More Landscaping

On Saturday, we did even MORE landscaping. That should be no surprise to anyone that has land to scape, because everyone with land to scape KNOWS that landscaping is a never-ending battle.

We started out by cutting sod away from all of the trees in the yard. Now we have nice circles of dirt around each tree. It's MUCH easier to mow around the trees that way. Additionally, it's easier to see when the tree has been well-watered. The water standing on the dirt is easier to see than water seeping through the grass.

We then moved landscaping rocks around. There were a bunch of rocks left behind when the landscapers built our rock wall. We piled them up next to the garage so that someday, we would be able to put them in various aesthetically-pleasing locations around the house. That "someday" was Saturday.

We also noticed some brown spots in our lawn. Earlier in my life, I would have assumed that the brown spots were due to insufficient watering or something like that, but sad experience has taught me to investigate the brown spots by tugging on them. If the grass stays firm, it means that maybe there IS a problem with watering. If the grass pulls up easily, there are lawn pests at work. I tugged on a brown spot and the grass gave way immediately. Further exploration revealed that we had sod webworms. Those things are EXTREMELY destructive if not killed immediately, so I went and bought a product that specifically mentioned its killing power against sod webworms. I spread that over the lawn and watered it in.

Finally, I went to a sprinkler supply store and bought emitters for our drip system. Now all of the newly-planted trees near our drip irrigation system will be watered twice a week without any additional effort on our part.

Tune in next week for the next exciting installment of "More Landscaping" when I talk about moving dirt around.