Image album here: http://ift.tt/2ca0zFO
My dad bought a house in Sacramento, CA in 2010 and was the second owner. I lived with him briefly, and during that time I helped him plant a few trees and stuff, but even then the yard was in pretty rough shape. I argued with him a lot over whether it was worth it to try to get a nice lawn to grow; I’ve always been a big fan of xeriscapes with a lot of native plants and rock gardens. It didn’t matter much though, because I moved away for school and he wasn’t physically able to care for and manage a lawn anyway.
He passed away in July and I am inheriting his house. I would absolutely love to keep the house and spend the next several years developing my xeriscape paridise, but I can’t afford it. I have about six months to a year before I need to sell it.
My plan right now is this:
- Till the front lawn and seed it from scratch.
- Redo the edge of the front bed, perhaps adding or removing some shrubs.
- Clear out the weeds and overgrown grass from the backyard, followed by tilling and seeding.
- Prune the trees in December to encourage better long-term growth and shape
- Fill the area behind the retaining wall to create a xeric garden box. Plant a few perennials, and possibly plant some nice annuals in the spring before the house goes up for sale.
There are a few problems, some major and some more minor.
The Red Oak in the front yard hasn’t grown at all since I planted it six years ago. It still grows leaves every year, and you can see in the image that it’s not wanting in that area. I redid the mulch around it last week and began a new watering plan - I don’t know how my dad was watering it in the last few years. I’m currently giving it a good soak once a week or so (more like what was suggested for a newly planted tree), with a focus on the outer edge of the mulch circle. The hope there is that it encourages the roots to grow outward more. However, if the tree is rootbound then I am at a loss for how to fix it. I also don’t know what I ought to do in terms of fertilizing.
The soil condition in both the front and the back is the same. It’s hard and dry, I’m assuming clay. In the picture you can see green plastic sod webbing. My guess is that sod was laid when the house was built in 2001-ish, and that the original owner didn’t take care of it so it died (there was no good grass when Dad bought the house.) It’s so compacted that when I tried to water it to loosen it up, the water just ran off of the surface. I tried to loosen it up with a garden fork and could barely get more than an inch or two beneath the surface.
I think the solution will be to take a rototiller to it and just tear it up as deep as I can with some topsoil and/or compost. Then I can seed it and mulch with peat moss. Am I off base here? And should I worry about the green plastic? I don’t know how to remove it. I’m also unsure about what sort of grass to plant that will be tolerant of the heat and direct sun, and will be able to establish over the fall season and be at least decent-looking this spring.
The trees are all a little weird, likely due to not being cared for over the years as well as the ultrahard soil. I have a general idea of what I need to do to prune them, which I discuss in the album. It’s a bit of a mixed priority though. I’m selling the house, so the long-term growth of the trees doesn’t really “matter” to me as much as just making them look good for sale. But in a way I feel like I owe it to my dad to make sure the trees we planted together are set up for a long and healthy life.
I’m unsure how to handle the retaining wall to get the box that I want. I know how to set up the drainage, so that’s not an issue. Where I’m lost is on how to close the sides of the box. My initial idea is to build two addtional walls on the sides, beginning a few feet inside the wall and extending to the bottom of the back fence. This will create the garden that i want, and leave a nice square on either side where some shrubs can be planted to sort of conceal the design a bit. I can draw a plan for this if it’s not clear from text.
I’m here to ask for some guidance. Am I completely wrong on anything, or do you have any better ideas? Any suggestions for the things that I’m unsure of?
Thanks a lot for reading.
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