'Hell strip' makeover

Landscaping the 'Hell strip'

One of my gardening projects has been to remove the grass from the front yard. While it looks lovely when the grass is green, summer turns the grass a dried-out brown.  There are many great ideas on the internet about landscaping with little to no grass. 

 

 Goal: 

Transform that awkward strip between the sidewalk and the road (aka the hell strip) by planting drought tolerant plants, creating areas to place the garbage cans, and using a visually interesting design.

Warning: getting rid of the grass is a time-consuming, sore-muscles project.  We decided not to go for the larger dumpster (costly) and have relied weekly on the kind neighbors who have let us use their yard waste bins.  Our strip is 50ft long and 3.5 ft wide.  It may not seem like much but each week it took 3 bins to remove a 3-4ft x 3.5 foot section.  The bins get too heavy to move if there is more!

Process:

1. Search the internet for ideas!
2. Measure the strip area
3. Draw up a yard plan with potential ideas and shapes
4. Start removing the grass
5. Determine what areas are going to be for garbage cans
6. Pay neighbor to bring all the remaining rocks to the front yard from previous pond area in back
7. Get supplies as needed
8. Start putting in the design
9. Look at it from all angles, look some more, move plants around, look at it lots more, wave back at the drivers who are watching you work.

Supplies:

1. High quality barrier fabric. Don't stint on this, most fabrics in hardware stores only last a year if that.
2. garden or landscape staples - again, be aware that there are poor quality ones out there. My first ones started rusting with just brief exposure to the air, the second batch - much better!
3. rock and more rock
4. bark (purchased bulk by the sq yard)
5. garden soil (purchased bulk by the sq yard)
6. mint mulch for color contrast (and it smells so good too!)
7. plants - mostly they were transplanted from other locations in the yard.

Ordered from www.amazon.com

Sandbaggy 500-Count Landscape Staples ~ SOD Staples, Garden Stakes, Square Pins
Dewitt 3-by-100-Feet 4.1-Ounce 20-Year Weed Barrier Fabric  

There is still a good 15 feet to finish but it should be fun.

I hope this inspires you!

In-ground firepit design update

Designing around the firepit...

Last year I was so excited that I had been able to add sod around the firepit!  My vision was a soft, green walkable surround. This sadly, did not quite work as planned.  It seems sometime over the winter the sod got infested with grubs (gross!) and just started dying out.  Sigh.  So I started looking online and decided to go with a rock design (see earlier post).

It has taken about 6 months to finally put in the 1st rock but I am thrilled with the preliminary results.  All stone is from http://www.pacificstonescape.com/home.

The divider is a great product that I have used all over my yard called Easyflex No-Dig Edging. It's available at most major stores and Amazon but you will need additional spikes or garden anchor staples.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKqVc8lApsk

I encourage you to let your creativity out!

Year One - changes and improvements

While there is no doubt that a low-maintenance yard can be appealing to some and certainly at different stages in life- I like to think I'll be able to work for at least another 20+ years before I have to tone down the workload. In the meantime, so much fun creating and changing! Front yard and back yard changes since home purchase 2013

The BACKYARD - NOVEMBER 2014

There is still lots to do! Re-level the water tanks (there was some soil compression) We hope to build a greenhouse in the next two years and enlarge the garden beds. Bamboo fencing is sitting in my living room waiting to be placed in front of the water tanks and cedar chips remain on the driveway needing to be moved somewhere in the backyard.

Below are some pre-purchase images for comparison - the firepit above is located where the pond below used to be.

 Here's hoping that next year is as successful!

Building the in-ground firepit

Closer to finished

 We really love out firepit.  It is large enough to get a good fire (3 foot diameter) , deep enough to protect from embers and the stone and brick around it also provide good protection from ash and embers.  Testing it out has been great fun. I have planted thyme between the stone and brick that is entirely steppable and we have added a grill across one side.

So here's the thing about an in-ground firepit.  If you don't fill in the hole properly or compact the soil completely- it won't stay level.  Also, if the blocks are placed on the lip of the metal ring - there isn't anyway to adjust it after the fact.  And there is NO way I'm digging this back out of the ground to get it level.  The North side is just going to sink.  oh well.

The original pond was 10 x 10 x 4.5 feet deep
the smell as we drained it was AWFUL. The pond was listed as a selling point of the house when we bought it last year (9/2013) but it was not part of the master plan.  Too much work for me to maintain.

As you can see, 1/2 the firepit is built on a ledge of the pond and 1/2 the pit is on fill. As a result, it settled on the north edge as the soil and rock compacted into the bottom of the pit.

The ring is from the local Coastal Farm and Ranch , http://www.coastalfarm.com/

The block is from another part of the yard that now holds the water tanks.

The rings sits on a circle of brick on top of 2 inches of gravel and the inside is filled with another 3 inches of gravel.

My Husband in one of his sillier moments.  Halloween 2013

After filling in the hole, I tried out various ideas for what to do around the pit.  I finally settled on using the stone from the original pond and scavanging rock that had been around the pond as well.  I then added the brick border to keep grass from growing into the small rock.
You can see that grass is in the process of being transplanted to fill in around the pit and eventually the Thyme will grow in as well.

Fun with water barrels!

So the next step in the roof rain collection has happened - I bought the barrels.
The first steps:
1. figuring out where to put them
2. figuring out how many I would need
3. finding clean, food grade barrels for a reasonable cost
4. getting them delivered

The 275 gallon tanks ($125 each) will eventually have some sort of fencing in front of them -- probably bamboo -  and shade cloth over the top to prevent growth inside the tanks. Water from the roof will run through PVC along the fence into the tanks.

The smaller 55-gallon tanks ($20 each) will be set close to the house
 on blocks with a single access point either from a rain chain or downspout.

Here are some links for sites that have been helpful in putting together my water collection plan:
(I am not necessarily going to use these exact plans - I will post what I use)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYTNciCplmw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUhox1ORlRk&feature=related

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-275-Gallon-Rainwater-Collection/?ALLSTEPS

http://www.irrigationtutorials.com/drip-gravity.htm

http://www.dripirrigation.com/drip_irrigation_chapters/25/drip_irrigation_pages/40