Night Time Lows

[Don]

Yep, give Joshua Tree a call. When lush - mow grass at 2.5". When its hot and dry - mow at 3". Actually measure it, you'll thank me. Remember that northern turf species, i.e. Blue, fescue, rye, they have a summer dormancy, they look burned but aren't. The prob is that when they're in summer dormancy annual summer grasses take over, two types of crabgrass and nutsedge are the most common. If year-after-year you apply crabgrass control during the 2nd week of may you can keep all that in check. Consider fertilizing in fall only as that will alleviate most disease issues. Unless you want to mow twice a week I'd skip spring Fert. and be Sur to never fertilize a lawn before Early to mid may. Overseed barren areas third to forth week of August and not in spring. A simple Penn State Soil test will tell you the PH and if you need lime which you probably will.
Remember when you started tying flies the authors often wrote that when it comes to do-dads and hackle less is often better. It sometimes, oftentimes, it is the same way with plants and trees. Pick your plants by the size of the site compared to the mature size of the plant, the moisture conditions present year round and the likelihood of disease susceptibility.
And take the shears away from whomever has been butchering off those poor Globe Arbs. The habit of Arbs is not especially good fo shearing. If the plant is too big replace it. And by the way none of these are older than 25-30, just like me.

Allot to take in but its a life and learning process and you get nowhere if you don't jump and study it.

 

[A-5]

I hate yard work. Gets in the way of fishing

 

[Gremcat]

I hate yard work. Gets in the way of fishing

Yep, I said after leaving Raleigh no more over landscaping. Then our daughters birthday hit. I’ve bought her pink hydrangeas since she was a year old every birthday. Then she needed a garden. The rental needed a “septic garden”. I struggled with coral bells in NC but they grew great here. Plus I had teenage labor to use up. No laying around Dad’s house. He cut the mulch beds around the trees and what not. Everything I’ve done here has been geared around low maintenance. Not interested in having sprinklers everywhere and thankfully in PA you’ve got it good. Growing season I short for veggies so only one cycle. You can’t grow the more tropical stuff. Other than that soil isn’t complete garbage red clay and you get plenty of rainfall. I haven’t touched the Arbs out front and they had a nice shape. Looking back at old pics from 10 years ago they had been cut real small. I know some cultivars don’t regrow so I’ve hesitated cutting them.

 

[Gremcat]

Yep, give Joshua Tree a call. When lush - mow grass at 2.5". When its hot and dry - mow at 3". Actually measure it, you'll thank me. Remember that northern turf species, i.e. Blue, fescue, rye, they have a summer dormancy, they look burned but aren't. The prob is that when they're in summer dormancy annual summer grasses take over, two types of crabgrass and nutsedge are the most common. If year-after-year you apply crabgrass control during the 2nd week of may you can keep all that in check. Consider fertilizing in fall only as that will alleviate most disease issues. Unless you want to mow twice a week I'd skip spring Fert. and be Sur to never fertilize a lawn before Early to mid may. Overseed barren areas third to forth week of August and not in spring. A simple Penn State Soil test will tell you the PH and if you need lime which you probably will.
Remember when you started tying flies the authors often wrote that when it comes to do-dads and hackle less is often better. It sometimes, oftentimes, it is the same way with plants and trees. Pick your plants by the size of the site compared to the mature size of the plant, the moisture conditions present year round and the likelihood of disease susceptibility.
And take the shears away from whomever has been butchering off those poor Globe Arbs. The habit of Arbs is not especially good fo shearing. If the plant is too big replace it. And by the way none of these are older than 25-30, just like me.

Allot to take in but its a life and learning process and you get nowhere if you don't jump and study it.

Don, do you sell ornamentals? I’ve a Japanese style garden started sort of. It was a terraced garden to allow steps on one side vs. concrete floating steps on the other side of the yard. I cleared the weeds and added a few things. I’m looking for a few more. Right now it’s a Weeping blue atlas cedar, a little red Japanese maple, and a few creeping junipers that are happy. Tried finding an atlas cedar that wasn’t deformed into the serpentine shape and only one I found not hardened off was a deformed reject. There’s a long stone wall below it so I wanted it to grow naturally over the side as a backdrop for my daughters garden below.

