Develop a plant plan before landscaping
Q: I am slowly re-landscaping my small back yard. I started moving plants around in their original containers to see what grows best in what amount of sunlight.
Can I spray weed killer first? If I need to fill in and level the ground, do I use sand, topsoil or potting soil? Do I utilize the weed blocker that comes on rolls before or after the fill? Can I dig through the weed block material?
I want to add plants a little at a time and maybe some sod.
A: It sounds like you have the beginnings of becoming a great gardener. Most gardeners will experiment by placing plants in different locations and move them when they don't seem to do very well. At the same time, I must mention that the label that came with the plant should mention how much sun the plant needs, or try the library. In other words, most of the research has already been done.
There are several problems with research. First, plants can't read. They sometimes don't know that they shouldn't be planted in a location that you will see them thriving in. Second, the research wasn't done in your yard. When the book says a type of plant needs partial shade, does it mean the amount of shade that is under the oak tree or behind the pool screen? They might both look the same to us, but the plant might grow better in one, since shade is only part of the equation in the two locations. Third, it's not fun to garden by the book.
I think the biggest problem I have with your testing of the locations is leaving the foliage in the pot. That isn't a fair test. The plants will need more attention to their watering and fertilizing needs in the pot rather than in the ground. A plant that isn't doing well during the test may be perfectly suited for that spot if it was planted there.
Set the plants next to each other to see how they look. Check if they form a nice combination of colors and visual textures. Look at the label to see full growth and plant them appropriately.
Whenever you find a good combination and location to plant, you will need to prepare the surroundings for the new foliage. If there are weeds or lawn grasses in that area, they need to be sprayed or transplanted. Weed killers take a few days to more than a week to soak into the whole root system. You may need to use more than one spraying to kill all the weeds.
If the weeds are all low (or can be mowed down), you can cover the whole area in half a dozen sheets of newspaper, up to one-quarter inch thick. Wet the ground first, followed by the papers, which will need to be weighted down with a couple inches worth of compost, leaves or mulch. After a couple of weeks, most plants under the cover will be dead and you won't need to use a herbicide. You can plant in the area before or after the papers are installed.
By the way, for everyone reading this column, even though you are not replanting your yard, this newspaper and mulch tip is fantastic for keeping the weeds out of your vegetable garden. Do it before or after planting and it will keep your fruit off the ground, meaning less rotting. At the end of the season, just till the paper and mulch into the soil to prepare for next spring.
Before you start planting, create the proper slope and elevation to gain proper drainage away from the house as well as to fill in any low spots. The new soil should have a similar makeup to the existing soil, if all you are doing is filling in small areas. If the existing soil is sandy and you add topsoil to a low spot, it will create problems since the two soil types will not drain the same. Potting soil is designed for growing plants in containers and is usually too light to use in the garden - it is more like an organic amendment than a true soil.
If you can till in the new soil to create a blended soil over a larger area, then bring in as much good soil as you can. You only receive one chance to add soil. Once the plants are installed, you can only add top-dressings.
Cloth-type rolls of weed blocker are useful in certain situations. They are beneficial when a slowing weed grows in flower beds, but not when organic mulch material or soil is added on top. Use weed blocker materials under gravel mulch; they prevent weeds from coming up and stones from sinking down into the lower soil.
If you use gravel mulch, prepare the soil, roll out the weed blocker, cut X marks in the cloth, plant though the slits and cover the cloth with the gravel. Don't leave soil from the planting holes on top of the cloth. If you don't have gravel mulch, use the newspapers or mulch by itself.
Develop a plan if you want to add a few plants to your landscape at one time. You will end up with a great landscape if you know what plants will go where. If not, it will just be an eclectic collection of foliage - which for a gardener can be fun, but it drives other people crazy. The planning can be as simple as knowing that the plant in the corner needs to be taller than the original plant, or the plant should have big leaves to offset the small leaves on another plant, or the plant needs to tolerate sunlight and wet soil. This way, if a plant only fits a couple of those requirements, you can pass it up as not being the right foliage for the plan.
With the plan you will know where plants are going; however, rules can sometimes be broken. Get out there and have some fun.
E-mail questions to Jeff Rugg, Kendall County unit educator, University of Illinois Extension at jrugg@uiuc.edu. A Greener View