That looks amazing!

I'm so proud of you for installing all that!!!

@Blackx-runner

Good timing.  I had a design almost drawn, and stopped when I looked back and saw these bare spots.



Questions:

1-The red arrow on the left...I know that's not technically your yard, but is that thin area because of water runoff?  If so, is it coming directly off of your yard?  Or is it running down the sidewalk and exiting to the street at that point?

2-The red arrow on the right....That's DEFINITELY your yard.  Does water run there?  Is that why grass does not grow in that funky, curvy pattern?

3-As to the bank--have you sewn grass seed there and failed?  Why do you think it's failed?

4-The YELLOW arrow--it looks like there's a thin spot in the grass, running down the property line.  Is that true, or a trick of the light.  If it's true, do you know why?  Is that a water shed?  Seems like it would go downhill to the neighbor first.

5-YOUR YARD NEAR THE HOUSE (This is VERY important)

Does water EVER pool in front of your front porch?  In heavy rains, does it get soggy there?  Does the soggy last any time?  Tell me about your front yard when there is a LOT of rain.

6-Tell me about your soil...have you dug in it?  What is it like?

Ever had it tested?

Know anything about the soil in your neighborhood based on comment from other people?

Any information will help (information that you have firsthand.  I can get general knowledge about Iowa from the web and your extension service. )

ETA: I know it seems like I'm stalling, but honest, I'm not.  Trying to get this right for you in the Great White North.  I have this design in my head, and I'm translating it to a piece of paper, which I will scan and upload.  But it's not useful to you unless I have the details.  It could cost you wasted money if I don't have all the information.    So I keep asking questions as I come to them.

ETA2:  Be sure to let me know if there are major utilities running to the sidewalk somewhere in this front yard section.  Mostly they'll be deep enough that it won't matter, but not always.

@Click2Boom

Is that a telescope?

If so, I wanna be you.

Based on what uxb has experienced from his trips to the Southwest, the skies out there are amazing, though if you're in a neighborhood, maybe not cuz of the light?

That's GORGEOUS work.

What do you need us for?

Glad to help, if we can, but you're doing great!

In fact, I'd love it if you would post up how you did it, and the steps involved.  What you would do the same or differently.

Any info is good including what you learned and how you learned it!

I want to use some of those blocks like yours for my drain tile by the road, but want more info first.

ETA:

1-  Let us see your steps!

Is that JUST a gravel base under the blocks?

2- Do you like your plastic wheelbarrow?  I've been avoiding them, but I am interested in your opinion.

3-Is that landscape fabric doing a good job with water permeability?  Letting the water move through the blocks?  Very interested in this, and what fabric you used.

@IslandTimes

ETA2:  What is your dog's name?

That's pretty cool!  Love the diagram, but admit I don't understand how your water leaves the system. I can't see it in your project.

Bandit is the best part.

AND...

in this photo I have edited, you see three parts I don't understand.  I love Family Handyman. It's one of the four magazines I read constantly. (Fine Homebulding, This Old House, Journal of Light Construction, and Family Handyman--cuz the tips are awesome in Family Handyman. They just are.)



Anyway...the arrows I've put in...they point to layers of substrate that are unidentified...

What are those substrates?

@Blackx-runner

LISTEN..

Kitties did not design in the age of CAD (computer assisted design).  Kitties designed when people DREW landscapes.

And Kitties no longer has all those tools, cuz she does not do this for a living

So she's improvising with  VERY ROUGH TOOLS..markers, colored pencils, and wine. (Do not discount this last design influence. )

Uxb ran away when I went rampaging through the house, looking for a pencil or marker that would reasonably represent the shrub I wanted ot use.

Anyway...

Working on your landscape, though I don't have all the details, I realized I could not do it from overhead (at first).  I needed to visualize the plantings from the street.

So I sketched (sort of )  your house.



Then I dug around for colored pencils and markers to make the plants.

It's REALLY rough, and I could not scan the whole thing in one photo,  but before I do an overhead view, with spacing and sizing exact, let me know if you hate this general idea.

