Something is eating the rose bushes!

I haven't blogged about this before, but for a few weeks now - almost since it began been growing this spring - I have noticed something was eating the leaves of the rose bushes (not the newly planted one, thankfully). The leaves look like this:

Leaf damage to rose bush.

The new rose bush planted earlier this year appears to be ok and is growing quite nicely now:

The Crescendo rose bush has many more leaves now and
is thankfully is not being eaten by the rose slugs.

I wasn't sure what was causing it - until today. I happened to look under one of the leaves and found this little guy:

Bristly Rose Slug on rose bush leaf

It looks and sounds like Bristly Rose Slugs to me judging by my completely unscientific internet search. From my little research, possible remedies include:

1. picking them off by hand (if there are only a few)
2. spraying with insecticidal soap
3. sprinkling flour on the bush for 24 hours, then rinsing it off (?)

I don't know who came up with the 3rd one or why that would work, but apparently it has for some people. I may give #1 a try since it doesn't seem like there are very many, but I'm very intrigued by #3.

One thing's for sure: I've need to act quickly because it's getting worse and worse every day.

Backyard nature

Last weekend toward dusk the birds of the neighborhood were going nuts - they were definitely disturbed by something. That something turned out to be what we believe is a Barred Owl (thanks to my dad's keen observation for finding it)!

I was able to snap a few shots of it:

Barred Owl

I saw it again on Monday after noticing the birds were in a frenzy again.

And under our porch in the front yard, we have a Eastern Phoebe nest:

Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Phoebe nest with babies.

I noticed today that the babies were popping their heads up and chirping ever so sweetly. I'm pretty sure we have another Eastern Phoebe nest in the backyard as well.

After the rain

I went out a couple days ago and took some macro shots of the hydrangea and rose bush after the rain had stopped.

More plants!

We got lots of new plants this past weekend - all of them gifts!

I'll start with some plants that my parents brought for us. First is a beautiful hydrangea plant:

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Endless Summer'

This plant like part sun and grows to 5 feet high and 4 feet wide. I'm thinking about putting it on the north side of the house that was recently "renovated", but still working on that.

They also gave us another beautiful fuchsia hanging plant which we hung on the front porch:

Fuchsia hanging plant

This plants also likes part sun, so I'm hoping that it gets enough there.

Next, my mom and I made a visit to a nearby plant nursery, and of course we couldn't leave empty-handed... and my mom insisted on paying.

Here's what we bought home:

Japanese Painted Fern 'Pictum'

Creeping Phlox 'Candy Stripes'

Goat's Beard 'Misty Lace'

Calibrachoa hanging plant

The fern, creeping phlox, and goat's beard haven't yet been planted (speaking of goat's beard, I should introduce him to his dwarf relative). I hung the hanging plant in the back yard. It needs full sun, so I'm really hoping it does ok there.

I'm planning on trying to find a designer to help figure out what to do with the north side of the house, and what to replace some of the old overgrown bushes in the front yard with. Until then I'm going to hold off on planting anything in the front yard.

Thanks again to my parents for all the plants!

Countdown to tall fescue freedom

Today I applied the second application of Certainty herbicide - a very exciting day indeed. Three to four weeks from now I am hoping the tall fescue will all be gone. That is June 9 - June 16.

I'm sure I'll have some status updates along the way...

Landscape alteration

A few days ago our landscape was altered. We didn't have a choice in the matter. The creek in our backyard was eroding its banks and threatening to invade people's property so they hired a company to place large stones at select bends in the creek to help slow the erosion, and it so happens that one of those places was right next to hour house. I can't complain too much because I don't want the creek any closer to our home, but I could have done without the means of getting the stones back there, which involved cutting through the brush on the south side of our house.

I happened to have a photo that I took a few days before they did this, so I could do a before and after to show the extent of the change:

Before & After

Now, this side of the house I have more or less left alone since we moved in. The brush from the forest was overgrown and the bushes next to the house were as well, so I figured it was a good match and left it that way until I had the time and energy to take on that project. But now the project is semi-forced upon me, or at least I'm seeing it as an opportunity to take it on since it is now pretty much a clean slate over there.

Yesterday I dug up some of the landscaping bricks that were over there (most of them were completely buried and in some cases jammed between roots that had grown around them) and am planning on using the rest of the remaining mulch to just mulch that whole area. Then, I'll have another area to put some more plants - yay! Here's my plan:

That area gets a decent amount of morning sun, especially with much of the surrounding brush removed. Unfortunately, there's a stump and a whole bunch of roots there, too. I'm going to try to dig it up, but I might not be able to - we'll see.

