Tag: raised beds

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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”
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11/26/2023 experiment for new vegetable perennials

One plant protector clipped closed by a stainless steel clip. One open with all its cells filled with water. The plastic is a translucent pale aqua color.
After reading about “wall-o-waters” in a book about gardening in the Great Plains, we eventually noticed a similar product for sale in Ellison’s Feed & Seed called Season Starters and decided to give them a try. We got 3 in one pack for about $15. They’re like mini greenhouses using water for both insulation and stability in a series of cells. We clamped ours shut with the stainless steel clips we like for holding plastic on the hoops for the greens. We put them around some new plants we ordered from California (I’Itoi bunching onions, Florida Finley bunching onions, and society garlic which is not actually a garlic though in same family). They should be fine in our winter once they’re established, but they just arrived a week or two ago.
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11/05/2023 late but clearing for garlic

A series of seven raised beds edged by corrugated stainless steel and connected by three beige plastic trellises. A pile of holly branches in front, and some beds still having tomato cages covered in frost killed cowpea vines. One bed has hoops and plastic over it.
I got probably a total of three beds cleared (two halves and two wholes) for putting our garlic back in. I also moved some yaupon branches into the city compost bins (saving some to try making tea). I put a lot of cowpea seeds behind the yaupon holly in hopes that they’ll take over there next year. The rest of vine waste I set over south of the fourth bed to try to smother the invasive sedges and bermudagrass that keeps creeping in since we haven’t put ground covers there yet. We haven’t got the garlic in yet. But closer. Next year not letting cowpeas bury the raised beds.
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05/27/2023 front yard

The rainbow garden is almost there.
The winecups have gotten MASSIVE. I have never seen such mammoth winecup leaves in the wild.
A typical winecup with regular sized leaves. We saw this one today on our afternoon walk, at Saxon Park.
A view panning over to see the Salvia greggii and coreopsis too. All the white flowers in the raised beds are cilantro. If you’ve been looking at our iNaturalist feed, the cilantro flowers are hopping with insect activity.
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04/16/2023 veggie area ground covers

I’m trying to get various low growing plants to crowd out the introduced and annoying sedges around the raised veggie beds. The lyre leaf sage is great because other than its once a spring flower stalks it stays low and tough! It’s starting its spread. Paula saw the first lyre leaf sage bloom on April 9. I may have already posted that picture.
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12/22/2022 big cold and bigger wind

This screenshot from the Oklahoma Mesonet weather app shows that it is currently 7 degrees F with winds 28 mph from the north sustained, and gusting to 38 mph, though at some point the maximum for Norman was 49 mph. It will stay below freezing until at least Saturday.
Hmm Briar sees a dusting of snow. But she was willing to go out! Snow is ok. It doesn’t get in her ears like big rain.
The herb bed covering held. This is in a sheltered corner that faces east (picture windows) and south (plant window).
The cactus planter covering held. it looks like there are still some leaves with some snow on the native sprouting planters so that should be good.
In the front yard, my last minute sheets and concrete blocks covering of the rosemary held up.
The greens greenhouse did not. It was opened right up on the north edge. We had gusty winds up to 35 mph a week or two ago, but I don’t remember what direction it was. This sustained north wind peeled it right open. The plant leaves are frozen solid.
I put three gallon jugs of hot water in and secured the plastic sheeting in with twice as many or more clothespins. But, even though these greens are cold hardy, this may have been too much and too suddenly. We’ll find out on Sunday when things warm up.
Big wind pushed an empty rain barrel over. All the others were fine though empty (to prevent freezing damage) so this one was at just the right angle.
Snow outlined these frog stepping stones that Judy gave me.
I didn’t cover the strawberries this year. They already had a hard summer with heat and drought, so we’ll see how many make it through to spring.
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12/21/2022 solstice chill

My Persian friends celebrate Yaldā today, a holiday for the longest, darkest night of the year. Appropriately, tonight the temperature is plunging from the 40s F into the teens and single digits and we won’t unfreeze until probably Sunday!

No insulating blanket of snow is forecast (maybe just a few light flurries), so I moved a bunch of leaves from the patio onto the herb bed to especially protect my oregano and chives, which had a very rough time last winter. I put extra greenhouse plastic over it.
The finished covering.
I tucked the extra plastic around our cactus planter with more leaves, and piled some leaves on the containers with native plant seedlings in them. I suspect they will be fine but containers are not as protected as they would naturally be on the ground.