Changing Perspectives

The more I putter around the yard, work in the soil, and learn about gardening the more I appreciate weeds. I don't remember which book said it, but weeds are just plants in the wrong place or plants that one doesn't want or sometimes in my case plants I don't know anything about. I've started identifying some of the plants in the backyard and they are better plants than I thought. When I first discovered that we had several invasive species planted in our yard that liked to propagate wildly, I became pretty negative about all our plants and told people we had a yard full of weeds. I've since found out that one of the plants that populates our backyard with green is "horseherb" which is great for re-foliating a yard. I bet it keeps the ground from compacting too. We also have purslane growing which I've heard is edible and previously I'd found a dandelion here and there. I actually like dandelion greens cooked with butter and rice. Now, I know I can harvest those dandelion greens that appear in my yard. I just need to get to them before they go to seed. I didn't realize those "weeds" were actually the same plant as the dandelion greens I buy in the store.

As I've written before from my reading, nature does not like bare ground so it populates it. Those plants that I disliked because I was expected to dislike them because most would call them "weeds" are actually keeping my ground from compacting and eroding (we have a slight slope, going down from the back to the front). They are making it easier to dig into the ground in places or more difficult like the ligustrum. After the recent rain, I realized that those ligustrum roots are surrounded by some pretty good soil or at least soil that could be more clay compacted without them and that those roots keep the bare ground around them where it is drier and St. Augustine won't grow from washing down the side of the house when it rains. As those ligustrum roots deteriorate they will be feeding the soil that they took so many nutrients from. Giving back. They are actually quite nice and green when they are small. My perspective has also changed because I saw them all over the shrub section at Home Depot and Lowes looking all nice and happy. I still don't want them in the yard, but I doubt we will be able to eradicate all of them. I've been going back and forth about making peace with some of them as long as they stay small and easily manageable which means I can reach their berries and chop them off before the birds get them and distribute them. I think part of my wanting to make peace beside it creating less work right now is that I am starting to admire the tenacity of them.

Unwatered and uncared for, they grow. Cut them down a few times, they grow back. Rip them out of the ground and maybe if your lucky one of the feeder roots won't grow into a whole new plant. I just can't help but admire something that can withstand such adverse circumstances. I'm also enjoying using the ligustrum trunks and branches to outline pathways and create plant beds. I'm actually glad that we have three left because I want to harvest the wood at some point for more interesting projects.

I just planted a few things where I couldn't dig into the dirt a few months ago, but since we ripped a ligustrum out of the ground it's roots are starting to break down and the ground is actually starting to be easier to dig into because the roots are shredding as I dig. The dirt is happier than I expected as I planted some ornamental grasses to help control the erosion that will probably happen as more of the ligustrum roots break down. My pathways that I have outlined are slowly being covered in ligustrum leaves and I will be making mulch with the smaller branches and the leaves that didn't fall off as I dragged tree trunks around.

Ligustrum not as evil as I thought. I am now taking a new look at all the plants that were already in our backyard. I still want to make room for a variety of plants, but maybe there is room for a knee high ligustrum or two, since at that level they are easy to control. So to all those weeds, I've been killing thank you for keeping my backyard from washing away and being one large mud-puddle. I'm getting a real illustration of what could happen next door where the backyard has no greenery over most of it and becomes mud when it rains. I'm going to consider you with more respect from now own and maybe let a few of you add to the diversity I'm planning in my yard.

The other thing I am really learning about is soil. Everytime I turn around I am discovering new things. When I dug into the soil the other day to plant some erosion control ornamental grasses. I found chunks of chalk. As I've been researching, I discovered limestone and chalk is used interchangeably. I had some fun making chalk drawings with the pieces of chalk I dug up on some concrete edgers I found in our garden shed.

The other major discovery I made was that though the garden soil and the compost I bought look very similar the garden soil is slightly lighter in color, weighs less and is cooler than the compost. I literally felt the temperature difference when I moved around our soil pile. I could at times see waves of heat coming up from the compost which didn't really stink at all or maybe I'm just used to it now. The garden soil was cooler than my body temperature and as I removed gallons of it, the pile got warmer the closer I got to the compost section. I could feel my knees burning as I kneeled in the pile to move the soil from the pile to my wagon when I was at the borders between compost and garden soil. It was a relief because I really didn't want to have to mix up the compost and garden soil for the raised beds, nor worry about burning my veggie transplants and seeds with too much compost . I also now have a more thorough understanding of why my red wigglers prefer temperatures between 55 and 85 degrees. They are helping break down elements and that creates heat.

Wow, gardening has to be the best hobby I've ever had because it allows me to do a lot of things I enjoy. I get to do science experiments, be creative and artistic, investigate, research, problem-solve, read, learn a lot about myself and my environment, practice new habits, and it is an easy conversational subject as well as a way to meet my neighbors. I've also lost 3% of my body fat though no actual weight in the last two to three weeks of cutting down and dragging around trees and various other random landscaping/gardening things. I feel more self-confident with all the physical work I've been doing and I have been eating a lot less because I am so absorbed and jazzed by the process. I really didn't think it would be this much fun or this absorbing for me especially since I always thought of myself as having a brown thumb i.e. my houseplants would grow for a while then turn brown and die. There are so many elements to it and it can be both down to earth and highly intellectual. Now if I can only keep from driving the "Man" crazy with my new obsession.

