Gardening: Removing Grass from a Flower Bed

I had the unpleasant task this past weekend of removing grass from a flower bed. Uugh... does the word "Beating!" do it justice???

Last year, most of you knew I spent my weekends running... or recovering from running. I did a little gardening, but didn't apply "my full potential" to most projects. In particular, my front flower bed.

Each day I'd go get the paper or the mail and I'd see the grass was growing within the bushes, over the bushes, and covering most of the soil. I'd just let it go... but walk away irritated.

Saturday, the time had come to rid this pest from my view. Because I have a lot of bushes, I had to dig it out. Using poison wasn't an option. It was back-breaking to say the least. In fact, because one of my bushes is a Burberry (thorns!), I scratched up my arms real good.

I spent roughly 4 hours on my knees and stomach ripping out the roots of the grass. Some of the roots were pretty deep, too, so a shovel was needed. It was a huge project. But in the end, success. I was able to transplant some bushes to other parts of my yard, too.

So after hearing my tail of woe, my friend Mel asked, "You should blog about removing grass from a flower bed." Of course, there are a variety of scenarios and methods. Here are a few that I've seen, experienced, and even researched:

Grass in beds where plants/bushes currently reside...

The quick and dirty way (and painful!) of doing it is to get your trusty spade (or large shovel if you have the room) and dig dig dig! You need to reach deep down and grab those roots. They're white and thick and they usually form a "network" underground. It's very difficult, but very satisfying when they come out.

Another way is to cover grassy areas with layers of newspaper or even black plastic - trash bags are fine. You'll need to anchor them to the ground with either rocks or steaks. You can also cover it with dirt. Now, it may take some time. Some experts say to start it in the fall and remove it in the spring. When it's time to remove the coverings, your grass should be dead and easy to remove.

New beds where grass is currently growing...

Let's say you have an area where you have a lot of grass, but you want to create a flower bed (or vegetable garden). One method that I've used before is to dig out all of the grass with a shovel, then transplant the "cuts" of grass to another spot. Basically, mark out your bed. Then dig about 6 inches deep into manageable squares that you can cut out. You'll pull the roots with the grass. If you can transplant it, great! If not, just dump it into your trash bin.

When you're finished, you'll have an area that is lower compared to the rest of the yard. Try and dig out any remnants of grass. I've then taken newspaper and covered the entire area. After that, I covered the newspaper with my new soil. You can cut tiny holes through the newspaper as you add your plants. The newspaper will act as a barrier for at least a season, and then decompose.

However, if you have a large area, I would suggest renting a tiller from Home Depot or Lowes for half a day and tilling up that section. Then you can scrape off the tilled up grass and dirt. You can still do the newspaper thing above if needed.

What about using poison to kill the grass?

Well, I've got a good friend who I helped plant a beautiful Chinese Pistache tree in her backyard. I gave her specific instructions on how to care for it (future blog). The one thing I didn't tell her: Don't use Round-Up around it! Yep, she had grass or weeds growing within the bed around it and she sprayed the poison all over that area. Since the tree was about a year from planting, the roots were still confined to that area... Yep, she killed it.

I have another friend who decided to Round-Up his entire yard because it was all weeds. He then tilled out all of the dead grass (a few weeks later) and re-sodded his entire yard. I believe that was a successful venture.

My point is this: Use caution when using poison. Personally, I would love to use it because it makes things easier. However, I'm a minor "tree hugger" when it comes to it because I know it gets into our ground water and can impact our pets and plants/vegetables that we grow. Just use common sense.

Hope this was helpful... and thanks Mel for submitting this idea to me.

"When Should I Plant My Garden???"

Something must be in the air. I have been asked FOUR times today from different people, "When should I plant my garden?" Wait... I know what it is... SPRING is in the air!

I'm a gardener. Yes, it's true. I confess. I love gardening. To me, there are two types of gardeners. There are ones that love to landscape, and there are others that love to plant vegetables. Well, I love doing both. I love mowing. I love creating different "scapes" in my yard, and trying different plants. And of course, I love to plant "THE GARDEN!"

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of space. I can usually grow 6 tomato and 8 pepper plants. I've tried a variety of tomatoes... Big Berthas, Better Bush, Whopper, etc. However, the ones that I've had the most success in the Dallas area are Carnival tomatoes. Sometimes those are hard to find... they have another name: Celebrity.

They don't get too huge - 4 inches would be very large. However, they go on and on and on. What would you rather have: A few large tomatoes, or a bunch of mediums that last until October? :-)

So, here is what I recommend. Check the date. I usually use March 15th as a "planting" date. The next thing I do is check Accuweather.com. If they don't predict freezing temps in the next 10 days, then we're good to go. As of now, my going is good! So this weekend is planting season at Casa de Regan.

