Spring?

This has been an interesting spring.  With the exception of a warm period in January, it has been kind

of average.  In recent years the weather has warmed up very quickly, like it was a race toward summer.  I was glad this year was looking a little more sane - mid-March and I just started to think about warm season vegetables.  But then something happened.  Since my posts about warm weather and last frost dates, it has turned cold - not bitterly cold temperatures, but a constant cold, with lows in the 30s and 40s.  It's enough to put a damper on spring for some of us.  In addition to the weather, a minor back injury has kept me from getting out in the garden.  Let me tell you what I'm missing in the garden.

One of my top priorities is raking - I know it should be a fall chore, but, when you have a live oak, it is a spring one.  Our grand oak holds onto its leaves all winter and then drops them in early spring.  It's not as bad as it seems - a few years ago I made a shade garden under the oak, so I would just have to rake the leaves into it when the time came.

Get the lawn mower started and mow the weeds - every spring I wonder if the mower will start.  Every year I tell myself that I will do the right thing and run it empty or buy some fuel stabilizer.  I also tell myself that I will change the oil and air filter too.  It wasn't starting earlier this spring, but I added a little fresh gas and it started right up.  Now to do what I always say I'm going to do.

Plant warm-season vegetables - this weekend finally looks like the end of cold weather, which means that I can really start to think about planting corn and squash and beans without worrying about it getting too cold at night.  Some of our coneflowers are even starting to bloom!

Hatch some chicks - now that nighttime temperatures are a lot warmer, it's safe to hatch some chicks.  I haven't completely decided what I'm going to do, but I have two broody hens that want to raise some chicks.  I thought about using some of our eggs again, but I also thought about getting eggs from someone else, so we could have completely different chickens.

I've been a little busy (and hurt) during the past few weeks, but I've got some more posts making their way down the pipeline as we speak.  Stay tuned.

When To Apply Preemergence Herbicides - Spring 2013

Chamberbitter

Here in coastal South Carolina, we are approaching the time in the spring when preemergence herbicides need to be applied.  What are they, you ask? Herbicides are chemicals that kill plants.  Most people are familiar with post-emergent herbicides that kill actively-growing weeds.  Preemergence herbicides do their job as the weed seed is germinating - that's why the timing of their application is critical.  Too early and it is washed away.  Too late and the weed is past the point of being affected by the herbicide.

So, when should you apply preemergence herbicide in the spring?  Where I live, it is typically during early March, but there is a universal way to get the timing right no matter where you live.  When dayime temperatures reach 65-70 degrees for four consecutive days, it is time to apply the preemergence herbicide.  This will control seed germination of summer annuals.

Here in coastal South Carolina, we are about at the right time for a spring application.  With the exception of Thursday, we are in a week-long-plus warm spell that meets the criteria set out above.  High temperatures most days will exceed 65 degrees.

What about fall?  Here,  PE is applied in late September, but, for everyone else,  it is when nighttime temperatures reach 55-60 degrees for four consecutive days.

Florida Betony

Since we're talking about applying chemicals to lawns, I thought I would talk about something that some of the master gardeners feel very strongly about:  Don't use "weed and feed" products.  These products have both a preemergence herbicide and fertilizer in a single product.  They should not be used on lawns in our area, and probably throughout the south.  As discussed before, PE typically will be applied around March 1st, when weed seeds are germinating.  Fertilizer should not be applied to lawns until the grass has completely "greened up", probably in late April.  If it is applied early, it will control weed germination, but will burn or stress the still-dormant grass.  If applied later, the effect of the PE will be significantly diminished.  The best course of action is to buy separate products, applying the PE earlier, when temperatures warrant it, and the fertilizer after the lawn has greened up.

Master Gardener - Weeds

One of the activities for the chapter on weed ecology was the following:


"Visit your lawn. Choose three weeds and identify. After you've identified them, discuss the implications of these weeds in your lawn. Now visit the edges of your lawn, perhaps in the food garden bed or your ornamental plant beds. Find three weeds there and identify. Are they the same as the lawn weeds you saw? How do you manage these weeds in both situations (lawn and other)?"


I would say the main problem weed in my back yard is Florida betony (cool-season perennial).  When we first bought our house, I didn't know what it was.  In the summer, digging in the ground, I would find these white tubers - I didn't put the two together at the time.  For some reason they are almost exclusively in my back yard, so I don't do too much with them.  Since I know they are perennials and grow from those white tubers, pre-emergent herbicides will not work.  After doing some research on control methods, it appears there are a couple of post-emergent herbicides that will work, depending upon your grass type.  I have a good bit of bahiagrass in the back yard - which, to me, is a weed in itself - so I mostly leave it alone.  It take a different approach when it comes up in my garden.  When I see the tubers I get rid of them, and I tend to hand-pull the shoots when I see them, hoping that, if I pull them enough times, it will exhaust the plant.

I have a problem weed in the front yard, but, for the life of me, I don't know what it's called.  I should know this - it is a cool-season perennial, tap-rooted plant with a yellow flower.  I guess it could be dandelion, but the leaves are a lot different.  It has started coming up recently.  I have a tool with tines at the end - it's called a Garden Weasel Weed Popper.  It's hinged and spring-loaded.  You stick the tines in the ground near the weed and step on it, then catapult the weed across the lawn.  It proved effective against these tap-rooted weeds more than half the time, but it's labor-intensive.  Usually I'll take some time and spray Roundup on all of them, but I don't realize how many I have until I start doing it.

I used to have dollar weed (warm-season perennial) around my vegetable garden, but I was very vigilant about pulling it up overtime I saw it.  It's not a problem anymore.  It became a problem in one of our landscaped beds out front, but it was easy to get rid of.  The stolons were growing in the top layer - mulch/compost, and it was easy to hand-pull.  Long strings of it came up out of the loose mulch.  I notice from the photo that it's in the turf as well, but I can tolerate that.

