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Look into native plants that are attractive to wildlife such as birds, butterflies, bees, etc. You can find more information at the Minnesota Native Plant Society website.
In Garden Gatherings (PDF) from the University of Minnesota Extension, there is some information on page 6 that relates to your location:
Attracting Birds to Your Yard
by Jane ...
12
You don't mention where you are located, but here in Central Florida, I've been able to take out incredibly invasive, persistent, and prolific sprout-from-the-trunks plants by covering it and sealing it down in thick, black plastic.
I use 3 mil contractor clean-up bags cut open into one large sheet. On even mildly-warm days, I've measured it at over 140°F (...
12
Yes you can.
This actually an old German Advent/Christmas tradition in honour of St. Barbara's Day (Dec. 04) and it's usually done with branches of cherry or apple trees. Forsythia will work fine, too. Branches cut on 12/04 should flower by Christmas.
The basic idea is to take branches that have had "winter" (that is, some frost), bring them inside and "...
10
I would paint brush-b-gon (or a similar small tree weedkiller) on the stumps after cutting them back. Using an old paint brush means the treatment is highly localized and does not affect neighboring plants, etc. This is the approach used by many ecological groups when removing invasive bushes.
Incidentally, davidii amounts to an invasive in the UK, where ...
10
Plants will grow up to the light. I recommend planting them perpendicular to the imaginary level surface. Anything else would look odd as the alternative is not seen in nature.
What will help is building a small ring of soil on the downhill side of the shrub and applying a few inches of organic mulch all round.
this will capture and retain rain or ...
10
It looks like a mint or a very closely related labitae. Even the flower spike looks like mint. Is the stem squarish?
In any case it is certainly not part of your bougainvillea.
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Judging by the new growth being red, I'd say these were Photinia fraserii 'Red Robin'. I can't tell if they're pleached or not, can't see any framework within the foliage, so its possible they're just trained by pruning to this shape. Unless you live somewhere that gets very hot and very dry in summer, they shouldn't need much watering because they have ...
9
I'm not an arborist but my approach would be to cut it back as far as a possible, then to saw the trunk close to the ground. Paint a brush-b-gon (woody plant) type weed killer on the freshly cut surface. If the weed killer does not work and it starts sprouting, I have successfully killed tree stumps by drilling holes in the top and then pouring a copper ...
9
Mike Perry's answer covers much of the food and water aspect. There's also the perspective of shelter. Depending on what kind of birds you want to attract, planting trees and landscaping in a way that provides small birds with protection from predators encourages them to stick around when they've discovered that your yard is a good source of food. A ...
9
I think that it is a great example of a Launaea Arborescens. The Spanish name is Aulaga, but the English name is a bit contested, either "spiny lettuce" or "barbed wire bush".
According to this site:
It is a shrub with small branches turned into thorns and up to 70 centimeters high with a few small hairless leaves, lightly lobed. The yellow flowers are ...
9
I've used sudsy dish soap such as Dawn before to combat insects such as aphids and it is quite effective and the one I used (it wasn't Dawn specifically) was biodegradable and that's important to me.
The key to using Dawn or anything (siding cleaner, bleach, etc.) around plants is that you need to lower the concentration of the chemical low enough that it ...
9
You can try rooting it if you want by snipping the stem just below a bud at the base, stripping off the thorns and leaves, leaving one leaf at the top if you like, but you can take them all off, and inserting it into a sharp sand or sand/compost mix in a deep pot. The stem should be around 9 inches long, and you need to bury it so that only a quarter of the ...
9
It looks like Griselinia littoralis "Variegata". It's an evergreen shrub native to New Zealand. Because of its dense growth, it is used widely in Britain and Ireland as a privacy hedge.
Identifying characteristics are the alternate, ovate leaves with the smooth cream colored margins. The interior of the leaves are yellow-green to mid-green, sometimes with ...
8
Livestock will favour legumes over something taller with more cellulouse to digest. So instead of planting just one kind of plant on the sidewalks, might I suggest you plant two kinds at least. First, something tough and not very delicious like Mondo grass or agapanthus in the background. Then, sprinkled in the foreground, clover or soft grass (e.g. couch) ...
8
The time you spend in preparation is as, or more, important than post planting time.
site location, cedars like access to water, not soggy and not dry
some shade is fine and full sun is tolerated if the soil is not too dry
a wide variety of soil types but I would avoid very sandy soils or soils low in organic matter
protection from winter winds. Cedars that ...
