The Big Move - Part 2

Picked up a garden cart and extendable pruner/loppers for roots and overhead branches.

Finished moving the hydrangeas - phew that was more work than I thought. The cart and loppers worked really well, happy with the purchase. The transplants all received the same approx 2 cups Holly Tone as the ones last week.

Wound the excess drip hose over the preexisting hydrangeas so some are now doubled up.

Decided to skip fertilizing the boxwoods, think they're doing fine anyways. Had some Holly Tone leftover so put down another ~2 cups on the junipers. Re-read the feeding instructions and probably hadn't put down quite enough previously.

Seeing a lot of weeds popping up. Spray service should come soon.

Also put down 1 bag of milky spore Sunday - perfect bc it rained Sunday night.

Next week - move the stone edging by the pool gate? Look into gravel & stone prices.
And trim lower branches off all the trees.

Spring clean up is around the corner.

The Big Move - Part 1

Moved 2 hydrangeas Saturday from the northeastern corner of the house (by the AC unit) over to by the left side of the driveway (next to trash can). Moved the unknown grass clump (pampas?) over to outside the gate on the left, next to the big rock with our house number - wow that was tough to dig up. Sort of divided the clump into 2. Prepped a third hole in its place to move a third hydrangea next weekend. I observed this site gets good sun around 9-10 am so hopefully this spot will be enough "morning sun, afternoon shade" for the hydrangeas.

On Sunday - prepped another 8 holes along the driveway, starting from the large pine and following the curb alongside the parking area. Next weekend I'll move over 2-3 more hydrangeas from the northeastern side of the house, as well as 5-6 from the end of the southwest side. Not quite sure about the sunlight this spot will get - looks like mostly dappled sunlight right now but I'll have to see once the trees green up. Yard looks like a mess!

Also put down fertilizer for the dwarf spruces, blue junipers, and all the hydrangeas that won't be moving. Sprinkled about 1 solo cup (2 cups) of Holly Tone around each. Skipped fert on all the boxwoods - read that they don't really need? Some of the hydrangeas are beginning to leaf up just a tiny bit!

Spring bulbs are finally starting to peak through - saw them poking out about 4 inches in NYC last week and been eagerly awaiting mine. Saw several of the "leftover" hyacinths that I had transplanted last year in front of the small boxwoods - should reposition those together in a clump later this year. Also saw some from my cages. Will need to keep an eye on whether I need to take the "lids" off but so far they seem to be fitting through ok.

Also - saw a few weeds starting already! Tested out the new weed tool and yanked out a few - works pretty well. Not sure what the weeds were. Couple were taprooted - plantain? And these clumping ones that looked like clover but weren't - oxalis?

This week -  Look into garden cart, root chopper thing. Look into weed pre emergent.
Next weekend - finish transplanting the hydrangeas. Get that soil sample sent off. And maybe apply pre emergent.

Thinking Spring

With the calendar showing March and the clocks changed forward, I can feel spring coming around the corner. And it's time to get ready.

Regarding the lawn, I still have a lot of details to sort out but I've laid out the rough plans. First couple of things on the to do list will be to get a soil test, spray shampoo for aeration, and apply Corn Gluten Meal as pre emergent. Need to keep an eye on temperatures and forsythia bloom to time the CGM application.

Also thinking about spring fertilization of the hydrangeas. Read mixed information some saying fertilizing hydrangeas isn't necessary, to other saying a slow release 10-10-10 is best. Trying to stay organic, I looked at Espoma Plant Tone 5-3-3, Espoma Holly Tone 4-3-4, Happy Frog Acid Loving 6-4-4, Happy Frog All Purpose 5-5-5, and Espoma Soil Acidifier. Ruled out the Soil Acidifier pretty quickly under the assumption that the soil is naturally acidic already, there was no NPK rating, and Nikko flowers are blue despite ph. So in the end, this weekend I picked up a 40# of Holly Tone to use on the hydrangeas and perhaps also the blue junipers, drawf cypress, and boxwoods - need to confirm those.

In the Beginning

The goal of this blog is to serve as a journal of sorts to track my journey into the world of gardens and lawns as a complete novice. I hope to be able to look back in time and track what progress I've made.