Re: Still no gardening

Lawns are water hogs.  Plant non-thirsty (native) trees and you're way ahead
of the game.  40 grand, is he NUTS?  My house didn't cost that much -
jeeeeez.

On 10/15/07, Kitty <kmrsy@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Keep the lawn and get rid of trees?  Talk about bo-ring.
> Lawns can be water hogs.  Trees need help getting established, but
> eventually do well on their own.  I think the smarter move would be to
> select trees that can manage more easily on their own, tough ones with
> deeper roots.
>
> Kitty
> neIN, Zone 5
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT" <cyndi.johnson@edwards.af.mil>
> To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
> Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 3:27 PM
> Subject: RE: [CHAT] Still no gardening
>
>
> > There is a guy in town who teaches at the local college and writes a
> > column for the paper. I have taken some classes from him but, well, his
> > style and mine don't mesh although he certainly knows plants and
> > growing. However his advice on xeriscaping is keep the lawn and get rid
> > of your trees, because trees take more water than a lawn does.
> > Annnnnddddd...maybe...but does that sound like sense to you?
> >
> > Cyndi
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On
> > Behalf Of james singer
> > Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 10:00 AM
> > To: gardenchat@hort.net
> > Subject: Re: [CHAT] Still no gardening
> >
> > Ouch! 40K for a xeriscape? But we should've seen it coming. As soon as
> > we realized water was a problem, all sorts of xeriscape specialists
> > have tumbled into town. Mainly, they advise getting rid of the lawn
> > [good idea] and replacing it with gravel, river rock, crushed quartz,
> > decomposed granite, washed beach sand, or some such [bad idea]. Lawns
> > and all their replacements are high maintenance. Fighting weeds in the
> > gravel, I recall, was one of the labors of Hercules [maybe not].
> > Xeriscape should be native-scape without the undesirable plants, and
> > require little more maintenance than the undeveloped tracts up the
> > street. The real goal, I submit, is to re-create a natural landscape
> > that somehow conveys the illusion--as questionable as it may seem--that
> > your house belongs where it was built.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Oct 15, 2007, at 11:55 AM, Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT wrote:
> >
> >> Still not much gardening going on at my house, although we did have a
> >> nice weekend. Went to a wedding Friday on a big yacht in Newport Beach
> >> (very ritzy!). Got home about 7 pm and thankfully we missed the
> >> horrendous truck crash and fire that closed the big freeway
> > interchange
> >> we take to get home. We didn't hear about it till my sister called the
> >> next morning to make sure we were okay, but I guess it made national
> >> news.
> >> I did manage to clear weeds out of another four feet or so of the
> >> cottage garden out front. It isn't a long term fix because I was
> >> pulling
> >> out two types of grass that both spread via underground runners. I
> > have
> >> no idea what one of them is, the other looks a little like Bermuda
> >> grass
> >> but isn't. Guess it doesn't really matter what they are, unless I
> >> bulldoze it and cut off the water, I'll be battling them for years to
> >> come. But what I've done looks better for the moment and as it looks
> >> better my morale goes up and I'm more willing to keep at it.  I am
> >> pretty sure I'm going to hire a gardener to mow and get rid of leaves
> >> over the winter months. I'm still debating (dithering would be more
> >> like
> >> it) about getting professional advice on redoing the area. I did talk
> >> to
> >> a friend who had a local company give him some advice on xeriscaping.
> > I
> >> looked at their website and went "Yuck"; they apparently have only two
> >> looks, either gravel with a couple cactus plonked down or bare dirt
> >> with
> >> a strip of lawn, a few rocks and some accent lights. I may not know
> >> what
> >> I want yet, but I know that isn't it.  My friend didn't like it either
> >> especially after they told him it would be $40K to do his yard!
> >>
> >> Cyndi
> >>
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> >>
> >>
> > Island Jim
> > Southwest Florida
> > 27.1 N, 82.4 W
> > Hardiness Zone 10
> > Heat Zone 10
> > Sunset Zone 25
> > Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
> > Maximum 100 F [38 C]
> >
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>


-- 
Pam Evans
Kemp TX
zone 8A

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