without needing to add more mulch. Granted, you never have to add more rock if you rock it right from the start. Same as if you poured concrete.

just a difference in preference and perspective.

Anyway, sorry for introducing the off-topic topic. SF over and out.

[pureinsanity]

No Harm no Foul

there is always Preen Get your plants started and kill the weeds and then PREEN PREEN PREEN!

[Tator2k]

I'm working on cleaning up the gardens on the side of my house and I have a question.

How/where do I get rid of old rock/wood chip mix? When I bought my house the east side had a nice bed of tiger lilies which was surrounded by dyed mulch. However, the next spring as I was looking at redoing the mulch, I found out they just covered the bed that had been filled with river rock in the past.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to clean this up as the lilies have gone nuts and everything looks like a jungle.

[pureinsanity]

If I understand you want to remove the rock and mulch? Or do you just want to remove the mulch or rock and reuse it?

What kind of lillies? Are they day lillies or Asiatic lillies? Day lillies can be split easier. If you do split them now it is possible they will not bloom as well. However the Tiger lilly does bloom a bit later then the rest so if you did split them now they might be fine.

[Tator2k]

I was hoping to get rid of the mess, and replace with all new, clean mulch. It's about 3" deep mix of rock and mulch.

[pureinsanity]

I was hoping to get rid of the mess, and replace with all new, clean mulch. It's about 3" deep mix of rock and mulch.

Dig it out and bring it someplace. I have a friend who is filling in a low spot in his yard, that is where I bring most my rock, bad dirt and mulch and stuff.

You could post an add on HSO-Classifieds and have someone come dig it out for free if they want it.

[Steve Foss]

Do you have a fabric or poly liner under the rock and mulch? That should come up, too, if you do.

It sounds like you've already started down this road, but I think it's time to reimagine your bed. With the rock/mulch/liner gone, you'll have a fresh start. Remove the tiger lily bulbs with a spade, and keep them moist and in the shade. Then till or spade up and rake the bed to prep it. If you like the lilies, replant the bulbs 4-6 inches deep and about 6 inches apart.

I don't know how large your bed is, or how much you like tiger lilies, and both factors are important. I like tigers a lot, and in a fairly large bed I'd still limit them to a cluster about 3-4 feet in diameter, leaving the rest of the bed for other perinnials and/or shrubs.

Just the way I look at it.

[Tator2k]

There's no liner. It's right in the mud. The lilies are now about 3ft x 40ft very dense.

Ok, an off shoot question then. If want a new location for these. I'm assuming it's best to remove all the sod from the location, but do I just plant them through fabric and fill around them with mulch?

[pureinsanity]

yes

[fishinchicks]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. My plans have been delayed by a farming related knee injury. I am currently on crutches, which limits my usefulness. I am hoping I can get rid of them by the end of the week.

I will, however, have time to contemplate the suggestions. The dogwood gets cut down to about 6-8 inches every couple of years. It was supposed to get trimmed back this past fall, but, you know how that goes.

If I thinned out the spirea, the remaining ones could make a comeback? A few flowering perennials could be put in the spaces where I take shrubs out? That area receives more sun than the other side of the door, due to tree placement in the yard. We have several 35-45 year old trees in our yard. The arb (?) is leaning out, even though they tried to stake it, and looks ugly. I wouldn't mind tearing that one out.

I'll see if I can get a few close ups taken in better light. That would give you an idea of what the size of the space is.

[pureinsanity]

Speedy recovery to you!