Gardening ideas...

I have a bunch of different gardening threads, will make this one the default:

Lots of stuff happening!! I can't quite believe how much has been accomplished, seemed impossible at the beginning of the summer. Includes:

- Take that, Moapi!!! I just did another sweep and got, I feel somewhat confident saying, every single little tiny piece of poison ivy extant. I have four black garbage bags full of the stuff + things that touched it (gloves, etc.) What is most exciting about all of this is that Moapi's nursery, the area between the two cottonwoods and near the base of the vine, is still clean. I was fairly confident that I got the whole root system (really should have taken a photo of the inch-diameter, 6-foot long root I got), but still expected to see maybe a few tiny ones when I went back out this time, ~1 month later. Nope. Nothin'. Some tiny optimistic sprouts coming from the part of the vine below the cut, that's it. (That's the last thing we need to do, is cut the vine again and pour round-up on it to wipe out the last of it.)

Still, extremely encouraging.

- Return of the groundcover. In the backyard we have a nice vinca, English ivy, and ____ (saw it at the nursery today but forget) groundcover, but there were so many weeds sticking up out of it it didn't really register in a lot of places. I got pretty much all the weeds (they keep re-growing, but all the big ones) and it looks very, very nice. Still some open areas, which brings me to:

- New purchases. Just ordered the White Flower Farm ferm assortment -- it was sold out, and then when I went to check which ferns were in the assortment and read their growing tips, I saw that it was back in stock, and ordered. Also bought 5 ferns at a local nursery. They're going in the former Moapi nursery and a few other places. And bought the oakleaf hydrangea!!! I'm very excited. Thanks so much for the advice. They had lots of varieties including the one I most wanted ("Snow Queen"), but all of the plants had kind of blotchy leaves. I talked to a guy who worked there and said it happens, and explained that I should just throw away the leaves when they fall, and next year they'll grow back just fine. The new leaves at the top were flawless. This place gives a 1-year guarantee for shrubs, so I went for it. ($19.99 for a good-sized plant, maybe 2.5 feet tall.) I'll let you know what happens!

- Grassy rectangle is coming along! It's weed-free and increasingly grassy -- my last scattering of leftover seed did what it was supposed to do (grow grass instead of weeds on disturbed soil), but I'm going to aerate and then do one more round of grass seed before winter. MUCH greener now than it was this time last year. MUCH.

I'm optimistic! :-D

Sounds good!

Yayyyyy!

Any opinions about aerating? One neighbor said I should, one neighbor said eh, never seems to help anything, and when I asked if they had those golf spike thingies at the nursery I went to today they said no, not anymore, and seemed kind of neutral about whether they're a good idea.

I think aerating is for old grass - grass that has had a few years to really get their roots in a tangle.

Agree with littlek.. assuming the soil wasn't all compacted in the first place..

So, it wouldn't likely hurt the grass (if the grass is well established and healthy), but you don't need to do it prolly for another couple years at least. If, as Osso said, the soil isn't compacted.

Congratulations!

Hold your dominion.

That's the rub -- not sure if it is or not (compacted).

I did get a bunch of grass growing for a while but didn't follow up well enough (though a lot of what I had growing is still there, just not all of it). It seems like if I could get it growing, it's un-compacted enough...?

Dunno, I'll look around a bit more, see how daunting the prices/ process is. If it's a few bucks to get those things that you strap to your shoes, I'll go ahead and get 'em and tromp around a bit, mebbe it'll help. If it's pricey, eh. I'll just rough up the dirt like I did before.

And thanks both for the congrats and for the tons of great advice, from all three of you! (And more, but especially you three who have replied since my last update...)

Soz, if you decide that you absolutely have to aerate the lawn <which seems to have gone out of favour since the 80's, based on the gardening shows I've been to, and my gardening mags> head to Goodwill and buy a pair of golf shoes for $2 or $3 bucks and tromp all over the lawn.

~~~~~~~

there's a glut of spiked golf shoes on the second-hand market these days - as most courses don't allow them any more

It is unlikely that your soil is really compacted ... that happens when lots of stuff drives over it. I'd relax myself. If worse comes to worse, you can do that another time, but if it was, aeration is no great answer... basically it is a matter of adding amendments after loosening soil. Really, I'm sorry I mentioned the word. And the grass planting is not old enough to be a thicky thicket.

I agree qwith Osso. Your grass is in the back yard, under trees, at the bottom of a valley. It should be rich and light. I think it would be obvious if it was compacted. On a dry day, find a low spot in the grass and pour a bucket of water there, if it sinks in, you're golden.

Love the golf shoe tip! (And you're another one to specifically thank, ehBeth.) Maybe there are some kiddie ones out there? I have a feeling this is a gardening chore sozlet would enjoy.

But from what you guys have said, it doesn't sound too urgent. A bucket of water would get absorbed, fer sure.

The opposite of urgent..

Sorry I mentioned compaction - but one doesn't know who is reading and just follows some words..

Heh...!

I had a hard time sleeping last night, have the inevitable back-to-school cold, and came up with an elaborate plan to deal with the run-off in the back yard. It'd be for way down the line. Kinda yucky-looking. But might work.

Main problem is that all kinds of stuff whooshes down under stairs, collecting dirt, and splooshes at the base of the stairs in an area about 12 feet diameter, leaving a bunch of residue on top of grass. (I'd had that area looking good, now it's dirt with some stray pieces of grass sticking out...)

My cockeyed, long-term plan is to dig a sort of a ditch all the way around, maybe a foot wide and rather deep (18 inches?), and then also cutting a short swath in the railroad tines at the far end (all the way across from the stairs) and a ditch leading to the "stream" at the back of the property.

So it would be existing railroad tines, ditch, more railroad tines (or some other material), grass.

Then a little bridge from bottom of stairs to grass.

And fill in the ditch with smallish rocks. Large enough to leave a lot of space in between them for water, small enough that they wouldn't allow plants to grow and would offer some visual continuity/ a flat plane.

Idea would be that water would swoosh down, into ditch, around grass, out the back.

<shrug>

I tend to set myself complicated logistical problems when I can't sleep.

That's a swale, soz. I would have flunked my exams if any part of the property went toward the house without an interception point, a swale, alias ditch, or at least keen warp, then flowing downward, the flowing downward very important, to intercept the water.

it can be that the land at the house is, oh, eight or ten inches higher - the more the better - than the top of the swale, but the swale may be comprised of a trench, at the bottom of which is a perforated drainline encompassed in gravel... a channel to take the water away from arriving under the house. Very important.

Well, at least important to take surface water away.

I just drew a diagram but the scanner isn't working. :-? Don't have Paint program anymore, can't find an equivalent.

Anyway, the runoff is coming from the direction of the house, not towards it. The house is on the highest ground, the grassy rectangle lowest, with about a 15 foot (? a guess) differential. So there are stairs leading from the deck at the south side of the house down to the back yard, ending at the grassy rectangle. ("Lawn" is a simpler word, I'll use that.) The water rushes through and under the deck, and collects in a fast-moving stream under the stairs, and pours down the hill landing at the lawn. The water then spreads out and either seeps into the lawn or goes all the way back to the stream that develops at the back (east) of the property, leaving the dirt that's been collected on its way from under the deck and stairs.

Hmm, I guess it does go against the side of the house on its way down, though.

I need to get to bed, will figure out some sort of a diagram tomorrow.

Actually, this is so long-term that it's not worth puzzling over, unless it's an interesting puzzle...

Unless you can't sleep....