Jason Reeves - in the garden

I haven’t posted about the old house at the farm in a long time. It’s been a long time coming but finally have a floor in the room that we had to be torn out due to rotting floor joist due to water rising from the ground when it rains.

We ended up tearing out the end wall so we could get the gravel and concrete in. It also allowed for a one piece shower to be brought in. Today Don and I started building the end wall back and got most of the studs in place. Each time I take down and put back up the particle board I think of how it must feel if you’re preparing a house for a hurricane. 😬

When we’re finished there will be a bathroom on the back porch that’ll be accessible without having to go in the house. This will be useful during plant sales, open garden days and events. The house needs a tremendous amount of other work but eventually will likely be an Airbnb. I’ve often heard that renovation is far more difficult and expensive than building new and I must agree. I’ve spent hours and hours just on this one room ripping out and there’s now much reconstruction to be done. 

Last weekend I made a quick trip to East Tennessee to attend a friends wedding. As always I pack in as much as I can when traveling visiting friends, gardens and nurseries. 

Andy, Faye, Ann and I made a quick trip to Sevierville to see the beautiful garden of Kati & Jim Blalock and visit East Fork Nursery. Minus the sound of the helicopters giving tourist a aerial view of Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and The Great Smoky Mountains, you would never dream the Blalock’s home and garden is less than a mile off the main drag, Winfield Dunn Parkway in Sevierville.

Kati and Isaac, one of my former interns showed us around the beautiful property. Isaac owns an operates Stately Origins, a landscape maintenance and installation company and he and his crew have been working with Kati for four years.

When your water tractor has a bad day!

Last night around 8 PM I went to turn it off and could see the water squirting straight up in the dark but waited to investigate until this morning. If a tires gets in a mole run it stalls out.

We haven’t had rain at work at Ellington since August 10. Fingers crossed for this weekend.

Does anyone have experience with Danae racemosa, (poet's laurel) and deer?

I know it is first cousins to Ruscus and asparagus fern and more distantly related to Aspidistra (cast iron plant), Rohdea (Japanese sacred lily) and monkey grass which I don’t think deer prefer.

Any of my Facebook followers in my area (Carroll, Madison, Henderson County) or my work in Nashville have a Drone-Clone Xperts Limitless 2 that would let me try the battery out in the one I have?

I have access to a Limitless 2 but it does not have a battery or charger and I do not want to purchase them until I know it works.

And this is why it is called nutsedge. One of the more difficult weeds to control in lawns and landscape is yellow nutsedge. If you have a severe infestation my suggestion would be to move! Or get a pig. Ha! Pigs love nutsedge.

If the above are not options, to eradication it in the landscape, a combination of mechanical and chemical and persistence can work. It will likely take several years to totally get rid of a patch. I have found a combination of digging up clumps along with the surrounding soil (8-10” deep and 8-10” beyond the plant) and spraying young plants with a herbicide containing the active ingredient halosulfuron (SedgeHammer Plus) or trifloxysulfuron-sodium (Envoke) can eventually get rid of it. Always read and follow pesticide instructions carefully.

Check out this publication for more other control measures including around vegetables and organic options. https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/nutsedge/

🤢🤦🏻‍♂️🤮🙅🏽🤢😬🤮🤦🏽‍♂️🤢🙅🏻🤮😬🤢Troy B. Marden - On Gardening

Looking for suggestions for what to do in front of these HVAC units. Currently there are two pots containing poorly trimmed boxwoods helping to disguise them.

The units put out a lot of heat so planting something in the ground that they blow on is out it the question. 

Maybe we build rectangular boxes that match the new retaining edging? We would set them far enough in front to not restrict the airflow and make them long enough to hide the units better.

Then what to plant in them that is evergreen in the shade that will not get too tall hardy for zone 7. Maybe Thujopsis dolabrata 'Nana'.

I sure don’t like the days getting shorter. Dark at 7:30 now. Didn’t get my nursery watered before dark so decided to eat dinner first. One thing about watering at 8:45PM is it is 85° as opposed to the upper 90s. The biggest drawback is all the insects that are attracted to my headlamp driving me crazy. 🤪

The heat dome over Tennessee earlier this week burn some of my conifers on their south side. Twelve of the my 51 ‘Globosa Nana’ Cryptomeria and both ’Golden Charm’ Chamaecyparis received damage.

With temperatures reaching 100° it would have probably been a lot worse if I hadn’t received a 1 1/2” of rain last week on Thursday and Friday nights combined.

Thankfully the state of Tennessee is in better condition as far as drought goes now than we were in March and April. See the last two photos.