Landscaping/Gardening Thread.

[cral12]

Fairly simple problem:
Portion of front lawn (south facing) is weedy, and spotted portions (areas with not much grass).
What products do you recommend? (i.e. I'm hearing Weed Be Gone for weeds, should I be overseeding, One-Step (?Scotts).
What other steps should I consider? (additional fertilizer, lime?, etc.)?

[TKB]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

Interesting. I tried the weed b gone a few years ago. It didn't do much of anything, whereas Killex always kills them in 2 days or so.

Agreed. In my opinion killex is far superior. Especially the one that is attached to the hose and sprayed on.

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by red sky

Any good suggestions for a full shade plant? I know hostas are popular but I am wondering if there are any other ones out there.

Bleeding heart is great - fills out and flowers quickly in the spring before most other plants. I also have a black bugbane in my shade garden that's really nice towards the end of summer. As others have suggested, astilbe, heuchera and various ferns work well. Someone mentioned lady's mantle - I find it spreads out of control pretty easily and personally never found it that appealing.

[lifetime_flamesfan]

I'm looking for some different options on columnar trees? In my area everyone has the Swedish aspen, and I think I want to go a little bit of a different route.

Currently I am leaning towards some kind of columnar evergreen, but from what I have found, they don't get the height that I want (I'm looking for at least 20 ft.).

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by lifetime_flamesfan

I'm looking for some different options on columnar trees? In my area everyone has the Swedish aspen, and I think I want to go a little bit of a different route.

Currently I am leaning towards some kind of columnar evergreen, but from what I have found, they don't get the height that I want (I'm looking for at least 20 ft.).

They also grow slower I believe, so if you are looking for a quick impact for a screen, aspen is probably your best bet. There's a few more trees which have a decent height to width ratio, like a Dakota Pinnacle Birch, but again the mature height won't be as high as the aspen and will take longer to get there.

Are you creating a privacy screen along a fence?

[lifetime_flamesfan]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

They also grow slower I believe, so if you are looking for a quick impact for a screen, aspen is probably your best bet. There's a few more trees which have a decent height to width ratio, like a Dakota Pinnacle Birch, but again the mature height won't be as high as the aspen and will take longer to get there.

Are you creating a privacy screen along a fence?

Not so much a privacy screen (although it would be a nice bonus), more that I like to have the height in trees. We don't really have the room for trees that have a wide radius as well, so I feel like the height can make up for the lack of width.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by lifetime_flamesfan

Not so much a privacy screen (although it would be a nice bonus), more that I like to have the height in trees. We don't really have the room for trees that have a wide radius as well, so I feel like the height can make up for the lack of width.

I'm in the same situation. I ended up going with the Columnar Aspens and added a dakota birch just to mix it up a bit. If I recall, the birch gets to double the width of the aspen.

[rohara66]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

I'm in the same situation. I ended up going with the Columnar Aspens and added a dakota birch just to mix it up a bit. If I recall, the birch gets to double the width of the aspen.

I'll snap a picture of my backyard and post it up. I have a small yard but still wanted some tree's so we did a row of 3 columnar aspens up one side with a Dakota birch in one corner and a flowering crabapple tree in the other corner (think its a pink spire crabapple).

The birch struggled the first year and is still fairly slow growing. The crabapple has grown 2 feet in 2 years and the aspens have grown 5-6' at least in 2 years haha. They're like weeds.

[rohara66]

Also my aspen trees have drooping branches from that crazy snow/ice storm last year.... anything I can do to get them growing up again?

[V]

Originally Posted by calf

Weed-be-gone works well. Or hiring the Weed Man for treatment Ive found effective.

I found Weed be Gone to be completely useless. My dandelions thrived no matter how much of that crap I sprayed. Now I live in the country, so I get to buy real weed destroyers. I can spray in the morning and they're dead in 4 hours. It's fantastic.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by lifetime_flamesfan

I'm looking for some different options on columnar trees? In my area everyone has the Swedish aspen, and I think I want to go a little bit of a different route.

Currently I am leaning towards some kind of columnar evergreen, but from what I have found, they don't get the height that I want (I'm looking for at least 20 ft.).

Take a look at lodgepole pines. Fast growing (not as fast as Aspens, I believe) and will grow up to 25M!

If you're going for the well-manicured landscaping look, these may not be what you want. Personally, I prefer the look of native landscaping and this is how I am designing my own yard.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by V

I found Weed be Gone to be completely useless. My dandelions thrived no matter how much of that crap I sprayed. Now I live in the country, so I get to buy real weed destroyers. I can spray in the morning and they're dead in 4 hours. It's fantastic.

They can start to twist a bit in a few hours, but killing dandelions should take several days. You do want to follow label directions, as they say, otherwise you might just burn off the top and leave the root to grow again.

[jeffporfirio]

Originally Posted by lifetime_flamesfan

I'm looking for some different options on columnar trees? In my area everyone has the Swedish aspen, and I think I want to go a little bit of a different route.

Currently I am leaning towards some kind of columnar evergreen, but from what I have found, they don't get the height that I want (I'm looking for at least 20 ft.).

We used aspens and blue arrow junipers (thin, medium height and no invasive roots like pines or spruces) alternating one of each, to create a nice private barrier between our back yard and our neighbors.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

http://m.canadiantire.ca/en/outdoor-...ontent=Default

Wow, they brought it back. AND Rona? The hysteria must be calming down.

Thank goodness, because prices for it skyrocketed when the big stores stopped selling it.

[Alpaca]

Originally Posted by rohara66

Also my aspen trees have drooping branches from that crazy snow/ice storm last year.... anything I can do to get them growing up again?

We have the same problem, tied the branches up to the trunk over the winter.
We untied them a few weeks ago and now that the leaves are out the branches are drooping?

[DoubleK]

Any recommendations for a lawn care company? Ie Weed man or Green drop?

[jeffporfirio]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

Any recommendations for a lawn care company? Ie Weed man or Green drop?

Run away from Dr Green.
If you are in the NW, I would highly recommend GreenEdge. A very well run family shop, they do everything from fertilizing to weekly cut/trim to fall leaf cleanup. I have had them working at our place for 2 years now, reasonable prices, responsible guys.

[DoubleK]

I'm in the SW. Looking for exactly how you described Green Edge.

[Hessen]

I've started a massive project in my backyard. I have a circular 14' concrete pad that I decided to put allen block planters around to picture frame it with a garden. So far I've stripped the grass and used it to fill in dead spots from my old dog and trenched the areas for the blocks which should be delivered next week.

I then decided to replace the existing trees that span my rear fence (Columnar Aspens and a Russian Olive) as it's too wet there and they aren't growing after 4 years. I pulled them all out as best I could and moved them to another area of the yard. They may not make it but we'll see what happens. I replace them with Towering Poplars and a Laurel Leaf Willow. Took a lot of sweat and pain to get it done and the sad thing is it doesn't look any different... hopefully they will grow better to create a privacy screen though.

I got to learn how to fix sprinklers as well as I sliced into a line while excavating the one bed!

[Top Shelf]

Anyone looking for trees, check out Costco. Really good prices on spruce trees, a few different varieties; Black Hills, Norway, Colorado Blue. Can't beat the prices either, 20 bucks each for the ones in the pic below.