I am considering planting a magnolia tree. Can you identify the species of Magnolia trees that are best suited for Hamilton County and potential disease challenges that we should anticipate?

Hello: As you can see in the two attached photos, I have grass/weeds growing among the last foot or more of the branches at ground level of my mature evergreens. The situation exists pretty much completely around each of all four of my trees. So it covers many, many feet. I cannot use my push mower to get to these grasses. In the past I would have taken a flat blade shovel and created an edge between this area and my lawn grass. Then slid the flat blade shovel a couple or few inches under the grasses and turned them upside down in order to keep the soil. But that procedure led to damaging small and medium feeder roots that were just under the soil surface. And I do not want to trim away the branch ends in order to mow that area as the resulting appearance simply lets more light into that area and consequentially more weeds will grow. Plus I think it makes the trees look so unnatural. Any suggestions for how to proceed so that I can environmentally safely remove those grasses /weeds and not have to trim them over and over all summer with hand grass shears? Thank you very much.

Hi: The grass-like plant in the attached photos with its reddish/purplish lower stem and branching leaves is all over my yard in various and large clumps. It certainly does not blend in with my turf grass. Any idea what it is and how best to control it (especially without hurting the pollinators)? Even where I have mowed it at the same height as the rest of the lawn, it still looks out of place. Extra: Along the road edge I did get what I am pretty sure is wheat growing in my yard with its hollow stem where some road contractors placed straw over the seed where they repaired the damage they did to my lawn. Since wheat is an annual, after pulling lots of it by hand, I decided to simply mow the rest. Hopefully that was a good choice. However, the "grass" in the question above seems to be different than the "wheat" and the grass in the photos is at many places far from the road. All help is appreciated. Thank you!

I'm adding 4 x 4' raised beds to an established garden for ease and accessibility. Wondering if it's best to partially fill with store bought raised bed soil and my homemade compost and mix it in to the top 2" of garden soil. I've also read you can layer a bed with sticks, leaves, compost, garden waste and let that breakdown for next year's planting. I guess I'm concerned about there not being actual ground soil if I only use composted material. Thanks!

I am the agriculture teacher at Neuse River MS. We have raised bed gardens and I am interested in possibly having someone come out and tell us how to improve our gardens. We grow our plants from seeds and many of them die when they get planted in the gardens. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hello,

I planted several Gardenia Jasminoides August Beauty last fall. In reading online, it appears that the spring is when their leaves turn, however, it's hard to know how much is "normal" versus "in distress". Could anyone take a look at the attached picture and give me a thumbs up or down? If not looking great, any tips on how to make them happy would be appreciated. :)

THANK YOU!

Hello,

Newer gardener who just planted about 10 dogwoods (Stellar Pink) this fall. All have leaves and several have bloomed, but I can't help but be concerned by the color. Specifically, the tips of them appear to be pale (maybe even a touch yellow?) -- I tried to do my own internet searching, but sites seem to come back with discussions of brown leaves.

Will do whatever it takes to make them happy, but don't want to mess things up if this is normal or part of getting established during their first grow.

THANK YOU!!

Hello again, Please excuse my persistence, but I just wanted to send a quick note to see if you had any interest in receiving the article submission I emailed you about recently. As a reminder, I’d like to put together an article for your site on how to prevent anxiety attacks. Do you think your readers would find an article on that topic intriguing? Best regards, Sophie Letts – Please propose another topic if you'd like to. I'm pleased to write on a topic that would best suit your website. Would you rather not hear from me again? Let me know, please.

The house I purchased in Monticello has a ton of thatch. When can I power rake the lawn? Also, do the liquid dethatchers work? Thank you.

Hello! I have an issue with my English Laurel. I can’t decide if I have front damage or an issue with fungus. Any ideas? Thank you.