In reply to Adare.

I think it’s good to aerate in the fall, although we don’t always do it. If you do aerate in the fall, follow that with reseeding (the bag will give you instructions if you’re over-seeding as opposed to seeding for the first time) and then water it. 7-10 days later that new grass should pop right up! You can also add fertilizer when you seed to get things going.

xo
s

Thanks!

In reply to bfish.

Sounds great!

xo
s

Also, we mix mulch with garden soil and other amendments when we plant trees and shrubs. Municipal free mulch is often green (just ground up recently) and until it ages it tends to draw water out of the soil which is no good for the new plants. The best use we’ve made of free mulch is to establish new beds, layering the mulch and soil and letting it sit there for a year or more. The extra nitrogen breaks down and improves the soil; then you can plant in it without danger of the mulch acting like a sponge.

I agree — we did DIY with the best metal edging we could get from Lowes or HD and it’s working well to keep grass and planting beds separated from walkways. The trench digging method that John employed looks good and is very “classic Virginia” but it needs a lot of upkeep. The metal edging comes in garden-neutral colors such as green or brown and doesn’t buckle, twist or pop out of the ground like that ugly black rubber kind (which I think is what YHL got rid of). The metal edging is a big work saver when there are so many other gardening chores that are more rewarding than constantly digging to keep the grass-mulch boundary looking sharp!

As Sherry notes, shade shrubs and perennials are the way to go. If you have tall, telephone-pole like pines like we have in VA (loblollies), it will look better to establish nearby an understory of medium-height ornamental trees such as dogwoods, Japanese maples, redbuds, etc. Then you fill in the next lower level with shade-loving shrubs that do well in close proximity to pines, including rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, loropetalums, mahonias and aucubas. For your lowest level, try small nandinas, ferns (autumn fern is one of the easiest), hellebores, hostas (if deer aren’t a threat) with some shade-loving ground covers (hakone grass, mondo grass, liriope, vinca minor, pachysandra, creeping jenny, etc.).

Please, not white shutters! Your neighbors will thank you for forgoing that. Any complementary dark color is good with the brick and roof.

I agree with Lisa on both counts — use a pitchfork with bulk mulch and the ground cover is Vinca minor, not pachysandra.

We use our dump trailer to pick up multiple loads of mulch — who knows how many trips it will take to get enough? Oh my, thank goodness that isn’t one of my gardening responsibilities!