My Morning Glories

I suggest Roundup. probably several applications.

Tried it. Stuff don't work like it used to.

I mix my own; 10% Roundup/90% gasoline/1 match.

Do you think that work work on that damn crepe mrytle too?

Those red/pink blossoms are really starting to get on my nerves.

I know what you mean. Any chance of replacing with pink flowering dogwood?

as I understand it, the only cure for Crape myrtle is to leave texas.

the front of your house looks GREAT by the way!!!!

I drove by twice last week

You stalking her, she?

My gardener friend told me that you need to mow them down, and while it's hot out, pour on a shitload of vinegar. Apparently it will kill the roots.

along the same line of thinking, I would try battery acid.

Yeah, but that'd likely stay in the ground a long time and prevent new plants from growing (or even grass), whereas vinegar will do the job then be dissipated by rain or hose water. No?

your point being?

Thanks!

But ooof, did you see how all the plants in the planter above the morning glories all ******* died?

Even that goofy umbrella I put up didn't work for long.

I didn't want to spend a lot of money trying to figure out a shade situation. Until this last month and a half, it wasn't too hot, so I didn't worry about it.

HOWEVER, I have come up with a plan for next year, to provide shade for that planter (I didn't realize how hot those rocks would get. Makes the whole thing an oven for the roots.)

Tell me how this sounds....

On the right side of the planter, the West side, where the afternoon sun is the problem, I'm going to do the following.

Wally is going to make a planter box out of wood. Just a simple one, maybe 7 or 8 feet long, as long as the straight part of the planter is. It will only need to be about 18 inches wide, so as not to take up driveway space. It'll be maybe 3 feet tall.

In this box, we'll put a trellis maybe um, 4 more feet above the box. At the top, we'll put a "lip" on the top of the trellis, that will hang a foot or so over the planter.

THEN, in the Spring, I will plant potato vines there. Some the light green kind, some the dark maroon kind.

Potato vines are indestructible. I know that from experience.

This should provide shad to the planter from when the sun is high, until it goes down in the West.

Then I should be able to plant heat tolerant plants in those sections of the planter, and give them a fighting chance.

That section of the planter also has tuplip bulbs in there. Wouldn't that kill them also?

Hmmm....no matter, I guess I could just replant more bulbs this winter, no big deal.

Yeah, when the summer started heating up, later than ususal, I was forced to take desparate measures. There weren't any morning glories there, just at the front of the house, twining up the stairs and along the porch railing. I was okay with that. I was consciencious about pulling up those damn seedlings that keep sprouting up.
When everything in the planted started dying, I took 3 or four of those seedlings, and stuck them in the ground at the bottom of the planter. The results are what you see.

Also, wouldn't vinegar seriously **** up the pH of the soil, or would it go back to normal over the winter, as it gets flushed with water?

The MG's are pretty when I leave for work in the morning, but if I don't do something about them, next year the place is going to look like Little Shop of Horrors.

I'm not worried about the potato vines taking over the garden, since they will be in a separate planter.

Why oh why did I buy those MG seeds?

Well, I think it looks nice.

That's because you live in a place where the temperature is lovely this time of year, Reyn. Right now, those of us who live in the southern U.S. are so sick and tired of watering everything in the heat that we're looking for ways to make stuff die.

Well, we are starting to get into our rainy season already!

It'll be another month here.

Meanwhile, it is still in the 90s, and we are getting desperate. This is why we love annuals so much. By September, we are all ready for them to die.

Actually Eva, the worse the conditions, the worse the soil, the more these GD MG's like it.

I don't have problems with watering stuff, I'm trying to keep plants that are drought tolerate.

In the picture, see that jerusalem sage that is at the middle of the picture, below the crepe myrtle (with the pink blossoms)?

That's about 5 years old now, and I think it's giving up the ghost. I just haven't had time to cut it down to the ground (see all the dead parts?). It used to bloom yellow blossoms in the Spring, but this year it really didn't. Just as well, I never really cared for it, although everone else did. In the Spring it got like 6 feet wide, and I cut it back since it was getting leggy.

Thanks reyn, I think they are pretty too!

But....they are invasive, and if I don't get a handle on it now, it will take over next year.

Next year, maybe I'll just put small growth lantana's there. Nothing kills them

I had planted sage ( a different type) in front of the house, and it just never took off. Ditto with a tobacco plant.

If I lived in Tulsa, I would have spira van hooten, or whatever they're called. The blooms don't impress, but I just love those soft, fresh looking leaves.