On April 24th Pedro and his crew raked in a thin layer of loose dirt and then spread a blanket of Buffalo grass sod, checker-board style, over our front and back yards. It was a big job and I'm glad it wasn't me hauling all the sod up and down the hill. The next day Charles and I started filling in the bare squares with a "Midway Mix" of seeds from the Native American Seed Company. It took us about a week to get all the seeds down and scratched into the soil. The mix is made up of mostly Buffalo grass, Blue Grama, and Sideoats Grama. It also contains: Texas Cupgrass, Green Sprangletop, Curly Mesquite, White Tridens and Cane Bluestem.The new sod required daily watering for the first two weeks and the seed also has needed some extra water to start the germination process. Charles' new title is Chief Irrigator. As soon as the grass went down the rains completely stopped. Last night we finally had a gully-washer that, I hope, has put an end to our watering. The goal is to only mow once or twice a year and to never water.
So far we've spotted one type of grass sprouting, and I'm not sure which it is. I hope more will come. It will be interesting to see what grows over the wet septic areas.
Following Jill Nokes suggestions for my front flower bed, I've planted the perennials below:
Mexican Bush Sage, Mexican Mint Marigold, Texas Primrose, Winecup, Mealy Blue Sage, Moss Verbena, Summer Phlox, Jerusalem Sage, Blackfoot Daisy, Autumn Sage, Pink Skullcap, Gaura-sisykiou Pink, Datura, Lantana 'Dallas' Red, Brown-eyed Susan
To keep the costs down I bought small plants from Barton Creek Nursery and from the Wild Flower Center. It will be awhile before the front beds fill out.
Below I've added a few pictures of the latest from Turkey Gulch.