So, this will be my new project and will allow me to finally get the mulch pile off of our driveway.

Tall fescue survives

I'm not surprised in the least as it seems that tall fescue can survive anything - drought, shade, over-fertilization, under-fertilization, and I suppose you can add Certainty herbicide to the list - to an extent. In the past week or so I have noticed the effects of the herbicide have subsided with the Kentucky bluegrass and unfortunately now also with some more patches of tall fescue - doing what it does best: growing faster than the Kentucky bluegrass and looking ugly. Here's a shot I took yesterday:

Tall fescue survives Certainty application #1.

Circled in yellow are few of the tall fescue plants that have survived; in red is the area of higher concentration that is still not growing at all.

Despite the survival of some, the majority of the plants have either died or haven't been growing and as a result the lawn is looking much better overall.

I'm planning on making the second application in the next couple of days weather permitting. I wouldn't be surprised if I need a third application, so good thing I have enough of it for over 25 applications...

God remembers.

So on numerous occasions I have forgotten to purchase (twice) and plan a spot for forget-me-nots for our Calum Memorial Garden - a garden in our backyard in memory of our son we lost to miscarriage earlier this year. Well, today we went to a memorial burial service provided by the hospital for all the miscarried babies so far this year and each couple that attended received two small packages of forget-me-not seeds:

Oh, they have no idea how special these are to me as I can't help but believe that this was a gift straight from God, and it brought tears to my eyes.

I may forget, but my God does not.

Tall fescue 3 weeks after Certainty applictaion

It's nearly time for the second application of the Certainty herbicide that I applied a little over 3 weeks ago on the front lawn in hopes of killing the tall fescue "infestation" and it's really starting to show! Over the past few weeks I have noticed that the lawn in general where I applied the herbicide didn't grow much and seemed stressed, Kentucky bluegrass included (the new Kentucky bluegrass that I didn't spray continued growing). The instructions warned that this may happen, but that the Kentucky bluegrass should survive, and the tall fescue - not so much. This week I noticed a definite improvement in overall appearance as the Kentucky bluegrass appeared to start growing again, while the tall fescue continued stunted and generally more thinned out. This is great as it shows that it appears to be working as expected. Here's a photo I took two days ago after a mow:

3 weeks after Certainty herbicide application.

The tall fescue plants are still present and there are even a few that are still growing (perhaps I missed them when spraying), but overall, it's looking very promising. The general color of the yard as a whole is starting to look more uniform:

I have a feeling that large area of tall fescue is going to need a reseeding.

Here's a comparison of the grass color between the old and new Kentucky bluegrass from the above photo:

Fairly similar in color.

Blurred to remove texture and show the colors better.

I'm thinking I'll apply the second application sometime this week, and hopefully after another 3-4 weeks the tall fescue will be history!

Shh, don't tell...

For the third night in a row, my husband has been out all evening long working in the yard. Despite the heat and mosquitoes, he has been at it until dark, lovingly patting mulch around every single plant. He is the hardest worker I know and the flower beds look amazing. But shh...don't tell, because he doesn't know I'm posting this.

Lots of mulch.

Today we had a special delivery of 10 cubic yards of mulch in our driveway. I put down a 8x10 foot tarp and it is completely buried.

10 cubic yards of mulch.

 A big pile of work next to my new wheelbarrow.

I finished up for the night a bit ago at around 9 because I couldn't see much anymore and I was being swarmed by mosquitoes. I came home from work early at 4 so I could get to work on it. Today reached a high of 87 degrees and was very humid (70 degree dew point) - it was great.

I got the Calum Memorial Garden mulched first, then pretty much the whole front yard, and then part of the side. I still have some areas in the backyard that I plan to mulch, but I need to pull some stuff first. I think I might end up with some extra.

However, this seemed like a logical time to make some changes so I could mulch some more areas... I ended up pulled up the other 2 holly bushes (they were in the worst shape of them all), so now we have no more holly bushes. And I was very close to pulling up the overgrown bushes in front of the window, on the left in this picture:

Current front yard landscaping (you can see the new mulch on the left).

But I held off... for now. My wife and I discussed it and I think we're going to pull it up along with creeping juniper next to it (I'm not strongly opposed to it, but my wife doesn't care for it, and it is probably the area of the yard that gets the most sun, so it has potential to house some sun-loving plants). I don't have much planned other than removing them and mulching, though, and that's kind of a problem. Here's a visual of my current thinking:

The game plan.