I've been pulling up spurge around our vegetable garden all summer.  It's a warm-season annual that I've begun to notice a lot this year.  It grow outward from a taproot, hugging the ground.  It looks like it covers a large area, but all you have to do is pull it up from the single root and it's all gone.

The past year or so, I've gotten a little purslane in our vegetable garden.  I was curious about it, because it have very succulent stems and leaves.  It's a warm-season annual related to Portaluca.  Like other weeds in my garden, I try to hand pull weed now - since I Roundup-ed my pole beans last summer!

There is another plant that resembles dollar weed, that I believe I have in my yard as well.  It's called dichondra and it must get confused with the other because it's mentioned in the dollar weed article on the HGIC website.   From what I've seen, it is more of a clumping type of plant.  I could be wrong.

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There were other weeds I could mention, but these were the ones I knew the most about.  I'm sure a lot of people know what this weed is in the photo - I'm am just drawing the biggest blank.  I'll post the answer when someone tells me on the message board, but until then, I'll be in the dark.  Comment, if you think you know!

Weeds and Watermelons

I feel like I've done a lot in the yard during the past week - it's been mostly weed pulling and brush clearing, but there were some weeds I was going to have trouble getting to.  They were in and around what has become my watermelon patch.  I didn't plan on having one of those - I was trying to trellis the plants so they would be neat and orderly, and sometimes you can't do that.  I finally let them take over a corner of the garden, and they have paid me back with a few surprises.

I started cleaning up the area the other day by pulling all the weeds that the watermelon vines weren't growing through, and then I got out there tonight to do the more tedious part.  I began finding watermelon vines, making sure they didn't have any fruit on them, and following them back to main plant and pruning them.  I can't tell you how much I cut back, but it was a lot.  I must have been a little careless, because I accidentally cut a vine that had a watermelon attached.  It wasn't all bad - a 14-pounder that's supposed to grow to 15-20 pounds.

I knew about two fruits growing in the tangle of vines, but I found a third one last week.  When I moved it out of the way tonight, I discovered it was split on the bottom.  The chickens were nearby so I broke it open and gave it to the chickens.  That would have been three fruits, counting the one I accidentally harvested and the one still growing, but I found another one - this one is very small, but that means we'll get to save it for later.

Yard Work

Ella has been asking to help out in the yard lately. I have things she can do, but I feel like I need to show her or explain really well what she can do to help me out. So, here it goes:

The first thing that needs done is the bed along the azalea hedge needs weeding. The newest part, closest to the fence, has clumps of grass coming up through the mulch. There's bound to be some, when you lay newspaper down and mulch on top of that. The best way to pull this grass up is to grab small clumps of it as close to the ground as possible, and pull slowly, trying to get as much of the roots as you can. I know it won't happen every time, but it'll keep it from coming back in the future. As you get closer to the street, there will be more weeds instead of grass. There will be more of them, but they'll be easier to pull up. Use the same technique as before, grabbing it as close to the ground as possible and pulling slowly. There's mostly grass - maybe crabgrass - among the daylilies, so if you pull that out, that would be great. When you're pulling weeds, pick a spot nearby and make a pile - I'll put them at the street on trash day.

There's crabgrass invading the desert garden as well as dollar weed - it has a round leaf, like a dollar coin - maybe not as large. They've got a long root connecting them, so if you grab one just under the soil, you'll be able to pull up a whole string of them. There are a few other types of weeds in there, but they should be easy to pull.

All around the raised beds, in the back yard and a little in the front, crabgrass and dollar weed has invaded the area. All of that needs to be pulled up. I made the mistake of trying to spray Roundup near the vegetables. I ended killing our pole beans, so I don't want to take any chances with that again.

The last thing I need help with is cleaning behind the garage, where the chickens will be. I've cut down (I know it will come back) and smothered most of the bamboo, but I need the rest of it cut down. It'll probably easier to use the small pruning shears. If you cut it as close to the ground as you can, that'll make it easier to smother later. I'm going to cut down some of that magnolia tree, to let in more sunlight, which will be good for the chickens. The most important thing to remember back there is to avoid the poison ivy. (pictured) Thanks!

My Week of Not Gardening

I had the past week off with the intent of doing some serious gardening, but it did not happen. School was over for our daughter the week before, which meant that it was about the first time since Xmas I had more than one day to sleep in, and boy, did I! I was so unmotivated in the mornings. By midday, it was 90 degrees and humid - then it would rain buckets in the evening. Everything I planned to do involved digging in the dirt - or, this week - MUD.

Thinking I had a full plate this week, I did a few of those things last week instead. I edged the driveway and walkway. It didn't take too long and the satisfaction I got from it was good. The same goes for weeding the desert garden. Leftover grass and weeds keep rearing their ugly heads and I wanted to make it presentable when my mom and grandmother visit at the end of the week. Grass had invaded my sedum patch and I had to pull it out from the roots, nearly one blade at a time, so I didn't destroy the sedum. Any future weeds and grass will be thoroughly Roundupped!

I should have know what kind of week it was going to be from the way Monday went. I talked to my dad a few weeks ago about visiting some family land to gather some plants for the yard. I quizzed him over t he phone about what plants I wanted and he thought this property had it all - ferns, orchids, pitcher plants. Many chiggers and tick bites later, there was only one type of fern, but my dad enjoyed himself riding us around which was a good thing.

You'll have to excuse me if I don't write anymore about this week. It wasn't very good and I'm finishing this entry about six weeks after it happened. I wish I could say it's because I've been hard at work in the gardening, but I can't. I'm afraid that TV and these hot Charleston summers have made me procrastinate. I promise that in the near future I will be posting more about our little piece of the world.