Car's Garden Journal~

[Admin]

It is very dry here in KY. How about where you live? We want to water the lawn but we have city water so it would cost a fortune. The lawn is the worst. We can hand water the plants..

How do you keep your lawn alive during drought? Usually we fertilize ours all year but in the spring we didn't get to it and now our lawn looks terrible. We use to have the prettiest lawn around.

I am not sure if it is the drought or that and the lack of attention..

Guess we learned a lesson.

*** Hey if Deed can name her journal after herself, then I can too..Nah Nah Deed..***

[Deed]

It has been relatively dry here for the last week or so in NY. We don't do anything to our lawn, too many cats outside and I don't want to poison them. Ours still looks pretty lush right now. Dandelions are gone and have been replaced with clover.

I did water my garden last night and the raspberry bushes but that's all. Those blackberry's of mine are so tough, they are fine on their own.

[ellise]

Car, have you considered using the water from your washer and tub baths to water the lawn? The laundry soap in it will also help with pesky pests.

[Admin]

Good thoughts Ellise..I might try to do that.

[Deed]

LOL Car, I thought that is what we were supposed to do! ;D

[Admin]

Of course you can, why didn't I think of that..LOL

[Admin]

You can certainly tell that it has been very dry here in eastern KY. I have 12 burning bush that line the front yard. The center four have lost just about all their leaves. Just seemed to happen overnight. Dh is watering them now like crazy trying to save them. It is interesting since the 4 on either side seem to be ok, it is just the center ones. I also lost 4 rose bushes at the beginning of spring. I dont' like losing my plants..

Of course we have been so busy this year with other things that our yard, flowers and outisde seems to have been neglected. We usually have the prettiest, greenest lawn around our neighborhood, not so this season..Oh well always another year ..

But, happy news is, we finally got rain..Yippee. It has thunderstormed here for the past 6 days and today it has been a slow steady rain all day. Hopefully, this will perk up everything, cept for me of course, and I am always down on a dreary day.

Happy Gardening.

[mimi]

Okay Carolyn, I'm getting in my boat and bringing you some of the tons of rain we have down here, LOL. We have so much we have mushrooms growing in the yard. Next month we'll be crying for rain I'm sure. I have taken the tub water, dish water and used it in the garden...the plants like the minerals. Glad to hear you finally got some rain. = )

PS - I love burning bushes...hope to get some in the fall.

[braided-rug]

I am not sure what burning bushes are. I can relate to the lawn. We lived in a house with a large yard in a place that needed watering every week for 1/2 hour. That was on town water as well. Our secret was to make sure we mowed the lawn up high, it seems to keep the weeds in check as well.

Usually when we take out the dandelions, unless we do it in late winter, we are left with a bare spot, so that is good.

If the lawn is on clay, spiking the ground with a fork in late winter will help let in the water and air.

[Deed]

I'm not Carolyn, but I found this for you so you can see what a 'Burning Bush' is. My dad has many around the property and they are stunning in the fall.



Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus)

A deciduous shrub from the Staff-Tree Family (Celastraceae)

Burning Bush, native to central China and Korea, has occasionally escaped from the ornamental plantings commonly found throughout Ohio into neglected urban and rural areas, by way of its seed production. This vase-shaped shrub is known primarily for its outstanding red fall foliage, which blazes for about two weeks in early to mid-autumn. Almost forgotten is its natural vase shape (since it is so often sheared into hedges or globes in landscape plantings) and the corky-winged species form (rather than the green-twigged compact form). If left unpruned, the compact form of Burning Bush will grow to about 12 feet tall and 15 feet wide, and the species (winged) form will grow to about 15 feet tall and 20 feet wide. As a member of the Staff-Tree Family, it is related to Bittersweet (shrubs or vines noted for their yellow or orange dried fruits) and other types of Euonymus (trees, shrubs, and viney groundcovers).

www.dnr.state.oh.us/forestry/Education/ohiotrees/burningbush.htm

[braided-rug]

I am amazed, how pretty. I am not sure if we have that at all in Australia. There is a flowering ornamental fruit tree like it in color that I love.

Thanks.

[Admin]

Thanks for posting that pic for braidedrug Deed. Yes they are very lovely in the fall of the year. They are just beginning to turn colours now. The ones that dropped their leaves have sprouted new shoots so that tells me they are acutally ok..and not dying as I suspected.

And braidedrug, thanks for telling me the tip about aerating the lawn. I am sure that is part of the issue ...Gonna do that this winter. And I didn't know about removing dandelions then either. I always remove mine in the springtime and then I have the bare spot where each one was lifted.

[ellise]

Carolyn, Don uses an areator that we rent from the local feed store and pulls it behind the lawn tractor, he does this about 4 times a year, makes the yard ugly for a bit but sure has cut down on the watering and hardly no weeds anyone!

[Admin]

Woo hoo Lise' gonna have to try that but on a smaller scale, no need for a tractor in this small yard..But I know they make a hand aerator. I am for whatever cuts down on watering and love the idea of less weeds. Thanks

[braided-rug]

If you put a bit of gypsum in the holes as well it would be even better with clay and may not need many repeats.


Apparently the bush was used in a display garden at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, so that is interesting. Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia in my state.