I always seem to be a weekend behind on the blog, so I figure now is the time to remedy that. If I’m getting back on track with the yard properly, I should get back on track with the blog properly as well. So, while my sweet potato breakfast of wonderfulness is baking, I shall bring things up to speed.
First and foremost, I have FINALLY taught myself a VERY valuable trick – I now ONLY buy the supplies that I know I can consume on the day that I buy them. This might seem counterproductive, because it means more trips to various home improvement and garden shops. Or, it might seem like a no brainer, because what crazy person would want to have extra supplies sitting around, waiting to be used, being tripped over and cursed at, until the project for which they were purchased is long forgotten, reworked, or has otherwise fallen out of favor… Which is what I used to do. But I never knew it, so I would think that I, a single human being, should be able to use up all of the products I had brought home in one weekend, and I would work like crazy, not make a dent in things, become discouraged, and return to work on Monday after a hard weekend, feeling defeated, not in the least rested or refreshed.
No more. For my sanity, for my health, and for the health of my pocket book, I am changing strategies. Admittedly, couple of weekends ago, I bought plants that have yet to make it into the ground, but that’s ok, because they’re going in the ground today. But in the bigger picture, I’ve only bought as much soil at a time as I could use on the tasks planned for the day. I do have 2.5 bags of soil left over, but one bag is for the roses – once I’ve watered a few times and the soil I planted them in compacts, I’ll need to top it off. And the other two bags are to be used as I plant herbs and flowers in the edge of the yard, and as I move the huge herb mounds still in the herb box into the sidewalk bed. And that will all get used before I buy more soil. And I only bought as many coconut fiber liners as I knew I needed for the tubs I already had for planting, and so on…
So, now that I’ve bored my modest audience to death, here’s some of what I’ve been up to…
Sat Feb 25
The Bermuda Grass killer juice did its work for a week, so I used weed eater to get rid of the dead mess. More raking, sweeping, bagging of same.
I dug up the roses in the sidewalk bed and put them in water overnight.
Then I dug out the rosemary, the curry plant, and a sage from one of the herb boxes and to be planted in the sidewalk bed. I’m trying to clear out the planter boxes. More on that in a future post. Still mulling it over, but think it’s for the best.
To keep the b. grass at bay, I mowed sidewalk bed super short and used both the weed eater and edger to dig a clean edge into the sidewalk bed and the edge of the front yard. (While I had the mower out, I got after the backyard, too. The grass I seeded in the fall grows like CRAZY! But it’s rye, not b.grass, and is soft for the doggies to sunbathe in!)
I cleaned out a couple of the bucket planters that I had drowned my artichoke plants in. Sad face here. They were fine without drainage holes during the drought, and in fact, probably better off. But once we got a single rain, they became waterlogged and I never remedied the situation. DRAINAGE, Erica, DRAINAGE!!
Sun Feb 26
To start the day, I went to Runtex for race packet for the Texas Independence Day 5K on March 3rd. Because I apparently cannot read, I arrived an hour before the store opened. Gah!
So, since I was in the neighborhood, I went to The Great Outdoors to kill time and $$. I was very restrained and only bought about 10 herbs. Had a chai in the café and went back to Runtex.
Then I went back to Runtex and found out that packet pick up doesn’t start until NEXT Friday, March 2nd. Oy! I had wasted most of the morning! I totally would NOT have gone downtown at all, not even for The Great Outdoors, if I had read the packet pick up info correctly!
So, grumpy and feeling like the day was getting away from me, I started rounding up the other items I needed for the day’s work. First, a trip to Lowe’s to get rose soil, coconut fiber liners, and a few other things.
They didn’t have the grass killer stuff I needed, so I was off to Home Depot. The whole “buy what you can use in a day” concept was getting reinforced, as by this time, I was feeling burnt out on all the errands, and irritated that I hadn’t gotten any work done yet. And the weekend’s R&R wouldn’t start until AFTER the work was complete.
Once I was home, I had some lunch, sulked, then finally got up to get some work done. My project for the day was to clean out the window box under the living room windows. Back when I first bought the house, it had had roses in it. I decided to put roses in again, but this time, in containers instead of in the ground.
The roses that had been in the sidewalk bed had been planted there as a way to try to deter people from parking in front of my house all of the damn time. I get SO TIRED of seeing huge trucks and SUVs and other things that don’t belong to me, parked smack in front of my house. (Yes, thank you, I know that it is legal to park on the street, regardless of whether or not you own the property you park in front of. Yes, got it.) So, I thought the roses would get nice and big and provide at least a little bit of a screen, and maybe the thorns would be a deterrent… But, I didn’t give the roses the TLC they needed to do well, and they were barely hanging on.
I had been planning to move them for quite some time, and had stockpiled a few 15-gallon galvanized washtubs to use as planters. Some had been planted with other things, but because I had not put in drainage holes the other things died. So, I dumped out the soupy, sloggy soil, drilled 3 holes in each, and lined the bottoms of each tub with a coconut fiber liner. I got the kind that is intended to go into wire planting baskets, and they just happened to fit PERFECTLY into the bottom of these tubs.
