Hi,

"Tom Randy" wrote in message
news
That's exactly my point. The OP who now has weeds, berries, brush,
etc, will
most likely have the same thing in a few years if he goes the
wildflower
route. The same thing will happen with a well planned perennial
bed. You
start with a nice mix of plants. If you don't manage the bed, you
end up
with the entire thing choked with one or two aggressive plants.
Then nasty
weeds like thistles will get established, and in my area, maple
and locust
saplings will appear.


Absolutely true. If I don't stay on top of my flower beds forget
about it.
Weeds,maple saplings go WILD.

I agree, The wildflower route is not the way to go.

I will suggested planting groundcover instead, once established, it
never needs mowing.

I use Perennial Peanut to substitute lawn.

Carpet Daisy(Wedelia trilobata) are invasive, but good for the border
of land to compete with those aggrasive weeds.

Mexican heather(Cuphea hyssopifolia) are good for marking the border.

Regards,
Wong

--
Latitude: 06.10N Longitude: 102.17E Altitude: 5m

"............ Have you actually done this? I haven't seen anyone
successfully turn an area into a wild flower meadow. It seems that in a
year or two you have a weed infested area that is dominated by one or two
species .........."
I am in the process of turning a plot over to this, many in the UK are now
well over 5 yrs old, and in Holland they have been doing this for around 20
years, and there is No way we would ever burn, this is the point of mowing
when the seed is set and then leaving it on the ground to give it time to
drop and thus re seed the area.
It is also why you add seeds of other wild flowers suitable for your area.
Mind you, if you regard all wild flowers as Weeds then this is defiantly
not the answer for you.
I was under the impression that you would be deciding in a year or two if
you were going to build on the plot so were not looking for a long term
answer and didn't want to spend much money on it.

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

Did you not consider this BEFORE you moved in?

"Wishy13764" wrote
Did you not consider this BEFORE you moved in?

Actually, no we didn't. :-)

The front 1/4 acre, ok, we let that go for the past couple of months while
we finished up other areas of the property and finished some things inside
the house and in the shop and putting up a temporary fence for the dogs to
run in. The back 1/4 though, we didn't realize that this would grow as fast
as it did and that there were brush/weeds/berries that would overtake some
areas.

We realize it now of course after we had to use a brush mower to take it all
down that this was not going to be a recurring thing for us. We only today
managed to finally haul away all the trees and branches from the cutting 2
months ago to align the perimeter. So we have the front under control and
looking nice as when we purchased and can keep that up. We have the back
mowed and determined what needs to be done to make it manageable while we
determine what we want to do in that area. And we have now finished the
side where the trees were to be able to cut that area and have easier access
to the greenhouse.

This purchase was spur of the moment. We have been looking for property for
a few years, this came up, bought it the next morning. Price, location,
amenities, and city services were all perfect; so when reviewing the house
and the land, it came as secondary review in the work needed to get up to
par. It is almost there, so we are happy.

The reason we can't decide on the back 1/4 yet is we don't know if we are
building a new house there, a garage there, or landscape it with grass while
putting the house and new shop/garage in a different location on the
property.

I didn't want a field in my backyard, but when you turn around 2 months
later when everything has settled and the weather got nice; that is exactly
what we got. :-)




--


Tim Fierro *
Licensed Real Estate Agent & Private Investor
Retail, Wholesale, or Fast Cash; There is always a solution!
Main: 360-537-0120 * Fax: 360-537-0121
Pierce County: 253-227-9877 * King County: 206-353-7044

Tim Fierro wrote:

"Wishy13764" wrote

Did you not consider this BEFORE you moved in?


Actually, no we didn't. :-)

The front 1/4 acre, ok, we let that go for the past couple of months while
we finished up other areas of the property and finished some things inside
the house and in the shop and putting up a temporary fence for the dogs to
run in. The back 1/4 though, we didn't realize that this would grow as fast
as it did and that there were brush/weeds/berries that would overtake some
areas.

We realize it now of course after we had to use a brush mower to take it all
down that this was not going to be a recurring thing for us. We only today
managed to finally haul away all the trees and branches from the cutting 2
months ago to align the perimeter. So we have the front under control and
looking nice as when we purchased and can keep that up. We have the back
mowed and determined what needs to be done to make it manageable while we
determine what we want to do in that area. And we have now finished the
side where the trees were to be able to cut that area and have easier access
to the greenhouse.

This purchase was spur of the moment. We have been looking for property for
a few years, this came up, bought it the next morning. Price, location,
amenities, and city services were all perfect; so when reviewing the house
and the land, it came as secondary review in the work needed to get up to
par. It is almost there, so we are happy.

The reason we can't decide on the back 1/4 yet is we don't know if we are
building a new house there, a garage there, or landscape it with grass while
putting the house and new shop/garage in a different location on the
property.

