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Bugs: Recent Topics Paging, Uploading Images & Preview (11 Dec 2020)
Recent Topics paging, uploading images and preview bugs require a patch which has not yet been released.
An American Lawn Tragedy
A few weeks ago, I noticed a series of small holes in the branches of some of the trees around our house. These seem to be small, symmetrical looking the size and shape of bb shot. A little research and it seems it could potentially be from a 'shot borer' insect that lays eggs in trees under stress. Seems this is a newer bug to Texas coming from California in the past 5 years or so.
Anyone have any experience treating this pest? Any other ideas what it may be? No way are these woodpecker holes.
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- Cranberries
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There were a number of pointless grass areas that were here originally that I have since obliterated in some manner. I have narrowed it down to the back yard and a side yard at the moment. We've been considering eliminating the side yard and replacing it with a native plant rock garden to further reduce need to care for the area. That will probably require me to figure out the exact property lines because that yard butts up against the common green space area and I do not want to end up with a strip I still have to take care of when I am done.
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- SuperflyPete
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cranberries wrote: Maybe I could borrow a goat and stake it in the front yard so it could eat all the greens.
Or, kill them and feed them to the goat.
You did proclaim this a Fargo-esque, Fiasco playset
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Mr. White wrote: Cool. Glad we have a lawn care thread now.
A few weeks ago, I noticed a series of small holes in the branches of some of the trees around our house. These seem to be small, symmetrical looking the size and shape of bb shot. A little research and it seems it could potentially be from a 'shot borer' insect that lays eggs in trees under stress. Seems this is a newer bug to Texas coming from California in the past 5 years or so.
Anyone have any experience treating this pest? Any other ideas what it may be? No way are these woodpecker holes.
Woodpecker holes appear in rings. They circle the tree. All of my pear trees look like they went punk and have rows of circles around the entire circumference of the trunk.
Try shooting WD-40 into the holes. That shit melts all bugs and is harmless. That's how I killed the emerald ash borers and bazillion carpenter bees that lived in my deck and gazebo. LIVED.
It's intensely satisfying to see a carpenter bee crawl out of their hole, wingless and foaming, buzzing and screaming in inaudible bee language "No my queen! This human has sent us on a one way trip to Destination Fucked!"
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Instead, I use a big slot head screwdriver. I stab into the ground on either side of the base of the dandelion, then twist and pull. Half the time, the root breaks off maybe one inch down, but at least all the surface stuff comes out in one handy clump. Other half the time, the whole damn taproot comes out nice and easy.
Last fall, I finally realized that the violets in my yard were really creeping charlie. I pulled some last fall and more in recent weeks, but decided that it was lower priority than the dandelions.
I am doing my first garden this year. For the last five years, I have been composting grass clippings, veggies, fruit, and ash from my grill, so I have roughly 50 cubic feet of high quality soil ready to deploy. But there are a lot of rabbits, chipmunks and squirrels in the area, so I am going to protect my garden. Sometime this week, I should be receiving a delivery of a kit that provides the frame for a 6' cube with a door and a peaked roof. Instead of covering it with a roof and side panels, I will be protecting it with chicken wire secured with staple/nails. I will plant the seeds tomorrow evening and then construct the frame next weekend.
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Good luck with your garden!Shellhead wrote: Half the time, the root breaks off maybe one inch down, but at least all the surface stuff comes out in one handy clump. Other half the time, the whole damn taproot comes out nice and easy.
Be warned that if the root stays in, it'll grow back. Maybe think about getting one of these:
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- Cranberries
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Shellhead wrote: I spent four hours this weekend pulling up dandelions, as well several hours on recent weekends. I am currently clinging to the belief that after another 3 hours, I will have won the war on dandelions. I live on a corner lot, so I only have two neighboring lawns. The bad neighbor travels a fair amount and the whole family hates yardwork, so the only thing that they do about their dandelions is mow them down with their lawnmower. And they only mow twice a month. The good neighbor keeps trying to loan me this vaguely pogo stick looking device that supposedly quickly extracts dandelions. Instead, it works maybe once or twice and then gets hopelessly clogged with mud.
I have one of those plugger.com plug/weed things. In fact, mine was clogging so I contacted the manufacturer and he said a lot of it depends on using the thing when the soil is relatively dry. I just dropped $35 on one of these, and trust the 5,000 reviews on Amazon:
Good luck with your garden!
Be warned that if the root stays in, it'll grow back.
I'm tempted to fill a spray bottle with WeedBGone and squirt it down the hole. Fun fact: Bees love dandelions
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After that, they get attacked with a vengeance.
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- Cranberries
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barrowdown wrote: I ignore the dandelions in my yard until mid-May or early June, depending on weather. We do this specifically for the a lot of pollinators.
After that, they get attacked with a vengeance.
I have a side yard that is mostly weeds that I have been neglecting. I should plant a meadow there.
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We've got really sandy soil, so it doesn't hold water real well. Last year, we had a drought, so everyone's lawn that doesn't have a sprinkler system was super brown. On the one hand, neat that I only had to mow a handful of times all season. On the other hand, half the damn lawn died. I've also got pine trees along both sides of the property that drop a bunch of needles. Of course, the only way to deal with those is to rake them up, which I tend not to, so there goes another big patch of grass.
Long story short, our lawn is probably 50% dust bowl, which I hate, but not enough to invest in top soil, seeding, and regular watering that it'd take to not have that. This year, I think I will try and install a 10x10 or 15x15 pad of pavers at the base of the back steps. With the dogs in and out all day, that spot's never growing grass, and not having it be bare dirt would be nice.
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