Hi Mark,

On Sat 2012-Jul-14 12:48, Mark Hofmann (1:261/1304) wrote to Richard Webb:

RW> Trouble with the front is that it slopes downhill to the
RW> street, and the solution for that soil erosion has been
RW> railroad tie barriers which shift over time.  Were it me,
RW> I'd try to  find a plant that gets a good root hold and
RW> doesn't suffer if sunlight levels are a bit low because of
RW> all the foliage overhead.  But, that's me, and, I don't own
RW> it ,grin>.

MH> That sounds logical to me.  

It does to me, and were it mine that's what I'd do with this front yard. 
Landlady's handyman and another strong back
repositioned the rr ties recently again, I've done it with a strong back a
couple times myself since we lived here.  I
don't push the issue on seeding it with a good low ambient
light cover because getting the turf to take hold is a lot
of work, and this year it would require a lot of water from
the meter.  Lady in other side of the duplex has also sort
of done the desert landscape bit with lots of little statues this and that,
and a little table with wrought iron chairs
under the big oak tree on her side.  iN fact, if I'm
servicing my one wire antenna system that uses that tree for one end I have to
be very careful to put her cuties back
where I found them if I bump them out of position.  She's
more understanding if my dog does it while being
rambunctious, because she's got a lab mix herself she
rescued.  She relates to fact blind man doesn't mean to mess up her decorative
arrangement.  She quit doing a bunch of
stuff with flowers in planters when water bill ran past the
minimum and since we pay the water bill we hit her for the
difference .  They work that weird with local water
utility, duplex is on one water meter, they figure the
minimum for each place, total them up and any overage gets
tacked onto our bill.  Still, were i landlady I'd try to
research a good low light grass variety to go in that front
yard.

MH> I always buy the black dyed mulch, which doesn't break down as fast.
MH> I put it on thick and it typically lasts a few years.  It looks
MH> really good up next to our freshly painted deck (which was my other
MH> late spring project).  That took 13 gallons of paint.  Glad it
MH> should last around 10 years before the next coat. 

Can relate.  I'm nto sure that would do with as little
sunlight as anything's going to get out here in front, those two big oaks are
almost too close together.  She needs to do something with the hillside behind
the house too, they lost
a couple trees back there over the last few years, and
that's changing things a bit too.



MH> I'm really happy we had no issues in my local area.  It was so hot
MH> that week, there were people without power the entire week when it
MH> was in the upper 90s / low 100s.  Not fun at all.

I've been doign the knock on wood on a few things this year. I thought we
could get a little severe wx Tuesday night so
didn't go into the city for radio club meeting as I'd
planned.

RW> We've gotten a taste of rain, and the heat's let up a little bit finally.

MH> We had a very slight taste of rain this morning.  If you can call
MH> ".01" a taste. Just enough to coat the ground for a few minutes.

That's about waht we seem to have received here.  That
little creek to the west of us is a bit more healthy looking now though.


Regards,
           Richard
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 * Origin:  (1:116/901)