A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Would like some thoughts and general info...

no babies, no eggs, cut away.

it will be fine. and yes, you can.

put the cuttings on top of the poo. helps if i finish my thoughts

Thanks Jiffy. I trimmed 3 limbs off of the tree and then shaped a bit at the walkway so we don't whack our heads anymore. I ran out of daylight to finish the rhodies, so i'll work on that on Sunday if I have time...I have a meeting after church and need to make sure all of Stephen's laundry is done by the time he needs to leave to go to training again. So the rhody may have to wait until Monday...oh well. :) It isn't going anywhere.

You know what annoys me? People in this town are nosy....that doesn't bother. Its when they come up to me and say "oh, your cutting the rhodies down? They are just soo pretty". No I'm trimming them so I can at least SEE my house....if you want them to be 8-10 feet tall, then you can pay my mortgage!!! for more of this rant, see my blog. Anyways, I don't care what people think. A 10 foot tall bush isn't a bush any longer...it's a freakin' TREE!

jenn, i understand... and a funny for you. when we lived in fl, there was a house that had azaleas on their fence that were literally at tall as the roof of their house. they totally obliterated the view of the road from inside, and you couldn't even tell there was a house behind them if you didn't look in the driveway.

after about 4 years (we lived there 5) the owners cut them back. HARD! cathy (i think that was her name ) said that people would be out walking by and walk up and knock on her door to introduce themselves to the "new neighbors"

they bloomed just fine the next year

LOL!!!! Now THAT is funny!!!! I don't even care if they don't bloom next year. I think the one closest to the front of the house will bloom a little....there was still foliage after I trimmed....the other one, tho, I doubt it. To be honest, I don't even know how the heck the other one will even make new foliage!!! I guess out of the spots that I cut at????? How does that work? And if there are no foliage and the limbs are basically just sticks coming out of the ground, should I trim it lower so that what IS new growth won't make the bush larger than I want it?? How exactly does this work?

OK, another question...not sure if I should just keep it in this thread or make a new one in the gardening in the shade area. There are bleeding hearts planted on that side of the house...in full sun. I don't even know why you'd do that. Anyways, I'm sure the sun just totally burned them. They did grow and they did actually bloom, but the stems of them are completely yellow and feel hollow if I pinch them. Do you think they'd make it if I transplanted them to the front where I have shade. I know that in the fall they just get trimmed and stuff, but do you think the root system would be fine? They might need to get moved again in the spring, but at least they wouldn't be in the full sun and I'd know where they were next year (because I wouldn't remember exactly where they were if I waited until next spring....heck, I can't even remember what I did this morning!!!)

Are you all tired of my questions yet? Let me just tell you how good it feels to be able to go out there and work in the gardens and such. I missed that soooooo much!

tired of you? never!

i'm going to answer the bleeding heart question first. i've never grown them, BUT, i'd say the full sun for now would offer them some protection from winter so i'd just wait and move them in the spring. although, someone who grows them up north will probably say opposite

as for the "sticks" they will either put out side shoots from those sticks (happens all the time) or they will put up new growth from the root set. when they start to come out, you will have time to know which and make the appropriate alterations to your cuts. unfortunately, i can't remember which they do.

LOL....I'll wait on the bleeding hearts for now then. I'm not going to be able to work on anything until at least Monday, I think , anyways. Thinking about this weekend, I'm almost sure of that now.

Well, I'm going to take a shower and head off to bed. We're both pretty tired right now. He was up at 5:30 this morning to clean their dorm room and then had a test (he got a 94% on it) and then had to go a long way home because he had to stop at the prison he will be working at for his "official" ID badge (ooohhhh....ahhhhhhh ). I'm going to ask him to feed the baby and put him to bed for me so that we can go to bed earlier. I'm exhausted!!!

Thanks soo much, everyone, for all of the advise. I'm soo glad I found this wonderful place over 4 years ago! I love Bill for putting up with all of us and for having it for us!

yes, there is that!

and i'm glad you found here too, 'cause that's how i found you

ok, i knew i would get more info after i posted this. move them now. from what i can tell, they will do better sheltered over the winter in the spot they will thrive in in the summer. so, since they are part shade plants, moving them now is the way to go

So, the shower made me feel better and I thought I'd get onto the forum one last time tonight.

