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amethystbliss posted:Would love any thoughts for lower maintenance ways to approach this. Leaning more toward ground cover instead of landscape fabric since the view of the woods is a lovely feature from large windows in most common areas inside the house. Because it’s running into the woods, anything low maintenance is going to be semi-wild which it sounds like you’re ok with. Wildflowers are a good idea. It looks like it’s too sunny for ferns. If it’s actually wet down there by the drain you have some cool options like cardinal flower. More importantly I think you might need to do some forest management. It’s hard to tell, but it looks like you might have some invasive vine here:  And then this could be an autumn olive which is not great either:  *edit: IMO you don’t need to go crazy with the glysophate on your slope. You’ve got some weeds at the bottom that you don’t care about, and then just a few in the middle of the mulch. ohhyeah fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Jul 7, 2022 |
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Jul 7, 2022 19:28
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I thought that looked like Sumac which is a good tree. It should be easy to distinguish between sumac and tree of heaven up close though.
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Jul 7, 2022 20:45
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amethystbliss posted:Thanks again for all the help with this. Thought I just needed a hill mulch question answered, naively just figured anything at the bottom of the ledge was a general beautiful lush forest with little required. Yay for scope creep. Honestly feel free to go back to the slope for now, this is all a long-term optional project. The big one to monitor would be invasive vines because they’ll smother everything up and ruin the larger trees and your view. Don’t bring the heavy equipment or cut any trees in the wetland without permission, but no one will mind if a person happens to go in with their clippers and cut that bittersweet…. Watch out for ticks!
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Jul 8, 2022 02:45
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BonoMan posted:"what would you do?" Do you have a general timeline? I think that would be the place to start for two reasons. 1 - replacing the deck and fence are going to be disruptive. No point in adding new plants to have them get trampled by the fence guy. 2 - trading money for time. You could pay big money to have a new patio with mature plantings dropped in now, or at the other end of the spectrum DIY the whole thing over 3-4 years with clearance plants and random pavers. Xeriscape is out. That’s a desert thing, and I would guess it would be almost high maintenance come fall when the leaves drop. For low maintenance and relatively cheap, look at some shade ground covers. Some ones to get started are: multiple Carex species, packera aurea, eurybia divaricata, and multiple hosta varieties. North Carolina has lots of nurseries, just don’t get anything crap/invasive like English ivy or pachysandra.
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Jul 17, 2022 04:40
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How much garden do you actually have? The only garden I’m seeing is the small trim rectangle at the front of the house, which might explain why the landscaper isn’t giving it much attention. Like MrChrome said, a robot lawnmower won’t solve a weeding or edging problem. Had another thought: is there a good reason why that section of hill is a lawn? If it’s forest that takes it out of the mowing equation. ohhyeah fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Sep 27, 2022 |
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Sep 27, 2022 18:25
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My parents had mazus reptans mixed into their front lawn, which gave it a beautiful carpet of white flowers in the spring. I’m not sure why that’s not more popular, would recommend.
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Oct 14, 2022 13:46
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When you say spongy is it just soft or is it actually wet? You should look at it in the broader context before spending real money. Are your neighbors lawns spongy? Your backyard? Are you in a floodplain? What’s the soil like? If it storms what happens to the water? Easy solution might be to just plant another tree.
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Mar 30, 2023 19:03
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Eason the Fifth posted:My house is built perpendicular on a hillside and has a mossy stone trench on one side meant to keep the grade away from the foundation. (Picture below.) Someone put some big rocks in the trench and kinda lined the top but I'm wondering what I can do to blend the trench into the landscape or hide it in some way. Can i put a thin layer of gravel or decorative stone in there? Or what are some other options? The moss looks great I’m not sure what you want to fix. You could do a some more rocks to give it a natural stream look. Or raise the level of the trench visually by planting some groundcover, something like a sedge or phlox. If you do plant groundcover try to stay away from invasives like ivy and pachysandra.
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Apr 12, 2023 15:34
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Involuntary Sparkle posted:Thanks - I think knowing that there's only so much I can do is fine, I just wasn't sure if there was something I was missing. Our neighbor has had decent success with landscape glue for their white pea gravel. That would make easier to aggressively blow the needles away. Something to consider if you want a more manicured look.
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Apr 12, 2023 15:40
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Upgrade posted:I bought and planted three boxwoods to go along side one that came with the house. When we took them out of the pots the soil was really really heavy clay. I ended up removing the outer layer of clay to expose the roots - was this a bad thing? Very conflicting answers online. It’s been about a day and the leaves are a little droopy. No you probably did a good thing. In most cases it’s better to open up that root ball. Keep them well watered, every day or two, for a couple weeks and be prepared to water them through the summer if it’s dry. They’ll be fine, they’re just need time and water to get their roots reestablished.
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Apr 18, 2023 15:44
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I use 2-3 bamboo stakes and thread them through my wire plant cages, which are cylinders held together with zip ties. If there is enough other food around your plants will be pretty safe. You might lose some but bareroot plants are cheap. This is all assuming these aren’t precious specimens. I would keep them caged at least this year and next.
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Apr 30, 2023 02:36
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You need to be a little more specific about your problem with maybe a diagram to give a good solution. A gutter that empties into even a half-assed diy rain garden section may be good enough. Does the state have specific requirements for the system?
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Jun 20, 2023 18:18
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bawfuls posted:But this assumes sending excess rainwater to the plants while it’s already raining won’t over saturate the soil. Otherwise I need to put the water somewhere else. This concern is overblown in the sense that your plants will be fine. They can take a few hours being flooded no problem while the storm water soaks into the soil. I’m assuming SoCal soil is something sandyish and you get infrequent storm events. You might get away with a gutter into the yard if you site it correctly, draining it onto some rocks rather than dirt. That’s what I meant by half-assed rain garden. Try it out, otherwise you’ll have to dig a trench or catchbasin
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Jun 21, 2023 02:57
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What does landscape fabric give you besides more hassle? I think you’ll get 95% of what you want with just spraying, weeding, and mulch.
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Jul 13, 2023 04:42
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The internet says creeping juniper, jenny, phlox, and thyme are all hardy in zone 4. Creeping juniper would be the most dog unfriendly because you can’t really walk on it. Creeping jenny can also go into and work as part of a mixed lawn. What’s the purple plant? That’s doing great, you could encourage that in the other sidewalk beds and mulch them (hardwood not bark mulch) to keep the weeds down.
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Jul 13, 2023 17:02
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Nice house, you’re going to have tons of fun. It would be helpful if you could tell us: usda plant hardiness zone, state if you feel comfortable or general east coast/west coast, general orientation (the driveway is facing south yes?), and what the soil is like (clay, sand, rocky). Any invasives in there? For the path, do you have existing drainage problems? If you don’t already, adding a simple gravel path or some stepping stones won’t be a big problem. It’s different if you need to dig out the hill or want something bigger.
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Aug 22, 2023 16:05
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Couple of general thoughts: first NC has a ton of nurseries and knowledgeable people so you have a lot of local resources. Second, think about what relationship you want to have with the woods, because it will encroach on you if you let it. Some people like a real hard line between the yard and the woods, which is more work but means less insect pests and a tidier look. I prefer a softer border which is easier maintenance but messier. Of the three plants the English Ivy is truly invasive. You’ll want to manage that and cut it off of any trees it’s on. Hostas I’m surprised aren’t just getting eaten by deer.
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Aug 24, 2023 15:49
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Actually here would be my plan for this fall and next year: 1. Focus almost entirely on the raised garden beds because that sounds like what you’re really interested in. Everything else can wait except 2. Triage the English ivy (get it off any trees) and 3. Take a look at your woods in the fall and again in the spring and make some notes about what existing plants you find appealing. You might have trees or shrubs you want to cultivate and build around, or smaller ephemerals you want to preserve.
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Aug 24, 2023 16:03
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Looks more like a walnut but you can easily tell by the fruit or the fall color. Do they have green balls (walnut) or papery seed clusters (tree of heaven)?
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Aug 25, 2023 14:29
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 05:22 |
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Leave them in the ground. Planting and digging the roots is stressful on the plants, you don’t want to do it twice in the space of a few days.
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Oct 14, 2023 12:52
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