Remove the two bushes and split the decorative grass into two and transplant them over to that area. The problem with the decorative grass where it is now is that it's too big and blocks the view of the rose bush behind it next to the garage. It also blocks a sprinkler head that is there. I know "twos" aren't typically a good design, but I feel like it would look better than keeping it as one. Perhaps I could break it into three, or plan a third type of grass with it. I don't know. Or maybe this is all just a bad idea. The upside is that it would give us some of the more sunny areas to plant other things.

I think I'm going to do it. And if worst comes to worst, we can always try again.

Here's a rough idea of what I'm thinking:

What the executed plan might look like.

If this is accurate (and it's probably not), then the grass may not be enough to block the view of the irrigation system back-flow valve that sticks up about a foot and a half or two. We may need something a bit taller.

Here is a blank canvas for pondering ideas:

What should fill that void?

I'd say that area gets part to full-ish sun. Anyway, I don't know what to do... time to sleep.

My thumb's looking a little green today: another guest post

P's wife here again. This post title might not be entirely accurate. After all, I was supposed to plant my lettuce seeds an inch or two apart, and here they are sprouting up all over the place like I just dumped a whole bunch in the pot and covered them with soil. Which is pretty much exactly what I did. But I was still pretty excited to see lots of little green things poking up toward the sun today. My guess is that eventually the lettuce will smother itself to death because it needs space and I didn't respect its natural boundaries. The peas might make it. I was much more intentional about following the directions on the pea package. I'll keep you posted.

What kind of grass is this?

Ok, so our backyard has hodgepodge of all sorts of various type of grasses now. It really is quite the mix as evidenced by this photo I took of it this evening:

Mixture of grasses.

But, I found a patch - the dense patch of lighter green right in the middle of this photo - that is really, really nice! It's so soft and I think if I knew what it was I would be extremely temped to replant the whole lawn with it this fall (you already knew that I'm crazy right? yep.)! But what is it?? I don't know how to discern that...

I had to go take some more pictures of it mid-blog:

A closer look.

Uncut blade tip (back)

Uncut blade tip (front)

A closer view of the patch of it.

The photo of my finger sort of gives some scale, but I'd say it is roughly Kentucky bluegrass size. I pretty certain that it's not fine fescue (unless there is a variety that is not as fine) and definitely not tall fescue as there is plenty of that back there. My best guess is that it is in fact Kentucky bluegrass, but what variety? The seed mix I planted earlier this spring contained 20% Bewitched Kentucky bluegrass, so if it isn't some of the existing grass that is what it likely is, but unfortunately I don't know. I really don't see much of it elsewhere in the lawn, although I did see some that looks similar in other areas. I've been wondering if any of the Kentucky bluegrass in the seed mix was able to grow, and if that is what it is, oh how tempting it will be buy a bag of it this fall...

Later this summer will be interesting as I'll have to decide what to do back there. Since the Certainty herbicide isn't recommended for use on primarily fine fescue lawns, I don't know how I'll ever get rid of the tall fescue that is there aside from pulling it by hand - or killing everything and starting fresh. I'll wait and see how things turn out.

Forget-me-not

For some reason, I can't for the life of me remember anything having to do with forget-me-nots. First, I forgot to purchase some for our memorial garden, so I said I'd have to make sure to save a spot for one when planting. Well.... I forgot! So, once I actually remember this plant, I'll have to find a spot to squeeze it in somewhere.

In other news, yesterday I attempted to measure the areas that I want to mulch (everything, basically) and calculated it out to be approximately 1000 sq. ft. So, to cover all of that area with 3" of mulch, I'll need about 9-10 cubic yards worth. I was about to place an order, but decided to hold off since we don't have a wheelbarrow or cart and there's no way I could effectively spread all of that around without one. So, this will soon be my next yard project.

Tall fescue, rose bush, & daisy kit updates

Quite a few updates today:

First of all, thanks to my wife for the guest post. I look forward to following her vegetable project! Also, just to make it very clear: I'm no plant whisperer! I have quite the knack for killing plants, which is why I think this tall fescue extermination project has a very high probability of success!

That said, I think the tall fescue is starting to succumb to the herbicide. My observations are that the grass has gotten even lighter in color (almost yellow), is not growing nearly as quickly as it used to, and when I look closely there are even some completely brown/dead blades. This about right on schedule according to the instructions. Here's a few shots:

Dying Tall fescue about 2 weeks after Certainty herbicide application.

Note the many dead blades.

Needless to say I'm very excited.

In other exciting news, our new rose bush is beginning to grow leaves! Here's a few shots of that:

I haven't had to water it yet since we have had a steady amount of rain lately.

