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: budget, cash, Cash for Grass, kids, lawn, milkweed, plants, rock, Roseville, seeds, wildflowers
main front ex-lawn
gate to street stepping stones
- driveway strip
- driveway strip from driveway
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Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: bird, border, Cash for Grass, feeder, finch, garden, landscape, mulch, netting, plants, rock, seeds, silence, wildflower, Zen, Zen rock garden
Much work done on the project over the long weekend. First, Rose and Calvin planted a couple hundred wildflower seeds carefully in seed trays in the backyard, which turned out to be a very labor intensive way to feed premium seeds to finches.
For round two, I protected the seeds with plastic netting, and also hung a bird feeder with finch seed nearby to try to distract them. ($27 for netting, feeder, and seeds, not counting wildflower seed losses)
Seeds with finch fence
I also managed to get all the rock mulch spread. Phase 1 is almost complete. All that is left is to put in the last handful of small plants, and finish the border, which will require about 20 linear feet of additional border rock.
The down side to buying all very small plants to save money is that they are so small at this point that it is hard to see them among the rock. The yard looks more like a zen rock garden than a living landscape. (If you are a zen master, I understand that a rock garden is also alive in its way, but it is not, therefore it remains noisily in silence.) I hope the plants not only survive but will fill in by late spring and give the appearance that I knew what I was doing.
Can you count the plants in the area which used to be lawn in the photo below?
Zen Rock Garden Replaces Lawn
Wrong. The correct answer is way more than that, and two of the ones you counted were actually boulders…
No, not quite that many, I still have to buy some, and the wildflowers are hopefully going to grow in the seed trays to be put in later…
Yes, that’s about right. Nicely figured.
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: busted, cash, confined, drill, flood, grass, hoosegow, narcotics, pots, seeds, sick, two-by-four
I was up off the couch for a few minutes to take my medicines, and I saw out the window that it was raining again, and the plastic pots where the milkweed seeds have been contentedly enjoying the required cold were flooding over. Ack! I had planted in pots with no drainage holes in them! The instructions said “moist”, not flooded! What if the seeds washed out of the pots altogether! Almost $20 could be wasted!
I am sick, I should forget it, and go back to bed.
No! I can handle this crisis. I’m still on prescription narcotics! And Jennifer is upstairs working and will never know. I grabbed my wool hat, gloves, and heavy coat, shuffled to the garage, got my drill and went out back, in the rain, to the pots to drill holes in the bottom to try to drain the excess water and save the seeds.
It only took a minute or two. I was almost done when I heard a loud angry knock on the inside of the nearest window. I looked up and sure enough, there was Jennifer standing at the window with a look that might as well have been another two-by-four to the head. Her face said quite clearly, “The first time you get off the damn couch in a week is to go out in the cold and rain and drill holes in flower pots!?!? You could be doing dishes, or taking out trash like that bag of blood-soaked cotton balls, tissues, and pill packs next to the couch that has filled to overflowing over the last week.” I was busted. Caught red-handed. Headed for the hoosegow. Confined to quarters. Under house arrest. I tried to plead poor judgment, but that was already rather apparent.
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: cash, Christmas, grass, planting, plants, rock, seeds, yard
Getting closer
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: butterfly, Butterfly Encounters, cash, cold, front, germinate, grass, kids, milkweed, rain, refrigerator, seeds
I did plant the five beautiful types of milkweed seeds we ordered from Butterfly Encounters. Strangely, the kids did not volunteer to go out in the backyard in the rain to help me. The instructions say the seeds need to sit in a cold, moist environment for several weeks before they will germinate. This being Central California, we rarely get “weeks” of cold weather, so either I plant them now or I will have to follow the “alternate instructions” and put them in bags of sand in the refigerator for a few weeks. I’m not sure the last idea would go over well with Jennifer, and I think I would have a tough time hiding a half-dozen bags of sand and seeds in the refrigerator without her noticing.
Milkweed Seeds Planted
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: cash, decorating, festive, grass, landscaping, lawn, leaves, lights, rock, seeds, vacation
This Christmas I chose landscaping over putting up holiday lighting. Our house does not look very festive, but I do have a big pile of rock. Maybe I can build a rockman with a top hat and carrot nose. And I have a mound of grass in my courtyard that is starting to turn brown. Could I put a manger next to it and call it hay?
Today is the first day of a two week (forced) vacation for employees of my company. At least I will have all the time I need to finish what can be done on my landscape, plant all my seeds, and attend to a number of other household projects. How exciting! I finished putting in the plants I have and spreading rock around the infamous strip between driveways, except for the plants I can’t get yet or am growing from seeds that I have not yet planted. I got started on the far end of the main area formerly known as lawn. Rose helped by climbing up and down the rock pile, and occasionally piling up leaves and jumping on them.
Driveway Strip Finished
Driveway Strip Side ViewMain Yard Far Side
Main Yard Far End
