Planting Things

[icedcoffee]

So far in the 7 years I’ve been here I have only torn plants out. I’m very good at that. 😂

We have some raised garden beds that are part of a retaining wall. I’d love to just get rid of them and plant grass, but for various reasons we need the retaining wall. It was super overgrown when we closed so I pulled everything out over the years. They are empty now, but FULL of weeds. I want to plant a ground cover to stop the weeds and prevent me from needing to mulch it every year. I’m in Maryland.

I’m thinking Pachysandra or Liriope. What do I need to do to make this happen? Can I just weed the area and then plant it in the existing soil? Do I need new soil? How much new soil? These beds are rather large.

And then I mulch when I’m done, right? Do I need weed barrier (I think no, right? It would prevent groundcover from spreading?)?

After I weed is there anything I can spread to help prevent weeds? Preen? I am not kidding when I say they grow like rapid fire around here.

Sorry this got long. I just don’t want to eff it up and I want to get to a point where I can stop weeding these damn beds. They are the bane of my existence.

TLDR: planting things for dummies

[nicolewi]

I garden a bit. Did you look at sun requirements for what you want to plant? if you have full sun, make sure you plant something that is okay in full sun.

Anyway, I would
--weed.
--mix some compost and maybe some composted manure or something into the existing soil. Helps to have a tiller.
--Plant the plants in the soil.
Water just after planting and then every couple days until they are established.

However...I also wonder if you have tons of weed seeds in your existing soil already. You may want to take some out and replace. Some people might actually cover the entire ground with back plastic or layers of newspaper, or use chemicals, and wait a year before planting at all if the weeds are THAT bad. I'm also wondering what kind of weeds you have.

You could mulch to keep the weeds down. You can't really put weed barrier over your planted area, no. You could try Preen.

Honestly, this is a big and hard job if you have a lot of soil to haul and plants to plant. I would consider getting a quote to have a garden center handle it for you. It will probably be HIGH, but it might still be worth it. They also might be able to make a more interesting plan for, like, a section of it or something so it's not just all pachysandra.

[nicolewi]

I have a small vegetable garden area that's maybe...like 15 feet by 4 feet or so??? It's along the house. Anyway, just for that little area I add maybe 4? bags of stuff to amend the soil a bit each year. And I am totally doing a half-assed job of it b/c it's just a fun little garden for us. I could easily add more. Those bags of soil go fast if you have a space to fill.

[icedcoffee]

Apr 6, 2021 8:07:37 GMT -5 nicolewi said:

I have a small vegetable garden area that's maybe...like 15 feet by 4 feet or so??? It's along the house. Anyway, just for that little area I add maybe 4? bags of stuff to amend the soil a bit each year. And I am totally doing a half-assed job of it b/c it's just a fun little garden for us. I could easily add more. Those bags of soil go fast if you have a space to fill.

Ha.  That's why I asked if it's necessary because I used to have a small veggie garden and I would schlep a huge heavy bag of soil and dump it in and...you couldn't even tell I bought any.  LOL

To answer your other questions:

It gets a ton of sun, but I'll confirm with the nursery before we choose which one.

I do think we have a ton of weeds just in the soil.  I've actually pulled this stuff years ago and have laid plastic/used chemicals/let it sit.  It's better, but not great.  Last fall it got particularly bad and that's when I realized I can't just keep mulching it and weeding it.  I really need to plant something.  I don't know what most of them are, but definitely some wild strawberry and some sort of vein-y thing.  LOL

These garden beds are off to the side of the house.  Literally no one, but my neighbors mowing guy ever sees them other than us when we take the trash out so there's really no need to make it visibly interesting.  I have no blooming idea why the original owner put beds in there.  I wish he had just left it as grass.

I have considered having the garden place do it, but was trying to avoid some cost.  You might be right though.  If we need to bring in a ton of new soil it will be back breaking work.

Thanks for the input.  Lots to consider!

[icedcoffee]

How do people get rid of old soil? Our county pick up tree trim/weeds/sticks, but I don't think I can throw mud in there.

[nicolewi]

Ah, okay, so now I get it more. If it's a weird side area that no one cares about, you could totally just try planting right into the existing soil, especially if you generally have decent soil.

Could you just plant grass in it? Or would it be a problem for mowing?

[icedcoffee]

Apr 6, 2021 8:55:21 GMT -5 nicolewi said:

Ah, okay, so now I get it more. If it's a weird side area that no one cares about, you could totally just try planting right into the existing soil, especially if you generally have decent soil.

Could you just plant grass in it? Or would it be a problem for mowing?

It's raised beds attached to the retaining wall made out of railroad ties.  No way to mow.  Grass would be my ideal, but there's no way to would work. 

[mrsukyankee]

icedcoffee, what about ornamental grasses?

[sandandsea]

What about something like watermelon, strawberries or another fruit or veggie that you can just water and see what happens? My kids get a kick out of trying to grow things they can eat. You could put down the weed barrier, cut a hole for the seeds/small plants, then put mulch on top.

[icedcoffee]

Apr 6, 2021 9:43:48 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

icedcoffee , what about ornamental grasses?

I'm open to it!  Mondo grass looks kind of cool.  

[icedcoffee]

Apr 6, 2021 9:55:20 GMT -5 sandandsea said:

What about something like watermelon, strawberries or another fruit or veggie that you can just water and see what happens? My kids get a kick out of trying to grow things they can eat. You could put down the weed barrier, cut a hole for the seeds/small plants, then put mulch on top.

We used to have beds on the other side which we did pull out.  We used to use it as a veggie garden.  It's....a lot of work.  We eventually pulled it out and replaced with grass.  It was fun, but just so much work.  I am not kidding when I say weeds in my area spread quickly.  Some of the veggies did well, but SOOO many weeds.  We now just do a couple pots on the deck.

[lightbulbsun]

If it's full sun I would suggest planting some native perennial wildflowers. Once they're established they'll be very hardy and not require a lot of work. Plus it would be pretty and attract butterflies, bees, and birds. Some good flowers would be coneflower, aster, lupine, milkweed, butterflyweed, and bee balm.

[boiler717]

I have some lirope heavy beds here and I am trying to rip them all out because I hate the way they look. My dog and kid run through them and get all smashed. I like the idea of native wildflowers instead. You can also cut them to have fresh flowers inside.

[dr.girlfriend]

The previous owner of my house was SUPER into gardening and she had some giant ornamental grasses planted on the side of our house. I get what she was going for but it was SUCH a pain in fall -- you'd end up with piles and piles of dead grass six feet tall with really sharp-edged leaves. I hated it and paid someone to dig it all up. I'm sure there's ones that are smaller or whatever but just a warning!

[icedcoffee]

Thanks everyone!! We went with Mondo grass. The main reason is because it was much cheaper than the Liriope and we have quite a bit of space to cover. I couldn't find the Pachysandra or an employee to ask so that's out. LOL It's about 40 feet x 2.5 feet so pretty big. I'm also in a bit of time crunch because we're having mulch spread and I'd like them to do these planters as well when I'm done.

My inlaws have Liriope so I'm pretty familiar with that and like it. Hopefully the mondo grass holds up. There are 3 sections of beds and I'm considering just doing 1 and seeing how it goes before doing the other 2 next year. Not 100% decided on that. I just got the first 6 in so we're on our way!

Please pray for me and my beds. LOL