More Changes

Bought three 16 inch Xeropave pavers for the electric and telecom hookup area at the SW corner of my house.  I hope to grow grass here, but expecially after sprinkler installation it is soft dirt.  The Xeropave pavers let needed moisture into the ground.  Moisture is especially needed in the ground here as it is where my house settles slightly in the summer, making a tiny crack appear in my bedroom.

These Xeropave pavers are wonderful looking, lightweight for a nice 16" size.  I plan to investigate how they are made.  Main downside is high cost, about 3 times the cost of a comparably sized paver.  Speaking of which I also bought three 3/4 moon 16 inch round pavers with tiny pebble surface.  I've decided those would be best to make a walkway to Lyndhurst.  Only one width is OK at 16 inches (12 inches is too small, needs doubling up), they are much lighter than 16x16 pavers, and make curves nicely.

A friend and I found a new place for Palmy, in the NW corner of my lot, but 15 feet or so diagonally out from the corner (what would have been the edge of a large gazebo...which I no longer plan to have).  This is actually a better more visible spot for Palmy, and away from wires and easements.

We also found a place for Spindly Bamboo right next to the other Alphonse Karr.  It is possible to put clumps fairly close together I've read (but not exactly confirmed).

Neighbor to the south no longer wants Texas Mtn Laurel on her side, so it will replace the 2nd viburnum on the north side, and may put viburnum where the TML was going previously.

Still need to decide what plant if any to put nearest the house along the southern fence.  Can't be big, I had thought bamboo would be perfect, and it would except the expanding clump problem.  Very small tree or shrub needed.

And need to decide what plant to put where I was putting Palmy.  One possibility would be Anacacho Orchid, a pretty tree, I would have chosen it before but I thought it was deciduous.

So two spots now remain to be filled, nearest the house (if any) and at the sw corner of the back fence near the CPS transformer.

Changes

OK, the bamboo will not go in the electric and telecom hookup corridor.  Instead, I'll move it to a convenient spot near the north wall, just like the other bamboo.  Problem is the inexorable growth of the base and rootsystem.  On the north side, there is only one wire, which I've never seen dug up.

Instead, I'll choose a deciduous small tree/shrub.  Why?  Because I can't put deciduous trees in the privacy screen, but behind Lyndhurst it doesn't matter.

The palm will not go in the back easement, filled with wires that go through the neighborhood.  If I keep it, and I'm not sure I will, I'll plant it in the SE corner of the front lawn, far enough back from the driveway to allow expansion, or in the south side yard.  It cannot go in the NE side of the front lawn because that's where the drain is.  Another possible spot is in the southern corridor beside the house near the back fence.

With regard to the palm, though, it has a mass rootsystem of consistenly finger-sized roots.  Perhaps that's not so bad back near the fence in the easement.  The palm does not have expanding roots, it grows new little roots.

In the spot originally intended for bamboo near the house, I'll put an evergreen tree shrub.  Photinia?

More clumping bamboo, but is this best choice?

For my monthly discussion party, I asked that guests discuss trees suitable for my back yard.

During a short tour of my back yard as it is (or was) I proudly pointed out my clumping bamboo.  One guest said this was a very bad choice, bamboo is invasive, and I will cause damage to natural ecosystems by growing it.

I replied that I had chosen a clumping bamboo, which is not invasive, it grows outward very slowly, and in fact barely survives the heat, cold, drought, etc.  You can see how slowly it grows, I said.

The guest was not impressed, adding that birds would spread the seeds and wreck natural ecosystems as well as neighboring yards.

I dropped the topic there, though I think I should have pointed out what one of my friends had said earlier that afternoon, that bamboo produces seeds very infrequently, maybe 20-100 years (an online source says "less than once in a lifetime") and only when the bamboo plants of a particular variety are dying out all over the world at the same time.  Then the only thing left is the seeds, and they don't grow very easily either.  It is apparently an ancient strategy to dump parasites.  I have confirmed this story online since then.  It seemed to me not worthwhile to argue with someone so obviously misinformed and opinionated.  In retrospect, I should have been the better host, and repeated what my friend had said.

But lo, there are even some who say that running bamboo really is not that bad (it would have taken over the whole world millions of years ago if it was as invasive as some very vocal anti-bamboosers claim nowadays).  It can and should be controlled with simple techniques (it is the lazy folks who don't follow directions that are to blame).   Further, clumping bamboo, though it grows very slowly in just one expanding clump, tends to grow inexorably though whatever is in its path, so don't plant near foundations or driveways.  And they say for various reasons clumping bamboo does not make a good privacy hedge, the tops tend to droop to the sides rather than remaining tight.  Clumping bamboos are also more sensitive in various ways (cold, heat, drought) and then there is that slow growing thing.

