Questions about the red stuff and pools (houses, landscaping)

[Markh]

What grows in it? Any special type of prep work for say a garden?

I'm curious too if anyone can shed some light about inground pools, gunite seems popular. Fiberglass does too. What about vinyl liner pools? I don't see much mention about them are they not compatible with the red stuff?

Thanks,

Mark

[just_sayin']

Most people don't have inground pools in their yards here because most subdivisions have public inground pools within walking distance of most of the houses. I don't know what you are looking forward to planting in your yard, but I can't think of any flowers or anything that have problems growing in the clay.

[silverwing]

Originally Posted by Markh

What grows in it? Any special type of prep work for say a garden?

If you're in the Piedmont, with our gloppy red soil, you'll need to work in some amendments. Also, this area has highly acidic soil, which is why azaleas are ubiquitous plants.

As far as keeping a green lawn: lime it, lime it, lime it Kentucky Fescue 31 is the most-used seed; fall is a more favored lawn planting time than spring, though you can still have a successful lawn, just look at seeding/feeding the lawn as early as late February/March.

You should be able to grow the standard choices in a vegetable garden as well as flowers, just remember the amendments. One of the first things I asked when I moved down here and started tilling: where's the worms?! This soil is so compact, worms don't do well.

I have found that living down here inspires green thumbs. Probably because of the extended growing season. You even have a fall/winter garden season with people putting out flats of pansies and ornamental cabbage. They'll survive even our sporadic freezes.

It's probably getting too late to get a good landscape or truck garden going; you can still put out flats of flowers, though.

I wish I had more time to garden. We have ~5 acres that I'd love to get my fingers into.

[nascarnancy]

Originally Posted by silverwing

If you're in the Piedmont, with our gloppy red soil, you'll need to work in some amendments. Also, this area has highly acidic soil, which is why azaleas are ubiquitous plants.

As far as keeping a green lawn: lime it, lime it, lime it Kentucky Fescue 31 is the most-used seed; fall is a more favored lawn planting time than spring, though you can still have a successful lawn, just look at seeding/feeding the lawn as early as late February/March.

You should be able to grow the standard choices in a vegetable garden as well as flowers, just remember the amendments. One of the first things I asked when I moved down here and started tilling: where's the worms?! This soil is so compact, worms don't do well.

I have found that living down here inspires green thumbs. Probably because of the extended growing season. You even have a fall/winter garden season with people putting out flats of pansies and ornamental cabbage. They'll survive even our sporadic freezes.

It's probably getting too late to get a good landscape or truck garden going; you can still put out flats of flowers, though.

I wish I had more time to garden. We have ~5 acres that I'd love to get my fingers into.

I love to garden and was wondering what grows well, so found this quite informitive. Thanks

[Markh]

Originally Posted by i'minformed

Most people don't have inground pools in their yards here because most subdivisions have public inground pools within walking distance of most of the houses. I don't know what you are looking forward to planting in your yard, but I can't think of any flowers or anything that have problems growing in the clay.

That's good about the plantings. Just curious about plantings in general.

I like the idea of a community pool cause it keeps people out of my pool

Community pools are okay but when I want to take a dip, the last thing I need is having an audience watch me lower my fat sweaty body into the water. I'm sure we'll use it but eventually we'd like our own space. It's not an anti-social behavior, just a preference.

[jtaylor3789@carolina.rr.c]

Markh
Vinyl liner pools is what 90% of the pools are down here and work fine.

[Miker2069]

Originally Posted by silverwing

As far as keeping a green lawn: lime it, lime it, lime it

Please help garden/lawn challenged folks like ME. I really want to maintain my own lawn (not have to have someone come and do it) as I think I can enjoy it, but, I don't know what I'm doing. Of course I can mow the lawn, trim the shrubs, prune weeds, but the actual science behind keeping it *green* alludes me. I fought the grubs one year on my lawn here in MA. I went so far to pull the whole thing up, and put down new sod- ahhh I was the envy of the block . It lasted about 1.5 years though as the grubs returned. So a variety of people (who wanted to sell me services) told me what I needed to do....If necessary you can PM me links to tips or sites particular for the NC/CHarlotte area.

Thank You,

Mike -AKA hoping to grow a green thumb one day!

[Markh]

Originally Posted by silverwing

As far as keeping a green lawn: lime it, lime it, lime it Kentucky Fescue 31 is the most-used seed; fall is a more favored lawn planting time than spring, though you can still have a successful lawn, just look at seeding/feeding the lawn as early as late February/March.

I wish I had more time to garden. We have ~5 acres that I'd love to get my fingers into.

5 acres is a big lot. Is Kentucky Fescue 31 the stuff that turns brown in the winter? We've got some kind of sod that they put down on our new lot and it's burning since they aren't watering it. Will it come back when we start to water it in a few weeks?

Are you tilling in peat moss and manure when prepping the garden?

Thanks,

Mark

[Markh]

Originally Posted by jtaylor3789@carolina.rr.c

Markh
Vinyl liner pools is what 90% of the pools are down here and work fine.

Excellent, thanks J!

[silverwing]

Originally Posted by Miker2069

Please help garden/lawn challenged folks like ME. I really want to maintain my own lawn (not have to have someone come and do it) as I think I can enjoy it, but, I don't know what I'm doing.

I'm going to put this out so everyone can see it. I think the best place to go would be the NC agriculture extension site

http://www.turffiles.ncsu.edu/Home/Default.aspx (broken link)

My experience came by hit 'n miss, asking neighbors and years of disappointing lawns, so I'll defer to the talking heads

One thing I will pass on (and it's just a preference) is to avoid those spreading grasses: Bermuda, St. Augustine, etc. *shudder* Ohhh, we had Bermuda at our first house and I hated that stuff It's a low-growing grass, meant to keep down the amount of mowing, but d@mn was it invasive! It creeped over the sidewalk, into the area around the house where I had landscaping, over the curb .... *yech* that is some nasty stuff. If you go to the above link, you can choose some parameters that will tell you which kind of grass to plant, or identify if you are moving into a house with an established lawn.

The grub problem: I'm not sure what variety it is up north, here it is the spawn of Japanese Beetles, which attack on two fronts. They are fat, white grubs underground. When they come out of the ground, they attack a host of plants. My Kwanzan Cherry trees - my favorites, with carnation-like blooms - were stripped one year, in just a matter of about a week


They also take rose bushes down to the stalks

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/ent...rees/ef409.htm

There are insecticides you can use on the ground, and then battle the mature beetles by setting traps. I've almost won the war just using traps. I don't care much for spreading chemicals on my lawn, so I've had a longer battle against the pests.

You can really get into gardening down here The more moderate climate, especially toward the middle of the state, the longer growing season, and the sheer variety of plants you can choose from that do well here can keep you busy for most of the year.