Die bermuda grass, die!
Apr. 1st, 2005 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sugarplumkittyOn Monday, I cleared most of the regular grasses out of the iris bed. On Tuesday, I was in a lot of pain from the unaccustomed exercise. It faded a bit by Wednesday and was gone yesterday.
This morning, I opened the front door to let Scamperdoo go bask in the sunshine and decided to pick up the newspaper. There's a long list of things I need to get done, but the front garden bed was choked in bermuda grass and it called to me. The soil in that bed isn't our native stuff. We dug down six inches and replaced it with bagged soil so azaleas would have a chance of survival. I put a plastic liner along the edge to separate the new soil from the bermuda grass infested lawn. When I kept it up, it was fine. But during my big bad depression, I didn't garden at all. Several years of neglect has allowed the bermuda grass to invade the bed. I spent at least half an hour, maybe longer, pulling the strands out and digging out the roots with my bare hands. The soil is so soft it's a joy to handle. It was just damp enough and warm from the sun to be easy to work with. While I was untangling the strands from the New Zealand tea tree next to the porch, I managed to deeply scratch my wrist without noticing until a big blotch of blood was formed. I also didn't notice the hangnails that were forming on some of my fingers until I washed the dirt off and scrubbed them with a nail brush. Actually, I didn't pay attention to the hangnails until I started scrubbing the stove with a bleach based cleaner and they stung. Now they're quite sore.
I'm pretty happy with the garden bed though. It's the sunny bed in the front yard. The azaleas died in this bed and have been replaced by sweet alyssium, red cannas and some kind of bulb Eric got at work years ago when they commemorated the beginning of something by handing them out. The cannas were in a big pot for years. I transplanted them to the garden last year and between the choking bermuda grass and the snails eating them, they never bloomed. Happily, they survived anyway and are sprouting again. I guess I'd better bait the snails. Maybe we'll get some flowers this year. One corner of the bed is filled with "pregnant onion" plants. I didn't really want them there, but one I had in a pot dropped some babies down in there and the rest is history. It's right by the faucet. With our old old pipes, there's a slow leak in the ground and everything in that corner is flourishing. My arms gave out before I got to that one section. The cannas are free. That was my goal. I even dug down into the soil to get as many bermuda grass roots as possible.
I'm happy with what I got done today.
This morning, I opened the front door to let Scamperdoo go bask in the sunshine and decided to pick up the newspaper. There's a long list of things I need to get done, but the front garden bed was choked in bermuda grass and it called to me. The soil in that bed isn't our native stuff. We dug down six inches and replaced it with bagged soil so azaleas would have a chance of survival. I put a plastic liner along the edge to separate the new soil from the bermuda grass infested lawn. When I kept it up, it was fine. But during my big bad depression, I didn't garden at all. Several years of neglect has allowed the bermuda grass to invade the bed. I spent at least half an hour, maybe longer, pulling the strands out and digging out the roots with my bare hands. The soil is so soft it's a joy to handle. It was just damp enough and warm from the sun to be easy to work with. While I was untangling the strands from the New Zealand tea tree next to the porch, I managed to deeply scratch my wrist without noticing until a big blotch of blood was formed. I also didn't notice the hangnails that were forming on some of my fingers until I washed the dirt off and scrubbed them with a nail brush. Actually, I didn't pay attention to the hangnails until I started scrubbing the stove with a bleach based cleaner and they stung. Now they're quite sore.
I'm pretty happy with the garden bed though. It's the sunny bed in the front yard. The azaleas died in this bed and have been replaced by sweet alyssium, red cannas and some kind of bulb Eric got at work years ago when they commemorated the beginning of something by handing them out. The cannas were in a big pot for years. I transplanted them to the garden last year and between the choking bermuda grass and the snails eating them, they never bloomed. Happily, they survived anyway and are sprouting again. I guess I'd better bait the snails. Maybe we'll get some flowers this year. One corner of the bed is filled with "pregnant onion" plants. I didn't really want them there, but one I had in a pot dropped some babies down in there and the rest is history. It's right by the faucet. With our old old pipes, there's a slow leak in the ground and everything in that corner is flourishing. My arms gave out before I got to that one section. The cannas are free. That was my goal. I even dug down into the soil to get as many bermuda grass roots as possible.
I'm happy with what I got done today.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 05:29 pm (UTC)i've a corner to clean out in my itty bitty front yard plot and i'm still searching for something local yet good smelling with flowers and pretty if possible.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 07:44 pm (UTC)i was born in so cal and lived there till i moved away six years ago...
jasmine. jasmine was my best friend in cali
:)
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-04 04:14 pm (UTC)that are prescious thoughts girl.