Help - how do I keep weeds away here without spending insane hours pulling them up? Landscape fabric? Mulch? It’s my fate? I would love to add compost for the fruit trees, but not let weeds reap the benefits of that.

This is my neighbours garden, it’s a council owned property and she just returned after a year in a hostel because of her abusive ex-partner. The council won’t do anything to clean it up so I said I would help get it back to something resembling a garden! Apparently it was a nice lawn once upon a time. Any advice on the best way to get looking good again would be appreciated.

Hello, Firstly I'm not a native English speaker so sorry for spelling and grammar mistakes.

My parents garden has been bewildered over the last 8 years and is now full of thorn bushes, nettles and dead pine tree needles. Atm I'm doing my best cleaning it all up but my question is how do I return the soil to a healthy state and regrow grass like it was a few years ago. Things we are doing. Removing al the thorns we can see and dig out the roots. Shredding them and throwing them on a composting heap. And shredding the dead pine and elderberry trees and spreading this on the dead needle soil. All tips are welcome. Kind Regards

These two plants get identical sun and water yet the one on the right is suffering. What could be wrong?

Just bought my first house and would like to put a patio set in the yard but it’s all grass. This is probably a stupid question but could I buy these: https://www.wayfair.com/home-improvement/pdp/rubberific-rubber-paver-set-of-9-fbbe1004.html?piid=70821063 to put in the grass and put the patio set directly on top of them or or is there something else I’d need to do/lay down under there? Very new to home projects and unfortunately don’t have the budget to have concrete put in. Thank you!

Needs a lot of work but before I do all that, I have a herd of 100+ elk that come through my yard every day. How can I keep them out of my veggies? Thinking a half green house with open sides, vented sides

I just moved into a house built onto a steep incline that leads down to a creek.. along the full length of the back exterior wall , a raised bed has been built up several feet and filled with heavy clay that feels different from any other areas of surrounding soil. (The full sun front yard is mostly rocky limestone / bedrock; while the hill leading down to the creek bed is dark, rich and crumbly — with plentiful worms.) This leads me to wonder if the clay was a foreign material brought in to fill up and level this whole back bed?..

The grass and weeds in this clay are thinner than the the rest of the yard— plant life of any kind seems to be struggling along the full length of this bed. The clay itself is so dense that if I run a hose over it, water will pool and sit on the surface; actually creating some drainage issues in a few places. The medium seems like the type of thing you’d literally use to line the bottom of a fabricated pond to help seal water in.

I have no idea if this is suitable for any gardening endeavors / plant life at all in its current state, and my research thus far has led me down some differing paths/ opinions (to till/ not to till, to amend with compost versus adding in other media vs. amending chemically, etc.) I am completely new to the process of amending poor soil.

Can the simple addition of compost (either to the surface, or mixed in/tilled) over several years develop enough of a micro biome that the soil completely transforms ? Are there any plants that can survive—or even thrive— in the current state of this clay? Is it bad enough to merit digging out a couple feet and completely replacing the soil with raised bed soil (expensive , probably problematic, and last-ditch option that I’m hoping is a bad idea). Is this a sign from the universe to finally buy a wheel , kiln, and start that pottery studio?

The area in question is in partial - full shade. I’m located in North Texas. My current plan of action is hazy at best, and involves copious amounts of compost, crossed fingers, and bated breath. Any advice, shared experience, etc. would be much appreciated.

All the Best— Waterlogged and Weary

Washington state 8b, planted this about a year ago.

What is the fuzzy things on oak leafs?

We've unfortunately been neglecting the garden and I'd like to remedy this. I've attached some images of what the soil looks like, and below are some observations:

1. Even during a rainy season, the soil remains cracked and doesn't seem to absorb or hold water that well
2. We've started getting this greenish layer of ... moss? on top of the soil in the more recent wet season. I read that this might be because of some chemical imbalance of the soil
3. We haven't fertilized the garden in a very long time

Here are some ideas I have on how to address this but I'm not confident in 1. what to do, 2. what order to do things in, 3. who would be a good person to talk to about this, and 4. what to ask my gardener to take care of

1. For the cracked soil, my thinking is I need to manually break up the soil (maybe with an aerator or something)
2. Add something to it in order to improve its ability to retain water and nutrients (but I'm not sure what).
3. Add a layer of top-soil and mulch in order to keep the soil from drying out as easily (maybe rocks?)

I'd really appreciate any tips on where to start from the community.

​

​

https://preview.redd.it/4c1670jnemgc1.png?width=651&format=png&auto=webp&s=c7fbdadac550ee5a2656e080c5a469c71b6019f6

https://preview.redd.it/ultwou4qemgc1.png?width=597&format=png&auto=webp&s=38e2ae81e04b711324ce2e530a7e93e3850b00c1

https://preview.redd.it/q6oakfgsemgc1.png?width=626&format=png&auto=webp&s=6e59f3c78ed3b600f114f57dc5401e1367450ce1

​

https://preview.redd.it/8lk9yuyvemgc1.png?width=619&format=png&auto=webp&s=eb4536b5d733796c69c96e8ec92898130ec52221

I just got Alpine strawberries in the mail and they look like this. how do I fix the purple? How do I fix the crunchy leaves? Thanks in advance

​

https://imgur.com/7JgP1Jn

I know removal is best, but I can't afford it right now after having 3 huge pines removed. I don't want to attract termites or anything else to my home obviously but it'll be probably 6 weeks before I can do anything about the stumps. In the meantime, what can I do to keep insects away?

I don't know if I'm just searching the wrong terms, but has anyone used polymeric sand in their rock gardens to cement the rocks in place?

Trying to use a leaf blower in this section to get all of the acorns is becoming stressful bc I'm scared one of these rocks are going to go flying and break a huge window that is near it.

Hi fellow gardeners, My pear tree had a rough year and lost its leaves early in the season. I hoped it was just a bad mood and that it would do better next year, but I now notice this coloration of the bark. Do you have any idea if -and how-I can save this tree? Thanks!