With over 25 years of experience in the green industry, The plant doctor (Tom Warren, PhD), brings a wealth of knowledge to residential and professional gardeners. The channels goal is to share knowledge regarding plants, landscaping, lawn maintenance, etc.
Thank you for this! My yard is struggling with bare spots and being taken over by crabgrass. I have areas with wood chips that now have clumps of grass growing. I plan to transplant the clumps into my lawn. One other thing I am struggling with is my lawn burning out from my 2 female dogs urine. Do you know if there is any type of grass that is better to use or can withstand the urine?
That gets into urine pH and urea concentration. Zoysia might be slightly more tolerant than Bermuda but I have no peer review literature to back up my personal observation
Cardboard has been a great weed suppressant for me. It's easy to mulch on top of, and not get bits of greenery growing back up through the mulch. It's a descent brown to go in the compost with my greens. When I put grass clippings in the compost there's lots and lots of green, and we always have lots and lots of cardboard to go along with it!
@@Dr.Warren Wilmington area. Those I kept under the porch did better. Too much sun and rain. Lots of nutrients washed out. Probably why the Venus fly trap is from here. Though I've never seen one live. Few wild spots left.
@@WillWilsonII a beautiful city rich with history and good fishing. I used to be up the road from you 20+ years ago I was a sales rep for Monrovia growers. They had a nursery outside of Goldsboro before the crash of 2008. I spent a lot of weekends in Wilmington, topsail, Atlantic Beach etc.
@@Dr.Warren If you're familiar with Wallace and Burgaw, you should check out Welcome to Flatch. I was a set dresser for season 2. Half sister is from here. Her family got me that job.
Great note on adjusting your zones if you use pots! I'd also add that in the summer, you need to shift your zone up by one because pots get much warmer than the ground, just like they get much colder.
Thanks for the very informative video. We just moved into a new home in Sarasota, FL with St. Aug. sod/grass. New to doing my own fertilizer. Do you recommend using a spreader or applying a liquid application?
Use a slow release granular. Also read up on Florida fertilizer rules. You have "non application" periods to help prevent algae bloom in the swamps and bays.
Cardboard where I live rots down in a couple of weeks ( UK). I use a lot in my compost bin and after prepping raised beds ready for winter crops in late summer cover the beds for a few weeks to encourage worms up. Inevitability when I come to remove it it’s mostly rotted underneath and full of worms. So I don’t understand why all this negativity about using it. Another way to use it if you have lawns and make your own compost is tear it up and throw it all over your lawn before cutting it, this mixes it up really well.
Great video! I live in Dallas TX and I have some Lantana plants in planter boxes. I want to move the plants to a large flowerbed of mature Crepe Myrtle bushes. Can both these plants exist in a flowerbed together?
Yes, get the lantana out from under the canopy of the trees so they get sunlight. Whether they survive the winter will depend on what cultivar they are and how cold it gets.
I used it on the bottom of my raised beds to help with moisture retention. I’m in zone 10B close to the Caloosahatche river (quite a few southeastern moles) I was hoping it could possibly slow them down from getting to the roots?
@@Dr.Warren I have 😁 on Sanibel under a still home with 2 cubs. It was incredible. The island has denied having them. I hadn’t thought about it; I hope they made it through Ian
Might be an obvious thing, but also good to mention if using those big heavy-duty cardboard boxes with the big metal staples in them - take out the staples before using in the garden. Don't want to be stepping on those with bare feet.
I remove all plastic from the cardboard, tape, labels, nylon filaments etc. And use only plain cardboard, no shiny coatings and very minimal coloration. Our potter's clay soil has improved in texture where cardboard is used with an overlayment of pine straw or pine shaving horse bedding. Areas are periodically allowed to go fallow with native 'weeds' like dandelions, asters etc. and rye and clovers.
@@Dr.Warren it's slowly getting there. In Elementary School some 70 years ago, we learned of the prairie soil that, when Europeans first arrived was as black as night and from 6' to 15' deep😲. Of the lily worm, now extinct🥺, a native earthworm that grew to 15' in length and smelled like Easter lilies. Of the loss through greedy mismanagement that made it into the Great Dustbowl.😱 It can never recover completely, but my journey to stewardship began that day.
@@thisbushnell2012 same here. There is a place in Georgia called Providence canyon and it was created by the mismanagement of soils. It really dialed me into soil preservation. It is the most valuable resource we have.
I’m in SouthEast LA. I grew my yellow and pink flowered Lantana from my MIL plant. The first time it bloomed it was beautiful but then lace bug got to it so I cut it completely back. It bloomed again and lace bug appeared. I cut it back and sprayed and blooms were beautiful. Now it has leafy puff balls, I don’t know how else to explain the growth. It’s like where a bloom should be, it’s just little green leaves. Is this a gall mite attacking it? If so, can it be saved? I’ve read that it needs to be uprooted and thrown away. I can’t do that. My MILs no longer has her plant. I don’t know what zone I’m in but I’m 60 miles south of New Orleans, LA. I pray you can help me. Thank you!
