Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: All Things Wild, blue-eyed grass, bluebells, butterflies, Butterfly Encounters, cash, grass, landscape, Larner Seeds, lawn, lupine, milkweed, monarch, monkeyflower, native, poppies, spring, yarrow, yellow-eyed grass
Sabrina found a web site through school called ”butterfly encounters” (www.butterflyencounters.com). It explains that monarch butterflies are endangered due to habitat destruction, such as the construction of our home by callous, cigar-smoking, real estate developers whose primary goal is the extermination of all that is good and natural. I am paraphrasing.
The butterfliers encourage us to plant milkweed – the attractive native plant which is the sole food source for monarch butterfly caterpillars. Coincidentally, they sell milkweed seeds, and they post beautiful photos of different types of milkweed in bloom. I am too inexperienced in botany to answer my wife’s philosophical question, “If it is so pretty, why is it called a ‘weed’?”
I spent $20 ordering seeds for a few varieties. My kids want monarch butterflies. How can I deny them? See, I can be flexible. I changed the plan. Interestingly, though, it is not easy to get the seeds to germinate. Another mini-project.
I am skeptical that butterflies will just show up if I plant this stuff, but Genelle (All Things Wild person) assured me that if we grow milkweed, monarch butterflies really will come. And I don’t have to plow under an entire field of corn and wear a funny cap. I wonder what the caterpillars do to the plants’ weedy beautifulness. It all sounds cool and science-y. For the kids.
Update 12/16/08: Seeds are cheap. Dozens of seeds cost the same as one small plant, are cheaper to ship, and I’m not out $9 if I kill one. If I can grow them, my budget is in much better shape. I found a great source for native California wildflower seeds to go with my milkweed seeds, Larner Seeds (www.larnerseeds.com). I ordered poppies, yellow-eyed grass, blue-eyed grass, lupine, bluebells, monkeyflower, and rosy yarrow.
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: All Things Wild, cash, design, grass, landscape, native, obsess, perfect, plan, plants, wild
Jennifer implied that now that I have created an actual plan, I may have become a bit obsessive about it. I figured out the hints in the car on the way home by deciphering such cryptic comments as, “STOP OBSESSING OVER YOUR STUPID PLAN!”
Look, I have gone to great lengths to determine exactly the native plants I want after extensive and painstaking research over recent weeks. Yesterday the kids and Jennifer were wandering around All Things Wild at the market while I was picking up my order. They were looking at other plants on display that were not on my list and asking, “Can we get one of these?” or “How about this? This is pretty.” I just said, “Not today, that’s not in the plan.” Jennifer thinks I phrased it differently. In my defense, I also only brought $204, and the order was already like $201.98.
Jennifer asked why all the plants I like are IN the plan, and the ones she and the kids like are NOT. “Because I did the reasearch, and designed in things that fit and will grow well in the different parts of the yard. What I am getting all works together,” I replied.
“Your botanical and landscape design expertise consists of 3 hours on the internet looking at plant pictures, and based on your history of growing stuff, anything the kids pick randomly is more likely to survive in the yard then whatever you put in your “plan”,” she countered. ”Lighten up and be flexible.”
My goal now is to try to act flexible while not actually changing anything, because my plan is perfect.
Shut up.
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: A&A Steppig Stones, boulders, cash, class, cobble, Google, grass, green, landscape, lawn, mulch, native, Newcastle, petrified, plants, rock, wild
I decided I wanted to put a nice stone border around the edges of the project to keep the rock mulch from spilling over. I hadn’t seen anything I liked for a border at Sierra, but using the power of Google I found another local rock seller, A&A Stepping Stones in Newcastle.
Rose and I drove up to look around after I got off work yesterday, because Rose loves rocks and dirt. My other kids did not want another van ride sharing seats with boulders. They had a dazzling selection of rocks, and I found a species that comes in long, narrow rectangular pieces, absolutely perfect for a border. Rose and I loaded about 150 linear feet of it onto a pallet to be carried to my minivan. The stone is called “Petrified Seashore”, which is ironic because I was petrified when it wieghed in at 530 pounds and the clerk rang it up at $228. Plus $38 for about ten or so ordinary 40-pound decorative boulders that we also chose. Rose again got to ride awkwardly in between the 900 pounds of rocks in the minivan, not counting several pounds she had secretly stuffed into her pockets as souveneirs.
This relates to the neighbors because today after work I finished laying the rock to make the border between my half of the driveway strip and my neighbor’s grassy half. As soon as I finished, my neighbor came out and said that he did want in on the plan after all, if it is not too late to do the whole driveway strip. His wife is into gardening, thinks my native plant habitat is a really great idea, and wants to help.
I am so excited to have the neighbors on board. Despite having to take out the border I just layed and add to the rock order, I think it will look much better to not have the strip split up. And I have the comfort of company in the insanity. Also, they have three kids who want to help, and free child labor is always welcome where moving rock is concerned.
Flagstone, Petrified Seashore, and boulders staged on grassless yard
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: California, cash, grass, lawn, manzanita, native, plant, rock, rose, wild
Then we went rock shopping and ordered 6 tons of rock from Sierra Rock, to be delivered next Saturday. Not having a place to put the rock yet, and feeling like I might now be doing things just a bit out of order, I spent the rest of the day ripping out the remaining grass. The pace picked up quickly once I got away from the tree, and I did not swear as much. My half of the driveway strip peeled off really easily, and I finished it all in about four hours.
