Land Update

[rachelmanija]

It's way too hot but my land is beautiful. I FINALLY managed to get some California native wildflowers growing from seed, so my goal of replacing most non-native plants with natives is proceeding nicely. I have beautiful patches and strips of pink and white and blue and purple and yellow flowers, some ruffled, some intricate as a Faberge egg, most no bigger than my thumbnail.

My nectarine sapling, my tomatoes, and my corn is growing very well - I have actual unripe nectarines! Very exciting. Even if something other than me ends up eating them this year, I now know that both grow well in the areas I put them.

I didn't finish my defensible space goals before going to Europe, so I'm continuing now. It's a ton of work even though obviously I'm not doing everything they recommend. I live in a forest, I'm committed to rewilding so I'm not raking leaves in the forest areas, and my deck is going to have deck furniture or what's the point?

But I'm doing everything I can, focusing on removing dead weeds, raking paths and other areas with nothing that's supposed to grow on them anyway to create firebreaks, and creating as much of an ember break as I can within the five-foot zone. Unfortunately the only cherry tree branches I can reach to pick the cherries are right up against and over the deck. Still pondering that one. I'm going to consult an arborist anyway so I'll ask about that.

All the leaves, branches, etc, are getting dumped on an ivy-covered downward slope ending in a fence. This is an area which I want to fill in anyway, to smother the ivy and create an area where I can grow... something. It's in dense shade and not easy to reach with a hose so I'm thinking shade-growing native plants.

I have another huge ivy patch I covered in cardboard over a year ago to smother it. I need to cover the cardboard in mulch, then in dirt. Once that's done, I will only have four giant ivy patches remaining, down from the eight or so I started with.

This is half an acre and I'm the only person working on it till I get the arborist involved, so it's a fairly jaw-dropping amount of work. Luckily it's work I enjoy, though I'd enjoy it more if it was cooler.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

Sounds fantastic. So glad your house and its environs got through the incredible snow storm and you are back to enjoying.

[rachelmanija]

ME TOO. I am really hoping we don't get a repeat this year.

[aelfgyfu_mead]

it's a fairly jaw-dropping amount of work
It sounds like it! But it sounds like you're getting some good results already with the plantings.

[rachelmanija]

I am! I'm babying them through the heat so I can get them to the point of going to seed, at which point they should start reproducing on their own.

[qian]

Oh, does one get rid of ivy by smothering it? That's interesting. We have a lot of ivy in our (comparatively tiny) garden and we pulled out a bunch a couple of years ago, but obviously (as we only do gardening, like, twice a year) it's all come back and is worse than ever ...

[rachelmanija]

Ivy is really hard to get rid of. I did pull some up but gave myself tendonitis doing so, so I'm now sticking to smothering and only yanking stray bits that creep from an otherwise cleared area. I left cardboard on top of it for over a year and it's still growing underneath! I think dumping mulch over the cardboard, then dirt over the mulch, then planting on that will get rid of it but who knows.

[qian]

I hope your multi-step smothering process works!

[komadori]

Yay for growing native wildflowers!

[rachelmanija]

The most rewarding environmental action!

[sartorias]

I can picture how great it looks!

[sovay]

I have actual unripe nectarines! Very exciting.

That is extremely cool.

[loligo]

Normally I'm not a fan of videos on social media, but there's a guy on Instagram who rhapsodizes about California native plants in an exaggerated surfer accent and I laugh (and learn something) every time he posts. I think his username is Sacramento Food Forest.

[kass]

This is all wow.

[yhlee]

Oh, that sounds so beautiful! I am sad that it seems unlikely I will ever be able to sit outside on my patio again given the nonstop heat warnings. :]

[lilacsigil]

Nectarines off the tree are amazing! My parents had a great nectarine tree at the house where I grew up, but every year we'd go stay with my grandparents for three weeks over summer, and every year, no matter which time we chose, that's when the majority of the nectarines ripened! Even the smaller number either side of that were amazing, though.

[minoanmiss]

Awesome! I delight in gardening tales and this is a lovely one indeed.

[lydamorehouse]

It's so hard to do any kind of garden work when its hot. It sounds like amazing projects. I wish you the best of luck!

[oracne]

When I was a kid and teenager, we had a big yard, and I found yardwork to be very soothing. But less so in the summer when mosquitoes were out.

[lokifan]

That's so cool!!! Especially the wildflowers and the firebreaks etc. I'm so impressed!