GardenArtist Posted September 2015
Gardening as therapy.
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The house next door has been vacant for 4 - 5 years; there's ivy growing up the side of the house to the second floor, circulars and junk on the front porch (I call every once in a while to have the porch cleaned off), and more, but through tax defaults, the city now owns the house so it isn't going to spend money on it unless someone complains.
I used to hang my clothes outside all the time; I loved the fresh scent. That is until the next door neighbor got a dog, didn't clean up after it, and well, I decided sanitation prevailed over fresh scent and dried the clothes inside.
GA, I'm surprised they let you garden there at all, surely veggies attract rats, and flowers and shrubs give rats hiding places.
Are they also the kind of dinosaurs that prohibit outdoor clotheslines??
Not on the same subject, but coffee grounds are good for aeration because they attract earthworms, which help aerate the soil as they move to and fro munching on the grounds.
The issue of lasagna gardening and adding other materials is in my area thwarted by ignorant city officials, who see anything like biodegradeable materials as "blight." That concept has been liberally defined to include anything a code enforcement officer thinks shouldn't be in a yard.
I've been cited for using straw as mulch (CE claims it attracts rats), 3 cement blocks as elevation for seedlings while they harden off (again, cement blocks attract rats), grass clippings as compost (guess what? CE claims grass clippings attract rats!) Personally, I think the real rats are in the city municipal building.
And the city even hosts seminars on how to have a great lawn (but not organically). Lawn worship is still a god in this area, one of the reasons why I want to get out.
AS to hard to get rid of species, I think the Black Locust tree and all its dozens of offspring are perhaps the worst. These trees send out seeds like the KGB used to send spies to America - they're all over. The trunks are covered with sharp, spiky needles so you have to wear a couple pairs of gloves to hold onto them while pulling them out.
This year I'm trying morning glories. I found that by letting them grow up around mulberries, they'll kill that also invasive species. Maybe they can do the same for the Black Locusts.
Glad, I have the lavender and white violets - they're small, don't seem to cluster much, but they are so sweet and lovely. I've seen recipes for using violets in baked goods but somehow haven't made the bridge from seeing them growing wild to adding them to food.
I did try drying them for use in handmade cards but they didn't dry well.
Linda, I've been playing with designs for red and green lettuce in a formal bed; every year I come up with a few more designs. Maybe this year I'll actually get them planted. I love Romaine.
I'm glad some plants make it easy for gardeners and reseed themselves!
Send, I think starting with a small area of xeriscaped plants is the best way to go; undertaking a larger area could just be too much at one time. And grass is hard to remove. My father had to use a big rototiller on mine, then I double dug it for years before getting it to the tilth level I wanted.
I think it could be fun to redesign your yard with plants with low water needs. Don't recall for sure but I believe I've seen a few fat magazine/books at HD or Lowe's on this issue.
You must have a lot of patience to wait for DH to fix the bathroom faucets.
I've never grown ranunculas so I don't have any insight on why some flowered and others didn't. Were they planted at the same time, same location, same type of soil?
Your suggestion of container plants for Glad's rental home is a good one. Some of the container plantings on city streets are magnificent - massive hybrid sweet potato plants spilling over the sides, petunias or million bells filling out the top - they're beautiful. A few of the cities in this area really use container plants successfully - I know they tend to make me slow down and spend more time looking in the shops, which I guess is one of the intents.
Sharyn, thanks for sharing the natural recipe for weed killers. They're so much safer than toxic chemical solutions like Round-Up.
Glad, I'm still trying to figure out what the little purple flowers resembling clover are. Could it actually be some kind of clover?
Send, are the water use levels you write about for watering grass? I don't think they could possibly be for household water use since they're so low. I'm wondering if CA has different levels for household use vs. outdoor use of water, and how they could possibly monitor them?
Maybe this year I'll get around to finding a SAFE barrel for gathering rain. We haven't had as much as usual over the last few years, but any bit helps. Everytime we get a downpour I wish I'd gotten busy and found a safe rain barrel to use. Given that so many consumer goods are made in China, I've hesitated to introduce anything from there into my garden.
I also hate the height length standards for grass. I'm sure the code enforcement people in my area carry rulers with them because they hit someone if the grass is more than 6" high. 6.5" and you get a citation.
It's no wonder the city was almost bankrupt - 5 code enforcement officers for a city of less than 30K population.
CWillie, I remember that using greywater was such a big issue in some areas of the US in the '70s when the oil embargo threatened us and people really had to begin thinking about conserving fuel, as well as other resources. It was somewhat frightening, but it forced a redirection of thought toward conservation and away from wanton use of resources.
Rodale's New Shelter focused on earth sheltered homes, composting toilets, water conservation and more. I really liked the idea of using greywater; so much of it is really just wasted.
I learned on a DIY Forum a few years ago though that some communities have such tight restrictions on it that it's hard to really use it. I think the ideal would be to have a plumbing system that can divert grey water to a rain barrel, or maybe directly to the lawn or garden.
