a dear old friend of mine came to visit. I think he felt a little sorry for me and my lack of knowledge and experience, but strong desire to create something beautiful in my outside surroundings.
Bless his heart, he ordered a truck load of cypress mulch and then distributed it in every area that resembled a garden bed. He put it in thick, over 6 inches deep, further discouraging the weeds that were recently removed. It was so thick that I can still see remnants of it today, nine years later.
Today, I primarily use pine straw and oak leaves as mulch. However, the cypress was excellent as a base and also good in preventing weeds from reappearing.
Much concern has been expressed over the harvesting of cypress forests to provide mulch. In the southeast, pine straw and oak leaves are abundant, inexpensive and many times free! My neighbor's pine tree drops plenty of needles into my yard. I am amazed at the bags full of pine straw sitting on curbs waiting for disposal. It is attractive and provides excellent nutrients, especially for acid loving plants such as azaleas and hydrangeas.
The synthetic and artificially colored mulches make me want to barf.......why not just plant plastic flowers along with them?
And on the fourth day.....
And on Day Three........
My daddy (a farmer) and step-mother (a gardener) came for a visit. When they left, my entire front lawn was covered in weeds and limbs that had previously resided in my back yard.
I was so thankful to have their help. For one thing, there was a bed of something if my front yard. It was a leafy green plant with an orange center. It was not my first choice, but it was really kind of attractive. I found out it was a weed so out it went.
In my back yard, growing around and through anything that was already there, were the most obnoxious, tough and mean looking weeds. I don't know what any of them are called, except for Virginia Creeper which was also plentiful. They were so thick that I was too intimidated to begin to tackle them by myself. I think, really, I was a little fearful of what might come climbing out. We spent much of the day and into the evening cleaning it all out. The result exceeded my "yard trash allowance" so I had to call for a special pickup so it would not kill the grass on my front lawn.
Once this chore was done, I had a better idea of (or the lack of ) what I had to work with. It was probably at this time that my addiction to Round-up began.
