On Wed, 09 Jul 2003 11:04:02 GMT, Frogleg wrote:
I've just spent an hour -- first downloading the player and then the
film with a dialup connection -- to see this feature. Well worth it!
What a lovely place. Qs: You say the nandina is invasive and you're
going to take it out. How *do* you keep natives from, well, going
native? It looks to me like it would take about 48 hrs of work per day
to kep up with this. What is the *size* of this area? I'd love to see
an architectural drawing or plan. Not so much exact measurements, but
how everything fits in.
Thanks for the treat. It really is inspiring.
You are welcome. Nandina is not a native, so in that regard I am removing it.
The birds eat the berries (mostly the cedar waxwings) and spread the shrub to
areas where it takes over and eliminates native forbs and grasses.
Since our garden is a prairie garden, there are going to be things which take
over, no question. However, if these are native plants taking over it only
encourages more wildlife to fit in.
Things which reseed, readily are easily controlled in spring, after the rains.
Simply pull out what you don't want, leave the rest. It is a great deal of
work the first five or so years till you know what goes where and how much
re-seeding any given plant does.
For example: The native argeratum...Gregg's Mist. This plant can be an
aggressive spreader via seeds. However, it is covered in red admiral
butterflies spring to winter with a slight lapse in summer.
I suppose the point is, native plants taking over are not the big problem for
areas outside my garden. Aggressive spreaders via bird droppings in water ways,
or outer fields is a great problem. Any time it takes up space, it's less and
less space for blackland prairie plants to exist.
We have a half acre. That largest of the borders is in the back. It runs about
20 feet deep by about 100 feet wide. The raised bed in back of the pool runs
the length of the pool at 50 feet and we have another bed in shade which runs
about 75 feet long by about 6 feet deep in shade. On one side of the house
there's a hedge row of viburnums and live oak trees and front beds go the full
width of the house, about 40 feet (that's where the Nandina domestica are) and
the border on the west side of the house is 10 feet deep by about 40 feet long,
not counting the trees planted to shade the west side and the A/C unit and pool
equipment.
I'm working on a webpage to be more specific, but it has been a TON of physical
work. Since I am not a designer, I made a lot of awful mistakes...some to my
advantage. I'm not through moving things around come fall, so I've been taking
a lot of notes. I did add at least 100 echinacea to the gardens this year and
the daturas reseed, readily. Gaura lindheimerii reseed and so does the Palo
Verde which I have been digging out, potting up and I'm going to grow them in
gallon containers in the greenhouse over winter to sell to a garden center
around here. They have a hard time keeping gaura in stock, and virtually nobody
grows Palo Verde for the trade. I swap the plants for the best compost in the
land, made at The Natural Gardener
www.naturalgardeneraustin.com They are also
brewing fabulous compost tea as directed by Dr. Ingram at
http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/SoilBiology/soil_food_web.htm
They recently changed their website address for anyone who wants to update their
bookmark.
Victoria