Dogs, (Fire?) Ants and Gardening

[mmaestro]

My wife and I bought a new house up in the heights just after Christmas. Well, it's plant and bug season again, and we've got a few different questions for the wise amongst you who've been living in this climate longer than us

Comments

[zerozander]

If want to do artificial grass in the future then I don't see a point of fixing up the yard right now. Artificial turf is very expensive. The cost adds up quick when you're talking about anything other than a small/medium sized yard. You'll want to kill whatever weeds are growing back there now. Whoever you hire to do the artificial turf will be able to level out the dirt and work around your trees or plants. Until you do go that route there is little that can be done to get rid of the mud bowl.

On second thought there is plenty you can do. You could plant some type of grass. You could throw rocks everywhere. You could xeriscape, lay bricks, vegetable garden, concrete, cement, bunch of native plants. Lots of possibilities. Why waste money now for something you would just get rid of in the future? I say kill the weeds, deal with the mud, save up money and put in your artificial turf.

[sparkofcreation]

That's the basic plan, but the front yard is already xeriscaped and we do want to spruce it up a bit. And there are *some* plants that we think aren't weeds that we'd like to save. As the one with the vision *g*, my plan is for the yard to be about 75% artificial turf/25% native plants. So we'd probably kill the weeds and try to neaten up the plants around the edges, maybe put some more in, maybe do some repair work on the patio, etc. But I mean, we don't even know what sorts of trees/plants we have, if they need to be pruned, etc. (We suspect one tree is a baby desert willow and two are mulberries, but we don't know what the other two are. We know we have three rosebushes, but being from the East Coast, we've never seen any of the other plants before.)

[elegantelbow]

Heh. If you'd like some native decorative grasses, I'm happy to let you come dig up some of mine. They get to be about 6.5' tall and they don't need an ounce of watering. But they're starting to take over my front yard. When we bought our house in 2000 there were only three of them, and now I think we've got over 25.

[sparkofcreation]

*g* I was thinking more along the lines of decorative native wildflowers like salvia, but if we want grasses, I'll bear that in mind.

ooooooh....

[zerozander]

Well see that wasn't mentioned in your first post. No harm done my friend.

Seriously though, if you don't know what's what then you can call around and have someone come and check it out for a fee. Maybe you can talk to someone at a plant place and ask them to come to your houes for a look. In my back yard the prettiest things I've had growing back there have been weeds. We've had a lot of nice looking "grass" in our front yard that needs to be ripped out. Or else it get's out of control, dries out, and becomes a tumble weed in the street. A dandeline is nice, but it's still a weed. And a weed, you don't want if you are going to spruce it up.

Find out what's what and then kill what you don't need. Trim whatever needs to be trimmed and get started on those native plants. Probably the best time to install artificial turf is during the late Fall, early Winter. November through late Febuary when the forcast is clear. Shop around and you may come upon a company that has discounts around that time of year. Good luck.

Re: ooooooh....

[sparkofcreation]

Well see that wasn't mentioned in your first post.

Well, that's why I told him that *I* would ask, but no, he had to take it upon himself to post this and left out important bits ... *shakes head*

Yeah, our weeds are really pretty, they have feathery things and yellow flowers. But as they weren't there two weekends ago and *were* there by last weekend, they must be weeds.

[elegantelbow]

I heard on the news that RealTurf got raided by the FBI recently. I assume they had undocumented workers on their payroll.

Of course, now I can't find any references to it.