Iris' Again . . .

The weather broke for warmer times so I took it upon myself to weed around a couple of Iris patches we have.  I did other Iris patches last year and these two patches got the treatment this year.  Both were literally over run by the St. Augustine grass and need to be weeded.

I had my eye on the first patch for awhile now, the remnants of St. Augustine grass had totally over run the patch.  I was a ball of dried grass and of course old Iris stems.  New Iris shots had popped up in the last week so I new I had to do something about it. 

I dug in sitting on an old chair pad and starting pulling out the grass.  I am here to tell you St. Augustine can be tough as nails.  At least my finger nails were packed with dirt when I finished.  Some of the basic backbone of the St. Augustine runners were an inch under the soil and tough to pull out.  But I got it all out in a hour or two.  Filled a bucket full of grass and some old oak leaves and Iris stems.  All of that went into the compost pile out back.

Yesterday I attacked another patch of the Iris.  This was a bigger patch, longer in length and took longer to weed.  But this time I used a couple of tools, one being a pair of pruning shears and the other a screw driver like device.  I cut around the edge and used the pry bar to get under the runners and pull up.  This sped up the process and was easier on the finger nails but they got plenty of dirt under them anyway.

After I finish each patch I grabbed a hand full of 13-13-13 fertilize and scattered it about the patch.  The Iris seem to like that fertilizer.  I bought a sack of it long years ago and have steadily used it here and there in the yard.  The gardening experts say I do not need that combination, just spread some Nitrogen fertilizer around.  I have some of that too but I am trying to get rid of the other stuff first.

Did a bit of grass cutting.  The weedy side of the yard next to the vacant lot was a bit high.  The remainder of the yard did not at this need a trim.  But I had to go get gas and I put in some treatment to make it last longer and fueled up the lawn tractor.  It fired right up and I went about doing the side yard.  Actually most of  the grass cut is really in the vacant lot territory but makes our yard look better, so I cut it.

Next I need to spread some manure compost or just manure in the front flower beds.  The house builder scrapped off all the top soil when he built the house and everything on the South side needs a soil boost.  So I spread some out every spring, some day I will have good soil there but not now.  The North side of the yard has no problems like that as that top soil remains.

Early Spring so some early work done.