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| Hi Everyone!
Fervent lurker,nervous poster here. I purchased a home in July with another small home in back for my dad to move into for his retirement. It is in the process of major remodeling for it to be "daddy-ready" so I have been frequenting the Home Site. That work is going well and finally on-schedule and now I am ready to turn my attention to what I have been itching to do: my yard! I was raised in Memphis with beautiful mature trees and beautiful outdoor spaces. I was "transplanted" to West Texas as a teenager where gorgeous yards don't come as easy, especially with our recent dire drought conditions. My yard consists of irrigated broad leaf fescue, vinca beds with boxwoods and (happy sigh) the best yard full of beautiful, mature trees in our small town, by my immodest opinion. :) I have a row of five 40-year old pine trees right on the property line (detested by the next door neighbors), a live oak, another oak (big acorns with fuzzy hats), a white locust, 2 elms, a maple and a black locust that produces huge amounts of 6 inch curly black beans. The house was empty for over a year and the previous owners paid someone to mow the fescue. The vinca beds are struggling. I think because there was about 8 inches of pine needles, whole leaves and such built up over the soil. I have raked these beds and have the resulting matter and tons of newly fallen leaves, pine needles, acorns, pine cones, curly beans, and grass clippings. What is my best plan of action for mulching the beds and dealing with all this stuff my yard produces? Can I chop it up all together with the mower and mulch the beds with it? I don't want to add to the landfill and I want to do the best thing this fall to ready for spring. I'm so excited to have the yard of my dreams but pretty overwhelmed! |
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| Oh! I'm excited for you! Where do you plan to locate the compost pile? Hint, hint. |
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| More than likely those 8 inches of leaves on those beds helped hold soil moisture that would be very lacking in your area now from the drought. You can, and should, shred them as soon as possible and return them to those beds before any more soil moisture is lost. You can use your mower, very carefully, to shred them. |
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| While you can use your mower, I wouldn't personally. I think the acorns and pine cones would be awfully hard on the blades. Not to mention a number of times I've had acorns shoot out of the machine and could have done some serious damage had someone been nearby. If that's all you've got right now then by all means use your mower but I would think about investing in a chipper. With all those trees you'll probably need one eventually for the limbs that can come down from old age or wind storms. I applaud you for wanting to keep your organics on your property and not send to the landfill. That's how my husband and I think as well. Unfortunately, in our town that's not the case with most of the people. They're used to burning all their leaves :-( Val |
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- Posted by novascapes none (My Page) on Sun, Nov 6, 11 at 7:13
| More than likely the vinca beds are suffering due to lack of care over the last vacant year. Both in lack of water and proper nutrition. It could also be that there is to much shade. I agree with putting the mulch (pine needles) back. Have your soil tested. Add the ammendments required as per test. ( ask questions on the soils and compost subject heading) Time the abount of light, Direct sun and shade. Draw up a plan for planting as per your conditions. (Ask questions on the landscape design subject heading) Get suggestions from the most knowledable person you can find in your area. And most importantly, stay on this site and keep learning. I didn't know pine trees would even grow in west Texas. Seems out of place to me. |
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| I did remulch the beds yesterday using shredded leaves and pine needles. I excluded the pinecones and acorns until I have a proper chipper. The vinca beds are actually irrigated, I didn't make that clear in my original post. And I forgot to list my biggest pine tree. It's at least 50 ft tall with a 52" trunk and sheds tons of needles. I'm not sure why pine trees seem out of place? I could throw a stone into New Mexico and it would probably hit a pine tree. I am working 12-14 hour days right now (it will change in the Spring and I will have more gardening time) and was just hoping for some good advice on the simplest way to protect the beds for Winter using what my yard already produces. I'm not actually dumb as a rock. I was using humorous exaggeration as a way of acknowledging that I have a lot to learn from those of you that know much. Polite people usually don't interpret that as an invitation for condescension. I do thank y'all kindly for the useful bits. |
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| Polite people usually don't interpret that as an invitation for condescension. Ouch! Val PS - Apologies if anything I wrote seemed condescending. If you knew me, you'd know that's the farthest thing from my mind...honest. |
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| I sincerely apologize for inferring anything not implied. I might be a bit touchy from the probably well-meaning advice of locals. West Texas is not an easy place to implement greener landscape methods. I am hoping to be a good example. |
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- Posted by springlift34 8 (My Page) on Wed, Nov 9, 11 at 22:21
| And the point has been announced. The internet has a vast amount of information. However, words can easily be misunderstood, since we are human, and the computer is a computer. Btw, I am not a fundamentalist christian. Long live Bill Hicks, |
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