I didn't want a field in my backyard, but when you turn around 2 months
later when everything has settled and the weather got nice; that is exactly
what we got. :-)


Just don't go overboard with the brush killer (probably 2,4-d or
triclopyr.) Mowing will *almost* take care of the brush and weeds
without using any chemicals. After you've mowed a couple of times, spot
treat the remaining stubborn weeds with herbicides. It's cheaper that
way, and less likely to contaminate the ground water and streams with
the runoff.

Best regards,
Bob -- has an amazing stockpile of pesticides (including chlordane,
"Black Leaf 40", and old-stock kelthane with DDT in it), and seldom uses
any of it.

On Fri, 04 Jun 2004 03:29:01 GMT, "Tim Fierro"
wrote:

I just moved and the back of my property is about 1/4 acre and I had to rent
a brush mower to mow it down. The grass was a combination of grass, some
blackberry bushes, holes, crevices, and bare patches in areas. It basically
looked like a field and this was the first time I was able to mow it since
moving here.

If it was level, or somewhat less bumpy, and was grass and not a bunch of
brush, I could use my mower to do the job; but I don't have that ideal lawn
and have to work with what I got. :-)

I want to get away from having to rent a brush mower to mow a field and want
to find an alternative.

What I would like is:

1) Eliminate the small patch of blackberry bushes so they do not get
overgrown again and cause problems later.

Goats.. they'll graze and browse the area. Saw the bit on the news
again about goat herds being used to control weeds and such with them.
The cities were paying a woman to graze her goats on areas that had
problems.

I don't know if you are in an area where you can do that. Don't know
if you would want any to keep any yourself, but if not, might be
someone you could get to put theirs on your land to kill off the
blackberries and keep the weeds down, and fertilize it while they do
their job of keeping the weeds down and the blackberries down.

If the goats don't graze enough, mix in some sheep.. grazers.. with
goats.. which prefer to browse.. eat bushes.. but do graze a bit. If
you're not in a big hurry, they will graze the area down quite well ..
and you can keep them in smaller areas with an electric fence so they
will work intensively on some plants you want dead. They'll keep the
grass down without you having to cut it, while you study a bit more on
how the land lies, what you can do to work with the land as it is, or
how best to move the existing dirt around to level/fill. But watch
runoff if you haven't been there in wet weather, you could make some
big mistakes if you get flash floods.. some of those areas may be
there because of periodic flash floods.

Anyway.. just a thought! ;-)

Janice

2) Level the land a bit so there is no crevices and holes on an otherwise
level piece of land.

3) Be able to use a lawnmower, or riding lawnmower, to maintain the back 1/4
acre.

4) Do not want to go overboard with putting in fertilizer, sod, new grass;
as we are not sure if we are going to build back there or not. If bringing
in some dirt and planting seed is the best option, then I can do that
though; but I didn't want the weeds/brush/blackberries to interfere with the
new growth.

First thought, not a gardener by any means, is to now clean up the grass
clippings from the brush mower work that I did today so it is somewhat
clean. Then get a rototiller, or bobcat with attachment, to till the soil.
Then have a bobcat move the dirt around to make it a bit more level. Bring
in dirt if necessary, but it wouldn't be much dirt to bring in to make it
more level and easier to maintain in the future.

But with my above idea, I have to wonder if I am only postponing the obvious
in that as soon as the freshly tilled land gets sun and water; those little
seedlings of grass/blackberries/brush/weeds/etc... will just grow again. I
want the grass, but not the other stuff. :-)

I am not sure what I should be doing with that area, but I know I don't want
to use a brush mower every time it needs mowing. I would rather go buy a
riding mower once I have something easier to cut and easier to drive on.

Can anyone offer suggestions on a direction I should go to maybe make this
area manageable?

On Sat, 05 Jun 2004 15:38:37 GMT, Tom Randy
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Jun 2004 14:29:49 +0000, Vox Humana wrote:


My employer, [deep pockets] put in a meadow, and it looked nice as long
as they burned it every 3 years. Now it looks like sh!t. It woulda
been better if they just left it mowed fescue and bluegrass and weeds.


That's exactly my point. The OP who now has weeds, berries, brush, etc, will
most likely have the same thing in a few years if he goes the wildflower
route. The same thing will happen with a well planned perennial bed. You
start with a nice mix of plants. If you don't manage the bed, you end up
with the entire thing choked with one or two aggressive plants. Then nasty
weeds like thistles will get established, and in my area, maple and locust
saplings will appear.


Absolutely true. If I don't stay on top of my flower beds forget about it.
Weeds,maple saplings go WILD.

I agree, The wildflower route is not the way to go.

TOm

Friend just weeded the blueberry patch, it was totally infested with
elm tree seedlings. Those things drop seeds twice a year too!!

Janice