I had also bought and brought home some flagstones from Sierra Rock at the same time I ordered the other rock, to make a path from the sidewalk to the courtyard entry. My kids had to sit awkwardly in the minivan because of the pile of stones on the floor and in the middle seat, but that is they price they pay for going along when Dad runs errands.
I‘m now in for about $550 so far. It looks now like the whole project will cost about $1,400. With the $700 check I hope to get and lawn-lady savings, this should pay for itself in less than a year. More importantly, it is within the margin of what my wife calculated my $1,200 quote to actually mean.
The pile of sod in my courtyard has grown enormous. I might have to actually pay someone to haul it away, which would increase the budget.
Really huge grass pile
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: All Things Wild, Berkeley, California, Calphoto, cash, Cash for Grass, grass, landscape, las pilitas, native, photo, plants, wild
We got a flyer from the Cash for Grass program for a class at the library on landscaping with native plants. I thought this might be useful given that I know absolutely nothing about landscaping or plants, so I signed up, and also took my daughters, 8 and 10. About half the class were fellow “Cash for Grass” program participants. I think I was the only one planning to do all the work myself.
The class was led by Genelle, a young woman with the appearance and demeanor of a passionate environmental type who has found her calling. Dressed for gardening, her casual appearance belied her keen intelligence, education, and experience. Genelle runs her own small business called “All Things Wild” (www.alltingswildca.com). She consults with commercial landscapers, and also sells native plants at a local farmer’s market on Saturdays. She brought a dozen or so popular native plants so we could see them first hand. Where safe, my daughter Rose also smelled, felt, and tasted them. Genelle was great, the kids loved the class, and they are very excited to help with the yard. Also my daughters now want to grow up to be people who sell native plants at the farmer’s market. We’ll be visiting her stand soon to buy plants.
I also found some fantastic California native plant web sites.
The best is www.laspilitas.com. This is a nursery, but they post information and photos on almost every native California plant, whether they sell them or not, and they have an on-line store that carries many of them and will ship.
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/flora/, run by the University of California at Berkeley, has more photographs from a variety of sources for almost every native plant, including data on where it grows and/or was found and photographed.
Surprisingly, the California Native Plant Society web site http://www.cnps.org/ was not much help as far as actual landscaping ideas and guidance.
I am now finally designing my new landscape, on actual paper.
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: California, cash, Cash for Grass, catharsis, chaparral, construction, debris, garden, grass, grasslands, lawn, native, plant, plants, sod, trees
Today I began ripping out grass. I don’t have any plan made yet as for what specifically I will put back in it’s place, but the grass is on its way out.
I have a picture that looks very nice in my head of what this will look like when done, but nothing on paper. I have started doing research on native plants on-line. Did you know that less than 10% of California’s land area has ANY native (pre-European) plants left excluding trees? Almost all the grasslands, hills, chaparral and forests have either been replanted with or entirely overcome by invasive and non-native species. I feel I have embarked on a kind of sacred mission to help preserve a few remaining bits of California’s botanical history in my own little garden.
After a long day at work, feels good to be out with a pick and shovel, ripping out the lawn I have decided to oppose on moral grounds. The sod peels away easily, as the roots have barely penetrated the native clay and rock even after 8 years.
I am also learning something about the construction industry. Under the sod I am finding bits of pipe, nails, siding foam, soda cans and construction waste that our builder laid the sod over without cleaning up. Among the more interesting finds: a large broken mirror, a 2-foot length of heavy chain, a 30 pound slab of broken concrete, and a hole with several beer bottles which I hope were not left by people responsible for the structural integrity of my home.
I have also created a waste problem. What do I do with the sod I am ripping up? We have a “green waste” can that the city picks up every two weeks that I had planned to use. I filled it to the top with about 30 square feet of lawn. That’s means I’ve got about 16 months worth of grass at that pace of pickup. Hauling is not in the imaginary budget that goes with my mental pictures.
For now I am making a big pile in the front yard. In just an hour or so I ended up with 70 square feet of grass pulled, one full green waste can, one pile of grass, and 630 square feet to go…
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: bees, butterflies, California, cash, grass, habitat, hummingbirds, landscape, native, plant, plants
After some research into what is available in the drought-tolerant-plant category, my children and I decided that we want to put in a landscape consisting entirely of plants native to our area of California. The reason for this is to help preserve native species as well as meeting the drought-tolerant goal, and particularly to attract more butterflies, hummingbirds, and endangered species of native bees, so that my children can catch them and put them in a jar. Or something.
We hope to create a purely native “California micro-habitat” to help preserve the things that naturally lived in our area before the explosion of subdivisions like ours.
I am not without misgivings. For economy, I plan to execute the landscape transformation with my own labor (and the forced labor of my children). We’ll see if that works. We are also not certain what the neighbors in our little subdivision, every single one of which has a lawn, will think of the result. Fortunately, we have no homeowner’s association, so no one can veto my plan or design! (ha, ha, ha!)