The septic garden was a learning experience. Baking sun midday. I planted pollinator friendly stuff and anything that didn’t take without additional water I’ve not replanted. I like odd stuff anyway so I don’t follow most neighbors. One neighbor has a wild overgrown yard and a hoop house so I do get stuff from her. They also have Elderberries so since the lot next door got scooped from me and my extra lot was clear cut for a new septic I’ll run a few rows. Attract the 600 lbs neighborhood bear so my new Philly Neighbor can fully “experience” nature LOL

 

[Don]

I don't really sell to the public but I do recommend u do lots of homework before spending a dime. Don't forget Dawn Redwood and Bald Cypress, and Crypomeria and Regal Prince Oak as foundational or structural plants. Once you've done your work you can buy anywhere there is a great deal. I you don't do your homework you'll be sold a pile. When planting trees cover the trunks to prevent buck rubs (we use tall tomato baskets) and if you love you kids then prove it by harvesting that dang bear. I have a list of things, perennials in trays of 30 each variety. They are splendid for the grower whom will bench them and finish them. It's tough to do that as a homeowner. For Fall bulbs its a different story. Daffodils, Hyacinths, Allium, Frittilaria, Camassia, Muscari, Galanthus, Anemonies, they're all great. If you have deer then put time in to figure out which ones to use. I can sell you fall bulbs. They can be seen on www.netherlandbulb.com.
Remember, you asked

 

[Gremcat]

Thanks and no worries on info dump. I had a yard full of Cryotomeria Yoshinos in Raleigh. We always bought commercial and by a truck or box truck load. Told you I had a lot of plants lol. I like bald cypress too. Not so big on small flowers these days. I like tulips but squirrels do to.

 

[Don]

If squirrels eat your tulips it’s you fault. It means you didn’t plant deep enough. Haha.
Cryptomeria is Japanese Redwood.
dont buy trucks full or box trucks for. Always a bad way to buy. do your research. Measure off the area. Choose wisely. Less is better When in the right place. You’ll do fine but you have lose the bargain basement ideas when it comes to investing in plants. Have fun.

 

[Gremcat]

Yeah, we had a relationship with a commercial grower who supplied the Nurseries. I put a raised bed in on the back of our lot after replanting a few times and fighting droughts and clay. The raised bed was 2-3’ deep, 150’ long and 60’ deep with Cryptos along the back and all kinds of other stuff in the rest. Then a tree fell, same tree a logging company offered to remove for free the prior summer if I took down my fence and gave them access to my neighbors backyard and also let them bring their crane up the hill in my drive and around behind the house to remove a ton of her pines looming over her house. I was out of town when they finished and they decided after decimating my yard the tree was a $1800 job to just drop. That was a bit of heartburn. After the tree fell and also crushed our outbuilding the insurance sent a removal company in and they dropped the tree on my tractor, then drove sideways through the garden bed crushing every tree and bush..... I swear you can’t make this up. I’d had enough at that point. I put a 16x32’ lofted building on the back edge of the property and behind it a scalloped top kiln dried fence instead of privacy trees.

Amazing the new fence and building didn’t die or require water and weeding lol. I didn’t learn though after. I put an urban farm in instead and still had hundreds of feet of trees/bushes in beds. Looked great when we moved. Gay lawyers from NJ bought it for a vacation home in NC tearing down the farm and garden. They cut down a lot of the bushes too including 40+ year old azaleas that were pretty nice even though I’m not an Azalea fan.

 

[Don]

Such is the way of Aborists. Some know and some say they know. Sorry to hear about that experience. I grew up in Doylestown and there were more quality arborists to choose from if one knows the diff. Sounds like you do.
I like some Azaleas when they occur in native habitat. They're usually deciduous but then bloom like fools...dont like them as domestic plants. Same with most Rhody's, only like the Native Maximus. A very good collection exists at the Dupont Estate known as Winterthur. Take the Fam. Its Spectacular. There are also pieces of the virgin forest preserved there. 4-5 hundred yr old Tulip Poplar.

 

[Gremcat]

Awesome, tulip popular are a favorite. I’ll look it up. We where married at JC Raulston Arboretum @ NC State. She’s always been into greenery. I grew up split between a farm and an organic ‘back 40’ so when trying to find things to do that she enjoyed I adopted pretty quick. I’m pretty much below amateur but put the effort in. I’ve also never like Rhodo in pruned yards. Much like azaleas just look off. We’ve the two real old gnarly ones framing our stone bay window and I’m a fan of the trunks on those. They were left to stretch a bit more than normal or I’d like them much less.

 

[Gremcat]

Did a tour of Bouchard gardens on Victoria Island BC as well. Interestingly, lived in NC but never made it to Biltmore. Drove past a time or two.