I hear you, featherlou - and like I said I do like being outside. I’d much rather do this stuff than go to the gym. I think maybe for me, living squarely inside if a decent suburban neighborhood, where everyone can very plainly see my yard, that I feel like all eyes are on me until it all looks right. Granted, my neighbors are awesome and never say anything about it - except that they are really pleased with what I’ve done so far, due to the sorry landscaping of the past 20 years - but you know, my yard is my outward expression of myself to my neighbors. I don’t want them to think I am ugly!
And…why DOES everything involve so much shovelling? I own four shovels! Who knew?
I’m thinking of putting crushed shell or gravel in the front part of my yard because I am on a busy street and backing out of the driveway is difficult so I turn around in my front yard and driveway in order to be able to pull out easier. The problem is that it is now killing the grass is a small swath at the front of the lawn. There is just not enough room in my driveway to completely turn around without using the lawn. I was thinking of shell for the front part and then xeriscaping the rest of the front yard so there is less actual lawn to deal with. I’m not sure how it will look though but it has to look better than what it does now.
I’m single and in the same boat. I keep the lawn mowed, but I don’t worry too much about the rest. I have things like lilacs and peonies that don’t require planting. I love flowers, but I don’t have the money or the inclination to actually maintain flowerbeds. I’m fortunate that I live in the country and no one will say a word if the grass gets long or there’s a tear in the screening on the front screendoor.
Do what you enjoy, and learn to live with some disorder.
I’ve planted tomatoes in grass with a post hole digger after mowing the grass. The tomatoes plop down into the hole and I fill with soil. Just trim down the grass and weeds if it gets high. tomatoes can take the competition and win. Peppers can do the same to a lesser degree. Lay down plastic sheeting or landscape cloth on sod and anchor it. Slice x’s in the plastic. Dig a hole at the slit and plant the pepper. You can use the plastic or landscape cloth method on the tomatoes and other vigorous plants. You can use the same method on less aggressive plants if you till the soil but leave the weeds mixed in the soil. You only need pull the the couple large weeds that come up through the slit. That’s the method if you are out of time and can’t waste it making the soil weedless. Putting in plants is necessary as seeds sprouting can get trapped by the barrier.
Thanks for the tip, Harmonious Discord. I’ve got half a roll of landscape fabric left over from doing the stone for drainage around my foundation. I’ll definitely try that.
While i’m ranting…
!@#$%^&* glacial till! Anything that involves digging usually involves moving boulders, as the last glacier to come through this area stopped and dropped everything it had on my property. Using a rototiller is a special treat, as it just tills the top inch or two then bounces off boulders. It took me 4 hours to prep a 2’ x 8’ planting bed for my carots and such alternating between the rototiller, shovel, and pry bar.
For the northern areas, a lawn mower sized gravel picker for the lawn, would be the greatest invention since the combine. The snow plow gravel is worse than the snow.
With the high traffic, maybe driveways should have turntables like the rail yard.
It sounds like the glaciated drift areas of Wisconsin. Every year the farmers have to pick rocks, and some are not going to move. One nice thing is the drift can have anything in it, and I have found some great mineral and fossil samples doing the stone boating in spring. I always have hopes of finding a good sized diamond. The Eagle Diamond of Wisconsin.
Yeah, the soil here is one of the reasons I’m raising hogs. I’m working them before I eat them! They’ll push rocks up to the surface and even root out stumps if you drive a hole with a pry bar and throw in some corn. Then you just roll the rocks onto a stone boat (I use an old car hood) and haul them away. I always pause to look at quartz when I come across it to see if there is any gold in it. Haven’t found any yet. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for diamonds!
We have the same problem in Calgary, but you guys can imagine my surprise when I started digging out my car pad in the back yard and discovered almost three feet of topsoil!!! When I dug out a vegetable patch in our previous yard, we had the usual two to three inches of topsoil, then clay and rocks (which makes for some funny-looking carrots). I still have a pile of topsoil in the back yard that I might have no use for - it almost makes me want to make more beds or something. I hate to let good topsoil go to waste.
I live on 10 acres and I’m going it alone again. It’s a rehab job – after 10 years of backsliding I got it leveled out last year and now it’s actually starting to heal. Sad news: the main house’s 3HP lawn pump failed yesterday and I took it apart, called tech support, told them the vintage and they said replace it. I’m only cowering indoors because as I drove up with the new pump to size out the electrical box, a whole lot of lightning lit up in the (near) distance. So it’s wind and squalls. Great, the horses will be a little mean tomorrow for the farrier.
Two houses, 2 acres of turf, one half acre of beds with roses and annuals, 6+ acres of pasture irrigated by gated pipe. Plus my little veg operation. Big year for us.
I got some laughs at GJ Pipe today when I picked up my new pump plus all the fixins. It was a good chunk of money and they were thankful. “Don’t thank me,” I said “I’m just here to give you a little economic stimulus.”
Not a bad day in all. Praying for rain so I can take the pressure off the lawn watering at the main house. Please rain? Please?
Ahem…anyway, I found I had a helper yesterday. Not quite as good as a pig pushing rocks up a hill, but my dog TOTALLY was fixated on getting up a huge root I was struggling with. It worked out great because she’s low to the ground and strong, so she pulled while I dug around it. Came right out. Good doggy!
