Landscaping: Call your county extension service. No really, do it.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Landscaping: Call your county extension service. No really, do it.

MrChrome: Jan 21, 2001

Justa Dandelion posted:

The neighbors have a black locust. Not looking for advice, just started getting the first suckers for the year. RIP me ever having a nice yard.

Edit: also there's a absolute loving ton of elm saplings popping up and some sort of nightmare shrub with tap roots running from some unknown source that are thick as a loving anaconda. The other half of our yard is being taken over by choke cherries. We just bought the house in January so this is our first growing season.

Edit 2: I forgot to mention the bindweed problem. That's also everywhere lol.

I feel your pain. I have a tree of heaven in my yard. My neighbors also have one. This house is the first one I've owned that has a yard and I was confused about why there were little trees popping up everywhere.

One of them reached human height before I found it. Another keeps trying to grow inside my garage. The roots are under the foundation or something so I can't get to them.

# ¿ May 21, 2022 20:49

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 03:32

MrChrome: Jan 21, 2001

devicenull posted:

Do you have spotted lanternfly near you yet? If so, you may want to consider taking that down, or consulting with an arborist to see what you can do to prevent it from being a host.

I had not heard of this. Thanks for the heads up. Thankfully it doesn't look like they are by me... yet.

This Tree of Heaven is turning out be a Tree from... you know

# ¿ May 23, 2022 19:39

MrChrome: Jan 21, 2001

Comrade Gritty posted:

Unfortunately he moved to Florida a few years ago, and since then we've basically gone through a different local landscaping business each year (once we went through two in the same year). They've all been extremely flaky, would say they're going to do something and not do it until I hound them over and over, I've asked all of them that if I'm paying for this, I want to not have to think about my lawn/landscaping and just have them do whatever is needed. So far the closest I've gotten to that is my current company who seem to manage the lawn itself just fine on their own, but just seem to refuse to do the weeding of our gardens that we're paying for unless I bother my contact regularly that their guys have stopped weeding again.

I'm kind of fed up of paying thousands of dollars a year to various companies and still having to deal with it, albeit indirectly and trying to come up with a different solution to this problem.

It sounds like the problem you're having with landscaping companies is that they won't do other stuff such as weed your garden? From what I've seen, it's hard to get them to do that. In general they want to come out to mow, trim, edge, and then leave. I don't think a robotic mower is going to do any of that stuff either.

I use a landscaping company, but I still find that I have a work to do. I'm constantly weeding or throwing seed down in bare spots. I'd love to pay somebody to do this, but they don't do it to the level I'd expect.

You might be paying thousands a year now, but by switching to doing it all yourself you're going to have to invest a thousand up front in equipment and then lots of time each week throughout the year. Do you have a spot to store all of this equipment? Are you handy enough to get small motors started each spring? Are you comfortable sharpening blades?

You also mention ADHD. My wife has ADHD and from what I have seen she would be horrible at this stuff. It's better for someone like her to hire it out.

MrChrome fucked around with this message at 17:47 on Sep 27, 2022

# ¿ Sep 27, 2022 17:42

MrChrome: Jan 21, 2001

Infinotize posted:

This is central TX/Austin. Yeah, it does get used a fair bit, it�s the only entry to the back yard from outside so needs to accommodate the odd barrow full of mulch, gravel, bags of leaves, gardening stuff, whatever. It gets full sun and not much rain which is why it all died, here in tx it will revert to high grass weeds that go up to 3-4 ft when it�s rainy and dead and yellow during drought, and that looks like poo poo in either case so it needs something than can be traversed that is less water hungry than grass.

Pavers really would be great, but you got that angle.

Rocks with stepping stones?

# ¿ Oct 17, 2022 22:59

MrChrome: Jan 21, 2001

Infinotize posted:

Right. What do you mean by rocks with stepping stones? Like gravel bed with large stones to walk on?

Yeah, something like this:

# ¿ Oct 18, 2022 01:37

MrChrome: Jan 21, 2001

100 HOGS AGREE posted:

I hit a bunch of Tree of Heaven out back of my new house with the herbicide last Friday and I can already see them dying off back there, gonna wait three more weeks to really let the stuff get down into the root system then I'm gonna go to town with the chainsaw. I'm feeling pretty good about getting these things knocked out, just gotta stay vigilant.

How tall are they?

# ¿ Aug 25, 2023 10:34

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 03:32

MrChrome: Jan 21, 2001

I have a blue spruce in my back yard that always has stuff growing under it. It's hard to get in there and weed. I was thinking of removing a foot or two from the bottom.

Is this a good idea in that it'll be easier to weed?

Or a bad idea in that now all the weeds have access to sunlight?

I've got invasive things in my yard, such as Tree of Heaven.

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# ¿ Mar 13, 2024 14:52

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Landscaping: Call your county extension service. No really, do it.