Yearly mulching all that space is insane, unless you're extraordinarily
wealthy or enjoy doing the work yourself. What's more, it's not necessary
for the health of the trees and shrubs. Visually, yearly mulching of course
looks nice.
-- Any tree service will gladly dump their truckloads of woodchips on your
driveway for free if you simply call them.
-- Another possible route would be silver dollar pine bark nuggets-- those
are very slow to break down and should last 3-5 years.
-- Another route would be to blow out the yearly leaf fall, shred the leaves
yourself, and replace neatly. That would necessitate a rather large leaf
shredder if it's not to be tedious work. High school and college kids make
great helpers!
-- If it were my space to work, I would concentrate on mainting crisp edges
to the turf/bed demarcation, keep the area weeded, and figure out a plan of
attack for naturalizing the space. I like the stones, although they are
apparently layed rather haphazardly and could be placed much more
beautifully (IMHO). The light and surroundings seem perfect for azalea, so
I'm not certain why yours aren't thriving. I think the forsythia should go,
as should the Burning Bushii (maybe move them to a sunnier part of your
yard?) I would work to improve the heights and layers of plantings, trying
to fill the space with attractive understory trees and shrubs (think
Viburnums, Kerria japonica, Witch Hazels, Hydrangea, azaleas, Japanese
Hornbeam, Stewartia, etc. etc) along with groundcovers that will slowly fill
the space so that one doesn't even notice the mulch-- the space is so bare
now that one does tend to focus on the ground. Good luck, it has a lot of
potential,
Dave
"Neil" wrote in message ...
I like it as is also, but the strip in question eats over 5 truckloads of
mulch a year. Too much for me to put down.
I know pretty much what I have.
The stubby green bushes are Forsithia that have been pruned against
their natural habits.
There are some sickly azeleas, probably due to the lack of light from
all the trees.
A number of large burning bushes (hard to see in the picture) which grow
well
but never turn red in the fall, again due to lack of light.
There are lots of bulbs, but what the squirrels don't dig up, the deer
decimate so I'm not going to plant anymore.
Again, the idea is low maintenance. Removing all the fallen leaves is
hard enough, having to lay down 9000 sq ft of mulch is just too much.
"Tsu Dho Nimh" wrote in message
...
"Neil" wrote:
My new home has an area that is about 275ft x 30ft in front of the
house
(essentially the length of the lot and about 30ft deep). It is uneven
and
strewn with large bolders.
The previous owner of the house took a very costly approach. The area
has a fair amount of trees, some random shrub plantings, and is covered
from
end to end with mulch (wood chips). The previous owner told me it cost
about $2000 to put down mulch along this entire area. Well I was
fortunate
enough to finda free supply of wood chips, as long as I was willing to
spread
them myself.Five truckloads (and over a month later), and
I've finally finished "chipping" the area.
This is unmanageable as far as I'm concerned, but I'm at a loss as to
how to improve the situation.
1) Grass - preparing the land (tree removal, bolder removal, fill) is
too
expensive.
Not to mention destruction of some really nice trees.
2) Ground cover - Seems that I either have to spend a fortune for an
acre
of
the stuff, or wait the remainder of my life for a little bit to spread
out.
http://www.panix.com/~nradisch/yard.jpg
I like it as is, and would just spend some time identifying the
various shrubs, perhaps adding some that flowr ot have some
striking decorative feature, and planting appropriate herbaceous
perennials and self-seeding wildflowers among the trees. They
all look deciduous, so spring bulbs should do well and
naturalize.
Keep mulching as leaves fall, and enjoy the low-maintenance
strip.
Tsu
--
To doubt everything or to believe everything
are two equally convenient solutions; both
dispense with the necessity of reflection.
- Jules Henri Poincaré