If you hate it, I won't do that overhead view.  I will change the design for something more suited to you.

1-You asked for "simple"--

There are only five plants in this landscape (though there will be one more (small tree near the sidewalk, in keeping with what I see in your neighborhood) if you like this idea and want to see the overhead)  Only one of those plants  is expensive.  (expensive for me, anyway)

All of them will grow well and easily for you, as far as I can tell.  (I'm relying on research for this.  NOT the same as being a landscaper in your area.)  None of them is a significant deer magnet (which seems to be an issue for northern midwest landscapes)

2-This has four-season interest, which means your landscape will not be ugly even in winter.  But it will have color for at least three seasons, and I believe it can survive in your (challenging) climate.

3-It can be flexible.  If you hate something, there are ways to flex the design and still maintain the basic shape and idea.

This is about basic shapes and overall design..

Your house is in two sections cuz...big drawing, small scanner capability, and I don't have the technology to make them one.

 (That whole "no-cad" thing.



I will give you lots of details and options for moving stuff around.  But first....the question is...do you like this idea at all? Hate it?

Give me some ideas about what will or will not work for you based on this.)

Okay I'll draw you a plan  and give you details about the plants and why I chose them in case you have to substitute something.

Bump for when life does not kick quite so hard.

bump.

Still have some things to catch up, but don't want this to go to archives yet.

@Watercat and @BlackX-runner

You guys still around?

Still need help?  I know it's getting to be planting season in Iowa. Already is in Tejas.

I have started my new business but have a little more time coming up to give to this thread.

Just need to know you are both still interested, and totally okay if you've got it going on some other way.

Been a year since life at the Kitties homestead took a bit of a hit (mom got sick and passed, then estate stuff) so I'm hopefully back on the horse and will not fall off again soon.

If you have good examples of xeriscaping that YOU have implemented, Mr. "I live in Missouri where there is lots of rainfall each year", then we would love to see them in this thread.  

The installation you are insulting looks like real grass to me, in those pics, and if you can tell the difference in those pics, please be prepared to tell me exactly how you can tell that difference.  


If you're going to be mean, that belongs elsewhere. Not in this tech forum.



Xeriscaping is wonderful, and I believe in that, but it's not what everybody wants.

Lots of room for different approaches here.

@IslandTimes

That is freaking AWESOME!

You really should do a thread about how you set this up... OR...I would welcome a complete writeup on how you built that solar powered drain system, here in this thread.  You are ABSOLUTELY welcome to do that.  I may get bogged down by life and not be able to keep this out of the archives, but I will do my best as long as anybody has interest.

Either way, that is amazing, and on that installation!

Question:  Is the drain you're pumping into on YOUR property?  Or is that the neighbor?

@Watercat  have you done anything with this?

If not, I will say one thing for certain.  If there is driveway under that corner of the yard, I would uncover that driveway, pull the soil back away from it, and form a plan that includes whatever is necessary to keep that dirt from washing over that corner of the driveway again.

You need it to drive on.  Dirt there won't work and grass there will NEVER do well.  Never.

Grass roots go much deeper than most people realize, and Warm Season grasses in a hot climate need those deep roots.

So....you will probably find your easiest way to approach that corner is to uncover any driveway that's there, and if you need MORE driveway, pull the dirt back even farther and add some gravel or other substrate that can take the abuse of the car going over it.  There are a number of options that might look nice.

As to the drainage issue, I've gotta go back and look at the original posts.  Tell me where you are with this, because I owe some people some answers/ designs from a year ago before I had to take care of my mom.  I want to take them in order, but don't want to leave you hanging.

~Kitties

bump

@Watercat..

You can use a drain snake in PVC.  If it's so old it's gotten really brittle, I'm not sure you won't damage it further, but if it's clogged, you're not going to get much life out of it anyway.