Backyard 2

More of the backyard. 

Here is a view of the patio. That tree in the middle is a Pecan. Sadly, not the easy to take care of native variety, but a fruit variety. Translation, needs more care and is more likely to produce falling limbs and tiny pecans when not given that care. It is very messy. I don't like  it very much, maybe I would like it better if I could actually eat pecans but they are not happy tummy food for me. The other evil is that birds love the pecan tree and not the pretty, interesting birds, but the evil grackles, so one must be careful walking or sitting on the patio. Someday, we would like to put some kind of covering on the patio. I guess the pecan is useful in that it does shade the house and it is kind of pretty, but I'm not sure it is worth the constant mess. Plus, pecan trees also put out some kind of toxin to prevent competition from other plants. Sadly, ligustrum can compete pretty well. 

One of the major things that I am trying to keep in my head as I plan out what to do for the backyard is the view out of this window. It is really the only view we will have of the majority of the backyard from inside the house.  Right now, I really enjoy seeing my alligator juniper sway in the wind from the living room. I hope I can manage to plant other happy green things that will go with the juniper.

Most of the view out of this window is the difficult part of the yard. The back gate, the yard section with the most ligustrum roots, and lots of dry, dusty bare ground with the occasional dead weed.

I don't yet have picture of the view out of the french doors from inside the living room. We don't have any pictures of what it originally look like any way. I've planted stuff and mulched so it looks pretty happy. I will take pictures of it later and add it to the backyard updates that will be coming out fairly soonish.

The backyard is changing faster than I can keep up with on this blog. I will have some exciting new pictures next week. I just spent the evening figuring out where I will be planting things in the future and where we will be allowed to walk in the backyard so we don't compress the soil in planting areas. 

The "Man" gave the okay for 4 cubic yards of compost and 2 cubic yards of garden soil which will be delivered in the morning. It got me in gear to figure out some kind of basic plan. The good thing about almost starting from scratch is that one can do anything which is also the bad thing since it is easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start. I decided that I would just walk around the yard and place logs to mark off my semi-natural walking path tendencies and whatever ended up being enclosed would be enclosed. It seemed to work out  pretty well, but then I just have a hard time imagining yards with plants. I still don't know enough and well even if I did I wouldn't have enough experience with the yard, so who knows how much of this will end up being changed in the future or if somehow it will all just work out. I'm expecting it to all just work out.

I found this cool book at the library called Secrets to Great Soil by Elizabeth Stell which had several easy tests to figure out what kind of soil you have. I tried two of them. I took a spoonful of my soil and added some vinegar and it fizzed which means that it's PH is over 7.5. Not that surprising. I expected my soil to be alkaline which is probably why the alligator juniper is fairly happy.  It turns out that most of the veggies I am planning to put in my garden this year like broccoli and cabbage like slightly alkaline soil. I suspect mine is probably more than slightly, luckily they will be in raised beds. 

The second test is for the soil texture. I took some dirt from the yard that had been dug up threw it in a jar with some water and shook it like crazy. The 3inches of soil ended up with 3 layers: 1 1/2 inches of  sand, 1 inch of silt, 1/2 an inch of clay. I was expecting more clay in my soil. I suspect that the ligustrum actually did something good which was keep the soil from getting too compacted.  I mean to get to any soil I had to dig through lugustrum roots. My soil is 16% clay, 33 % silt, and 50% sand according to the math that the book had me do. I think that makes my soil sandy clay loam. Technically, one needs 20% clay to have clay loam, but 16% is so close. Besides, I forgot to add the dishwashing detergent. I wish the book explained precisely why the dishwashing detergent was necessary. Hrm. I'm going to put some dish detergent in and see if changes anything.

The yard is dusty and dry. Between the "Man" and I, we have dug up quite a few spots in the yard. I am sad to say that I found not a single earthworm. Having only 1 or 2 earthworms is indication that your yard needs serious help. I'm wondering if my yard has any nutrients left. Luckily, I was already planning with the idea that my yard was nutrient depleted. I figured the ligustrum took care of it.  I have my worm bin inside and was figuring I would eventually release some number of them into the wild though they are not the right kind of worms for that, but I like them too much to put them into my yard in its current state and sure instant death. 

I named this blog after my red wiggler earthworm collective. They are the second collective that I have worked with. Ted, the first, died after 4 years of care and learning about earthworms. Ted was killed by cockroaches. They stopped doing pest control at our last apartment.  One week Ted was limping along, the next gone. That is what I get for moving Ted to the garage rather than keeping the collective in the house like I did in the previous apartment.

This new collective is named Wren. Not after the bird, but an escape artist in the Canadian SciFi movie "Cube." When I first got this earthworm collective, I kept finding escaped worms, mostly dried husks. I don't know how they kept getting out and so far from their bin. They have settled in now and are pretty happy. Worms are the bestest housepets. I liken them to the Borg in Star Trek because the general worm philosophy is everything will be assimilated in our space. It's pretty amazing to put in the inedibles of a watermelon  with some newspaper and a month or so later all you got is dark, happy garden stuff and more worms. Ted loved watermelon and Wren is no different. Good thing, I like watermelon too.