Month: <span>July 2015</span>

Month: July 2015

Weeds

Japanese Stiltgrass

Japanese stiltgrass looks a bit like a miniature bamboo. Not the tall variety that you get bamboo poles from but one of the smaller varieties. Stiltgrass only gets at most about 6-8 inches high but if not controlled, it can get up to two feet high.  To see a picture, click here.

Annual but Long-Lived Seeds

It is an annual, so that makes it slightly easier to deal with. However, the seeds can be viable for years, so if you pull them and they are close to going to seed, don’t compost them. You will regret it next year.

Remove by Weeding / Pulling

Luckily, they barely have any root structure at all so they are easy to pull up. They appear in the summer but grow extensively in the fall. Pull them before they can go to seed. Pull the weed after a rain or wet the area you will be weeding. This goes for any weed. It is much easier to pull them and have the roots come to when the soil is wet. When it is dry, they tend to snap off and leave the roots in the ground and you will just have to come back and do it all over again.

Stiltgrass likes moister and shady conditions which grass doesn’t do too well in. You can condition the soil to make it better for your grass so it can compete better with the stiltgrass. You could also help things by doing some pruning of trees in the area to get more sunlight to the ground.

If the soil is too moist, core aeration can help. Also, once the stiltgrass is pulled, you should put down something to prevent the seeds from germinating. A natural product is corn gluten which should be put down in the spring. Or you could use Preen. You might want to retreat after 3 months with either Preen or the corn gluten.…

Trees

Tree Services – i.e. Giant Weeds

You might think of trees as giant weeds. At least some trees fit this category and all can in some circumstances. Besides my own knowledge, I spoke with Tree Services Annapolis, a firm we have used and highly recommend to get some additional insights.

One of the worst culprits are mulberries. A few are native but most could be considered an invasive species brought in to provide food for silk worms. The invasive gypsy moth was brought into the US to breed with silk moths at the same time and some got loose and started eating everything in site like a grade B horror movie.

Mulberries end up everywhere because the birds love the fruit and where ever a bird is flying when it poops is where a tree might start growing. Particularly at the base of trees and bushes where birds have been sitting in the branches. It can be difficult to see the mulberry growing beneath a bush until it gets fairly large.

The problem with mulberries besides their pervasiveness is their root system. Even when very small, they have amazingly large tap roots for their size.  Most mature trees put out roots horizontally about the same distance as that covered by their canopy. Mulberry roots seem to go forever horizontally. We had a large old (and ugly) one taken down. We had the company grind the stump. The main roots that came out from the stump were quite large and went in all directions. No way it could have been done except with a stump grinder.

Tree Removal

Unless it is very small and you are fairly handy, it is better to get a professional to remove a tree. Especially if it is near a house or the street. It may be that the tree died and needs to be removed, or it just doesn’t make sense where it is or is crowding other trees that are more desirable. We bought our house from a woman in her 90s. As we got to understand the layout of the property we realized that a lot of trees were voluntaries. In other words, they weren’t planted, they just grew where their seeds fell.  Some were crowding out the original trees, others roots were destroying walkways etc.

It is fun to watch the professionals take down a tree. They climb up and carefully tie off a limb and then carefully cut while people on the ground pull on the rope attached to the limb to control where and how the limb falls. Quite an art to do it an not get injured or killed.

Tree Pruning vs. Tree Trimming

Generally you want professionals to do a pruning and not a trimming. With trimming you just take a trimmer, kind of like a hedge trimmer and trim and shape the tree. But this only deals with the ends of the branches and you get forking where ever it is cut. Pruning is selectively taking out branches or forks of branches. This can open a tree up and get more air flowing through to prevent mildew and disease. It also give the tree a more natural look. Trimming can potentially have the opposite effect.

When you cut a branch, you also need to do it the right way. It used to be that people would cut the limb off as close to the trunk as possible. The problem is that branch tissue and trunk tissue are different and there is a barrier where they meet. You might think of it like the blood brain barrier. If a branch gets diseased, this barrier prevents it from spreading to the tree. But if you cut too close and damage that barrier, it can allow disease to get into the trunk and compromise the health of the tree.

Tree Health

One of the most important thing for tree health is to have well balanced, healthy soil. A good tree services company can test the soil and determine what minerals and other nutrients need to be added to the soil to help the tree. If a tree does get sick, the sooner it is looked at by a professional the better since it is much easier to treat early in the disease progression.…

Weeds

Creeping Charlie Ground Ivy

Creeping Charlie / Ground Ivy

Creeping Charlie is a perennial that can be difficult to control. It generally stays low to the ground and puts out shoots or stems along the ground which root at spots along the vine or stem. It will sometimes go up if it has something to support it. It is evergreen and considering that it is in the mint family, it is not surprising that when crushed it smells somewhat minty.

If you are into brewing beer, you might want to encourage its growth. The ancient Saxons used to to brew beer. It is European and was brought to North America for medicinal reasons and is now found in almost the entire United States.

The stems are squarish and the leaves are round and scalloped. It gets into grass in shaded areas, preferrably moist and then expands to sunny areas. It is also happy in flower beds and can become a quite dense mat. It spreads in two ways, rhizomes and seeds.

The vines have nodes which is where the leaves grow from. If the node touches the ground, it will sprout roots. If you then pull the vine and it breaks and leaves those roots in the ground, it just starts growing a new plant.

Controlling / Killing Ground Ivy

To control it, use a broadleaf herbicide. The University of Maryland Extension program suggests one with several active ingredients. Particularly look for the ingredient triclopyr which is supposed to be more effective.  They say that two applications are usually necessary and that they should be done 14 days apart.

Another website says that the only effective herbicides for Creeping Charlie are ones that have dicamba. Apparently even this herbicide is only effective if done at the right time of the year. If you apply in late spring or summer, it will only stall its growth and not kill it. They recommend treating it in early fall when it is growing most actively. The idea is that it will weaken the Creeping Charlie enough that the winter weather will finish it off.

Here is the prescription for when you do do this. Cut the grass and wait three days. This will cause the ground ivy to put out more leaves and take up more of the herbicide. Once you have treated it, wait another 3 days before cutting the grass again.

In flower beds you can get rid of it by hand pulling (best after rain or watering). Or you can smother it which can be done with newspaper or mulch or both.

Good luck!…