You can rent one of these, or hire a plumber to snake it out (if he's honest, he'll tell you if he thinks he'll destroy your drain)

Maybe you want a pressure washer anyway?  But not sure it would work.  Might just kind of explode the pipe. I have no idea. Not a pressure washer person. (though I am about to buy one--whole nuther story).

To answer your question, it takes a LOT of gravel to not disappear into mud.  AND...it takes a "base" of bigger rock...not rip rap, but very course rock--bigger than you can buy in a bag (I can never remember the designations)-- moving down in size to #69 (which is, I think, course driveway gravel) and I wouldn't go any smaller than that. But you are talking wheelbarrow loads- -several.

I still say if there is concrete under there, USE THAT.

Dig down to the concrete and remove the dirt on top of it.  Take the driveway back to its original shape so there's enough room for husband to make his turn.  Build a little 12" retaining wall in a curve toward the former sniper perch.  Plant some pretty flowers at the top of the wall.

ETA:  With a $140 rotary hammer from Harbor freight (THANK YOU to my shed thread, and all the people in there, who helped me figure this out) you can cut a trench across your driveway, pull the old drain out, put in a new one (I'm not opposed to the heavy pvc for this, honestly--it's cheap and strong, and will last many years. There's one rated for this use I think.  Schedule 80 maybe?  Don't hold me to that. I've had wine and I am NOT a PVC expert by a long stretch  @Handydave can  you help?) ..

Anyway...So you drop the kids off at grammas for the weekend, use your Harbor Freight rotary Hammer and cut a trench across your driveway, (this is not as onerous as it sounds...The pipe is about 5" outside diameter I bet. That means your trench needs to be only about 8" wide) pull out the asphalt, pull out the old drain, dig out around it a little cuz you'll need to clean out the trench some (a small handheld hoe is all you need) drop in a new drain, then a few bags of concrete mix done up in a wheelbarrow, smooth it out with a trowel (or heck, a hoe--it's a driveway)...then a hot shower, couple of glasses of wine, grill some steaks, put on some mood music, and have a saturday night and sunday with the hubs.

Be sure to park by the old sniper perch so you don't drive over your work until it's set really well.  A few days at least I'd say. Concrete guys might say sooner.  I'm definitely not a concrete guy but I would not be afraid to take this on.

ETA2:  I do have a concern...you're filling the small issues in your yard with dirt...that's good.  BUT...if the drain under your driveway has failed, I'm a little (or more than a little) worried about the one behind your house.  If they were installed at the same time, they both may be due for fixing/cleaning/something.

That one behind your house is a lot more important than the driveway one.

@watercat

I'm WAY confused.

The driveway drain goes under your actual house?

Clearly I've missed something, and I apologize..

And if that drain is only a one-inch pipe, you can't snake that.  No way.

Well, I don't think I've helped at all!

I think I've just mostly asked questions.

That whole "around the house instead of under the house" takes this in a realm I can't answer, mostly.

I can help with that tight corner so it's not mud.  But once you said the drain goes under your house, that is definitely not within the scope of this thread or anything I can do.

Let us know how it goes.  Some of those wedge-shaped wall-stackers, stacked in a curve, would work great for you.  A guy who builds very large things--skyscrapers, and monster factories and stuff for the military, and who has many engineers on his staff, told me over burgers one day at a little diner, that if you stack those in a curve, they will not give way.  In a straight line, they're less stable, so the curved edge on that corner would be an easy fix with those.  Bury one layer for a foundation, get your curve right, then stack away.

It'll look really nice.

I know you wanted no wall there, but I'm not seeing how you can get rid of the muddy corner unless you just eliminate the corner.

I better bump this.  Forum is moving fast.

Okay first...what is your normal turfgrass?

Second...the new grass is pushed over so far and flat that it's hard to tell from the pic.  So...

Go out there, pick ONE grass plant...pick a blade/stem, and follow it CAREFULLY all the way to the ground.  Feel around down there and find the whole "plant"--which may contain many leaves.  Use both hands and push the other grass back until you can get to ONE grass plant.  Then grab it at the absolute ground level.  NO HIGHER.   Grab the WHOLE THING.  And see if you can gently pull it up,.

