This gardening thing is such a complete mystery to me

sod......a few rolls of sod.....not rye here today gone tomorrow.

2seaoat wrote:sod......a few rolls of sod.....not rye here today gone tomorrow.

Will sod keep growing when it's put over exposed Magnolia tree roots?

The rye grows around the roots. And true it's here today and gone tomorrow, but all I have to do is throw down another ten dollar bag of birdseed and it's back day after tomorrow. lol

Sod will die.  But it might be years before it thins out and dies.  Sod in this small area is inexpensive and easily DIY.

If I was to put down sod, which sod should I buy that will grow under the full shade of a magnolia tree?

Just go to Carters and grab a couple of rolls of sod.  I have some huge Oaks which totally block out the sun with bald areas and about five years ago I sodded under the oaks.....it took and over the years thinned because of the lack of sun, but it is still grassy.  All I would do in a couple of years would be to rake the thinned grass and sod over the sod.  When doing that you have to keep the sod completely soaked for about two weeks and it will root and will have the soil from the prior sod.  It just is not that expensive to dress up your yard and you can do it.  Cut the sod and piece it and shape it around your tree......again keep it soaked.

I'm learning something with this.  I thought there were different kinds of sod.  I didn't know that all sod is the same kind of grass. I also didn't know that all sod can grow fine under the complete shade of a magnolia tree.
Others have apparently lied to me about that. Thanks for clearing it up, seaoat.

It will thin, and it might die, but it will take years if you properly water it.  I have done this so many times with homes I owned.  All full mature trees leave thin areas under the tree.   The sod is thick and has been in the sun.  It will take years to thin out, and then you put it down again.....or you keep your dirt patch back yard.....nothing wrong with that either.......but if you are throwing bird seed down to have rye grow for a little while......well......no comment.

Go to Woerner turf on Creighton...they will tell you what you can do.

Thanks, joani and seaoat.
Right now I'm having fun watching the bird food grow. When it dies out I'll see what the sod can do.

Right now I feel like I'm having a mind meld with Oliver Douglas.
And I've gone from the city to the farm and don't know shit but I'm having the time of my life.
And ya'll are like my Mr. Haney and Hank Kimball.
Next thing you know, Eva Gabor is gonna make me hot cakes that stick to the ceiling.

I know ya'll have no clue about any of that and think I must be insane. But that's okay. lol

Bob wrote:Right now I feel like I'm having a mind meld with Oliver Douglas.
And I've gone from the city to the farm and don't know shit but I'm having the time of my life.
And ya'll are like my Mr. Haney and Hank Kimball.  
Next thing you know,  Eva Gabor is gonna make me hot cakes that stick to the ceiling.

I know ya'll have no clue about any of that and think I must be insane.  But that's okay.  lol

Oh yes I do...cute show.

Even Douglas would not put bird seed down for a lawn.....that city slicker move would have the pig looking for a new home.

The great Pat Buttram.  He hailed from Winston County,  Alabama.  So rural that it didn't have a town in it.   But it was right near Muscle Shoals where all the music was born.
He then moved to an actual town,  Nauvoo,  Alabama,  which had a population of 200.  

From there he went to Hollywood and connected up with Gene Autrey.



And the rest is television history...

The great Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor

Special bonus for geezers.  But since Sal (excuse me, Snark Spigot I mean) is rained in and needs entertainment,  he can watch too.

Snark Spigot wrote:Green Acres was one of the shows that they'd rerun regularly in the afternoons when I'd get home from elementary school.

I could never get into it.

It was just so hokey.

I'd watch Andy Griffith and Leave it to Beaver, but I'd go outside or do my homework when that Green Acres song came on.

That was because it was not made for an elementary school age audience.
You had to be a little more mature (at least high school LOL) to appreciate the humor.

Here's some television history for you,  Sal.  Green Acres figured into the "rural purge".  You might find this interesting...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_purge

for seoat.

I now have two passions.

1. a love and devotion for all living creatures and the Earth environment which maintains us all.

2. a love and devotion for my newfound personal outdoor space

But today, I discovered I can't have my cake and eat it too.
I discovered that like with everything else in life, it's always a tradeoff.
There is no such thing as utopia.

Because the only way I can sit outdoors is if I make the mosquitoes disappear. And the only thing that makes the mosquitoes disappear is making the birds sick.

So I have to make a decision. Just stay inside and forget the personal space I now love until fall when the mosquitoes naturally go away.
And deprive myself of all these wonderful evenings I've been having on my garden patio.
Or do I go ahead and let monsanto or dow chemical or something even worse make the mosquitoes disappear, knowing that the birds will be collateral damage like Dick Cheney would do.

I forgot something.  I googled up the product and found this.
It's not just the birds.  It has the same toxicity for birds,  bees and pets. It's the Cutter Backyard one (the one bracketed in red)...




I had two neighborhood cats hanging out for a long time.  The cats disappeared a couple months ago.  I didn't put it together until today why.
Apparently the cats were smart enough to avoid the poison.  But the birds were not and they ate the birdseed on the ground that had been soaked with it.  I watched a sick one land about 5 feet from me.  He just sat on the top of a lawn chair staring at me.  Very little movement of any kind.  It was as if he knew he was sick and somehow instinctively knew a human could help him.  
Not knowing the human was who poisoned him to start with.

Also, if that graph is right, it says "low" toxicity for humans. Not NO toxicity.
And I've now come in contact with a shitload of it.

Salinsky wrote:booooooring .....

Like seaoat,  you're always the champion of the underdog.  It's an overiding theme in your posts.
But, interestingly,  from your reaction to this,  it would seem you have no feeling for other creatures.

I hate to say it,  but you've just revealed something you have in common with the "pro-life" crowd.
Most of them value "human" life so much,  that they even want to protect the fetal tissue inside a woman's womb.  Many even feel that way about a fertilized human egg.
But being the Christians so many of them are,  they also have very little feeling for the other living creatures on earth.  Because the sky daddy "gave them dominion" over them.

But now as I think about it, you've shared with us how much you love your dog.
So maybe it's just that your bigoted against the wild creatures. The one's who aren't kept as pets.

Oh shit I must be getting senile because I read that graph wrong.
It aint "low" toxicity for humans.  It's "high" toxicity same as it is for the birds,  bees and pets.

I wonder why they're even allowed to sell that shit.  Is nobody even monitoring and regulating stuff like this.
Hell if that's the case they oughta just put the DDT and Chlordane back on the market. This stuff is probably as hot as that is.

Oh and by the way, seaoat. All that stuff I put in the other thread about identifying you was totally made up bullshit. I have no clue who you are and don't have any desire to know. It's enough for me that you're the seaoat who writes on this forum. lol