Sunday, May 24th, 2009
Last Autumn, I dug up about six rose bushes from the hillside out front and transplanted them to a more reasonable area down in the front yard. I am now mowing the hillside and having those rose bushes with their sharp thorns is really a thorn in my side (haha). I get snagged all the time and I don’t enjoy it much.
Initially, I didn’t know if they were going to take, meaning survive. Well, this Spring I noticed a bunch of new growth on some of the branches, but mainly from towards the bottom of the bush. I pruned out all the dead branches and the rose bushes are beginning to look pretty good. This is surprising because I wouldn’t say I did a great job of transplanting these things. I almost just ripped them out of the ground and plopped them in a dug out hole.
If you have not had the pleasure of seeing what the roots of a rose bush look like, let me tell you that they are pretty substantial. Rose bushes grow quite a bit under the ground and I have seen roots longer than six feet. I am not saying that I have seen this in a previous life, I’m saying that I saw this yesterday. Right at the base of the bush, if it is a few years old, you’ll find a gnarly root with a bunch of finer ones all tangled up.
If I had it to do over (which I actually did today), I would first cut the rose bush down to about a foot tall and then transplant it. This way, the plant is easier to work with and I won’t get my hopes smashed as I watch all the nice green growth wilt away.
As I said above, I transplanted six more Rose bushes over the past few days and I did it just the way I said I would, by cutting it down first and then transplanting it. Rose bushes are good at growing very, very fast under the right conditions.
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Garden with three transplanted Rose bushes
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Closer look at Rose bush transplants
Before I started writing this post, I did a little online research on “How to transplant a Rose bush.” You would be surprised at what I found. On one website, there was about two pages of instructions. They wrote all about the classic, “dig the whole twice as wide…compost…fertilizer” blah blah blah. I read this type of stuff all over the place and really don’t know who writes it. I get the feeling that the faster and dirtier the transplant job, the better things grow. I’m talkin’ pickup truck and chain style. The minute you stop and spend all sorts of time and money transplanting bushes and shrubs, they die.
Here is my advice when transplanting a Rose bush from my own experience:
1. Cut the bush down to 12 inches
2. Dig around the bush to remove as much soil as you can
3. Push the shovel under the Rose bush as much as you can and rock it back and forth to loosen up the plant
4. When it’s nice and loose, grab the roots and pull until you rip it out
To transplant:
1. Dig a hole
2. Plop the bush in the whole and cover with dirt
3. Water a few times a day for about a week
One word of warning for when you are trying to get the Rose bush out of its originating spot – You are going to sweat, get dirty and if anyone is driving by, laughed at.
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Saturday, April 18th, 2009
A few days ago, I walked outside and dug up a few “bunches” of Daffodils. They were regular Daffodils, but in bunches or clusters, meaning they consisted of about 10 or 15 individual bulbs.
I am not sure if gardeners know this or not, but Daffodils are easily divided. Each bunch is just a whole lot of bulbs stuck together by their roots. Everything is all tangled up. From the few bunches of Daffodils I dug up, I planted a whole line of bulbs all along an entire mulch bed. Sure, it doesn’t look like much right now, but come next spring, I think we’ll be getting somewhere.
Yellow Daffodil
There are only a few things you need to know about dividing Daffodils. The first thing is that you want to dig up the whole plant, without damaging the bulbs beneath the dirt. When dividing other types of plants, such as ornamental grasses, you slide your shovel right down the center of the plant. With a bulb plant like Daffodils, you don’t want to do that or you’ll damage the bulbs. Dig the whole thing up.
When you have the whole messy cluster of bulbs in your hand, shake out any excess dirt. That will make it much easier to get the bulbs apart from one another. I like to hold on to one bulb and kind of shake that one until the rest drop from that. At least you will have one free. Keep doing that and they will all eventually separate. If you dunk them in water, that helps to loosen them too.
When you have all the bulbs separated, you can plant each one where ever you want. I did this a little late this year. The best time to replant Daffodils is when you just see them starting to push through the dirt. You might not get that much out of them the first year, but they should come back in later years and continue getting fuller and fuller as they years go on.