Then take pictures of that plant.

Really EXCELLENT photos!

Good job!

Okay, I THINK that is wild bermudagrass.  @cuttingedge can you help?

I hope Cuttingedge will weigh in here.  I'm pretty sure he has forgotten more about turfgrass than I have ever known.

If it is bermudagrass, you have a battle on your hands.

You will need to dig it out, and dig it out RFN.

Bermudagrass colonizes both with stolens (above-ground runners that stretch out a LONG, LONG way, then put down roots and shoot up a stem with leaves, AND it also colonizes with rhizomes, which are UNDERGROUND structures that do the same things, but from below the soil.

The sooner you get it, the better.

I don't love chemical intervention, but I would not hesitate to nuke the bermudagrass with glyphosate (roundup).  I would spray past the edge of the visible bermudagrass, even though it will kill some of my good turf.

It will probably take three or four applications to actually kill it dead.  It's that bad.  IT's the freaking GODZILLA of grass.  It is Alpha Grass.  It will overtake anything.

Now then.  If you do that, you will then need to cultivate and reseed that area. BUT...

The thing you need to do is figure out how it got into your yard.

Did it come through the fence from the neighbor?

Or what?  How did it get there?

If it came in from the side of the property, You will need to put up a barrier (I say a foot deep, which means some really serious landscape edging) between you and it.  AND you will need to aggressively trim/mow on that side of your yard.  I f you stop both the stolens and the rhizomes, you will stop its ingress.  If you don't, it will be back.

SO....if you're going to address it, you have to determine where it came from, and stop that.

I suppose it's possible that it came in via seed--some bird dropped it--but I doubt it.

Listen...Bermudagrass in my front yard grew UNDER my edging, through my house foundation, 25 feet across the crawlspace, and out the back of the house (it's an old house. Dirt crawlspace. It's not tight) and then came up in my back yard.

Yeah.  It's a pestilence.  It, and cockroaches, will be alive after nuclear war.

You have to learn it, understand it, and fight it on its terms.

You won't be able to do it without chemicals if it's in your lawn.

EVEN THEN...there will be rhizomes and stolens out in the rest of your lawn already.  So you need to be the Secret Service of lawn care nuts.

You will need to watch like a hawk.  Pull it up if you see it, and be prepared to kill a BROADER CIRCLE next year.  You can get it.  But it's not gonna be easy.

This is all to say IF it is bermudagrass.

I hate bermudagrass.  I hate it even more than Johnsongrass, which I hate with the heat of a thousand suns.

I freaking HATE bermudagrass.  

ETA: I would love love LOVE it if Cuttingedge came in and said this is not bermudagrass.

I would dance in little circles to know I am wrong about this.

I hate bermudagrass.

ETA2:  OP, the other thing you can do is encourage your normal turf.  I'm guessing it's  a turf type tall fescue but I do not claim to be an expert on turfgrass.

It appears you have some heat stress going on in your yard. (I see some dead in the "good" grass) So as you go after the invader, you also need to beef up your good grass, if you want to keep it nice.  Which means maybe some water (if you can, and  if it's dry where you are) and maybe some other tactics to help your lawn be strong in the face of an adversary.

If it's fescue, mowing taller can help. That will give your turfgrass an advantage over any weeds or invaders of any kind.

Probably not the right time to fertilize, cuz it's hot, but aeration and overseeding this fall would help it, too, in addition to reseeding whatever you kill down.

PRUNING TUTORIAL 1

This is a good video.  Not mine, and it's not about pruning basics. (I'll either try to find one, or make one about that soon).

But a LOT of you probably have crapemyrtles in your landscapes.

In the industry, we talk about "crape murder" because pruning these straight across like some kind of hedge...that's horrible mistreatment of this plant.

