Tree Lawn, 2015 Edition

Last year I talked a lot about my tree lawn.

You can catch up on what happened in 2014 in this post where I introduce you to my puncturevines and in this one where I tried to kill everything.  Then I finally finished laying down the fabric and finally, this is how it looked last fall.

Remember how thick those weeds were?

It was like waking across a carpet of nails.

While the fabric didn’t kill everything, it kept most of the puncturevines away.

Some weeds crept out at the edges and I really can’t think of anyway to keep that from happening.  I may resort to poison to get those sneaky ones that find a way out from under the landscape fabric.

Last year’s fabric did its job but I wanted another layer.

When we sanded my kitchen floors I bought thick black plastic to cover the cabinets with the plan to reuse the plastic out here.

It’s really thick and easier to work with than the landscaping fabric was.  It doesn’t tear and it’s heavier so I’m hoping that fewer holes and tears will help my cause.  I also ran it the opposite way-side to side rather than lengthwise and it was much easier!

It’s also so much darker!  Leaning over it, even though today was fairly cool, felt like standing right in front of a fire.  Hopefully it’ll be that hot (or hotter!) underneath and really fry all those seeds!

Of course, nothing ever goes as planned around here and instead of running out of plastic, I ran out of pins to keep it in the ground.  I ordered a bunch of heavy duty ones from Amazon and thought I’d have plenty but noooooo.  So, those lighter spots around the stumps will get covered this weekend….as long as Wal-Mart has some pins.  Dang!

I also have tons of those flagstones around my house and I think I’m just going to fill this area with them.  My plan is to start at the edges and then just fill it in.  Maybe that will keep some of these creepers from getting out the edges!

While working on this project I spent a lot of time staring at the post that my mailbox is on.  It wasn’t pretty.  It was rusty and spotted.  While I wanted to paint it a pretty aqua color, (I still may!) I went with oil rubbed bronze since I already had it on hand.

Can you tell?  I should have painted it aqua, right?

This will probably be the first of many posts about the tree lawn this year but if we’re all lucky, it’ll be more about making it pretty an less about trying to kill everything.

-A

A Quick Tree Lawn Update

So I have this tree lawn.  And it’s trying to kill me.  So I tried to kill it.

Here’s how it looks a month later:

 

You can see that the fabric is holding up well through the middle but the weeds starting to creep out the edges.

 

Man I hate those things!

 

I think it’s going to get another layer of black plastic (turns out it’s in the back of the store by the paint…) and I need to better secure it on the edges.

 

My mom and I are working on a plan for planting this area next spring but none of our ideas will work if these dang puncturevines don’t die!

-A

The One in Which I Try to Kill Everything

Yep, that’s right.  Operation Kill All the Goat’s Heads has commenced.  (note: I’m working on a shorter, catchier name for this oh so important project.)

 

Last week it looked like this.  Remember?  My mom got it all weeded while I went to Wal-Mart in search of some ground covering.

 

In Colorado at this time of year the snow shovels are coming out so I was pleased to find 300 sq ft (I needed 283) of this for $18.00.  Imagine my excitement when it rang up at $3.00.  Yep.

 

My mom found these staples, also at Wal-Mart so yesterday I waited for the temperature to drop below 80 and then I set out on my murder spree.  Yep, they’re all dying.  I want them dead dead, gone forever.  Since I’m not ready to burn them yet (although my neighbors are!) I’m going with the deprive them of light and water for 6-8 weeks (my plan is all winter) route.

 

How great are those flowers looking?  And that sunset, so pretty!

Back to the killing:

 

I had to start the fabric further back than I wanted because the meters for my house and my neighbors’ are in the tree lawn.  I can’t cover them and my fingers are crossed that this won’t ruin the whole kill-them-all plan.

 

I put the left side down last night and then ran out of staples.  Turns out 40 was not enough.  This morning I went back to Wal-Mart and bought 3 more bags and went back to work.  The stumps proved to be a little difficult but I just cut the fabric and folded and squished it around them and put in a bunch of staples.

 

I only put a couple of staples on the inside edges because I knew I was going to put another full piece down that strip in the middle.  The ground is really uneven and full of rocks and goat’s heads so it was hard to get it pulled perfectly tight.  I plan to put some pavers down to walk across so I’m hoping that they’ll help hold it down.

 

And then?  I ran out of fabric.  I know that if I had cut the fabric in half and not run a full piece down the middle I would have had enough to do this last stretch but I really don’t want these bad boys finding any way out from underneath!

My mom has some black plastic that we’re going to use to fill in this gap and add an extra layer of protection.  Just so you know, I REALLY don’t want these things to survive!

In case you think I’m being dramatic, here’s a picture of my flip flop after doing the first strip of fabric last night:

 

Oh yeah, they’re bad.

We need to get that plastic down before they start trying to make an escape through that last open strip!

-A