It could be several things and impossible to diagnose over RU-vid comments. I would encourage you to reach out to the LSU extension services. They should have an office in your Parrish/county with someone that could help.
What in the world is wrong with America? What happened to the America I used to know? It used to be such a good country to live in, but now I buy a quart of weedkiller for lawns and there is only one thing I want to know and that is, since this says "concentrate", I want to know how to dilute it. What is the ratio? That's all I want to know. I don't care about storage, or first aid, or Environmental hazards, or anything else. I only want to know HOW to use this product and it gives me nothing. Can you believe it? What has happened to the world? Does it not know how to love?
My lantana is infested with Leaf Miner. I sprayed twice with Neem Oil on the underside of leaves early morning (within 10-14 days). Still infested. Today I pruned all the damaged leaves, bagged them and disposed of. I trimmed about 2 inches off the tops to promote growth and bushiness. I’m certain I will see this lantana completely dead in 2 weeks. I’m in SWFL or zone 10 and we get plenty of sunshine, heat and humidity. I’d love to grow/try lantana again but what should I do differently? Please advise.
Very informative and excellent video, thank you. Also, great info and comments from the other viewers. I feel more positive and comfortable about using cardboard in my yard.
I have a fiddle leaf fig water propagation, I chopped off the top of the plant. But the cutting is growing some mold on the very end of the stem. It does have popcorn roots. What’s should I do about the mold?
I pull all tape off before putting down cardboard. I live in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I have soil that tends to have some clay to some areas where there is lots of clay. I have created three beds so far using this method with great success. Two beds are three years old. Inexpensive bed a year old. All doing great. I try to plant ground covers to help with weed growth. I do not get grass coming up from below. Which amazes me because sure I have Bermuda. I do get weeds here and there that grown on top and are very easy to pull out. I am currently getting ready to create two more beds using the same method. This method changed my life. Made it possible to create a beautiful garden.
I am in southern Maryland have a large two acre yard and am considering zoysia plugs to my renovated yard. Is this a good choice. Because of the price i was going to do a quater of the yard at a time
You are in what we call the "transition zone" where it is hard to grow fescue/bluegrass because of hot summers and hard to grow zoysia/Bermuda because of cold long winters. My best suggestion is if you are closer to the coast Annapolis, Cambridge look at zoysia. If you are further inland Fredrick, Hagerstown, etc lean towards a cool season grass.
you forgot worms... when i put carboard down in my garden it attracts a ton of worms, both red wrigglers and nightcrawlers... they literally eat the carboard and leave and leave behind lots of good casings, plus they aerate the area nicely, also a bonus
June of 2023 I took out a corner of my property about 35 feet both directions from the corner. It took a lot of cardboard. I topped with compost, planted a bunch of plants by digging circles in the cardboard etc. then topped with mulch. A year later, the cardboard is gone and everything I planted this past spring 2024 is sitting in fabulous weed free soil. I did the same thing with two 4 x 16 beds by the porch. I do rip all the tape off and try to get my cardboard from he furniture stores so the pieces are big. The only grass I pull up is the edge where I begin the beds which also creates a good border. I do get weeds that I am assuming comes in with the wind or bird drippings, but using the cardboard instead of cutting out all that grass is a no brainer. Yesterday I dug another bed to take out a corner and make it easier for mowing but I am a firm believer in cardboard in case you couldn't tell!
We filled two very weeded areas with cardboard. 7 months later weeds only in spaced where I think we left gaps. I think we we double the layers of cardboard next time.
Hey, I live in a place where summers are hot and humid. That's when I face fatalities among my daylilies. Do you have a cure for saving daylilies from fungal infections. Thanks
For 15-25$ you can get contract paper made from recycled paper. it can be used in the garden too. I find it easier to use because if you have curves, its easy to cut to bed shape. it does the same as cardboard and is very cheap. most are 3x100 or 3x150 or more in length. I tried cardboard in the vegetable garden which does good but trying to overlap them so weeds/grass don't get though takes a lot of boxes. I get small amazon boxes not enough big ones. contract paper can easily overlap. Also I dont know what other business sprayed on the box.
I live in Palm Bay in Brevard County. Should I even water in the rainy season? It has been raining everyday here. Secondly, how often and how long should I water when it is not raining that much?
As long as you are getting one inch per week I wouldn't water. IN terms of irrigation I would water 2-3 times a week if no rain and try to get around an inch of water on the ground per week
Just two very minor complaints. If you don't remove clear plastic tape from some cardboard, it is a nuisance when it pops up. And second, slugs gather under the cardboard so I won't use it near hostas. Conversely, this could be a good way to trap the little pests and get rid of them!
@Dr.Warren I have tifway. It's harder to keep it looking good without mowing really short and frequently. Plus yard has to be really level. I'm thinking about converting to zoysia
Thank you, I would be afraid to use this way because the honey bees are all over my basil plants and I don't want to hurt them, but this does seem like a much better way to solve the problem. Thanks for sharing.
I'm 30 minutes south of you. We desperately need the rain. I think for us it will be more of a steady rain event which we need. Right now it looks like the big winds will be west of us.
