#7 Before and After

Sorry for the delay - I finally found pictures of our bubble fountain. Rick (my husband) and I built it about 4 years ago. We bought a plastic tub at Home Depot, I think it was a lily tub, but even a plastic tote would do. The tub is about 2 ft. across and 2 ft. deep. We also bought a small fountain pump and a sheet of metal screen. Everything else, we had already. We dug a hole for the tub, set the pump in it and put an old milk crate upside down over the pump, to help hold the weight of the rocks. Rick used tin snips to make a hold in the middle of the screen and set it over the top of the tub (see picture) and used bricks and rocks to hold the screen in place. The fountain tube from the pump poked up through the milk crate and screen. We added an extension so that the tube was about 6 inches above the screen. Once all that was set up and the pump tested, we added a layer of small rocks to cover the screen, large rocks around the edges, and several rocks in the center to hide the fountain tube. The water bubbled up from the tube and poured down over the rocks. It's hard to see the water in the pictures. You could hear it more than see it. The main trick was to be sure no water ran out of the tub. It was a fairly easy project.

Here's the same pond now. After about a year, we decided that we wanted to see the water, so we just removed the rocks, screen and milk crate. We added an underwater light, a T in the fountain tube, so that there's a tube with a fountain head, and another tube that makes the waterfall. Then we just arranged rocks around the edge and stacked some to make the waterfall. It's a very small pond, but we love it. We sit by it in the early morning and evenings. It does require more cleaning - dipping leaves out every fall. Rick drains it and cleans it out at least once a year.

Very nice job indeed.

So nice, covenantgarden. Thanks for sharing.

Even with a small water feature it's sound is so calming and the creatures appreciate it too.

So true, Sheila. We have birds and bees at our small pond constantly. The squirrels come to drink too. They have grown so trusting of us that they will come for a drink even when we are sitting next to the fountain. They provide quite a show!

If I really do this, I'm gonna have to learn to sit.

Nutsedge. Grrr. The only thing that's worse is bindweed. Double grrr. I recently heard about Sedge Hammer. Love the name. Hate the price, which was even more than Vossner paid.

Here's what I've been doing to the parkway at my house. It's a combination of nutsedge, bermuda grass, st. augustine, crabgrass, etc. At first, it just got mowed and looked green and I was ok with that. Then I decided that I actually wanted to get rid of everything and plant irises and other flowers.

About 3 years ago I started hand weeding like a wild woman with OCD. I also sprayed with 20% vinegar. Then, even tho it's not a mulch I would otherwise use b/c it doesn't break down, I've covered the entire area with those large pine bark nuggets. As nutsedge started to reappear, I tried using Avenger. And then just as I was going to do a 2nd application (as recommended), it rained. Got lazy, I mean busy, and just piled on more mulch. (I was getting torn bags for 1/2 price.)

Recently I've used a new to me product called BlackJack 21. It's 21% vinegar and also has some molasses in it. One ingredient is yucca, but I don't know what it's supposed to add to the mix.

I might wait awhile now as the City of Dallas will be helping pay for me to replace my sidewalk. I would imagine that process will tear up some of the parkway. The spec I got mentioned sod but didn't say if it was pulling up or planting. Waiting for a return phone call. The spec does say that once the City gets my $$, it could be 3 to 6 months before the work is done. Long waiting list.

Long story a little longer is that of all the things I've tried, I think the 20% vinegar worked best with Avenger coming in at a close 2nd.

As always, I may be opinionated but I am open to suggestions.

I like the way you go about things Flower Child, and I like the way you write too.

Sybram, learning to just sit has been one of the hardest things for me. I keep wanting to pop up and do stuff, but as I get older I'm finding I need rest. Besides, when the critter's are out to play, it's better than TV.

I'm battling nutsedge, too. There's a small spot in my front garden where it keeps coming back and I keep pulling. The worst is in the back yard. After the Spring Roundup, I started a native garden next to our shed, using most of the natives that you all generously blessed me with. Rick tilled the area and I pulled out most of the grass. Some has returned, but mostly the nutsedge. Over the summer, it has spread beyond my ability to keep up with it.

Frostweed, do you think the natives will eventually choke out the nutsedge? I was thinking of spreading some native wildflower seeds this fall to add to the mix. Of course, I'm inspired by your wildflower slope. I thought if the natives could choke out bermuda, maybe they could overthrow the nutsedge too.

I'd rather not use chemicals around the natives.

Thank you, Frostweed. You might be in the minority!

Covenantgarden, I don't know about nutsedge, but I do know that if the plants get tall and thick enough they will shade out the grasses.
I do have some wild chives that come up in the spring when the plants are cut back, and I have to do battle with those, I mainly pull them or cut them at ground level.

So, Flowerchild, you did use the Sedge Hammer or you did not? Tell me quick, because I'm trying to locate it. Lowes doesn't carry it, so I was about to go online to find it. I've about had it with Image. I think my nutsedge has taken a liking to it.

I understand about the getting old and the needing rest part, Covenantgarden, but too many things keep calling my name.

I will say this about the nutsedge, though. I haven't had one sprig of it in my tomato patch (about 12' X 20'). I just made that plot this year out of almost all homemade compost. Maybe 1/4 landscape mix. I did as Frostweed told me and put down newspapers first, then coffeegrounds, then the compost and dirt. No weeds came up from the bottom. There are a few weeds, but they are shallow-rooted and very easy to pull.

No, Sybram, I have NOT used Sedge Hammer. Sorry if I confused you. I was just commenting that I had only recently learned of its existence and that I thought it had a clever name but it was also very pricey.

In Dallas, I know that Northaven Gardens sells it. And the other place that recommended it was either Nicholson Hardie or Elliottt's Hardware or maybe both.

I'd go online and look. Actually, that's not true. I always prefer to pick up the horn and call places and ask. When I go online, like now, I can spend hours on end going from one link to another and not accomplishing much besides reading some interesting and often useless tidbits here and there. I think it's partly an age thing. Like if your a gen-xer or millenial or boomer or just an old coot. (Talking 'bout my gen-er-a-tion.) But I digress.

If you use Facebook, you can go to Northaven Gardens page and ask them about price for SedgeHammer. They're usually very good about responding.

Good luck!

Just got back from Northaven Gardens. They sell a packet of Sedge Hammer for $18.99 (yikes!) that will mix up to make 5 gallons, if I read the label correctly.

Sybram,

If my ice plant looks dead right now is it really dead? I've had good luck with some stuff I didn't think would survive, but the ice plant sure looks gone.

Gypsi

Well, Gypsi, I don't know. Mine look the same, but I got them out of my storage room, and I'm watering them. A few days should tell the story. Same for some ferns I had cut way back and put in there, too. I'll let you know if I see some green, and you do the same, ok?

I didn't bring mine in, and I don't see a bit of green. I thought they were hardy, they were beautiful right up to first frost. I had moved the sedums into a pot, the 2 that didn't burn up last summer, and I stuffed them in the greenhouse and they look good, but I forgot the poor little ice plant. I left my fern outdoors under the pine and needles and watered it, but I am pretty sure I will have some winter losses out there too