In cutting down the ivy, in order to keep it from getting out of hand again, i realized the beds were in severe need of TLC...and decided to do what I can over the next few weeks. I would love to plant some shade ferns/ground cover and some bulbs, planning it so I will have blooms all year around. These are the two sites I have been looking at, and I am in awe of the selections: Dutch Gardens and White Flower Farm
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This is my terrible excuse for a bird's eye view of the back yard diagram (i can't draw in photoshop at all), with names for the beds I will be working on. It's hard to get your bearings from the photos and thought this might help:
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To begin, this is Garage Bed, which is to the left if you are facing the back porch:
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This is the Screen Bed which is to the right in front of the screened porch:
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This is the Brick Patio , which is to the right of the Screen Bed:
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View of the walkways that will lead to the front yard. They start at the Screen Bed and behind the Brick Patio. I would like to cover the walkways with pea gravel.. but maybe making some concrete stepping stones would be less expensive:
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www.day-lab.com
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3 comments:
Wow. Lotta work. Looks good.
I planted without any preventative actions. Within four months, I had a nice balance of good and bad insects. No spraying. Gotta love southern California.
Good luck! :0)
STUFFED-
that was kind of my original plan, but once all that ivy started to come down...the infestation was apparent. :/
its really really bad..like when you walk even in the lawn, the second you put your foot down..white flies jump up everywhere!)...so, if i can get it down to a reasonable number, i think nature will start to take its course and it'll all even out. :)
I had white flies pretty badly on my houseplants and followed some advice to mix up a soap and water solution, coat the plants and rinse them off a few days later. The idea was that the soap would suffocate the eggs, which it did. Unfortunately, it also suffocated the plants and they all died.
I haven't had white flies since then, but I bought a commercial soap spray to deal with some gnats that live in the soil and have had mixed results.
Good luck!
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