Ok, then I will totally plan on moving them next week. Over the weekend, I'm hoping to play with planning on what plants to put in the beds. I probably won't actually sit and think about where to put them, but I think I will come up with a list and then will email Stephen's uncle (who happens to own the largest greenhouse in the state...how convenient!!!) and ask if the plants I want are ones that he usually carries. Maybe he will give his niece a discount. Even if he doesn't, I still would like to give him the business. :) ...I'm nice like that.

nice. showers are good, moving plants can be fun, and your own family accessible commercial green house, how much better can it get?

Be careful with the bleeding hearts Jenn, they have very briitle roots and are fussy on being moved. Take and dig a large clump around them, don't separate the dirt from the roots...just plunk it back in the ground.

okie-dokie. I think I knew that the roots were brittle. I had ordered some from a catalog and they all came wrapped in damp papertowels and cushioned in newspapers and such.

Alrighty....horse poo acquired. Well, not totally. I talked to the lady who has horses and she said she just emptied "the pit" but she had enough to fill the bed of the truck, so I will go get that this week. She also has some barn beams that she doesn't need anymore and has offered them to us for our kitchen! Yay!!!! So, today Stephen is going to help me measure the yard and stuff so that I can work on plans and such so that I know where to put the poo. I had a dream lastnight about the garden and that it will eventually be the entire yard. I don't know how realistic that is, but Stephen wouldn't have any grass to mow at least then. ANYWAYS, I'm thinking plants that attract butterflies and humming birds. They seem to have some wonderful color and don't seem to need alot of tending to. I did see a hummer or two this spring here, so I know they are around. I am going to have to get a feeder for the garden and I think I will use a shepherd's hook thinger to hang it from. When I get the measurements done and a basic layout of the garden (stage 1 ) I'll post it in this thread with some ideas of where to put what plants. I will need opinions from you all since you all know soo much more than I do. :) i can't wait until next spring!!! I hope we are able to save up enough money for the plants that I'd like!

Oh, update on the bird's nest. There were a couple dried up rhodie leaves in the nest, so I decided to watch those for any sign of a bird. Nothing. The leaves have been in the exact same place since Friday and we weren't home yesterday to disturb any birds, so I think it is pretty safe to assume that the nest is unoccupied. I was going to go ahead and trim away as Jiffy had suggested, but I was curious to know if there was a bird living in the nest.

it is really too late in the year for an active nest. so not surprised. as for your shepherds hooks, i got a bunch this time of year on clearance from big lots/odd lots and the family/general dollar stores.

Ah! Good to know! I am not sure that I'll be allowed to get any right now tho. We still have another 2 weeks of no income until Stephen gets his first check.

they'll be on sale from not until they are gone. i bought them though that time.

Alrighty...here is what I've come up with for the beds. Below the photo is an explanation...


The green circles are trees/shrubs that can't be moved because they are too large. The grey upside down T shape at the bottom is our walkway. Ok, at the bottom, the beds on either side of the path that goes to our house from the sidewalk....the beds start 7 1/2 feet from the corner of the path/sidewalk. Do you see the little measurement lines on either side of the path that are in line with the tree's trunk? Ok, those are measuring the thinnest part of the beds....3 feet deep. The rest of the drawing of the beds are less exact and I basically drew them where I think i'd like them. They, to me, are less important than the main arcs on either side of the walk. I would like them as symmetrical as I can get them until they each need to sweet out at different angles to follow the house and such. On the left, the bush at the corner of the porch is a burning bush. Notice how the bed just kind of stops after going around it? That is where I'm stopping for this year. Next fall I will most likely extend that bed around that side of the house. So what do you all think? I think I really like it. I know that the wave across the front of the house (near the tree) seems a little sharp and will most likely be hard to mow....I'm going to be doing the garden hose thing out there to iron that out, but I just wanted to draw as my brain was going. Everything else seems ok tho....I think. But I need other experienced eyes to look at it. By the way, this photo IS to scale.