****A LOT OF LANDSCAPE/LAWN COMPANIES COMMIT CRAPE MURDER BECAUSE IT'S CHEAPER---IT'S FAST. DON'T HIRE THEM TO PRUNE YOUR CRAPES.******

Anyway....I hit this and another video I will also link in this post, and figured...these are worth posting.

Because these people are doing this correctly.  

PLEASE ignore the stupid comments if you go to youtube to watch.  Like anybody doing anything right, the haters come out.  

These two videos are good explanations of how to prune crapemyrtle.

It's not time to do that right now unless you are forced (which we can talk about--I just pruned 30 crapemyrtles for a customer this past week.  WRONG season, but hey...sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do--as long as you know how to make up for the wrong season, and/or understand its limitations. So ask if you are FORCED to do that now. )

Anyway...I seldom see videos where everything is pretty much right.

These two are good.  

The second video is about recovering a "murdered" crapemyrtle. You might have some of these in your landscape.  You might have murdered them. OR maybe somebody else did.  If you did, BOOM...I just sprinkled you with the holy water of forgiveness (Sauvignon Blanc) and you shall now be redeemed if you go and sin no more.  Don't top your trees, and don't treat your crapemyrtles like hedges.  Kay?  

(FYI, I don't care how you spell it, but just in case, I will say right here.  It's Crapemyrtle.  One word.   That spelling will disappear over time. People just cannot assimilate it. But...that's correct for the time being.

Okey Dokey I will shut up.

Here are the two videos.  One shows a guy pruning three crapemyrtles in North Carolina.

The second is the recovery of a murdered crape.

Bump

Pruning Tutorial 2:  (Not as scary as it sounds at first )

Understanding the Branch Collar, (and the Bark Ridge) and the Three-Cut Pruning Method

So..

Why do we care how and where we make our cuts when we prune trees?

Well..Think about cutting off your arm just below your elbow.

No for real...hold up your arm and look at it. Pick the spot where you'd be willing for your arm to be lopped off. (For this exercise, You HAVE to pick a spot.  Pick one.  DO IT. Pretend you're in Afghanistan, and you had it amputated. I know, this is Arfcom.)

So...you'd like your arm to heal, right?

Or would it be okay with you for your arm to just keep oozing and bleeding and hurting like hell for the rest of your (very short) life?  Eventually it will get infected, get gangrene, rot off the rest of your arm, and probably end up killing you?  Is that a good plan?  

No?

Well...When you cut a branch off of a tree (or a shrub, but that's for later)a lot of times that's exactly what happens.  You create a wound. If you do it wrong, that wound never heals right, and that can kill the tree.

(Okay brush your arm off.  It's not really cut off. )

Good news??  The tree is equipped to seal off the wound...basically sort of heal itself.  But only if you make the cut the right way.

The branch collar and the Bark Ridge...These are the parts of the tree that you can learn to SEE and feel. --SO YOU KNOW WHERE TO PLACE YOUR PRUNING CUT.


Recognizing these areas is important because they are what allow the tree to heal (seal) itself after you remove a branch.

Watch the videos--they are all important for at least one reason.



Bottom Line:
The branch collar contains the kind of cells that can expand and grow around the wound and close it off.   It can do this if the cut is made close enough that  the branch collar can grow around it before the stub rots and lets disease, insects or decay into the tree.  Timing is critical for the tree.   If you leave the stub too long, the tree can't seal it off before rot gets into its heart.    But if you cut INTO the branch collar and damage it, it might NEVER be able to heal the wound.

So...you need to be able to recognize the branch collar, know how to cut outside of it, and how far out to cut.

Demonstrations:

This first video is excellent. My only complaint is that he is not using a live tree.  The tree he is pruning is dead already (it's the only one he had) and it's harder for you to see the branch collar (the important part for this post). BUT....he does a really good job.  He explains the three-cut method, the why of it, and he also shows some examples of what GOOD healing looks like in an older tree that's been cut. So you can understand WHY it's important to do this right.  (The second video isn't nearly as good, but you can clearly see the branch collar.)