And finally, an update on the daisy grow kit planted back on March 22nd: they're still growing! I gave it some fertilizer a few days ago according to the instructions (once they reach 2-3 inches). I'd guess they're up to 3-4 inches now:

Daisies after 6 weeks.

And finally (for real), so far it appears that no other plants have been infected by the fungus (or whatever it is) and the phlox doesn't appear to have any new spots on its remaining leaves, thankfully.

That's all for now.

Potted vegetables: a guest post!

P invited me to share my recent plantings with you, but first I have to warn you: compared to me, P is like the dog whisperer to plants. I am just about the worst plant caretaker (I don't even deserve the title "gardener") alive. Don't get me wrong, I love plants. I want to be surrounded by plants, always. I work in a room with no windows, but I brought in several plants that could thrive under florescent lights so I could have some green nearby (I won't lie: not all of those plants are first-generation...some regrettably passed away). And yet I don't seem to be able to keep plants alive for the life of me. In high school, I even killed a cactus (or two). I tell you this because this might be my only guest post here; my sweet potted veggies might not live. They might not even poke up through the soil, knowing their inevitable fate. But here they are, sugar peas (top) and mixed salad lettuce (bottom): 

I've already made mistakes. I probably planted the seeds way too close together, and I should have planted both veggies in early spring, which was technically several weeks ago. Oh well. Back to you, P!

Calum Memorial Garden is planted

The sun came out today for just a little bit and allowed the temperature to reach 72 degrees, so my wife and I got out and worked on the memorial garden for our son and planted the plants that we purchased yesterday.

I started out by digging up the phlox and transplanting it to the front yard. My options for where to put it were limited, but I snuck it in near the hydrangea tree:

Phlox transplanted to the front yard.

It will hopefully be more happy there. However, prior to moving it I noticed that the lower leaves of about half the plant had some dark speckles on the leaves.

Dark speckles on lower leaves of Phlox.

I thought that it might be the powdery mildew disease that Phlox are prone to getting and it might be, however, upon looking at photos of the disease online, it doesn't look very similar, being not white and all. In any case I pruned off every leaf that had it. The really interesting thing is that those speckles weren't present yesterday. I looked at a zoomed in photo taken yesterday and they don't appear to be there:

Photo of the same plant just yesterday with no speckles present.

I did a quick online search and found a forum post with pictures that look similar (yes, quite the scientific diagnosis). According to the responses it's leaf spot fungal disease / septoria divaricata fungus and is spread from the soil. This would make sense since we were digging up plants there and soil was flying everywhere and I know some landed on and near the phlox plant. We also had rain last night that could have splashed it up onto the leaves. I'll be keeping a close eye on the other plants we just put in in that area. I need to get some mulch ASAP to help prevent it from getting on the plant leaves. I can't believe how quickly that infected the plant. I hope it survives because I really like it, and of course all of the new plants that we just labored over.

Anyway, I also transplanted the other hosta that was behind the phlox to the north side of the house along with the other hosta I transplanted over there yesterday. Boy are there a lot of roots over there. I could barely find a spot to plant them (oh and I almost cut our cable line...). Here's a shot of what that area looks like now:

North side of the house with hosta transplants.

There'll be a stone pathway through there soon someday.

And after deciding how to arrange the plants (which was borderline random), my wife and I got to planting them and this is how it ended up:

Calum Memorial Garden

To finish it off we are going to get an engraved stone to put in it.

Here is the list of plants that we planted:

Wild Sweet William, Woodlan Phlox
'Blue Moon'
(Phlox divaricata)

Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium reptans)

Tiarella 'Jeepers Creepers'
Creeping Foam Flower

'Praying Hands' Hosta

Dwarf Goatsbeard
(Aruncus aethusifolius)

Bleeding Heart
(Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba')

Golden Bleeding Heart
(Dicentra spectabilis 'Gold Heart')

White-flowered Epimedium
(Epimedium x youngianum 'Niveum')

New Guinea Impatiens
(Impatiens hawkeri)

Who names these things?? Woodland Phlox - hey that sounds nice; Jacob's ladder - sure, I can buy that; but Jeepers Creepers? Dwarf Goatsbeard? Huh??

Anyway, in addition to the garden, my wife put together the pot of Begonias for the patio:

Pot of Begonias.

Brigitte & Nadine Rhine Begonia

They look lovely! My parents gave us a pot of yellow begonias as a house warming gift in 2007 and they bloom beautifully all summer long! That is why I bought them.

And finally to wrap this long post up, I planted another pretty hosta that we purchased next to some other hostas in the backyard:

It's the lighter colored green one in between the two large ones
toward the left center.

Hosta 'Orange Marmaloade'

Good luck, plants.