Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cash for Grass, check, government, milkweed, pile, plant, Roseville, seeds
We got the check from the city of Roseville this weekend. $700 to put in the bank. That sure feels good. Who would ever have guessed you could get a government check without having something really unfortunate happen to you first, or being in Congress!
That conlcudes our relationship with the City of Roseville for the time being, but the project continues to evolve. None of the plants have died yet.
As for the seeds, not one of the milkweed seeds has sprouted yet of any type. They have been in the dirt for about 8 weeks so far, so I expected at least a few of the early seeds to have started by now. Maybe the “cold stratification” outside failed and I killed them all. Of the wildflowers, the lupine and poppies have started coming up, some of them are a couple inches tall. The lupine were large seeds, with only a few in the pack. I think I got about 50% of them to start. Plenty of poppies. The yarrow and monkeyflower have also sprouted, and they are numerous but very tiny. Nothing yet of the bluebells, blue-eyed grass, or yellow-eyed grass.
Some of the other plants in the front are starting to show new growth. Others look like they are barely hanging on. My sod pile is also gradually decreasing in volume every couple of weeks. I’ll post more pictures soon.
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: All Things Wild, big, buckets, cash, cobble, Dr. Hurd, drops, dump, grass, kids, labor, load, manzanita, mulch, pile, planting, rock, stone, stream, tons, truck, wagons
Today the big dump truck came with 8 tons of rock: 6 tons of mulch and 2 tons of river cobble to form artificial stream beds in the drainage areas.
Being a sunny Saturday afternoon, all the kids in the neighborhood came out as soon as they heard the runble of the truck booming down the street. The truck thundered right up to our house and dropped its 8-ton load right on the driveway.
Then the kids went to work, six in all. They eagerly grabbed wagons, buckets, and tools and all jumped in to help move the rock around. And to play “king of the rock pile”.
Rock Princes and Princesses - L to R: James, Emele, Rose, Sabrina, Jenna, Calvin
The mulch will have to wait for the plants, but the cobble was ready to go in right away. Within two hours, the kids and I had placed all two tons of the cobble, while my neighbor laid the entire border for the driveway strip using the Petrified Seashore I had brought home the other day, more than compensating for the little work I had to undo to include his bit in the project.
Taking Shape; Calvin lies on top of the rock pile
Kid-layed Cobble
Oh, yeah, also I went first thing in the morning to see All-Things-Wild Genelle at the farmer’s market to get more native plants. That was another $200. It would have been more but I am being budget conscious and buying the smallest size available of everything. They are plants. They will grow eventually, right? All the kids went this time because they wanted to see Genelle and talk to her again, even though they all had to ride home awkwardly in the minivan while sharing their seats with a large number of assorted native plants.
I finished the day by actually planting our first new plant, the “Dr. Hurd manzanita” I bought last week.
The First New Plant - Dr. Hurd Manzanita
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: big, cash, Cash for Grass, grass, neighbors, pile, sod, tree, ugly
The pile of grass in my front yard grew big and ugly enough that I felt self-conscious. My yard is a mess, and my neighbors are nervous. I have a small courtyard between my garage and front door where I have decided to stack the grass to get it out of sight from the street until I can get rid of it. I still don’t know how I will get rid of it.
I also still have no actual plan yet for reconstructing the yard, but the picture in my head continues to look very nice.
Here are a couple of photos of the grass extraction so far from the lawn, and the pile, now moved into the courtyard.
I am leaving the tree, making an exception to my “all native plant” theme. It is pretty, and perhaps more significantly it is pretty big.
My big honkin’ grass pile that all our friends and relatives will get to walk past when they come over for Thanksgiving dinner, aka “Fall Decor”:
