A green thumb I do not have. We try so hard to make our yard look nice but every year almost everything we buy craps out on us and dies. So, this year, I'm debating doing something else...but what? I'm tired of sinking money into the yard to just have it be boo boo. I'm up for any suggestions!! You can see the two lonely bushes that have survived in the last 4 years...but they are slowly dying. I've ripped out the rest of the nasty but left them for a slow, painful death.
1) Should we rip out the flower bed since it's in a weird spot anyway (the sidewalk is NEXT to our house instead of the flowers...random) and try to grow grass
2) Dig up all of the soil and try to put good, new soil in it and try again with the plants
3) Fill it up with rocks/gravel and make a rock garden
4) Do nothing and just let it look awful
5) Other: ________________
1) Should we rip out the flower bed since it's in a weird spot anyway (the sidewalk is NEXT to our house instead of the flowers...random) and try to grow grass
7 comments:
Here are my suggestions:
1. Tearing it all out would be a lot of work, and who likes work? Even if it is in sort of a weird spot... :)
2. I'm a fan of rock areas. You'd probably have to still dig up some of the soil so that there's 1/2 inch to an inch deep of space for the rocks. And you'd have to put down that thick plastic tarp stuff so that you don't get weeds poking up through the rocks.
3. You could rent/borrow a tiller and just till up the soil and till in a little bit of fertilizer and better soil. That might help.
4. We've had great success with planting bushes and trees in the fall instead of the Spring. In the Spring they don't have time to get their roots established before it gets scorching hot and then you have to water like crazy, and inevitably over-water and kill something. So IF you want a nice garden area with more plants, here's what I'd do. Wait until September, till it up, plant a few things, and then put down some bark or mulch (or even rocks) or something as a nice ground cover. Also, if you plant in the fall you can plant bulb flowers like tulips and daffodils and crocuses and they'll come up in the Spring.
When we moved into our house and redid the landscaping we dug out all the dirt in the beds and bought a truck load of new pretty brown dirt( it was like $75 a truck load. We had a lot of success growing flowers and bushes. I am no green thumb either but our beds were rocks upon rocks.
If you do anything, I would keep only small plants. It will be hard walking on your sidewalk with big bushes. Rock bed could be pretty too and you could buy a few really large rocks to make it look cool.
We did what Alissa did at our old house as well with bringing it good soil and our beds did really well. Do you use your side walk since it's in a weird place? I would say if it doesn't get used you could plant some good ground cover and some begonias(they last through the scorching heat and I have no green thumb either.) Then, you can put some cute planters and big pots of plants and such filling in along your side walk. Just a thought!
2 words: Monkey Grass. It comes it different colors, kinds, and you cannot kill it. And it spreads and it pretty almost all year round.
I don't have a green thumb either, so we bit the bullet early on and hired a landscaper who guarantees all of his plants/trees for TWO years. TWO YEARS! And he has had to replace quite a few, but at no cost to us. If they are still living after two years, they are probably going to make it. And the landscaper was not as expensive as I feared... it was worth it to have someone else do the dirty work and then promise that it would live, or else. Plus, he designed the landscaping so it didn't look stupid. Like what I would have done.
I think you should do one of the two:
1. Plant some trees/bushes in there and do what Alyson said, do it in the fall.
2. Rip out the flowerbed and put some medium height small trees in pots in front of your window.
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