Welcome Rick! - You live in the Ozarks according to the link below although I don't think anyone would run you off if you didn't. It's interesting to read about the different subregions of the Ozarks. I'm jealous - It says your in "one of the Ozarks most productive agricultural areas". Is it rocky there? What kind of gardening do you do?
I don't like the weather lately either. Hope everyone is avoiding the heat and saving the yardwork for when it cools off.
When I looked at your Member Page, I noticed your birthday is August 2nd so Happy Birthday! : )
Christie

Here is a link that might be useful: The Ozarks as a Region - A Geographer's Description

Thanks for the kind words Christie.

Indeed the soil here is good especially in the river bottoms. Of course river bottom is about 1/2 the land in these parts.

The ground in my yard is a tad heavy, I'm slowly amending it for better drainage.

I have no problem growing things but the ground does have a lot of rocks in it. As an example, I put in a paver patio this spring and had to take the grade down about 9 inches. The patio is only 14' x 22'. Out of that I ended up with about 5 full wheelbarrows full of various sized rocks. I don't think all of it is naturally occuring though. I say this because some of the material is old red brick.

My gardening practises include vegetable & flower gardens but my real passions are turf & shrubs. You should see my zoysia lawn & boxwood hedge!

I've made the jump from chemicals to organic this year. I think that should prove interesting. My wife thinks I'm nuts cause we have soybean meal, alfalfa pellets & cracked corn all over the yard. Although you don't really see them after their watered in. I think she's just concerned about what the neighors are thinking. ;>)

Thanks for the birthday wish. The little woman signed me up for the MU extention, Master Gardener program as a birthday gift. I can't wait for that to start at the end of the month.

Uh, it suddenly occures to me that I'm rambling on here so I'll stop.

But thanks for the welcome.

Rick

I am glad to see this forum has had a revival! I hadn't visited for a bit and am so glad to see it perk up.

Welcome Rick, no matter where you are from.
Show us some pictures of your shrubs.....I need to downsize my perennials beds and do more shrubs and need all the ideas I can get. I am thinking they might be less maintenance than the flower beds??

Yes, this weather is killing me too. It is so depressing to see things just burn up. I only water certain things (definitely not the grass!). We are on a well and have cattle drinking from it and I get concerned that the well might go dry. So far, so good.

I have had the absolutely worst gardening year. None of the tomatoes set on the first blooms, raccoons got all but 10 ears of corn, tons of mildew on plants, Jap beetles, grasshoppers.......and I am depressed! Can't wait for fall and, hopefuly, rains.

do you have a water ban right now?? we do and I don't know what to do about all my stuff. I have elephant ears, ostrich ferns, roses and my darlings the hosta babies plus about 30 other varieties of plants, and I am afraid they will all croak!! I kind of made a mistake by watering them deeply all year long, now they act like they are in withdrawl, I still sneak water to them but they are not getting near as much as they were. THIS SUCKS!!! Hopefully it will rain very soon, and cool everything down (but it is the hottest month in the summer) it has been 100 here everyday for a week or more, just hot, hot, hot.
if anybody else is in Jasper County, please tell me what your secrets are for getting water to your stuff!
micke

Rick - Sounds like your patio was a lot of work. I think nearly all of us in the Ozarks have more rock than we'd like. I know I do. I remember watching them dump "fill dirt" when our house was built many years ago and of course there was more rock than dirt but it does help with drainage in our clay soil. Think of it as giant sand. Maybe that will cut down on the bad language when you're digging. lol
Do you use a pre-emergent on your lawn?
Gldno - I'm not watering my lawn either. I do well to keep up with watering my perennials, annuals and shrubs. Many of my shrubs still require some watering in the summer, especially this year. I need to group my water hogging perennials together and install some kind of soaker hose or something. I think that would help me the most with maintenance. I just never get to it.

Micke - Could you set up a rainbarrel to catch water from your roof? They make fancy ones that you can hook a hose to but they're a little pricey. I removed the bottom section of one of our downspouts and put a bucket under it. Then I dump the bucket into a large plastic trash barrel. It only takes a very light rain to fill it up. Hope they lift your ban soon. It's tough enough keeping everything watered using the garden hose. We don't have a ban here but one the towns close to us has a voluntary ban going on. They've gotten more rain than we have so I wouldn't be surprised if we were restricted too. It's VERY dry here. The last three times it rained, it skirted around our yard. It's sooo discouraging to hear thunder and not get any rain. This morning though we got about 2/10 of an inch. I think that's the first rain we've gotten since June but I can't remember for sure.

Hi Christie,

While we don't have a water ban on right now we do have a sort of rationing deal going on. Even numbered houses can water on even numbered days. Odd numbered and so on. I think they've asked that people not wash their cars at home yet all of the commercial car wash's are working. (?)

I do use a pre-emergent. In the past I've used Scotts chemical version but this next spring I'm going to try using corn gluten meal. That should be interesting.

The soaker hose for shrubs is a good idea. I simply place the hose under the hedge right next to the trunks and water slowly but deeply. Doing this about once a month seems to work very well. I also think spraying shrubs with Neem about 3 times a year prevents a lot of problems to.

This summer has been brutal but last summer had its moments as well. I'm completely convinced that draught tolerant plants are the way to go, especially when it comes to grass. In my sunny areas I've slowly established a good stand of zoysia. In the shady areas I've given up on fescue and have been plugging this year with Turffalo's 'Shadow Turf'. If it lives up to their claims it should be perfect for my back yard.

http://www.turffalo.com/whychoose.asp

Take care.

Rick