Now, a few tips. You don't just dig a hole and put the plant in there. I do a few things.

My friends, I'd like to share with you "the few things" that each of you should do each planting season. These directions were passed down from my grandfather to his daughter, my Aunt Loretta. She passed them on to me. And, as some have seen (and tasted!), the results speak for themselves.

Tomatoes 101:

Most of these products can be purchased from your local Feed Store. You can also get the manure at Walmart. And this is for an area that is 5' x 20'.

Products:
20 lbs. Bone Meal
15 lbs. Cotton Seed
10 lbs. Garden Lime
1 Bag of Peat Moss
2 Bags of Manure

Directions:
1. Mix Bone Meal, Cotton Seed, and Lime into Garden. Till in.
2. For each plant, dig a hole about 6" in diameter.
3. Add 3 parts Cow Manure, 6 parts Peat Moss in bucket. Fill bottom of hole.
4. Place plant in hole up to first stem.
5. Remove bottom stem and add more mixture from #3.
5. Put dirt over everything and all the way to the top of the first leaves.
6. Fill with water.
7. If leftover mix, just dump it around the remainder of the soil.
8. Cover with mulch.

Season:
Every other day, go out and remove “suckers.” A sucker is a stem that begins to grow between two stems. These take away nutrients from older stems/vines. Tomatoes require a lot of water and sunlight. Plan to water every 2-3 days. If the soil is dry, your plant is dry. One way to combat this is to add a soaker hose around your plants after you finish planting. Remove yellow leaves and vines. They’re dying. As soon as the tomato starts to turn (ripen), remove. It’s not going to grow any larger and the birds will get it.

So that's it. Happy gardening!

Gardening: Transplantation

One of my favorite plants in my yard is called a Texas Star Hibiscus. As you can see in the picture to the right (not taken in my yard), it produces large 5-point flowers. Not only is it a beautiful plant, but it's very unusual.

The flowers are very large, and the leaves almost look like marijuana leaves in shape! Ha! My uncle Jerry gave me one of these several years ago. Funny story: He lives in Port Neches (Beaumont area) and I was driving through Houston back to Dallas. Someone pulled up next to me and started making signs like they were smoking a joint - they really thought I was transporting a marijuana plant!

Ok, while I could probably go on and on about how much I enjoy this plant (no, I don't smoke it!), I want to talk about transplantation. You see, right now is the best time to move plants in your yard from one spot to another. Late winter/early spring (before the plant starts to produce leaves, etc.) is ideal because the plant will undergo less shock. And when I say "plant," I want you to think about trees, bushes, or other plants within your yard.

If you are a gardener, you know how your plants produced last year. And, if you've noticed "crowding" or "less production," maybe it's time to think about moving that plant to a better location.

Thus, I bring up the Texas Star Hibiscus. My uncle gave me one, and now I have 3 in my yard. How did that happen? A few years ago I took my shovel and split the root-ball of the original plant. I took the remainder and planted that part into another location. Last year, I did the same with the 2nd one.

Now, most people might not want to take a blade and cut up a prized plant. So, let's say you want to just move a plant from one location to another? Here are some steps that I typically follow...

First, I dig a VERY large hole in my new location. What that means is it's much larger (width) than the actual plant I'm going to move. This allows for the roots to spread out when the plant has been planted.

Next, I start to dig up the root ball. There are several schools of thought on how best to do this. If it's a bush, I typically dig as far out as I can typically carry. For example, let's say the bush is about 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. I would plan to dig out at least the width of the plant - so 2 feet all around. That way, you can probably gather a significant amount of the root ball.

If it's a tree, here is a simple measuring method: Take a tape measure and measure up from the base 18 inches. Next, take a measure of the width of the trunk. Let's say it's 2 inches wide at that point. You should multiply that by 18. So, your root ball should be dug at 36 inches.

So now that you have some simple tips, think about what needs to be moved around in your yard. February is the perfect time... try and take care of "maintenance items" before March and April hit!

As you can see, I can't wait until I can start planting again!!! Oh, and the Texas Star Hibiscus? It's a fantastic plant for any yard. It will produce great blooms (FULL SUN) throughout the summer, and die off in the winter. Once I cut it down to the base (typically this time of year), it comes back fuller and larger than the previous year. Try one out - you'll find them at your local nursery. I've actually seen them down at the Farmer's Market in downtown Dallas.