Well, it has been a hell of a year. Glad to be back on the forum. Battled COVID, moved into a new home, had a baby, started on a new yard. The sod has rooted and the yard is green and lumpy. A lot has happened and we have big big plans for this yard.
Continued to water over the summer matching the evapotranspiration rates listed online (https://texaset.tamu.edu/). The sod responded nicely. My water bill did not.
We had 3 Mexican White Oaks planted. These are native fast-growing evergreen shade trees that were planted to block the intense evening summer sun in our backyard and will allow us to enjoy a larger area of our yard which will eventually become our patio.
We had a fence installed. We have, literally, herds of deer roaming the neighborhood. They destroyed most of the plants in the front beds that were installed by our builder. We also tried planting some Crepe Myrtles but they will have to be moved behind the fence.
We roughly developed a landscaping design taking into account future patio plans.
Started cutting in the beds. We are using a "no dig method." You cut in the beds and pile on compost and mulch on top of either cardboard or paper to smother out the grass underneath. Paper tends to decompose faster and will hopefully allow us to plant later this spring.
This is the first of many deliveries of compost and mulch. We ordered 10 yards of mushroom compost. Smells more like cow patties. We have approximately 2K sqft of beds cut.
I have about 15-20 heads I either needed to relocate, cap, or change to drip. Unfortunately, many of these drips will share the zone with spray heads. I'll have to convert these at a later time. Another day, another project.
Continued to water over the summer matching the evapotranspiration rates listed online (https://texaset.tamu.edu/). The sod responded nicely. My water bill did not.
We had 3 Mexican White Oaks planted. These are native fast-growing evergreen shade trees that were planted to block the intense evening summer sun in our backyard and will allow us to enjoy a larger area of our yard which will eventually become our patio.
We had a fence installed. We have, literally, herds of deer roaming the neighborhood. They destroyed most of the plants in the front beds that were installed by our builder. We also tried planting some Crepe Myrtles but they will have to be moved behind the fence.
We roughly developed a landscaping design taking into account future patio plans.
Started cutting in the beds. We are using a "no dig method." You cut in the beds and pile on compost and mulch on top of either cardboard or paper to smother out the grass underneath. Paper tends to decompose faster and will hopefully allow us to plant later this spring.
This is the first of many deliveries of compost and mulch. We ordered 10 yards of mushroom compost. Smells more like cow patties. We have approximately 2K sqft of beds cut.
I have about 15-20 heads I either needed to relocate, cap, or change to drip. Unfortunately, many of these drips will share the zone with spray heads. I'll have to convert these at a later time. Another day, another project.