Sunday, April 29, 2012

Front Ditch Project

It is a very dark morning here, just light sprinkles so far.  We fear it is going around us from north to east which is whats happens so often to these storms.


From April 2012 Blog


I will be heading out to milk in this very shortly.

I have talked before about our front ditch that is no longer mowable and barely trimmable since they resurfaced the road and made the incline so sharp.  I decided to plant some vigorous self-seeders and spreaders and let them fight out the weeds and grasses and hope the prettier ones win.  I am happy with how it is working so far.

I already had the pink flower, oenothera speciosa, a wonderful self-seeder, the iris were already planted and I have a good stand of both major and minor vinca.  There is also some Dame's Rocket started.

This is the west end.  I  did do some trimming up on the yard level that you can see by the different color on the grass.


This is a particularly heavy patch of the oenothera right at the pavement edge.


I wish I knew how to show a view of the entire front ditch by stitching the pictures together.....but I don't.

There are still lots of grasses and a few broadleaved weeds that I will dig out by hand before they seed,but pretty much I am leaving it alone.  I have some lemon balm to move up there and more sprigs of the vincas.

I was happy to the see the two Bonica shrub roses are coming back from the stumps.  They were so dead I had them cut to the ground....another benefit of buying own-root plants. 

This is a great shrub rose, but no fragrance. I did have some RRD which is why I removed it.....be interesting so see if the new growth will have it too.



Lightening is getting fierce so I am going to publish without proofing!  Good luck.

I am unplugging the computer now.

15 comments:

  1. What a great way to take care of that steep ditch! It makes an otherwise ugly area very attractive. Plus you don't have to risk life and limb trying to weed whip or mow it!

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    1. Getting rid of standing in the ditch was my first concern but I am really enjoying how it looks now! That is a real bonus.

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  2. Now that's a wonderful flower filled ditch. Very pretty.

    Have a great week ~ FlowerLady

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    1. I hope to get some larkspur and poppies going but I am not having much luck so far.

      You have a super week too.

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  3. Love this idea. When we first moved here and were house shopping, I felt our choices were limited becasue everything was built on a hill or had a steep incline for a yard. I wouldn't even go insode these houses because I didn't want to deal with the yard being so steep. Wonderful idea!

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    1. You have to make yourself get used to seeing the grass among the plants but I am hoping they will eventually die out.

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  4. Hi Glenda,
    I am picturing a battle of the plants. I'm thinking the oenothera or the bee balm will be the victors.

    We got some rain today, but no thunder or lightning. I hope you didn't get anything severe.

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    1. Sue,
      We got a good rain yesterday morning and during the night and it is still raining. No hail or bad winds. We are really glad to see the rain.

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  5. That is a great idea to deal with that ditch.

    We got about an inch of rain last night, along with 8 minutes of a hail downpour to boot! I am hoping that the storm headed for Missouri will bypass us, at least. We have been getting so much rain that my garden is drowning.

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    1. So far, the hail has missed us but nearby Willard had golf-ball sized hail.

      I haven't checked to see how much we got last night and this morning but yesterday morning we got an inch.

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  6. That solved that problem and it looks so pretty and natural! We're finally getting some rain this morning. Started around 6 and is letting up now. We have grass seed down so I hope it didn't wash it all down the mountain! How are your allergies? We got a lot done last week when Jerry was on vacation but we both sneezed our heads off!

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  7. We got an inch of rain yesterday and more is coming down this morning. If yours are as heavy as our...you may loose some grass seed!

    My allergies are better. I went back on Clariton which probably helped but I think maybe the pollen is less now. I hope you all get past yours too. It looks like you live in a veritable forest on that hillside so I bet your allergies are worse than mine.

    Have a great week.

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  8. Your yard with all those lovely flowers looks wonderful, Glenda! I think you had the right idea for the ditch, too. Looks great! Enjoy your day, we've had too much rain here. It rained nearly all night.

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  9. There are several panoramic programs that offer free trial downloads. Some of them expire within 30 days, other don't expire, but keep a bit of advertising on the finished panoramic. I'm using the demo of one called PanoEdit. You might try Googling for some that are made for your OS.

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    1. Also, some camera software has pano stitching built in. Have you checked your user manual to see if there's one there?

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