This second video is valuable for one main reason.  He shows what happens INSIDE the tree (decay) when a branch is pruned too far out--basically when a stump is left sticking out too long, which the tree cannot heal, which then decays....

It's astonishing to see that the decay goes ALL THE WAY INTO THE TREE.

It's pretty confusing about some other stuff.  The whole "tree grabbing the saw and taking it from you" thing?  Yeah, he's right, but ignore that part.  There are better tutorials about that.

But look at that decay!  That will kill a tree.


So maybe you have trees that have been trimmed badly and there are stubbs left.  OR maybe you did it badly. That's okay.  You will do better next time.

Watch this.  It's good.



Really good stuff in this series:

This poor little guy was SO nervous.  But if you can overlook the painful start when he's struggling, he really gets his groove on, especially in part 2 video.  This is EXCELLENT education. He knows his stuff, and I love how much he seems to obviously care about the tree.

Part 2 should follow automatically, but in case it doesn't, I'll post it below, as well.

Word to the wise...

Give us a heads up BEFORE you go in armed with your full auto hedge trimmers.

They are often the enemy of your plants, and once you wreck the natural shape of the plant, it's hard to get it to look good again.

You probably did fine, but if you don't have plant knowledge, ask here--but if you CAN, give us some time to answer.  One of us can help you with best practices so you don't hurt some of that (really gorgeous) landscaping.  

Next post, I will elaborate on those two shrubs.

ETA:  It looks to me like the early spring pic was taken a couple or three seasons ago.  I have never seen a smoke tree grow that fast.

Can you give any background?  That Red Twig is obviously overgrown.

Okey dokey...

Yes, that is a dogwood. It's called a Red Twig Dogwood.

ETA: Sorry.  Got interrupted.

Here is the page from Missouri Botanic Garden about Cornus Sericea.  You may or may not have the cultivar 'Cardinal'.

NOTE ....that this shrub can take hard pruning, but ....

...as we move along through your landscape, I will attempt to move you away from your hedge trimmers with some plants, because most trees and shrubs were not intended to be gumballs, squares, pyramids, or rectangles.  There are a NUMBER of important reasons why pruning them this way is not the best idea, but a couple of these reasons are important to the health of the shrub long-term.  We will cover those. If I don't, remind me.  I'll also talk about good practices if you're going to use hedge trimmers.

YOU have given me the perfect spot to talk about this, so please don't feel like I'm beating you up about this.  I'm gonna talk about this for everyone's benefit.  Not because you haven't done a good job with yours.  Most people murder plants with this tool, and don't know how to do it differently, so it's a WONDERFUL opportunity for me to talk about hedge trimmers, and their good uses--and their less opportune uses.

The Red Twig Dogwood--

It is fine to prune it back to size.  However, don't attempt to make it into some geometric form. God didn't intend it to be that and it will be far less attractive that way.  Let it maintain its normal shape, and just take it back to a smaller size.  This means cutting branches at different lengths to maintain the shape of the shrub.  Hedge trimmers are really bad at that.  They are good at making things uniform.  For some tight-growth shrubs like Yew or Boxwood, hedge trimmers can be your friend (used properly--not for the manufacture of gumballs) but they are not the best tool for a more open, broadleaf shrub like these.  Lot of reasons for that.

One of the things you will ALSO need to do is...in the late winter when the shrub is dormant, get out there with a pair of loppers and take out some of the older canes of the shrub.  The older canes don't stay as red.  They tend to go bland.  You want to keep the shrub renewed with a once-a-year pruning of the old canes.   This thinning also gives it space for the new canes and keeps it from getting too crowded.  TAKE ABOUT A FOURTH TO A THIRD OF THE OLD, LARGEST CANES each year when you do this.  Don't take more than that.  You want the plant to be able to support itself and give you a good show this next year.

So...the best time to prune this is late winter/early spring before flowering.

The other shrub you have is a smoke tree.  Cotinus coggygria

It is named for that poofy stuff leftover from the flowering.

