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Necrosis' (Not-so) Secret Garden

11K views 53 replies 10 participants last post by  Necrosis 
#1 ·
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.
 
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#3 ·




Gave the front yard it's first scalp of the season. Somehow it looks more green after the scalp.

I don't have much lawn in the front. Debating taking down both live oak trees in the front. They are a pain to mow around, are low quality, and don't add much I think.... what are y'all's thoughts? Keep them or dig them up?
 
#9 ·
Lots of progress in the yard this weekend. I scalped the rest of the yard and put down my prodiamine at a 6mo rate. Cut several beds and then moved about 2,000sqft of compost. I need to add more hardwood mulch on top to finish it up. After a lot of back breaking work, I'm probably going to hire it out.













 
#14 ·
Busy weekend update. Finally got some hardwood mulch down. About 10 yards. Planted a redbud and move a crepe myrtle to the backyard. The beds are ready for more plants!









In addition, I put down some insecticides, got my first app of starter fertilizer down, and did some post-emergent control. I will likely need another app in 2 weeks. Lots of sedge...
 
#17 ·






Got a notification from our utility company that our water was on for 48 hours continuously. Took a while but found the leak near the water meter...... honestly it should have been the first place to look. Regardless, the area around my meters has sunken considerably. It's already the biggest eyesore of the front lawn. We had some plumbers fix the pipe near the main line. I will be filling the hole back in. This time I'd like to get the utility boxes level. I hate that I have so many. Let me know if you have encountered this before.
 
#18 ·
Took advantage of the leak and rearranged some valve boxes. I got rid of a redundant box and leveled (as best I could) the top of the utility boxes using a 2x6 to find the best slope. Filled the bottom with pea gravel, replaced the dirt and topped with sand. Unfortunately, the entire area has sunk some. Which will mean I'll likely have to raise the boxes over time as I level the yard.





 
#20 ·
Finished the beds on the other side of the house. Planted some roses and pride of barbados. Had some left over compost from the delivery and did a little leveling of the front lawn just before we got a gully washer.







In other news. Had an absolute weed explosion in the back yard after mulching with the mower last week. Not sure if the freeze messed with the PreEmergent but I'll be looking into a 3 preE schedule this year to minimize the damage. Might have to start taking round up to the crab that found it's way through. What do you guys use for your preE schedule?

 
#21 ·
No pics of the yard today. Just wanted to document that I've laid down my first dose of PGR, imidacloprid, and another dose of celsius. I see it working on the early crabgrass. I'm going to give it another week or so and if it doesn't clear up the glyphosate is coming out to play.

Enjoy pictures of the new bonsai!



Also, anyone knows what this lilly-like ground cover is? I'm digging it.

 
#22 ·
Just wanted to give an end of the season update.



Finally got that shed built and we started on some garden beds. Eventually we will put up some posts and hang some more formal shade netting.



We removed the trees in the front and installed stone around our garden beds. The one on the left is now significantly larger.



The backyard plants are growing like gang busters. Really happy with how everything is coming along.









What an absolute unit.



Ready for the offseason!
 
#23 ·
The lawn never went fully dormant this year. Soil temperatures have been above 55 degrees through December. I'm a little late getting down my Prodiamine 6mo application. I'm thinking of doing a fall app later in the year this year to take me through the spring scalp. I'm planning to scalp probably around mid March. Because of this I'm looking for additional PreE coverage with a chemical that has a different mechanism of action. If you recommend anything that pairs well with prodiamine let me know.







 
#26 ·
I had a lot of Bermuda pressure into the beds given the minimal amount of plants I had planted. While waiting for the grass to green I re-edged all of the beds and planted several plants. Here I started Ajuga (bronze beauty and chocolate chip), Aucuba, and some Lantana.



I added a banana plant next to the old Pride of Barbados.



On the North wall, I planted a Coral Bark Japanese Maple. It gets mostly shade as the leaves are very sensitive to direct sun.



In addition, I planted a Cape Honeysuckle which will likely take up a large amount of this garden space. We also added a Duranta and some Artemisia Powis Castle. I moved the orange Pride of Barbados to the side and will watch to see how it does.



If you were wondering what that plant was that I previously mentioned earlier in the post it was unflowered Nasturtium - which we also added to the corner bed.



I had a lot of space to fill in our main back bed. I have several plants I'm trying here including a couple of trailing lantana, multiple Plumbagoes, mistflower for my wife (she loves the pollinators), and Fall Aster in the shady regions. We also planted some Elephant Ear and some Bird of Paradise. I ran more drip tubing to water everything and then I mulched away!











I then scalped the yard. Every year I have a ton of grass clippings. For several months we have been attempting to compost these clippings with the leaf matter we collect as well as scraps from our kitchen. It seems to be going well. I'll keep you posted.

 
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