New Member Intro!
Hello everyone! I saw this in the spotlight and thought it would be a very helpful community for me to be a part of! Here's some info about who I am and what I'm working on:
About Me: 26 year-old grad student living with my fiance. He and I have an arrangement where he's in charge of the lawn (mowing, fertilizing, planting) while I'm in charge of trees, shrubs, edible garden plants, and general landscaping. We live in zone 7 (central OK), so our lawn is bermudagrass that we really don't water at all (about 1.25 acres total). It does very well in the front yard, but not so much in the backyard. The backyard was pretty much nothing but dirt when we moved in about five years ago (newly built home), so without a lot of watering or fertilizing the bermuda is taking awhile to really get established. We have a lot of weeds, too, but I leave all of them alone except the sandburs. I hate hate hate sandburs, and they're EVERYWHERE. I heard those things can sprout and grow from seeds that have been dormant for like seven years, so it's like a neverending battle. :(
Here's the google maps shot of what our yard currently looks like and a sketch of what we already have planted (we're both meteorologists which explains the weather station and rain gauges :p):
As you can see the trees are all still very small. I've been planting about one tree a year since we moved here, and I just put the lilacs in this past spring. Here's what my current plan is:
I have a nosy neighbor to my north who seems to be out in his backyard EVERY TIME I go out there, so the hedge along the north side is my first priority for next spring. As far as the lilac hedge goes, I'd like to try to propagate the four lilacs I already planted to fill in the rest of the hedge. I read online that it's really easy to divide suckers off of lilacs, so I think I'll give it a shot. The rest of the flowers will be a mix of different things that are drought and heat-tolerant. We don't use much water on our lawn as it is, so I'd like to keep the watering to a minimum and choose plants that can tolerate our hot, long, dry summers. All of the lilacs and flowers in the back will be planted behind a red stone/brick retaining wall that I'll try to install myself. The back edge has a slight slope to it that tends to have erosion problems when it rains. We already tried planting grass back there once to stop it, but the clay just ran down the slope and covered up the grass. Building the wall will also give me a chance to add some better quality soil and organic matter. The red clay here is pretty poor for growing things. :/
Anyway, hi! I have lots of questions but I'll try to space them out a bit instead of throwing them all in one epically long post. :)
About Me: 26 year-old grad student living with my fiance. He and I have an arrangement where he's in charge of the lawn (mowing, fertilizing, planting) while I'm in charge of trees, shrubs, edible garden plants, and general landscaping. We live in zone 7 (central OK), so our lawn is bermudagrass that we really don't water at all (about 1.25 acres total). It does very well in the front yard, but not so much in the backyard. The backyard was pretty much nothing but dirt when we moved in about five years ago (newly built home), so without a lot of watering or fertilizing the bermuda is taking awhile to really get established. We have a lot of weeds, too, but I leave all of them alone except the sandburs. I hate hate hate sandburs, and they're EVERYWHERE. I heard those things can sprout and grow from seeds that have been dormant for like seven years, so it's like a neverending battle. :(
Here's the google maps shot of what our yard currently looks like and a sketch of what we already have planted (we're both meteorologists which explains the weather station and rain gauges :p):
As you can see the trees are all still very small. I've been planting about one tree a year since we moved here, and I just put the lilacs in this past spring. Here's what my current plan is:
I have a nosy neighbor to my north who seems to be out in his backyard EVERY TIME I go out there, so the hedge along the north side is my first priority for next spring. As far as the lilac hedge goes, I'd like to try to propagate the four lilacs I already planted to fill in the rest of the hedge. I read online that it's really easy to divide suckers off of lilacs, so I think I'll give it a shot. The rest of the flowers will be a mix of different things that are drought and heat-tolerant. We don't use much water on our lawn as it is, so I'd like to keep the watering to a minimum and choose plants that can tolerate our hot, long, dry summers. All of the lilacs and flowers in the back will be planted behind a red stone/brick retaining wall that I'll try to install myself. The back edge has a slight slope to it that tends to have erosion problems when it rains. We already tried planting grass back there once to stop it, but the clay just ran down the slope and covered up the grass. Building the wall will also give me a chance to add some better quality soil and organic matter. The red clay here is pretty poor for growing things. :/
Anyway, hi! I have lots of questions but I'll try to space them out a bit instead of throwing them all in one epically long post. :)