So....you leave that through the winter, for winter interest (I know, too late, right? ) And you prune it later.  Early spring. (You'll find that is a theme with a lot of plants. The others will be late summer, but so far I haven't seen any of those in your yard.  You might have some though.

SOME cultivars have a pretty nice bloom. I don't know what yours will be.

BUT...read CAREFULLY the notes on culture, as this will explain to you the basics of how to care for this shrub...there is more than one option.

Here is the page from Missouri Botanic Garden about Smoke Tree.

ASK if it's not clear to you what might be the best option for you based on what you want.  It's good education for everybody.

SO...this is a good time to make a point for all Homesteaders interested in landscaping.

....PRUNING point..in the next post.

PRUNING TUTORIAL 3--  Philosphy and Practice

I'm gonna give y'all a simple way to deal with your landscape plants.  No, it's not "open a can and eat it" simple.  But not too much worse than that.


If you care about your property and want it to look nice, and want to save money by not killing the plants you have--or buy-- you need a basic, simple plan for how to  a-know what you have, and b- take proper care of what you have

You need a simple notebook of some kind.  A spiral one is fine.  A narrow 3-ring binder is better, so you can just print stuff (like a photo of each plant and its requirements), punch holes, and stick it in there.  So then you set an alarm on your phone twice a year.  "Time to prune the spring stuff"  "Time to prune the winter stuff"

And you don't have to spend a lot of brain power.  Just a little effort a couple of times a year.  No, "wait, which time of year was this one?"

Just get the notebook and flip to that plant.

Go to the web--or ask here.  Find out what you have.  PUT THAT IN THE NOTEBOOK.

Then print out (or write on a page) when to prune.

BOOM.  DONE.

If you want a superior landscape, or you have money invested in a property that has one, or you are installing one, PRUNING is a thing you do when it's the right time for the plants.  Not when you get around to it, or suddenly notice that "this landscape looks like crap!  I need to hack back ALL THE THINGS!"


Yes, there is some wiggle room on timing.  But not six months.

I know, I know.  Everybody is crazy busy.  But continued bad pruning, or at the wrong time, will reduce the (expensive) plants to a point where you might as well pull them out.  They're hurting and they'll be ugly.  Not anything like what they could be.  It does take a small bit of your attention. But once it's in the notebook, you've conquered it.

And FWIW-- It doesn't take much more time to clip a few branches with pruners or loppers than it does to blast it with the shotgun effect of a hedge trimmer.
That's right.  You've got a crowd in front of you.  Not all of that crowd is bad.  But the hedge trimmer is a Benelli automatic loaded with 00 Buck.  You may take out the bad guys, but there will be a LOT of collateral damage.

"Okay Kitties, why are you hating on hedge trimmers?"

Hedge trimmers have their place. *I use one sometimes*   But there are three BIG problems with hedge trimmers.

1-The way most people use them, they screw up the natural shape of a shrub.  If you have a very formal home like the White House or Buckingham Palace (and some of you just may) then a formal, ultra-manicured landscape will look great.  For MOST of us, a slightly less formal look works better.

What this means is....when you look at a shrub, understand that God did not make them to be gumballs, squares, rectangles or triangles.  Only the most formal home looks good with that sort of uber-manicured landscape.  AND... If you have a formal hedge, there are some rules to pruning it so it will remain alive and healthy, and I can tell you about those. (Most people prune them upside down.)

2-They leave horrible, jagged cuts on every woody stem they slice through, and just like that "cut your arm off below the elbow and leave it to rot" thing I mentioned earlier?  Yeah....that skin and muscle and a few veins and a split-off piece of bone...just sticking out there....you wanna leave that?

No, probably not.

Or do you want it nice and clean, so at least it CAN heal and not look like a mangled mess?

Basically the hanging bits and the ragged cut are the openings for disease on the plant, just like they are on your arm.