8
According to Wayne K. Clatterbuck in the article Tree Wounds on the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Tree Care Kit:
Research indicates that wound dressings (materials such as tar or paint) do not prevent decay and may even interfere with wound closure. Wound dressings can have the following detrimental effects:
Prevent drying and encourage fungal ...
8
Because of the large pith cavity in elderberry stems, grafting is tricky and good grafts are rare. It's better to grow them from cuttings. Spliced side grafting onto one-year-old seedlings may be successful. semi-ripe or softwood cuttings (best done when new shoots are not yet ripened) should have the stems plugged at the end (I use rose thorns) to help ...
8
I reckon its Prunus cerasifera, or a cultivar of, commonly known as Purple Leaf Flowering Plum or Myrobalan plum. The leaves should be toothed or serrated at the edges - some varieties are more toothed than others, but I can see some of that on these leaves. I can't see inside a flower clearly, but there should be a reddish purple centre, or at least a ...
8
The active ingredient of the herbicide used is Dicamba Mecoprop. It also affects broad leaf shrubs and trees. From this pdf by the International Society of Arborists
Once the material is absorbed there is no treatment to alleviate the symptoms
except to avoid watering and fertilization. Removal of the tree should
wait the second year because often a ...
8
This is a Spiraea shrub. Here is a general article on the genus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiraea.
There are 10s of species and probably hundreds of cultivars. One of the most common garden Spiraeas is S. japonica.
7
I don't know of a list of plants for Oklahoma, but I'll tell you how we achieved the criteria you listed for flowers.
Drive around in the spring (we're in a rural area), notice what is flowering in the ditches on the side of the road. Dig up some of those plants, bring them home and plant them. Here, some of the early blooms are from the lupines. (Obviously ...
7
These are some ideas but ultimately your decision will have to be made on what is available at your local plant nurseries:
In no particular order of preference:
Corylus avellana: Hazelnut: six feet tall and wide, yellow fall colour, edible nut, likes moist to wet soil, for sun to half shade
Raspberry species: Red Raspberry, black Raspberry: three to four ...
7
A quick trip through the Fedco trees catalog suggests the following small-ish shrubs. None of them meet all of your criteria, but I suspect you're going to have to prioritize your criteria or pick and choose to find a shrub that meets the best balance of desirable attributes. I've listed larger or suckering shrubs where they have good fruit, flowers, and/or ...
7
Personally I would wrap the shrub, but leave the top open to the elements -- unless heavy snow load, damage, is a problem in your area, or the shrub you're protecting is susceptible to snow damage...
Bang into the ground a number of suitably sized timber stakes around the shrub:
Suitably sized timber stakes = 1inch x 1inch (25mm x 25mm) to 2inch x 2inch (...
7
There are two dangers with blackberries:
Suckers
Seeds
I have tons of wild blackberries; it must be some kind of sick contest between them and the ragweed as to which is the top weed here. I don't know that much about cultivated blackberries, but I believe have seen "non suckering" advertised as a feature of some cultivars.
They'll apparently grow ...
7
In one word, no, sorry! Training an evergreen by practicing topiary starts when the plant is small and involves repeated prunings over a few years. If you took your existing evergreens and pruned them into spiral shapes you would expose inside areas of the plant where there is no growth.
Most evergreens do not bud or grow from old wood with the exception ...
7
The shrub is definitely a Prunus and I'm trying to decide whether its Prunus lusitanica or P. laurocerasus - the leaves seem a little too narrow for the latter, unless this is a small variety such as 'Otto Luyken', which I can't tell from the photo. The berries do dangle in this way, and they are red to start with, turning black when ripe. The leaves on this ...
7
Growing lilacs from seeds isn’t easy, but it can be done. It can take up to three or four years for a seed-propagated lilac to bloom, though, so you’ll have to be patient and just enjoy watching the bush grow!
From Garden Guides:
When growing seeds from a lilac, two things are of utmost importance. First, make sure you’re not harvesting seeds from a ...
7
Standard, in this context, means trained into tree form. Usually standard shrubs and vines are trained from a young age, allowing only one stem to grow from the ground, forming the trunk. This must be kept free of sideshoots and laterals up to a certain point, which makes up the head of the standard. A good head will look bushy and balanced, and fit with the ...
7
The yew bushes in front of the building I work at are flattened by snow and ice every winter, (nobody cleans it off, and if the roof gets cleared, they get extra helpings on top.) They are poorly shaped for snow (trimmed dead flat on top).
When the snow melts they are fine (and have been for 20+ years of this.)
Therefore, my suggestion is: do nothing, ...
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