This corner has been a mess for a while. We have some “found with the house” pavers that the two bins usually live on. However, Bermudagrass, scourge of North America, always creeps between the pavers and into the buffalograss and rock-bordered bed to the left in the pictures. Here’s the transformation which took over a year at our pace.
Continue reading “Working corner: crushed rock path”Goodbye, bermudagrass
Hello, new beds and more buffalograss! Our plan has always been to gradually decrease the mowing area of the yard. Ideally before our third-hand ancient lawn mower dies. Which we successfully sold in late 2024. This post covers from 2024 to 2025, our first year without the lawn mower.
In conjunction with putting in the first of four new raised beds, we also determined we will move the Salvia greggii in front of the new raised beds so we stop having to trim them mid-summer to be able to access the vegetables in the existing raised beds. You’ve seen them in the new place in recent posts.
We also replaced all the grass and non native forbs between the Salvias and the curb with buffalograss. Since the salvias get a good 3 ft wide, this will leave a path about 4-5 ft wild at the curb for us to roll the garden cart along and people to get out at the curb if needed.
The triangles between the existing edging and the new raised beds have become beds with Antennaria (pussytoes), sensitive briar (Mimosa), Baptisia bracteata, and gramagrass.
We will probably keep irises by the mailbox. Since essentially no pollinators visit them, it makes the mailbox extra safe for any postal people who might have bee allergies or fears thereof. however, we’ve since dug them out and replant them to ensure it doesn’t become a refugia for Bermudagrass to attempt to re-colonize the yard.
Continue reading “Goodbye, bermudagrass”04/28/2025 tepary planting
More storms this week so I’m making an effort to put out the tepary beans.
Continue reading “04/28/2025 tepary planting”03/21/2025 wooly lip fern hardening off continues
Our baby ferns from spores!! Woolly lip fern (Cheilanthes tomentosa) theoretically should be fine in drier habitats, but these young plants have been very sensitive to removal of the container lid. So over the last few weeks I’ve been opening just a corner at a time to get them used to regular air without dying of shock. They curl up less and less each day with increasing exposure!
Continue reading “03/21/2025 wooly lip fern hardening off continues”Tomato season
All seedlings have been diligently protected from Shackleton the cat this year. We do not trust him after last year’s grazing incident.
Continue reading “Tomato season”02/08/2025 new rain lily!!!
The sun came out this afternoon so we were tempted away from our plant spreadsheets to move some friends around.
Continue reading “02/08/2025 new rain lily!!!”Baby fern “hardening off” to world
Hardening off is getting indoor grown plants ready for the big world. Sometimes for indoor seedlings I’ll put a fan on them to preview the experience of wind. These ferns haven’t got that treatment yet because we have them in a little container sealed for humidity, but I figured it was time to get them ready for a spring debut into the world.
Continue reading “Baby fern “hardening off” to world”09/25/2024 sunchokes in the compost area
Who made this compost area so fancy??
Continue reading “09/25/2024 sunchokes in the compost area”05/16/2024 tepary beans
As hoped, we got them seeded before rain. They’ve now had several inches of rain to support their summer growth!
Continue reading “05/16/2024 tepary beans”05/12/2024 infrastructure
We got more rain overnight and I needed to smooth out the disturbed soil near the house foundation where we recently got piers. While I had the hoe out, I scraped out some little drainage ditches to pull some water away from the porch.
Continue reading “05/12/2024 infrastructure”