The yard & garden line is OPEN

[SunDeck]

Agreed. I like my back yard shorter (easier to clean up after dogs) but it looks like garbage. However, I mow the front at 3 1/2 and I can stripe it up all pretty-like.

This is a fun thread, SD. Thanks!

Is that "1/3 rule" a pretty standard way of thinking? Would you still stick with the 1/3 rule if using a mulching mower?

Yes, cutting no more than 1/3 of the total height is about right.

Basically, you're wounding the grass when you cut it, so by taking off no more than that much you are always assured that there is sufficient plant mass left to direct energy into healing the plant. Another thing that helps your grass rebound quickly after mowing is to keep the blade sharp. It's just like your skin- a cut from a razor heals faster than a scrap on the pavement.

[SunDeck]

I was going to mention one more thing (yeah right). A good way to get rid of leaves is to just mow them without the bagger on. It makes good food for the grass and you can really get rid of alot of leaves. It sure as heck beats raking them up and disposing of them.

I love to do this when there are leaves everywhere in the fall. I mow my lawn and then afterwards my lawn is the only green patch in the entire neighborhood because everyone else is buried in leaves.

I hear you, MainRed.

[15fan]

Bump.

This summer has been brutal down here. Absolutely brutal. We're something like 16 inches below normal rainfall on the year. Water restrictions for most of the summer limited outdoor watering for me to 12:01 am - 10:00 am on Sunday. And that's it.

We're coming off a stretch of 18 out of 19 days in which the high was 95 or higher. If I dropped a lit match on my fescue yard, the entire thing (what's left of it, anyway) would burn in about 45 seconds.

Assuming that I'm going to feed/fertilize 2 times between now and the end of the year, and that somewhere in there I'll need to do a pretty thorough aerate/overseed, is it too early to fertilize? Or should I trust the folks at Scotts who just sent me the email telling me that it's time for my late summer feeding?

[IslandRed]

Equally brutal here, 15fan. Everyone's yard looks terrible. Mine is no better, since I was buried in work this spring and never got around to the initial fertilizer/crabgrass preventer step, so I have more weeds than usual. Overseeding will be a must.

My intuition is that I should wait for the heat to break for a bit before I put down anything; I can't imagine adding chemicals to an overstressed lawn helps much. Could be wrong.

[SunDeck]

Your lawn is dormant right now. Fertilizer won't hurt it. The roots are alive, but are barely active, trying to conserve energy until there is moisture. Once you get a little fall rain, the roots will spring back to life. Especially with cool season grasses. Scott's step four probably has a little higher phosphorus and potassium ratios and a little lower nitrogen. If I were making the stuff I wouldn't put much nitrogen in at all- but people love to have their grass grow like crazy and nitrogen is what causes that.

[LoganBuck]

Got a question: I have a semi dwarf apple tree that I planted last year. It is not supposed to bear fruit for three years. It has one main branch that has produced six apples this year but it is bending the tree too much. Should I cut them off or leave them. My intuition is to prune the apples.

[SunDeck]

Got a question: I have a semi dwarf apple tree that I planted last year. It is not supposed to bear fruit for three years. It has one main branch that has produced six apples this year but it is bending the tree too much. Should I cut them off or leave them. My intuition is to prune the apples.

How about staking the tree to keep the branches from bending? I'd hate to sacrifice the fruit.
Or you could remove a few of them just to lighten the load, but generally apple branches are tough. Ever tried to break them?

[LoganBuck]

How about staking the tree to keep the branches from bending? I'd hate to sacrifice the fruit.
Or you could remove a few of them just to lighten the load, but generally apple branches are tough. Ever tried to break them?

I thought of that but was worried about how to do it without damaging the tree, the apples are at the tips of the main trunk. How would you go about staking it safely?

This is one of those spliced, hybrid-four-varieties-in-one-tree trees. This tree is so young, I planted it last spring, it survived the drought last year with my constant attention.

[Hoosier Red]

Sundeck,

I was wondering what you thought of these suggestions. A lot seem to be close to what you would recommend, though I thought I remembered you advising very little water every day, as opposed to lots of water very rarely.