I love the look. I think that will look fantastic.

The plan looks great Jenn.

Oh, leave that horse 'poo' age Jenn, if it's fresh it's gonna burn your plants and fill your yard with weeds....trust me, I know been there, done that.

The poo isn't totally fresh and she has it mixed with some hay. She says there are a couple of other people who do the same thing with their gardens and the say if leaves the soil sweet...so that is good I think.

Yup, but hay has seeds...trust me on that one. Your gonna have to leave it compost itself for a long long while.

If it's just sitting where the beds are going to be with bark and leaves on top of it, won't it compost itself?? I was under the impression that is what it would do? I'm not going to turn it all until next spring.

Oh yes, it'll compost itself...i thought you were going to add it to existing beds.. sorry for the misunderstanding.

It's just last year DH added manure to my veggie garden that wasn't composted. Well it composted itself alright with tons of hay seeds and such as well.

OK! Whew! There are some existing plants where the beds are going to be, but I am going to keep the poo away from those plants. I knew that it would burn them until it all broke down.

Although, I'm thinking about this now....there is English Ivy planted around one of the rhodies. I HATE ivy and it is sooooo hard to get rid of! Do you think just maybe the fresh poo will burn it to death and since it wouldn't get sun, it wouldn't come back??????? What do you think?

either that or the fresh poo will make that invasive vine stronger. I've been trying to kill Goutweed here for years....not even chemicals does it in.

I know English Ivy is nearly impossible to get rid of. I read once that the second anything harmful to it is introduced, that it goes into "hibernation" until it is safe again...which is why bleach, fire, and chemicals don't work on it. And the vine is brittle, so when you try to pull it out the roots snap off and stay there. I hate it with a passion.

english ivy LIKES shade.

it may like shade, but does it like total darkness??? Say 3-4 inches of poo?

I don't know, but I had some come back this year. It had been dormant for at least 2 years. :neenee
I like the english ivy. I haven't had a problem with it being invasive. but, I kinda put it where nothing much grows anyway.
good luck.

Thanks. We had it at our last house and it tried to take over everything. I felt like it was a losing battle. It had climbed about 30 feet of one of our large pines. Now it is someone else's problem....good luck to them!

I know it can lay dormant for a LONG time. But I'm also hoping that I'll be able to catch it quickly if most of it is gone.

Well, poo.....I have to wait until tomorrow to get my poo and according to the weather channel, we're going to have showers all morning long. Boo! What a bummer.

On the brighter side, I finished trimming the rhodies today and trimmed the tree as much as I could. I discovered that a bush I have on the front corner of the house is another burning bush and it needs trimmed horribly, but I'm going to wait until after the leaves turn red cause I think it's soo pretty. The burning bush in the back yard has already started turning red.

Ok, so earlier in this thread it was said that I could use the trimmings to put on top of the poo once it's spread. Ummmmm...do I just go and chop it all up and then put it on top???? How do I do that with the larger trimmings from say, the tree and such?

Well, got the poo and got it unloaded today. The truck is a mess! I tried to hose it off, but I'm afraid I'm going to do something wrong, so it'll have to get cleaned off this weekend while Stephen is home. The pile of poo is near our fence and the dogs are very interested in it (big surprise there). I'm hoping to get the poo distributed over the weekend...although they are calling for rain tomorrow. It hasn't rained for about 2 weeks and NOW it is going to rain. ..figures.

Compost decomposes faster if each piece is about 1 inch in size. Larger pieces take longer.

Putting tree stems in compost is to help aireate(sp) the pile. That way the organisms that help break it down can get all over it and break it down faster.

I lay my sticks at the bottom of the pile in a cross hatch pattern so that it creates like a sieve pattern. That way the materal that breaks down falls through. And I follow Jiffy's advice with no sticks larger around than my baby finger.

If you have a bunch of branches you may want to rent a wood chipper and then either use the resulting chips as mulch or add them to the compost pile. In either case they do a good job.