On 7/7/2015 10:32 AM, Hypatia Nachshon wrote:
On Tuesday, July 7, 2015 at 7:25:01 AM UTC-7, Andy Morley wrote:
Hypatia Nachshon;1014821 Wrote:
I am hurrying to get City rebate for removing lawn before they run out
of money.

The curse of this street is horrible tree that sheds needles, sharp
seeds, and sap, and obscures plantings. Everybody hates them. City
will not remove.

My neighbor took out his grass and spread mulch, but his new "lawn" is
immediately covered with needles. It looks awful as he knew going in.

Needles cannot be removed from mulch with blower. I just spent an hour
cleaning out my beds by hand.

To the point: I am considering either pebbles or gravel with a few
drought-adapted large plants. Yes I know...

I THINK one could blow needles off pebbles. Could one do it off gravel?


Pebbles more expensive than gravel?

Any experience/advice gratefully received,

HB


I don't think gravel or pebbles is the right way to go. Personally, I
think slabs would look better and it wouldn't make garden look messy. If
not, then consider artificial grass as that would still give the "lawn"
look but would be easily taken care of if any needles did fall. It would
further stop and of the problems that you are having with your "lawn" at
the minuet.
Hope you find this useful


Zut, alors! I didn't even THINK of slabs. That does sound like a better way to go. In small spaces between slabs, I could put a very flat, hardy ground cover like dymondia,(sp?) which I have between stepping stones to side gate. Would be much easier to sweep/blow off hated tree needles.

Hope they aren't too expensive. This is just for a parking strip, BTW, not for whole lawn. If slab is a budget buster, I have a lot of used brick stacked up in back that I could form into [shapes].

Thanks for great suggestion, Andy, and thanks also to other kind NG members.


HB


No matter what you use, consider landscape cloth underneath. It is
sufficiently porous to allow rain and other water to penetrate to the
soil below it but dense enough to prevent weeds from rooting.

If you want a few plants in the strip, you can poke holes in the cloth
to plant them. If you want to plant a ground cover between stone slabs
or bricks, however, then forgo the landscape cloth.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean, see
http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary