New landscaping

[Dr_Snooz]

I just bought a new 10mp camera, so it might take some time for the pics to load. Please be patient...

Here's what I'm working on now. The front yard flowerbed has always been a weedy mess. It was full of old plants, bulbs and dead annuals. Mostly, it was full of weeds. We finally decided to take it to task properly. I started by pulling up all the weeds and extraneous flowers and grading it smooth.

Then I laid down landscape fabric to cover everything. The fabric is good because it lets water and air get to the soil, but won't let weeds get to the light. I cut X's to let the plants through that we want to keep.







Then I threw out all the old soaker hoses, opting instead for drip irrigation.





The plants are getting adjustable dribblers.



Controllers go behind what will be a very big lily by mid-summer.



Mini-soaker hose goes around the trees.



We finished up with a nice layer of bark. Woohoo!

[lostforawhile]

looks good!!



.....................wait a minute, that's a different kind of plant operation, never mind

[2ndGenGuy]

Looks great man. I really need to do this too. I have some nasty-ass flowerbeds!

[mykwikcoupe]

landscaping is one of my favorite things to do actually. i love yard work. my gardens get redone every few years. it helps my mom sits on the board or heads up every plant accossiation in the state. ill snap some pics when we actually reach our growing season. its too cold now but i still weed weekly, mow weekly, turn the bark monthly. i need to get those drip hoses, how are they better then a soaker hose.

[Pico]

Looks Good

[frantik]

pretty sweet..

i need some of that weed cloth.... i put in walkway in my building's backyard using lava rocks and in the winter it grows weeds like the rocks arent even there

[Dr_Snooz]

landscaping is one of my favorite things to do actually. i love yard work. my gardens get redone every few years. it helps my mom sits on the board or heads up every plant accossiation in the state. ill snap some pics when we actually reach our growing season. its too cold now but i still weed weekly, mow weekly, turn the bark monthly. i need to get those drip hoses, how are they better then a soaker hose.

I'd love to see your pics. Maybe you can give me some pointers on gardening, because I don't seem to get a lot of return on my investment. I bust my hump all weekend, and by the next weekend it all looks like it did before. It's very discouraging. I've been reading a lot, trying to learn better methods. I hate using chemicals, so that makes it harder.

I find that the black soaker hoses disintegrate in our brutal summer sun. I tried making my own by poking holes in a regular hose. Those sprayed a fine mist of water over a very wide area, which made the weeds grow like crazy. We were overrun.

The advantage of drip irrigation is water conservation mostly. It's very targeted. I only get water on the plant that needs it. This targeting helps keep weeds down too. Adjustability is also nice. Each dribbler can put out 0-10 gallons of water per hour. I can really dial in what each plant gets. Here in parched Central California, that's important. The only down side so far is that the dribblers are very fragile. If you step on one, you'll be replacing it.

Here's how the dribblers work.



Pretty neato.

[mykwikcoupe]

I cant say for your area but in mine the best thing to do for weed control is to limit sun expose. I like to keep 3in+ of a bark overlay. This makes it so the existing weeds cant get the sun they need to survive and the new weeds grow in a loose bark so yanking them out is super easy.

Chemical feeding is not a great idea as you said since once you stop the feeding the risk of lose goes up. Im not sure what climate zone you are in but we are zone 7 with parts of zone 11 so the plant we use are very water resistant but also need to be drought tolerant through our summer months. We dont have intense heat like you so we dont need to create alot of shade to grow alot of ground cover with lots of colors. Im removing our shrubs as we go from garden to garden and installing alot of ornamental and variegated looks. One of my current favs is a 3ft tall mini shrub with brownish stems and copper leaves with a ting of green. Its hard to explain but the branches are super easy to break and the local cats love to sleep on it. It smells sweet like pineapple but if you scratch the stems it smells of spearmint. Ive got a copper rain chain that feeds the garden from a downspout off the roof. The bark I chose is a scotts timber red. Its one of the few that doesnt fade in under a year here. It lasts alot longer and its mixed with a bark mulch so it feeds as well. Its way to expensive as I go through almost 40 bags a year keeping up with decompose waste to maintain the 3 in minimum bark thickness.

My mom and I have a competition every year over who has the better looking yard. She is on a local garden tour and Im trying to get nominated. My grass looks better and my gardens have more color but heres has the advantage of maturity so hers is alot more full and lively. If you can afford to buy a few mture plants to help the look it will help but its alot more costly here. A 4 ft laceleaf maple is nearly $700 here The one I have showcased in a garden is over 6ft tall and 7ft wide. Glad it came with the house although its taken alot of work to groom

[stat1K]

i was really afraid to click on this thread for fear of manscaping.

[frantik]

The advantage of drip irrigation is water conservation mostly. It's very targeted. I only get water on the plant that needs it. This targeting helps keep weeds down too. Adjustability is also nice. Each dribbler can put out 0-10 gallons of water per hour. I can really dial in what each plant gets. Here in parched Central California, that's important. The only down side so far is that the dribblers are very fragile. If you step on one, you'll be replacing it.

forget the dribbler on the end just run lines to your plants and put the water on a timer so that it runs for like 30 seconds every 6 hours (or some other schedule)

though i guess thats not as adjustable, but you don't have to worry about breaking the dribbler that way

[Dr_Snooz]

i was really afraid to click on this thread for fear of manscaping.

Isn't that dead weeds with empty beer cans? LOL

[lostforawhile]

I have tires in my yard filled with dirt and plants

[2drSE-i]

That weed block will do more for you than anything. The bark helps (I think it looks pretty good too) and I like the dribblers, but like you said they are pretty fragile. You can get metal ones somewhere, but I'm not sure where in California.

[PortugalFocus]

Looks great man! Awesome job.!

[lostforawhile]

I actually have a toilet in my yard with flowers in it, has been there for several years, a bunch of people asked if i was from North Carolina, apparently it's popular to put on on each side of a driveway entrance there

[Dr_Snooz]

Got some more work done today. Basically just extending our work across the front of the house.

Here's the before. As you can see, it's just disorganized and confused.



After phase one.



Under the latticework.



All finished up.







Mom smiling for the camera.

[mykwikcoupe]

That looks great. I hope you don't mind but I may use the multi sized stepping stone idea for my pond. I have been trying to find a nice, natural way to transition from hardscape to landscape. that would do nicely. I think I would use a fragrant low lying ground cover since I already have ample bark gardens in the adjacent areas.

[Dr_Snooz]

LOL. I don't mind at all. The previous owner laid the stones, but I don't think he'll mind either.

[Dr_Snooz]

Finally made it over to the side of the house. Here is the fabric after the wind blew it all crazy.







Here is the back of the house. I built this walkway to the back gate. I finally figured out that a sand base under the pavers will keep them from wobbling all around when you walk across them.



This is my best work by far, but it's a walkway we never use. The garden is to the right of it.



I'm working on the fountain area now. I have high hopes for it.

[lostforawhile]

how are you calculating how long to run your buried soaker lines? i'm thinking a raised small garden this year, the heat and drought killed everything last year but the peppers, they loved it

[Dr_Snooz]

how are you calculating how long to run your buried soaker lines? i'm thinking a raised small garden this year, the heat and drought killed everything last year but the peppers, they loved it

Sorry, I'm just seeing your question. The big black hose you are seeing is not soaker hose. It's just black plastic. It comes in 100' rolls. I just roll it out as far as I need, cut it off and cap it. Then I put a connector on the other end and connect to the spigot. I just punch a hole in the hose where I need to put a dribbler and run a line.

Around the trees I'm running tiny soaker hoses. I read somewhere that they should be about halfway between the trunk and the outermost limbs.

[Dr_Snooz]

Yay!!! Project is done!!!!

Happy pics.

The bare dirt in the background is the garden plot. It will remain fallow for now.





This poor oak was planted in the soggiest part of the yard. It was planted in the middle of the grass in the lowest part of the north side of the yard and had fully 3 different sprinklers spraying on it. Oaks, as a rule, live quite well on very little water. This one was living in a swamp and was not happy about it. I extended the flower bed to get rid of the grass and capped off all the sprinklers. I also put a couple bags of dirt down to raise the ground level. It now has two dribblers watering it. I hope it flourishes.



I will probably put some additional pavers down in this area.



The pond. It still needs to be cleaned. This whole area was completely overgrown with Boston ferns. As much as I hate chemicals, we'll be using a lot of Round Up to keep it from coming back.





Here are some important caveats when using landscape fabric. Having flowerbed barriers is very useful. We have lengths of 4" steel plating that demarcate the flowerbeds. This helps to keep the bark where it belongs. You will never get the fabric to fit right up against the barrier perfectly. Err on the side of cutting it too short. If it's too long, this will happen.



The fabric will creep up the barrier and the plants underneath will peek out and grow vigorously. No problem. I just cut back the fabric a bit and dosed the weeds with Round Up.

This is the last problem.



The hose that I did not stake down has migrated upward and sits now on top of the bark. I just dumped more bark on it.

By midsummer when all the plants are blooming and the grass is full and green, it should look really amazing.

[griffonks]

Very nice job! That pipe rising from below is so typical, a job is never quite perfect no matter what. Enjoy your lovely yard!

[Dr_Snooz]

Here are some new pics of the yard.







The plants have rebounded nicely since the winter when we did this.



This is the lily that hides the sprinkler controller I mentioned above. It was nothing more than the nubs when we did this. Now you can't see the sprinkler controller.



The hydrangeas really like this location. They were just sticks in the pics above. Now they are out of control. They will be covered in gigantic flowers before much longer.



Another angle on the hydrangeas.







Another very happy hydrangea next to the walkway I spent so much time on. As you can see, the camphor tree has dropped leaves and berries all over it. I will never see it clean again. Sigh.



The garden plot with some bags of manure I'll be working into the soil soon for our winter garden (missed the summer planting). I spent a couple Saturdays helping my brother cover the eaves under his house. I was using a terrible Harbor Freight nail gun that gave me terrible tendonitis in my right elbow and shoulder. As soon as that heals up, I'll be out here with a pick and shovel.

[Dr_Snooz]

The oak is much happier now and is breaking out with little buds all over.