Post hurricane a few years back we definitely let the landscaping go by the wayside way more than we’d have liked, and unfortunately lost some big flower bushes that are a neighborhood staple in a lot of the yards to vines. With kid now old enough to help with weekly mowing, I feel like we’re on a more consistent schedule and I have time to do more than the bare minimum of keeping grass down when we go to do yard work.
I’ve done damage control on this a few times with loppers and just hand yanking the vines out but it’s a recurring problem. I’d like to keep the flow ering plants if possible, is there a better way to get this area back under control before it’s all green again?
by Badman27
5 Comments
Not even sure what part of the country your in, so hard to tell. Be careful exposing the Azaleas to full sun if in a hotter climate. Those vines may be keeping the ground cooler. They dont like to fry, so maybe some mulch when you pull everything away.
You cannot keep hand pulling vines when you leave an entire dead bush standing there acting as a custom built trellis for them. Those vines are wrapping around dead wood and laughing at your loppers. Grab a bypass pruner and a folding saw and cut out every single dead branch down to the dirt. If it snaps off dry and has no green tissue underneath cut it flush to the ground. You have to remove the scaffolding before you can trace the vine stems back to their main root crowns and dig them out with a shovel. Do not try to poison the vines right now because you will absolutely kill that surviving azalea.
That pink azalea is fighting for its life but it has a solid root system and can be saved. Once you clear the dead garbage choking it out you need to establish a clean edge around this planting area. Give your kid a clear line to follow with the mower so they do not chop up the base of the surviving plant. Dig a simple trench edge around the perimeter and lay down three inches of natural shredded mulch right up to the drip line of the azalea keeping it away from the actual trunk.
I look at layout visualizations from folks trying to fix messy yard spots exactly like this all day. Right now this is just an isolated pile of chaos stranded in your grass. Once the area is clean you need to think about building a proper connected bed here. Bring in some sturdy structural evergreens to anchor the space behind the azalea and tie it all together into a sweeping mass instead of a random dot on the lawn. That is how you turn a hurricane casualty back into an intentional focal point.
I use my electric hedge trimmers to chop back woody vines to the dirt. This helps keep my garden from being a mess of dead and live plants.
Cut the dead stuff and make the tree stump a vase. Check the soil, see if it gets soggy or has bug damage or stuff like that.
Then once you’ve done testing and observations like water logging, do research on which plants grow in your area.
Do you want a flower garden for display or do you want a food garden?
Well, you always want to try to preserve any flowers you find because that’s very beneficial to all the local bees and birds. So just get in there with some clippers and start clipping back all the undesirable plants/weeds. Once all the dead stuff and undesirable plants are gone the flowers will have an opportunity to spread and grow and before you know it, you’ll have a large beautiful patch of flowers.