8.24.2007

Back Yard Ivy Madness

I just realized a few weeks ago that the ivy has taken over the backyard. It was smothering trees, walking irises, some lilies (i think they are lilies), shade ferns...just really out of control. It even pulled a large branch of the huge magnolia tree to the ground and caused pretty bad damage to it.

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:

stuffed said...

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)

day-lab Blog said...

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. :)

Stephanie said...

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!