I read yesterday that if you don’t divide your Daffodils every so often, they will stop blooming. I can see how that would happen because with all of those bulbs stuck together like that, it would be hard to get any nutrients to them after a while. Also, after the blooms die, you need to keep the green plant in tact for a few weeks to absorb the sun. I read that the sun kind of re-energizes the bulb for the next year.
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Monday, October 13th, 2008
A few days ago, I gave up. I admitted to myself that my patchwork ideas and techniques were no match for this large semi-terrible lawn. Sure, it was beautiful during the Summer, but now its true self is showing.
Ever since it started getting chilly outside, parts of the grass have been turning brown. I know it’s normal for grass to turn brown, but not so early in Autumn. I looked up a few things online and discovered that there were some issues with the lawn. Then, I called Scotts Lawn Service. You know the company…they are the ones that make all the stuff you see on the shelves at Home Depot and Lowe’s. I know, I didn’t know they had a lawn service either.
The guy came out and checked the place over. He gave me a write up of what they would do and how much it would cost. I asked him if this would make the lawn green and thick. He gave a slight chuckle and said “yes.”
Scotts Lawn Service
That’s all I want, a nice healthy, green, thick lawn. I don’t want to see bare spots, moss, brown spots or weeds. They seem to have the cure for this.
They came out today for the first application. They put down some fertilizer and grub control. During the next visit, they are going to put down some lime and a winterizer fertilizer. He said this is to establish good roots and an early green up in Spring. That’s all for this year.
Next season, starting in the early Spring, they are going to come back out and put down some weed control. That should get rid of the brown parts of the lawn, because that is what’s dying right now, causing all the brown areas. Throughout the season, they are going to fertilize, lime, kill grubs, aerate and reseed. By next Autumn, I think the lawn should be ready for a magazine. Well, that’s my hope anyway.
You know, the funny thing is that I think I am actually saving money by having someone else do this. I priced out 11,000 square feet of fertilizer today at Home Depot and it was about twice as expensive as what they charged me for that part of today’s service. Same for the grub control. Strange.
One thing I am going to do myself if aerate. John Deere sells a tow-behind aerator that I am going to get. This should pay for itself in one and a half visits of what they charge.
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Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
Do you remember back when I transplanted those shrubs from the front yard to the side of the driveway? Well, everything is going well, except for the fact that the soil I planted everything in is extremely fertile for weeds. I had a little forest growing within a few weeks.
I finally got my butt out there about a week ago and weeded the whole garden. Weeds will only stay down for a short time unless you do something about them. Also, in the garden, I noticed some small plum shrubs getting very dry leaves. That was caused by the very dry soil.
The problem is that every time I tried to water the shrubs when the ground was dry, the water would run right off the dirt. It was very frustrating. This stopped the shrub roots from receiving the much needed water. Also, the soil that the water did soak into dried very quickly from the hot sun.
There really was only one thing to do…mulch. Yesterday, I went out and bought about a yard of mulch just for this occasion. This morning, I did what I had to do.
First, let me explain the benefits of mulching a flower bed.
- Mulch keeps down weeds – prevents germination of many weed seeds
- Mulch keeps the soil moist in between rainy periods and hidden from the hot sun
- Mulch looks really good and accents your garden areas
- Mulch breaks down to add organics to your soil
- Mulch moderates the soil temperature
- Mulch protects the soil from the impact of raindrops that cause hardening
- Mulch encourages the growth of earth worms and other beneficial organisms
- Mulch keeps your plants clean by inhibiting soil splatter when it rains
- Mulch helps the rain water soak into the ground slowly so it doesn’t run off
With all these benefits of mulching, I was very eager to get started. Here are some photos of the process…
Garden before shot - no mulch
This is the before shot of the area I mulched. As you can see, I started digging the beginning of it when I remembered the I had to get the camera. Sometimes I am so excited to get going that I forget one of the reasons I am doing it…PICTURES!!!
Garden dug out and ready for mulch
With a pointed shovel, I edged the entire garden area. I put the shovel about half way into the soil and then just slid it under the grass to peel it up like a carpet. I then put the grass and extra soil into the wheelbarrow to dump on a rocky area that needs soil and grass. I am hoping if I spread it out, it will grow.