If you cut a plant and leave it badly wounded at the cut, my estimation is that it is 80 percent more likely to attract insect or mite pests (especially on herbaceous plants) than if the cut is clean and correct.  I have left bad cuts on ONE plant in a row of plants (when my pruners got loose) and within two days, the ONE badly-pruned plant had wooly aphids on the stems...and not just at the wound site.  These pests were not present in observable numbers on the other plants in that row.  They were attracted to the weakened plant. Those pests hurt the plant. And they carry disease.

Hedge trimmers are particularly bad on broadleaf, woody deciduous shrubs.  They are less damaging to small-leaf evergreen shrubs (This does NOT mean needle-leaf shrubs  Hedge trimmers are almost always a bad choice for needle-leaf shrubs.)

3-It is REALLY difficult to disinfect hedge trimmers, and people don't want to do it, so they just don't.

That means the hedge trimmers are moving any disease that is present, from one plant to the next, AND they are not only moving the disease, they are leaving a jagged, open wound for the disease to enter.  Roses are perhaps the most susceptible, of all landscape plants, to disease transference from tools.  When I prune roses, I carry a jar of bleach water with me.  I finish with one plant, dip my pruners in the bleach water, wipe them off on a paper towel, and go to the next plant.

Every good landscaper does this.  EVERY. ONE. Rose diseases suck.

Additionally....People tend to not maintain their hedge trimmers because it's a pita.

*The duller they get, the worse the effect is.

*People lube their hedge trimmers with all kinds of crap that is bad for plants.

SO....when we consider the fundamentals of good pruning, there are a FEW times when we would reach for hedge trimmers, but most of the time we would reach for another tool.

Those fundamentals are all based on one thing:  Identify the plant.


Read the basic information from some place like Missouri Botanic Garden, Ohio State University website, etc. Y'all all have computers.  THAT MAKES IT EASY.
(DO NOT use what's on the walmart tag--that's never right.  Then just make a simple list for when to prune the stuff in your landscape.  If you have trouble rememberinw what's what, print a photo from your phone of that bush, and stick it beside the name on the list.  Doesn't have to be fancy or complicated.

A little notebook is the easiest way.  You can print stuff out and stick it in there or print and tape photos.

The things you really need to know are the following  (First two you can find from an online nursery catalog description of that plant):

1-Know the natural shape and size of the plant your are pruning

2-Know when it flowers, fruits, and the characteristics you're actually AFTER from that plant.

3-Based on #2 above, know the best time of year to prune.  Before flowering? After flowering?  After fruiting in the fall? Winter when it's dormant?  (This you find from looking it up on a plant database website like the Missouri botanic garden I'm using tonight--there are many,)

For instance, right now, in many regions of the country, pruning will spark a bunch of fresh, new tender growth--right in time for frost--and the plant may well sustain heavy damage because the tender growth is MUCH more susceptible than growth that has hardened off and prepared for the colder weather and oncoming dormancy.

If you prune too late in spring, you prune off all the flowers.

If the plant flowers on old wood (stems or canes that are a year old) and you take out all the old wood...POOF...no flowers.

If you prune plants that have a long season of bloom (certain hydrangeas or roses, for instance) after the first flowering, you may cut off the buds that would have been your late-summer show.  In the case of roses, you will also prune off the dying blooms which would turn into colorful hips--the fall and early winter show that roses provide (some roses more than others...so you've gotta know which roses you have.)

This sounds WAY more complicated than it is.

It's easy if you take it ONE PLANT AT A TIME.

Stick the info in your notebook.

Then make a list for spring or fall pruning.

Put the list in your garage, or on your phone...wherever it will work for you.

Then wait for a day when it's nice to be outside, keep your notebook handy in case you're not sure, and go prune your plants.

Let us help if we can.

You are welcome to post pics here, ask for ideas, or even designs if you need it.

That's what this thread is for.

And I need to do a tutorial on fast pruning with manual tools.  It doesn't have to shred you, even with roses, but you do need serious leather gloves for those.

Show us your yew hedge.  Might be a way to save part of it and make it look great.