Drainage - A Play in 2 Parts

 Hey y'all, and welcome to my weekly Toad Talk!  

This week we're going to talk about drainage.   It's going to be a biggie, because proper drainage is extremely important to keep your lawn and flower beds healthy.  

Part 1 - Drainage Off The House

Here, we are going to start at the top.  First thing we need to do is clear all the sticks, leaves, and loose roof gravel from the nooks and valleys of our roof.   This debris prevents water from flowing properly, and causes it to pool in the nooks and crannies.   That doesn't sound so bad, right?   WRONG.   Built-up water causes the water to wick up inside your shingles, which will cause major roof leaks and even worse, rotting of the roof.  

Next, we need to clean out the flats of the gutters - again, removing all sticks, leaf matter, and debris from roof gravel.   Clean out the downspout elbows also, as we are washing out our gutters.  This prevents gutter overflow, which can backflow into your soffit and facia, causing rot or mold inside the the soffit, which can eventually grow into your interior walls.  

Y'all - it's extremely important to keep your gutters clean.  

Keeping your gutters clean prevents 90% of facia rot, rafter tail rot, soffit mold, and edgeline roof leaks, all which can add up to be very expensive repairs.  

Next, let's move on to our lower downspouts.  We want to insure that they are also clean of all debris.  We want our draining to be extended at least 4' off of our house, to prevent crawlspace flooding.   Even a small amount of water that gets inside your crawlspace can cause mold and mildew to grow inside the crawlspace.  It could permeate inside your home, making for respiratory issues for you and your family.  

Irrigated flowerbeds should also have proper weep holes if you have hardscapes, or sloped off the house if not edged.  

Y'all, standing water is never good.  Just these few steps to start can save you thousands in repairs and mold mitigation around your house.

Thanks for reading, and always remember!  Nothing grows without water!   ... just keep it outside.  😉

Let's talk about Bed Maintenance!

Nothing gives you better curb appeal than a beautifully taken care of flower bed.   It's not too tough to keep up with, if you maintain it regularly.

All your beds need to be cultivated anywhere from 3" to 6" inches every few years.   This provides aeration, and promotes healthy root growth.  

I would suggest roto-cultivating if you have a roto-tiller.   This tills the mulch matter into the soil.  Add sand or vermiculite (a soil amendment that promotes root growth) for moisture retention and aeration!

Remove all your annuals, weeds, and grasses before cultivating.  These are all things that we don't want in our bed at this time.   

Fertilize your turned beds with 9-9-9 or 13-13-13, and  you can even use a time release if you want.  

OK - now let's prevent the return of most of those volunteer weeds from resurfacing.   We are going to place a heavy mesh weed barrier in our beds, tight around the shrub's drip edge.   Don't go tight around the trunks of the heavy-barked shrubs or trees - they need air, and that weed-barrier will choke them out.  

While we are laying and pinning our weed barrier, is the perfect time to edge and define the front edge of our outer bed.   Be sure to clean up any turf stragglers crawling into your bed.  

Pick a good mulching medium to place on your newly healthy beds.   

Now is a great time to add pretty new flowers and shrubs to your bed.   You can keep your larger, healthy shrubs, and can also add newer shrubs at the same time.   Just plan well!   

If this sounds like too much work, just call us.   We can do this for you.   We also have 35 years experience in bed maintenance and flower gardening.   We can help you with building your healthy new bed with beautiful perennials and annuals,  and explain to you bloom-time, how long they last, and what needs to be replanted every year.  

Once everything is planted, make sure you water everything well.  

Remember!  Nothing grows well without plenty of food and water!  

Let's get ready for "barefoot in the grass season!"

Hey, yall!   Welcome back to my Toad Talk.   

This week, we are going to talk about grass.    We are going to cover the different kinds of grass, how to sow, how to fertilize, and which works best for you. 

OK - first of all.   Grass isn't just grass.   There are so many different kinds of grass, so let's see what is best for us here in Zone 8a.  

