Never attempted any yard work besides mowing and edging, what would I need to clear this out efficiently? Some of these are baby bushes right? I assume the roots will be deep.
Grab a pair of glove and start pulling all those weeds out, then mulch the area with 3-4” of woodchips. Then plant whatever appropriate plants/flowers/shrub for the sun exposure there if you’d like.
craigrpeters
Yeah probably too late to plant this year, it you can definitely clean it out, decide on how you want to edge that space, and cap it off with mulch this fall then plant in spring. Use the winter to look up what’s hardy in your area, sun/shade requirements then start planting in spring.
Might be easier to just dig a lot of that out with a shovel since it appears to be all weeds. You can mix in a little compost too to the top few inches to really improve growing conditions. Be. Artful if there are cables or irrigation pipes etc in that space.
I’d recommend mulch over wood chips or chunk wood mulch to cap gardens. It breaks down better and is great for soil health. Wood chips need to break down for 6-12 mos (or more depending on temps, water and sunlight) before they are good for planting in.
msmaynards
Wow, that’s a mess of Nandina seedlings! I wouldn’t expect Nandina seedlings roots to be difficult to pull but it’s likely there’s a stump of mature one in there. Oak seedlings do have deep roots, perhaps other tree seedlings do as well and I do spy a couple of tree seedlings in there.
I wouldn’t mess around getting on knees and hand pulling. Use a shovel or garden digging fork carefully to get ~6″ deep, lever out the clod to loosen soil then remove the mostly dislodged young plants. If there is underground irrigation go slow. It’s easier to dig or pull in damp ground so if ground is hard and dry give it a good soaking a day or two before working on this. There probably is at least one mature Nandina stump in there, use loppers to cut roots as you uncover them and if it gets hard to dig fill hole with water and come back the following day.
CatsDIY
The quickest improvement will be to straighten out the border, even with the old wood beam. Trim the bed so it is straight along the wood. Cut the grass so it is uniform. In one hour this will look cared for.
Now start identifying what is nandina and chopping out the rest which are weeds. If you find something nice chop around this. This weeding will take several hours. Put down a 3 in layer of mulch and it will look great for the winter,
4 Comments
Grab a pair of glove and start pulling all those weeds out, then mulch the area with 3-4” of woodchips. Then plant whatever appropriate plants/flowers/shrub for the sun exposure there if you’d like.
Yeah probably too late to plant this year, it you can definitely clean it out, decide on how you want to edge that space, and cap it off with mulch this fall then plant in spring. Use the winter to look up what’s hardy in your area, sun/shade requirements then start planting in spring.
Might be easier to just dig a lot of that out with a shovel since it appears to be all weeds. You can mix in a little compost too to the top few inches to really improve growing conditions. Be. Artful if there are cables or irrigation pipes etc in that space.
I’d recommend mulch over wood chips or chunk wood mulch to cap gardens. It breaks down better and is great for soil health. Wood chips need to break down for 6-12 mos (or more depending on temps, water and sunlight) before they are good for planting in.
Wow, that’s a mess of Nandina seedlings! I wouldn’t expect Nandina seedlings roots to be difficult to pull but it’s likely there’s a stump of mature one in there. Oak seedlings do have deep roots, perhaps other tree seedlings do as well and I do spy a couple of tree seedlings in there.
I wouldn’t mess around getting on knees and hand pulling. Use a shovel or garden digging fork carefully to get ~6″ deep, lever out the clod to loosen soil then remove the mostly dislodged young plants. If there is underground irrigation go slow. It’s easier to dig or pull in damp ground so if ground is hard and dry give it a good soaking a day or two before working on this. There probably is at least one mature Nandina stump in there, use loppers to cut roots as you uncover them and if it gets hard to dig fill hole with water and come back the following day.
The quickest improvement will be to straighten out the border, even with the old wood beam. Trim the bed so it is straight along the wood. Cut the grass so it is uniform. In one hour this will look cared for.
Now start identifying what is nandina and chopping out the rest which are weeds. If you find something nice chop around this. This weeding will take several hours. Put down a 3 in layer of mulch and it will look great for the winter,