Well, I’ll get to the Curse of the Spurge eventually. It should be obvious by now that the main reason I even embarked on the landscape re-design was one of redemption. It is very fitting, now, that I compare the entire process to the Stations of the Cross. Manifold indeed were the outrages and outright sins I perpetrated upon various area in my backyard (“BY” henceforward). These ranged from laying stone and rock without landscape fabric (LF, in brief---you all are going to get quite weary of my initialisms!) to trimming trees and shrubs and lazily hiding the branches in the side yards to planting wildly inappropriate flora.
I felt compelled to atone for my sins.
I started out by naming the area, The
Tilth. The formal, complete
name is The Tilth of Triptolemus, named after an ancient, celebrated, but
mythological, aristo, who was transported about by goddesses, imparting to the populace all knowledge agricultural. This struck me as apt, since my intention was
to gain a better knowledge of gardening, and the Tilth would be my mentor and
proving ground.
So, here’s a sketch of the BY, pre-Tilth:
Lotsa grass, some interesting trees and shrubs. The garden in the southwest corner was very
productive at first. Also, the first
three stations of my Via Dolorosa can be seen in my drawing, to wit:.
1. 1. Danny uses rock unwisely & fertilizes with horse
manure
2. 2. Danny ignores
old trash and firewood
3. 3. Danny Hides
his Trash and cuttings
The garden in the southwest corner was very productive at first. Problems
started when I tried to put in a stone path between the vegetables and herbs.
Tilth Tip #1: use landscape fabric!
Gravity rules. The stones sank into the ground and the weeds flourished, aided by several bags of of manure from a friend’s pet horse. This is probably where the spurge came from.
Tilth Tip #2: Only use commercial fertilizer!
Next: Myrtle Spurge and more
stations of the cross