If you have a nice, shady lawn, you'd want to go with something like a fescue.  It doesn't require as much sunlight, but nothing lives in complete shade.   It's pretty hardy, but does not like full sun or extreme heat.  Make sure you water regularly, and always water first thing in the morning, or at the end of the day after the sun has gone down.    If you water during the heat of the day, the water is magnified by the sun, and the sun burns up your grass and plants.   

NEVER, EVER water in the middle of the day.  

Bermuda grass is good if you like a beautiful, thick lawn, but it grows so fast that you'll be mowing more frequently.   Bermuda is a seasonal grass,  and for that reason, your beautiful thick lawn won't stay beautiful all year.   After the temps drop below around 72, and until they come back up to above 72, your Bermuda grass goes dormant, and turns brown.   You know what this looks like.   You see it all winter long in the south.   😄

Centipede is similar to Bermuda in that it's a seasonal grass.  It gives more of a fescue look with a Bermuda hardiness, but it's expensive, and hard to maintain.  It yellows easily, if it's not fertilized properly it won't stay green, and it's high maintenance.   Just like a Zoysia, it's a nice grass but you have to baby it to keep it looking healthy.  

My personal favorite is Emerald Green Zoysia, but again - it's just more expensive and a higher level of maintenance involved.   Also, Zoysia is not something that you can seed.  It will not easily germinate  from seed in our zone.  It's best to purchase in sod form by the pallet, or by the block.  

The best affordable option for our zone would probably be fescue.  It germinates from seed in this zone, it takes less time to get a full, substantiated lawn,  and it stays green until the first frost.   If your lawn is more in direct sunlight, you'll want to go with the Bermuda, or maybe Centipede or Zoysia.  

If you are going to sow yourself from seed, make sure first of all that the seed your are looking for germinates well in our zone.   Then, purchase a spreader from somewhere like Lowe's or Home Depot.   If you can find one in a local business, buy there first.  I'd much rather my money go to a local business than a big box store, but sometimes, we have to utilize what we have.   The spreaders range from around $25+ for the handheld spreader, to around $75 for the push-spreader.   If I might make a suggestion, use the push-spreader.   It produces a better layer of seed, more uniformly laid out, and won't leave big patches in your grass.   If you are planting a lawn for the first time, after you seed, lay down hay on top, to keep the animals from eating your grass, and the erosion from washing it away.    If you have a stabilized lawn, and you're just reseeding, you don't need to lay down hay.   Just water it very well.  

You don't need a special fertilizer - just use something like Scott's Turf Builder.  You can even use it in the grass spreader that you have.   Just make sure you rinse it out well when you're finished.  

And there you go!  Happy barefoot in the grass season!

Let's talk trees!

 Trees and Shrubs

The sap's a risin', my friends, and soon, if not currently, some of your trees are budding and starting to leaf out!  This is the perfect time to fertilize your trees and hardy shrubs.

Now, you can't just throw some 13-13-13 on the ground at the base of your trees and expect anything but tall grass at the base of your trees.   You didn't expect it to be that easy, did you?   😉 

Tossing fertilizer at the base might help your shrubs slightly, and is wonderful for annuals and soft perinnials, but trees and hardy shrubs need fertilizer at the "drip edge," to get to the roots.

To achieve the best results for your trees:

Go to the outer edge of your trees' limbs, where the rain drips off.  Use a steel stake and hammer (I prefer a steel/rock bar) or whatever works for you.   Penetrate the soil at the drip line around 8" to 10" deep, every 6 feet around the tree.   Fill the holes with 13-13-13 (also known as Triple 13) or your preferred fertilizer blend.  Make 3 rings around the drip line, staggering your holes each round, 1 foot out each time.   Water generously daily for a week, and then enjoy your shade!

For your shrubs - just dig 1 ring of holes about 1 foot off the trunk or stems.   The best thing to use is time-release fertilizer in your beds.  

Remember - if it seems like too much to remember or too much to do, we can do it for you!

Just call Grumpy Toad Lawn Care at 256-819-4992.  We will be glad to do it for you!