I've been thinking about getting one of the hot water heaters like Europeans use, so that almost instant hot water could be available for showers and dish washing. I remember asking about this on the old DIY Forum, and most of the experienced building and plumbing pros had reserved opinions about the use of these heaters. I don't remember why though.
Solarizing with plastic mulch, either black or clear, has been discussed a bit and there's no clear consensus on whether black or clear is better for killing weeds.
As to mulch, I might use it to warm the soil in the spring, especially for specific spring plants that I wanted to grow before an abrupt warm spell caused them to bolt.
But as a mulch in lieu of leaves or other organic material, I wouldn't use it. Plastic can tear more easily, and becomes a real mess when it does (especially if raccoons are busy shredding it!).
The other issue is that it likely wouldn't be food grade plastic and could contain Bisphenol A (BPA) which is anathema to gardeners whether on the soil or in the plastic (and metal) containers that are used for food (although I've read that the BPA has been decreased in plastic food containers because of its toxicity).
(If you're not familiar with BPA, Mayo Clinic has a good summary of its side effects, as well as the products in which it's frequently found:
mayoclinic/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/bpa/faq-20058331). Assuming part of the URL is truncated, Google bisphenol A and look for the Mayo Clinic link.)
Are you looking for weed control or are you hoping to cut down on watering?
Have studied that on PBS / roku / 'This Old House' and maybe we could start trying that. My idea was to take a small 2' x 2' area, remove the grass, add something. Then later, do it again, use a different shape in a small area with a different filler, like rocks, then a plant, then a bark. etc. This may become feasible this summer because....and this is no small thing: Yay! Hubby hooked up the new bathroom faucett to the bathroom sink! OMG! He did it! Did not have a sink since last summer! Now, we do! And yes, I was patient for so long. Then, yes, I threatened him, read him the riot act. Then, in a few days, he just did it, just like that! I feel so bad for being mean about it though. Today, the shower wand broke, but I plan to fix it in only six months!!! lol.
Today, I did finish planting the ranunculus. I bought white and dark pink, but they died, and what bloomed next is two yellow ranunculus! Magic?
I'm not familiar with salt cedar, so I googled it. It's beautiful, light and frothy. I did learn it's invasive, so I'll have to check to see if that applies here. Otherwise, I'd like to add some and mix it in with ornamental grasses.
Is your volunteer lettuce from seeds that the wind sowed last year? I'm not familiar with it overwintering; it's a tender crop here.
So far I just have crocus and mini daffodils in bloom. The larger daffs haven't opened yet, the hyacinth are in bud and the bunnies pruned my forsythia bush. They are predicting snow on the weekend, possibly squalls. I know it isn't uncommon to see snow into May but grrrr, I've had enough already!
It's my understanding that in one area of CA, there was a governmental movement to support people who wanted to replace lawns with ground covers.
And the idea of using rain barrels or other methods of capturing water is another alternative. Taps are inserted into the rain barrels, hoses are connected, and plants are watered that way.
Went to the Huntington Gardens website and viewed a grass that is very long, appears like waves-on purpose! I just hate the unnecessary laws about how long our grass can get! It is nature, grass grows, it is pretty! imo.
Sharyn- Sorry, did not know we were using water from your area-I will use less now, even though we went from 7 cu. ft. usage down to 3 cu.cft., but my neighbor, household of one, uses only 1.5 cu. ft. of water per month! We can do better-she taught us to capture shower water for plants, but we're having lifting the buckets issues. Ouch! We keep on trying!
As to the grass issue, my grass typically dies back in August but is resurrected when the Fall rains come. Do you think your grass is really dead?
I wish mine would die permanently; it would be a lot easier to convert it to ground cover.
They're almost like a little stream of blue flowers, extending almost 50 feet across the garden.
The Squills have been the harbingers of spring, along with crocuses, for the last several years. I planted some in my father's yard years ago; they've now spread out into the lawn to create a lovely, almost Monet-like palette of royal blue blended with the fresh green of spring-revived grass. Dad gets compliments on them from neighbors and delivery people.
I'm thinking of gathering the seeds, about the size of chick peas, and planting them in containers to put around the front of the house for some early spring cheer next year.
What's blooming in YOUR yards?
Other natural weed killers are pour boiling.g water on weeds, a mixture of salt and water and plain old vinegar. These are best for use in cracks in driveways a d walkways because too much of it in a flower bed would affect t Ph levels in the. Soil.
Mulch also helps to block sunlight from reaching weed seeds preventing.g germination. Spreading newspaper over the soil works too if you don't mind the look of newspapers spread all over your garden.
Now, my son has a nice green lawn where he lives in SoCal. How nice that he gets a nice green lawn with "our" water. Yes I am against the Delta tunnels. I k ow what happened to Owens Valley.
i helped a customer mow her lawn once -- mowed down her snap peas . i wouldnt know a snap pea from a plywood tree , or care , for that matter .