Once the tubs were all set up, I trimmed each of the roses way back, selected the three that were most likely to live, and got them set up in the tubs with some good, rich, rose-formulated soil.
For the next step, I had to go back out to Lowe’s to get weed cloth. I though I had some left over, but was mistaken. Once I got back, I weeded the window box, raked the soil level, and covered it in a quadruple layer of weed cloth. Then I put left over cast concrete capstone pavers from another project into the window box for the rose tubs to sit on. I put the rose tubs in, and dumped in two bags of egg-rock left over from yet another project to begin to cover up the black weed cloth.
I noticed after watering the roses in that the drainage, while not significant, would provide moisture for unwelcome weeds, so I started thinking about what could be done about that. Made a mental note and filed it for next weekend’s work.
Once the roses were situated, I worked with the HUGE rosemary and almost equally as big curry plant that I had pulled out of one of the planter boxes. I had planted them in the sidewalk bed right after I pulled them out of the bed they had been in the day before, but that was a temporary solution. I just wanted to get them into ground where they could be watered and not be in the way. Now, I had to get them into their permanent places. I moved the curry plant twice and the rosemary three times before I was happy with their locations. I also tweaked the location of a sage that was suffering, but will definitely rebound. The intention this year is that these herbs, and some others that have similarly bushy habitats and are very drought tolerant, will help choke out the Bermuda grass. I removed the soaker hose from this area months ago, mostly because it was full of punctures from stiletto heels walking all over them. But it worked out for the best, as using a soaker meant that water was too abundant, and added to the b.grass infestation. By strategically placing the plants to thoroughly cover the ground so no light gets to it, and watering strategically, I hope to eliminate places where the b.grass can get reestablished.
In addition to the curry plant and the rosemary, the sage will get huge in no time, and I have another sage and a sweet marjoram to move. I’m going to add lemon grass and lantana, some salvias, and zinnias of all sizes from seed. I’ll put the rock roses back in for color, and I’ll also add some other herbs that like dry conditions. I’ll add lavendar, epazote, and basils. I’ll water selectively, directing it at each planting, so the runoff doesn’t encourage the weeds and Bermuda grass. With any luck, and maybe a few selective applications of more of the B. Grass treatment, MAYBE this year it won’t take over my yard again!
Friday Mar 2
Didn’t do a lot. Just sprayed more of the B.Grass killer where needed, and watered plants waiting for final homes.
Saturday Mar 3
Last week after messing around with the roses in the window box, I had made a mental note that they weren’t quite right. For one thing, the risers I had put the tubs on weren’t quite high enough for me. I could tell that once I filled in with enough egg rock, they would sit too low. Plus, there was a drainage issue. I didn’t want the run off from watering the roses to encourage weeds. So, I mulled it all over and came up with a plan.
First, I simply raised the tubs. Instead of placing them on capstones that are only two inches thick, I propped them up on trapezoidal wall blocks that are about 4 inches deep. So, problem solved.
I was also trying to figure out how to deter weeds in the rose tubs themselves, and then I realized that roses and strawberries are closely related, so soil that is formulated for roses would also be good for strawberries. So, I adjusted the roses in the tubs, pushing them more toward the back of the tub than dead-center, and added three strawberry plants to the front of each tub. I planted Sequoia, Quinault, and Allstar. Each of these varieties has a different growing season, and there is one of each plant in each tub.
I dumped in two more bags of egg rock and took a look. I like the height of the tubs now, but the drainage is still an issue. So, my solution is going to be to get some planters that can fit under the tubs, and will NOT have drainage holes. I’ll put succulent soil in the planters, put in a variety of succulents, and then they’ll drink the run off from the roses. I’ll be delicate with the egg rock when I put it in so that I leave openings for the succulents to come out from under the tub, without getting crushed. Another cool feature of this arrangement is that toads LOVE dark, moist hidey-holes like this, so maybe some will come live there and protect my garden from nice, juicy bugs. Hopefully, I can get this tweak knocked out on Sunday.
After doing this, I raked and swept more debris from the paths. They’re just looking SO much better. The Great Bermuda Grass War is not yet over, but several battles are won! This is the PERFECT time of year to get started on this, so I’m glad that I did! I was so heart broken by the way the B.Grass took over last year (thus, a whole year of no blog) that I was almost too daunted to try anything at all this year. These small successes have been very good for my soul!
I also mowed the back yard again, and have started formulating a plan for that area. That area will have to wait until the front is done, but it still pays for my brain to percolate. It’s how I roll…
A few items to do on Sunday, or soon…
* Plant the plants/herbs on hand
* Succulents under roses, finish bed with more rock
* Mix old seed packets and liberally seed the perimeter of the yard. I think this will be a fun way to use up old seeds and choke out the devil grass.
* Get a couple of creeping, antique roses for curbs! Or Lantana. And more herbs.
*And, and, and…
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