Lawn and Climbers Advice

Hi all, been working hard in the garden planting over the last few days. I have a couple of questions that I hope one of you could answer.

1) What are the white weeds growing in the lawn (pic below?

2) I am trying to grow clematis up the tree and am not sure if I doing it correctly. I have put green wire from the garden centre around the tree and am putting the clematis through the wire gradually going up the tree but it looks a bit of a mess. Not sure if the wire is tight enough and was wondering if I am trailing the clematis correctly up the tree through the wire. Any advice greatly appreciated. Pictures below.

 

Hi, the grass weed looks like annual meadow grass. A real pain and very difficult to eradicate from a lawn.

Blackstart

 

I wouldn't like to guess on the grass problem but I think you would be better putting some kind of netting loosely around the tree trunk to get the clematis to climb into the tree.

Sorry but I've never seen a tidy clematis, they always look a mess IMO, but I'm prejudice.

 

I would remove the wire from the tree. When the trunk grows it will cut into it and also won't be possible to attach the Clematis. An idea is to push some garden canes in around the trunk and wire or string them together giving it support until it reaches the branches. The canes can then be removed.

In my previous garden I had a pole carrying electricity cables and to disguise it I did a similar thing using tree stakes and strip wire, wrapping that around the stakes. The picture below, sorry not that clear, gives you an idea.

 

Thank you for this idea @Sheal . Once the clematis reaches the branch won't it already have wrapped around the canes and wire making it difficult to remove?

 

Yes, but if you cut the wires you should be able to pull those and the canes out gently. In fact that's exactly what I had to do three years later and dig the Clematis out, as the electricity company decided to remove the pole and put the cables underground outside the back fence.

 

Isn't clematis too close to the tree trunk? Won't it be too dry there under the crown?

 

Thank you for all your the answers.

Another question, probably a silly one but I will ask anyway. Reading online, I can see that lot of the plants I have so far purchased / intend to purchase require hard pruning, and many to not far from soil level in the late Autumn. What I am struggling to grasp is how a plant can reach it's full height and spread potential when it gets cut back to so drastically every year.

 

Do you mean shrubs in general or Clematis?

 

Shrubs in general

 

I think that's a bit misleading Danny and possibly applies to those plants that are getting out of hand. Hard pruning is dependent on the type of plant and also the gardeners choice of whether to hard prune or not. Where shrubs are concerned I would partially prune if they are young, this helps them to fill out and will give a bushier growth as they mature. The choice is down to the individual, if you want them to grow to their full potential then don't prune other than taking out wayward or unhealthy stems. Gardening is trial and error with no set rules, so don't be afraid to experiment.

If you aren't sure how to prune any particular plant we are always here to help.

 

Does look like poa grass but as we have thousands of different types of grasses it’s always a best guess answer on the web.
Normally this grass plants seeds very quickly after a cut.

so how’s it best to handle this. We know it develops seed heads quickly and volume of seed is high.
We can cut more often to stem the production of seed heads.
We can think about a plant growth regulator to slow down seed head production.

It’s very hard to eliminate as it’s blown or carried in and seed heads have a long life span. It’s really knowing the plant and how to combat its growth pattern that will help to cut down on its numbers but in reality it’s never really going to go away and some methods involve pesticide use and do we need require it or are there other means to protect the environment.

With that in mind and as it’s a domestic lawn cutting and hand removal would be the best method and to use a plant growth regulator would require some certified to come in and spray around every 20 to 30 days from the beginning of the season and with monitoring in place.

 

Thank you for the response. Seems like hand removal may be the only option. I read online that they don't like being cut very often so regular mowing can slow it's progress.

 

This grass can tolerate regular mowing as it happily sits on a golf green that can be cut twice a day.

it’s just trying to reduce those seed heads.

 

Another QQ. My borders are lower than the lawn (see pics) is this going to be an issue or is it okay. Still going to extend another 20cm to 30cm to give more space for the plants this week.