I dug the area to be mulched so it’s about four inches below the dirt the grass is growing in. That makes edging later on a heck of a lot easier.
Bags of mulch ready for use
I spread the bags of mulch out where I thought I would need them. When I got to each bag, I ran a knife up the side of each one. This made it a lot easier to pour where I needed the mulch. For this project, I used 27 cubic feet of mulch. I was about 15 cubic feet short.
The mulched garden area
This is the mulched garden area. As I mentioned above, I was about a half yard short of mulch. I like to put it about three inches thick. I had to spread it thin because there just wasn’t enough. I think I am going to wait until Spring to finish. It is a lot easier when all the plants aren’t in the way.
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Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
I was looking at one of my earlier blog posts yesterday and came across the one I wrote about getting tomato plants. I was shocked…yes shocked, at how small the plants were when I got them.
I would say these plants are between 3-4 feet tall right now. Here, take a look…
I think they all have tomatoes hanging from their branches at this point.
Some of the plants started falling over the other day. I didn’t have them tied up yet and I guess they were getting heavy. I did a little online research about when to stake tomato plants and came across a conversation all about the topic. Someone was talking about when a tomato plant gets to be four feet… I thought, “Four feet?” I am afraid that my stakes are only about three feet, so I may have to get the big guns out in a while.
You may also notice that the buckets are different now. This was an unexpected event. One day, I looked outside and noticed that the bottom leaves of the plants were getting yellow. After a bit of ridiculous research, I decided to transplant the plants in larger buckets. During the transpant, I noticed the roots at the edge of the dirt, right up against the bucket. Ever since I changed buckets, the yellow branches turned green again.
The reason I said “ridiculous” research above is because sometimes research on the internet is. I search for “yellow lower branches on tomato plants” on some search engine. I came across the most wild recommendations from all sorts of fools. They were saying that the plants had a blight, a bacteria, a fungus…all sorts of over the top things. Not one of them said anything that might actually be the problem. I guess that’s the way it is when you start looking across the internet for compex solutions to simple problems.
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Saturday, October 7th, 2006
I woke up this morning and looked at my thumb. Strangest thing…it was green. Oh well, I didn’t have much choice but to go outside and do some gardening.
I have had a project on the back burner for a while. The people who owned this house before us decided to plant some Bearded Iris right next to a Peach Tree. This isn’t the best spot for Iris to grow, because it gets mixed in with the grass and gets mowed over a lot (Who me?). So I decided to dig them up for transplant.
I had no idea how deep the bulbs were. Funny thing…I just assumed they were bulbs. I started scratching away the dirt on top of the Iris closest to the Peach Tree. I kept hitting these weird “roots” very close to the surface. I thought they were the Peach Tree roots. Whatever…I went in a grabbed a shovel and started digging all around the Iris patch. Guess what I found?
Up came the weirdest looking root-like beasts. I shook off all the dirt and went inside to do a little research on the internet about what the heck I was looking at. I found this good site that tells all about how to plant Iris. Then I found another good site that focused on how to divide Iris. Apparently, you are supposed to do this every few years so they maintain their beautiful bloom. I pulled all the tangled roots apart and cut where I was supposed to. These “roots” are actually called “rhizomes.” The weirdness of them still makes me feel a little uncomfortable.
After dividing all of the rhizomes, I had about 30 or so individual plants. I really hadn’t thought about where to put them. I decided that a little more green in the front garden would be a nice touch. I have a strange feeling that this front garden is going to be nuts come Spring. These Iris should be kept towards the rear of the garden because they get quite tall.
It’s pretty simple to replant these Iris. Basically, just follow the few rules that can be found here. I dug shallow holes spread evenly throughout the rear of the garden, one at a time. I wrapped the roots around my finger, because some of them are over 18 inches long. Then, I just placed them in the holes, near the surface and covered them up.
Of course, again, I sprayed deer repellant all over them so I wouldn’t witness a family of deer running down the road with my Iris hanging out of their mouths. We’ll see what happens in the Spring!
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