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I have three low growing junipers I planted late last summer. Two of one variety and then a golden colored one. They're on a slope. I placed landscape paper and mulch over the slope. (I was sick of mowing that hill.) The spot gets sun all day and it's a very hot area of the yard. I'm in Tulsa, OK so we get hot, hot summers.
It's been so dreadfully hot, and I've never managed to make time in the early mornings to weed the grass. Plus, the mulch is rotting. I noticed one of the junipers has several dead branches. When I get home from work tomorrow I plan on pulling the grass and removing as much of the rotting mulch from around all three of the plants.
I'd really like to save this juniper, so if anyone has any suggestions that might help it bounce back I'd be much appreciative.
what is rotting mulch? You want your organic mulch to rot. It's called decomposing and is a good thing cause it adds nutrients to the soil. don't remove it.
I find junipers especially on a slope very hard to deal with. Hard to weed cause your arms get all cut up and pruning junipers does not encourage new growth like other evergreens. The best juniper for ground cover is blue rug as it grows close to the ground and is easier to deal with.
try water and fertilize closer to fall. You do not want to encourage growth here in the middle of all this heat. pull the weeds, put down preen to keep weeds from germinating, cut off the dead, add more mulch, water and hope for the best. If you can't save them try day lillies, blue rug junipers, liriope or other ground covers for this area.
We lost a thirty-year-old buffalo juniper to voles. Any chance your junipers could be harboring them?
Ohhhh, no voles that I know of, but I have a severe problem with moles and gophers. There are mounds of dirt, and there are trails of dirt on top of the yard where they've tunneled, I think I have both. I won't put out poison due to my own animals. I might treat the yard with a pesticide for grubworms. That might help, but I don't think it'll 100% rid me of them.
Someone told me an old man she knows buries pop bottles, (or beer bottles) with a small part of the bottle top above ground. It catches the wind and the moles and gophers hate the vibration, so they leave. I've not tried it yet, but have a few bottles stashed to bury.
I bet it's the little bestid moles. It's war! I love evergreens, and I really loved that variety of juniper I planted.
We eventually won the war when a great horned owl took up residence in one of our blue spruces. From the size of the pile of pellets under her typical perch, she had quite a feast!
If your junipers don't make it, try the groundcovers as suggested, Sedums are good, and Ajuga bugleweed is a fast spreader and nice flowers in the spring as well as colorful leaves.
Or try some other small shrubs or large shrub depending on what you like, I like Spirea's and Forsythia's for areas I don't like to maintain alot other than pruning a bit.
I hope your juniper makes it, i have 2 of them, they don't seem to grow and get the yellow leaves, of course I have the voles, and other critters here but the hawk takes care of most of them but not all
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I won't put out poison due to my own animals. I might treat the yard with a pesticide for grubworms. That might help, but I don't think it'll 100% rid me of them.
