Monday, March 14, 2011

Our Backyard - Before and After Phase I

After moving in last July, Mr. CP and I had so much on our plates,we neglected our backyard.  In the beginning, that just meant some grass-like weeds that grew a little high and unpruned trees.  But, after the winter rains, tons of oxalis plants started to sprout up everywhere.  I'm not a neat freak, but the sight of our messy yard was starting to drive me nuts.
Our lemon tree
The back of the yard overrun with oxalis
A rose bush which needs pruning next to a dead rosemary tree
Another shot from the back of the yard
I started to look at my gardening services options on Craigslist and yelp.  Some gardeners have flat hourly rate while others charge a package fee for a job.  Our job was mainly weeding and pruning, so I figured finding someone with some experience would be good, but I didn't need to pay extra for tons of experience.   We opted to try out a method called sheet mulching which involves laying down paper or cardboard over the weeds and then mulch on top of that rather than hand weeding the entire yard.  Below are the "after" photos for phase I of the project - sheet mulching the beds.
The lemon trees sans weeds

The rosemary bush has been removed
The Japanese Maple has been removed from the back bed and placed into a wine barrel planter
It's quite a transformation for one day of work! We think it looks great.

Phase II will involve mulching the back of the yard and pruning the various trees and bushes.

1 comments:

Laura said...

I think you should grow a lot more flowering low-growers or vegetables. I actually liked the green of the oxalis more than the mulch! You know, you can eat oxalis? It's supposedly lemony flavored. I think I ate similar plants in our backyard when I was a kid. Someone told me they were edible and I think I ate them.

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