Because Shawn is the one that gets to mow the yard, he had been attempting to mow in between and around the possumhaws (as well as the ornamental grasses, and around the cedar elm tree). It wasn't going so well - or rather, it was going fine, it was just a pain in the ass. He said as such and practically begged me to allow him to remove the grass in those areas. Naturally I agreed.
And so it came to pass that on the 13th we (meaning we) spent the day pulling up grass, spreading compost and leaf litter, laying down newspapers, watering said newspapers, and then spreading 3 bags of mulch in the area around the possumhaws. We totally planned on doing the other areas too, but as I said, life got in the way.
The plan for tomorrow is to dig out more grass, lay more newspaper and spread more mulch (assuming we can find a place open where we can get a truckload of it - it makes little to no sense to purchase bags of the stuff when we can, and will, end up using more like a cubic yard of it).
Yay! Mulch!
It should be noted that we spread the mulch on the 13th or so (2 weeks ago). I spent this morning digging up that damned nut sedge out of this area. It's annoying stuff, and after you read This Article, you'll understand why (ifin you don't already have experience with it).
6 comments:
Good luck! I hated erradicating bermuda grass. It is a chore! Wouldn't it be awesome if builders just covered the lot they've already successfully removed all plant life from with decomposed granite/hay/mulch and their requisite stick trees and then the owner could just add plants at will? Sure, it would look like a desert for the first few years, but it basically forces xeriscaping unless someone wants to go out of their way to remove the cover and lay sod. Surely the city could make builders do this? Could you get ERM on that? :-)
Not everyone is a gardener and all the yards would look horrible.
Yeah, but at least they wouldn't be watering/fertilizing/herbiciding! I kind of agree because I prefer green space, so maybe they could sow native prairie grasses and flowers? Just anything to get away from defaulting to invasives that are hard to remove and whose upkeep is a resource drain. :-)
Bond - I get what you're saying, and I do think it could work. As with anything, it'd take some doing to get implemented (especially if nothing was planted in any part of the yards - new subdivisions sometimes will leave the backyard blank, but will usually plant trees, bushes and grass in the front). Plus you have to get over the whole learning curve hump - Sun City has buffalo grass but most of the residents water it much more than they need to because they expect green grass in the middle of summer. I think AZ has it right - an outright ban of turf grass; unfortunately, that also usually translates to cover the yard in river rock.
Nut sedge is the absolute worst. How dare it spoil your lovely mulch job!
Great work!
Post a Comment