2025 Lawns & Gardens Thread. Making Lawns Great Again

[SJonesWX]

Just murdered about 1,000,000 oak trees with my mower that are growing in my lawn, thanks to last years acorn crop

[DavisStraight]

Last year my yard was inundated with squirrels, this year have only seen one. Must have been taken by predators.

[dendrite]

10 hours ago, DavisStraight said:

Last year my yard was inundated with squirrels, this year have only seen one. Must have been taken by predators.

Nah. They all came here. 

[Chrisrotary12]

If the sun pops out and things dry out may get 1st mow of year in today. 

[BrianW]

First Clematis blooms. One of my favorite flowers. 

 

 

[Brewbeer]

On 5/16/2025 at 11:18 AM, Chrisrotary12 said:

If the sun pops out and things dry out may get 1st mow of year in today. 

No mow May is transitioning into no install June

[dendrite]

@Ginx snewx

This thing has already put on a foot this year…more than any other tree I have. After years maybe it’s finally done with the taproot. 

[dryslot]

Going to take a shot at an orange and a lemon tree, Had to do a bit of reading up on getting them thru winter up here, Also finally getting into the garden and going to do Asparagus in containers, Got some 2 yr old roots so may get some next year.

[DavisStraight]

22 hours ago, dryslot said:

Going to take a shot at an orange and a lemon tree, Had to do a bit of reading up on getting them thru winter up here, Also finally getting into the garden and going to do Asparagus in containers, Got some 2 yr old roots so may get some next year.

You have an awesome garden, maybe next year I'll try and get a good one going since I'll be in my forever house.

[dryslot]

1 hour ago, DavisStraight said:

You have an awesome garden, maybe next year I'll try and get a good one going since I'll be in my forever house.

Are you moving up this way?

[Lava Rock]

Other than using black garbage bags to cover up and kill mugwort, which apparently can take up to a year, is my only option Roundup?

[Lava Rock]

with all the rain and fresh mulch, this is as good as backyard will look. Front yard looks better. sorry, no pic

[HIPPYVALLEY]

So, we are starting to get a lot of poison ivy, showing up in the back, wooded part of our yard.  I’d rather not use toxins to kill it. Has anybody here had any luck with more natural solutions?
I was thinking of mixing up a big batch of sea salt and vinegar to spray it with. I’m pretty sensitive to it so I’m not really interested in putting on gloves and pulling it up myself.

Also looking to see if I could borrow some goats for a day or two. I would love to own a pair of goats, but I’m not quite ready for that commitment and they are not easy to contain.

[Damage In Tolland]

6 hours ago, Lava Rock said:

with all the rain and fresh mulch, this is as good as backyard will look. Front yard looks better. sorry, no pic

Grass! For the first time in 16 years there 

[Damage In Tolland]

1 hour ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

So, we are starting to get a lot of poison ivy, showing up in the back, wooded part of our yard.  I’d rather not use toxins to kill it. Has anybody here had any luck with more natural solutions?
I was thinking of mixing up a big batch of sea salt and vinegar to spray it with. I’m pretty sensitive to it so I’m not really interested in putting on gloves and pulling it up myself.

Also looking to see if I could borrow some goats for a day or two. I would love to own a pair of goats, but I’m not quite ready for that commitment and they are not easy to contain.

Maybe just try urine ? Stand in it barefoot , hang it out , drag it, and drain ?

[backedgeapproaching]

2 hours ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

So, we are starting to get a lot of poison ivy, showing up in the back, wooded part of our yard.  I’d rather not use toxins to kill it. Has anybody here had any luck with more natural solutions?
I was thinking of mixing up a big batch of sea salt and vinegar to spray it with. I’m pretty sensitive to it so I’m not really interested in putting on gloves and pulling it up myself.

Also looking to see if I could borrow some goats for a day or two. I would love to own a pair of goats, but I’m not quite ready for that commitment and they are not easy to contain.

I think the problem with Vinegar is that its mostly a surface kill. It will most likely go brown pretty quick, but I don't think it gets to the roots for a total kill, so it will just come back. Not just poison ivy, but any thing you are trying to get rid of.

I am all ears too for a natural solution that actually works and kills down to the roots.

[IrishRob17]

10 hours ago, backedgeapproaching said:

I think the problem with Vinegar is that its mostly a surface kill. It will most likely go brown pretty quick, but I don't think it gets to the roots for a total kill, so it will just come back. Not just poison ivy, but any thing you are trying to get rid of.

I am all ears too for a natural solution that actually works and kills down to the roots.

Agreed, that was my exact experience using vinegar in the past. 

[tamarack]

14 hours ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

So, we are starting to get a lot of poison ivy, showing up in the back, wooded part of our yard.  I’d rather not use toxins to kill it. Has anybody here had any luck with more natural solutions?
I was thinking of mixing up a big batch of sea salt and vinegar to spray it with. I’m pretty sensitive to it so I’m not really interested in putting on gloves and pulling it up myself.

Also looking to see if I could borrow some goats for a day or two. I would love to own a pair of goats, but I’m not quite ready for that commitment and they are not easy to contain.

If you find that the natural methods and then choose chemical herbicide, I recommend a glyphosate product, preferably one with no other active ingredient.  The SNJ home of our 7 grandkids had beaucoup poison ivy when they moved there in 2015.  That summer I attacked the stuff with "Eliminator", the Wal-Mart version of Round-Up. (Recently, and unfortunately, they've added a bit of Diquat, far more toxic, to get quick brown-up.)

Had to deal with inch-thick vines with side branches hovering, scads of ground P.I, nasty crud all around.  Added a quick follow-up 2-3 years later, now only re-invasion plants - quite few - are found.  At the border of the lot, the kids' side is Virginia creeper but right next to it is dominated by the bad stuff.  Keeping active kids from playing in the bushes is just about impossible, and I thought that careful application was the safer choice for them.

[dendrite]

I thought I had poison ivy coming up by my run, but after some careful leaf IDing I think it’s box elder. 

[DavisStraight]

I have a huge problem with poison ivy, I spray it every year with roundup but keeps coming back. Glad Im moving out of this house in a few weeks. The upkeep takes too much time.

[DavisStraight]

On 5/27/2025 at 8:24 PM, dryslot said:

Are you moving up this way?

Moving to Cape Neddick, house was delivered this week, just a few weeks away from moving in at this point. Have a great spot picked out for my garden.

[dendrite]

@Damage In Tolland

[tamarack]

14 hours ago, DavisStraight said:

I have a huge problem with poison ivy, I spray it every year with roundup but keeps coming back. Glad Im moving out of this house in a few weeks. The upkeep takes too much time.

That's surprising, as glyphosate translocates through the whole plant, including the roots.  Maybe there's a huge seed bank of the nasty weed in the soil?

[DavisStraight]

1 hour ago, tamarack said:

That's surprising, as glyphosate translocates through the whole plant, including the roots.  Maybe there's a huge seed bank of the nasty weed in the soil?

Not sure, I've also used poison ivy killer, it keeps coming back. It's usually on a 350-foot stone wall I have as my back property line. With the current sun angle, I'm getting weeds and PI sprouting, so I'll spray it this week one more time before I leave to the new house.