The Cherry Blossom Festival in town kicks off today. I went last year and enjoyed myself thoroughly. Despite the fact that it was absolutely gorgeous weather and everybody was out. The peak bloom is supposed to be towards the end of next week. We shall see if I brave the crowds.
Yesterday, I played in my yard. An outing to Home Depot netted 4 cubic feet of organic dirt, a garden fork and some insecticidal soap. I have had enough of the white flies on my hibiscus. After spraying the hibiscus, I got down to work. The birdbath garden. I had left the area covered with leaves all winter, but it did not really kill the grass. I guess a harder winter might have helped. So, I got down to work with stripping the area of grass. I am now thoroughly convinced that the "experts" that talk about rolling up grass are a) only talking about prelaid sod, b) haven't got a clue. The only area that came up easily was the moss. Such a shame too. That is gorgeous moss. But it's in the wrong area.
I did discover that I have an excellent worm population in my yard. And there is a little bit of topsoil under the grass. But that thin layer is overtop of yellow clay. I took quite awhile to pull up all the grass. I still need to dispose of it. Which is going to be a chore and a half, that sucker is heavy. Part of that is because the leaf covering kept it very moist. I also have idle thoughts of digging out the moss and trying to transplant it in various places, like the front yard and behind the shed.
Then I mixed in three cubic feet of organic dirt and got to mixing. The fourth bag is in reserve for the side bed, which I'll get around to much, much later. After all that, I played with the hose. There are various fittings that were not tightened properly in the hose house I got at Christmas, so I need to tear it all down again. But fortunately, one length of hose does reach to the bottom of the yard. I wetted down the freshly mixed earth (as well as the rest of my gardens, .04" of rain on the month is just not enough).
Then I let it sit over night. Today I need to transplant my peonies. They've suffered in their pots for long enough. I just hope I don't shock them too much.
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2 comments:
If you have room you can compost that grass. I de-sodded a flower bed last spring and when I finished I dumped the grass/dirt mix onto a plastic sheet behind the shed. I watered it well and layed another plastic sheet loosly over the top of it. It stayed in the shade but I checked on it a couple of times and it got quite warm. By the end of the summer there was no trace of the grass and the 'dirt' that remained was very loose and full of worms.
I do have a compost pile. Which I need to turn over in the next week. I was just worried that the grass might not die in the pile.
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