native plants | What Rhymes with Stanza?

If we were having coffee, I’d suggest we sit outside. If you bring a jacket, it’s warm enough to enjoy the sunshine. I’d show you my lawn, which isn’t much to look at right now. I don’t use herbicides or pesticides, so the lawn is mostly au natural weeds, moss and clover. At least it’s green.

But I have plans.

My ultimate goal is to do away with most of the lawn. I’ve planted some native species of shrubs that I’m hoping will take hold and help block the view of the six foot high concrete wall that runs along two sides of my yard.

Don’t get me wrong… I love the wall. I value my privacy very highly. I just don’t enjoy looking at the wall. I’m hoping the native plants will thrive and spread (in a semi-controlled manner). Right now that seems like a very long-range plan. When I ordered the plants at a County Soil and Water Conservation District sale, I envisioned getting a heavy flat of green, jaunty little bushes full of life and vibrancy. Okay, maybe a bit unrealistic given it was February.

What I found waiting for me on pick-up day was a little handful of twigs with a few straggly roots attached. Really?!? I paid money for this?? I could have gotten its equivalent by plucking sticks out of my rain gutter!

Nonetheless, I stuck the little twigs in the ground and hoped for the best. Now, a month and a half later, they are actually sprouting a bit of green. So I have hope.

Another part of the plan for this year is to lay out walkways using wood chips over cardboard. I had some wood chips delivered back in November, and the pile has been sitting just outside of my concrete wall since then. The neighbor kids used it to slide down in the snow, and I’ve had two individuals come by and offer to take the chips off my hands. I would rather they take the neighbor kids, but that’s another story.

Anyway, it’s time to take Chules on a walk, and then take inventory of my kitchen remodel project. It would be great to be done with that project by the end of this month. Maybe I’ll make that a goal.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your week!

#WeekendCoffeeShare is graciously hosted by Emily at NerdintheBrain.com.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that my demolition activities have now extended from do-it-yourself house projects to the great outdoors. Since realizing that the majority of my yard consists of plants that are designated as weeds and invasive plant species in my county and state, I’ve decided to take on the challenge of converting my lawn into – well, something other than lawn.

Granted, the plan is a bit vague at this point, but I bought a book , Lawn Gone! Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard by Pam Penick, that may or may not be helpful (I haven’t gotten very far into reading it yet; I’ll let you know), but the title is promising.

I’m going to demolish my lawn and, as time, money, weather, health and personal inclination allow, turn it into something that doesn’t bring the term “noxious” into play.

So far, using photos from online publications, I think I’ve identified the following “weeds” in my yard: thistle (multiple varieties), Japanese knotweed, blackberry, St. John’s wort, sticky weed (catch weed), groundsel, dandelion, deadnettle, English ivy, London rocket, roberts geranium, wild carrot, prostrate knotweed, fox tail, cheat grass, and morning glory.

Obviously, there’s little room left for regular ol’ grass.

My goal is to use only organic methods of plant control, and try to use primarily materials and plant species native to my region to replace the lawn. I’m pretty sure that AstroTurf is native to this area. Or not…

If we were having coffee, I’d note that now I have dallied here so long, it’s too hot to go out and work on my grand landscaping project. Maybe I’ll just sit in the cool and read about how to get my lawn gone.

Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to pull some weeds on your way out. Bonus points for the “invasive” species.

Thanks to Diana at PartTimeMonsterBlog.com for hosting the #weekendcoffeeshare.

What Rhymes with Stanza?

Words at rest, words at play

Tag Archives: native plants