I have grass which has gotten a ton of sun this summer and really seems to brown out and give in to weeds quite a bit.

[SunDeck]

Sundeck,

I was wondering what you thought of these suggestions. A lot seem to be close to what you would recommend, though I thought I remembered you advising very little water every day, as opposed to lots of water very rarely.

I have grass which has gotten a ton of sun this summer and really seems to brown out and give in to weeds quite a bit.

I agree with this list and they have watering basically correct. I probably (or should have) said that watering daily for a few minutes promotes shallow root growth, as opposed to deep root growth. I tend to water my yard a lot because it also helps shrubs and trees, which are much more valuable in the landscape than the grass. Since their roots are often in the lawn, it makes sense to water there.

The part about soil is not very helpful because there isn't much you can do to actually add topsoil to your lawn. Aeration helps a lot with that, though. You can add aged compost as a top dressing (or top soil, but I prefer compost) when you aerate. Over time, this helps to improve the condition of your soil. Getting a soil test is a good idea- contact your local cooperative extension office for advice on that.

[Hoosier Red]

So since the advice line is open again, I have a question on a gigantic tree that is sucking up a lot of water. I've planted Vinca as a ground cover all around the tree, and it's done pretty well except there's a circle of maybe 2 feet around the tree where it's just not growing. There are some heartier plants which have seen some growth immediately around the tree, but the vinca won't grow there. Is there anything I can do? Put additional dirt(so the tree roots are even further down?) Any ivy like plants which don't need as much water that would fit in with the Vinca?

[SunDeck]

Generally, a mature tree doesn't really take up water right near its trunk. It will have roots out nearer the edges of its canopy for that. And you don't want to add any soil around its base, or really do anything that will cover those roots up. It's just the way it is with a mature tree and it can be difficult to find plants to grow in the deepest shade, so you may have to be content and satisfied that you've got a healthy one. What kind of a tree is it?

Did you just plant the Vinca recently? Most ground covers act the same way; the old adage goes, "In the first year they sleep, in the second year they creep and in the third year they leap." Do you know the names of the other plants you say have survived there? Plain old Ivy (Hedera helix) loves to get near trees...then grow up the trunk and drive you crazy forever. Pachysandra tends to do well in beds with trees and it's a really showy ground cover.

[Hoosier Red]

Actually the more I look at it, the area right around the trunk doesn't get much shade. Because we've had to cut the lower limbs from the tree going out, (or else they would be on top of the path to our house) but that means the dirt right around the tree kind of gets the worst of both worlds. It gets scorched in the sun, and whatever stays I'm afraid does get sucked up by the tree. I looked and noticed a number of plants have done pretty well there. Some ferns and a few others. But again there's just a number of bare spots where the vinca just doesn't seem to want to grow.

It's been three years since we planted and I can certainly appreciate that adage. I think it's done well growing everywhere else in the garden we want. Just not in this particular spot.

My mother in law probably has some additional vinca seedlings, but would it be good to re plant the vinca or just try to get the vines to move to the areas I want? Hopefully by next spring, the vinca will actually have grown enough that I can start to fill in some bare spots.

[SunDeck]

The tree is not sucking up the water, unless it's a weeping willow. You could try to put some vinca in the spots where it is not growing to see if it will grow there.

[Redlegs23]

OK, I need some serious help. I recently bought a house that sits on 2 acres. The problem is that the yard is in pretty bad shape. I have a bad crabgrass problem...really bad. About 1/3 of the yard is crabgrass. Another 1/3 is clover. Yes, I have about 33% of my large yard that is actually real grass. The previous owner always kept it cut very short to mask the problem, but from what I understand this also helps the crabgrass take over.

Sooo, what exactly should I do at this point? Is there an effective post-emergence treatment that I need to be doing this fall? Should I wait until the spring and give it a pre-emergence treatment? Should I not mess with it myself and pay a professional? If so, what are some opinions on Chemlawn? I live a couple hours north of Cincinnati so my options with companies are limited.

One more question, I have a ton of weeding to do. Stupid question here, but should I zap everything with Roundup and then try and pull the weeds after they're dead?

Sorry for the many questions, thanks in advance.