Tampilkan postingan dengan label mulch. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label mulch. Tampilkan semua postingan

June Gardening for Tucson

Diposting oleh alexandria joseph | 02.00



We've reached the hot and dry month of June.  It's fire season here with 100 degree plus temps and little chance for rain.  Random lightening strikes fire up our skies before monsoon rains descend upon us.  Very little transplanting should be done during this time of year as plants have a hard time establishing themselves while brutal temperatures test their limits.  However, palms can be put into the ground now as well as several native cacti.  If it's one word, we should all think about...it's "mulch".  There are lots of types of mulch like rocks and bark to consider.  The word "mulch" may confuse you as it did me when I first started gardening.  To put it simply, mulch helps keep moisture in around the base of plants and eliminates evaporation....thus conserving water and the need to water the plant constantly. It also protects the roots of newly placed plants from the scorching sun.   Be careful not to have the mulch up against the trunk of a tree as it could encourage rot. Add a 3 inch layer of organic mulch(compost, dried leaves, grass clippings, wood chips) to the soil around plants to prevent weeds, maintain moisture and slightly lower soil temperature.  As the mulch decomposes, it adds nutrients to the soil.   If anything, think about mulching areas to conserve water and keeping weeds OUT!  Think about your warm-season vegetables.  Transplant sweet potatoes. Sow cantaloupe, Armenian cucumber and okra seeds.  Continue monitoring your herb garden.  Pinch out ends of basil for a bushier plant.  Sunflowers love this heat and do very well. But mostly, monitor the watering of plants and enjoy the green outside from inside your cool home. If you need to hand water anything, do it in the morning or early part of the evening when temps are more comfortable.  This may sound ridiculous, but sometimes I'm working out in the garden at around 11 PM with a flashlight because the daytime temps are too hot! Stay cool gardening friends.  Until tomorrow......


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The Day After

Diposting oleh alexandria joseph | 05.26


Dedicating my time this weekend to writing and projects, I've gotten busy and contacted my local arborist who met with me this morning.  This is blog number 3 on the El Presidio Spring Project list. After clearing the brush from our eastern planters, we now have piles of plant material sitting alongside the wall of the parking lot.  This can be an eyesore for some residents. If you ever have large amounts of clean up like this, I recommend you
 do several things.  One.  Do it before the Brush and Bulky Day which picks up lots of stuff if you can't make it to the local city dump.  The city has the days all set up for us and your personal information can be found by clicking on the link here...  http://cms3.tucsonaz.gov/es/content/brush-and-bulky .  Remember to keep your branches at 5 feet and at less than 24 inches diameter.  But let's say you can't wait until March 21st like me.  At this point, you'll need to consider the second option.  Personally, I call my arborist who will come out with his truck and mulch the entire pile for 235 dollars.  At that point, I can then reuse that mulch around the property for plants, etc. to protect from the summer sun. 
However, on a side note I just received a notice from Tucson yesterday that they will be doing our brush and bulky pickup on the January 31st!!  In either event, I am ready for them:)


So now that I've dealt with all the plants, it's time to deal with the stumps in the planters.  At 40 bucks a stump x 10 stumps, we've got a price of 400 dollars. With the mulching and the stump removal, we are now at 635 dollars.  I had several other items to clean up like our courtyard palm tree and a branch off the mesquite.  The total cost came to be around 850 dollars which isn't bad at all.  We have various wires in the planters and have contacted BlueStake to come out and label where the telephone and electric wires are buried before we begin the stump removal.  This service is free was taken care of by my aborist for me.   I'll be talking about him in the next post as we examine what types of things you look for when contracting with a tree service.  The importance of this post is that people plan for the financial costs afterward and think about what they will do with all the brush once it has been cut. More important is to remember where your sewer, water, and electric lines are located!  Don't dig until you've had someone come out to look first. This could save your life.   The mulch is definitely a great way to reuse what was already yours.  You could even rent a machine and do it yourself for less money, but I am letting the professionals do it.  The fun part of the project was cutting down everything and piling it up.  Stay tuned for the next post on finding an arborist to do the unreachable or difficult work. Until next time, start planning and prepping your Spring projects!


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