I fear those "simple techniques" may indeed be too troublesome for most people, including me, however.  The best thing might be to have your running bamboo grove set up by a professional who knows how to do just that, I feel now.

But now, somewhat, I fear the clump.  What happens when my clumping bamboo hits my concrete fence?  Eventually, probably measured in a decade or two, I will have to remove my first bamboo on along the north fence, though that neighbor literally does nothing in or with his back yard and wouldn't even notice if Bambi One started growing on the other side of the fence.  I would make a nice counterpoint to his volunteer garden of hackberry trees that got started in the unusually wet early summer this year and a 10 foot high sunflower.  So I think I leave Bambi One alone, she can just clump there to her hearts content.

On Thursday I just got a second bamboo plant, which I have named Spindly Bambi.  Initially it was over 8 feet tall, but the nursury gave me a scissors to cut at 7 feet so I could squeeze it into my car.  I watered it well on Thursday night, expecting all my trees and plants to be planted today (Friday).  That did not happen as the sprinkler guy knew quite well that it would do no good to plant plants until the system can actually be operated, and that won't occur until after City inspection and after final setup next Thursday.

Spindly Bambi did not like the area near the SW corner of the house.  Even Thursday night in gentle breeze she blew over.  That area somehow channels wind between my house and the southern neighbor from the E, SE, and S into a jet stream.  Then today in 15 mph winds it was hopeless, even with Spindly Bambi propped right up against the doorway of Lyndhurst.

So I've relocated Spindly Bambi near the Palm (Palmy) and the CPS electric utility transformer (Hummy).  That spot is spared the worst winds I think.  But there are lots of wires in the ground there, and it might not do to have an inexorably growing bamboo clump pushing through them.

So now I don't know what to do.  I had been thinking about getting a third bamboo plant for the location I had originally intended for Spindly Bambi.  But that area has lots of wires too.

Article on watering plants

Here is one article railling against the danger of overwatering.

"try to water no more than once a week"

OK, I'm sure all my summer planted trees would now be dead if I did that.  By soil moisture test, I need to water the two Crepe Myrtles every 2 days, and the Oak every 2-3 days.  Mind you these are newly planted container plants, and the afternoon temperatures reach 102.

Why don't they simply tell everyone to get a soil moisture gauge?

"when you do make sure you give them a good soaking"

What's a good soaking?  They don't say.   No way to judge.

The guy who planted my Oak gave me a suggestion I now know was wrong.  Let the soaker run 2 hours he said.  That might work if I had it turned down extremely low.  The problem with that is you have no idea how many gallons of water are being delivered.  Soaker hoses vary, water pressures vary.  Did he really consider I have 25 feet of soaker hose wrapped around each plant?

What seems to work for me is a one hour soak at rather low level.  This is probably too much, it could be as much as 20-30 gallons.  I think 10 gallons or so would be fine.  Every 2 or 3 days as requried.

The oak planter also suggested deep soaking.  But since he comes from West San Antonio, he possibly has no idea how non-draining clay soils work.  You don't want to over soak especially because the water just sits there until it dries out.  Especially just past the root ball (within the root ball, the container soil drains well, and the plant drinks the water, so it gets dry by the second day.

For a newly planted tree, the critical part is the root ball.  It MUST have enough water for the plant to survive, because roots aren't going much anywhere else.

So two hour soaking at full pressure is definitely out.  Both water quantity and frequency should be controlled.

Unfortunately, short of installing a drip system (as I plan to have done tomorrow) you simply don't know how much water you are delivering.  That is maddening I think.  There should be water flow gauges that can show how many gallons are delivered.

Plants Recommended by City of San Antonio

The City of San Antonio also has a list of recommended trees and plants.

Mexican Petunia...terribly invasive weed identified

The terribly invasive weed I have been fighting for 4 years in my north side yard has now been identified as a version of Ruellia called Mexican Petunia.  It comes over from my neighbor's hardly ever touched yard.  It spits seeds, loves disturbed soil, survives long droughts, and has impossible to uproot by hand roots (which break off just at the active part).  After a long drought kills enough lawn grass, Ruellia quickly takes over at the first light rain, and spits seeds into the next area.

There are some nice forms of Ruellia, I have also learned.

Big Week (little time to post)

The new Tuff Shed (named Palmhurst by me) was installed on Monday.  It looks beautiful!  It fits the yard very well, blocks the view as intended, makes my back yard feel cozy and private for the first time, and I love it.  But they didn't have time to paint the trim or install the flower boxes.  That gave me time to decide not to put a flower box under the left window (which gets in the way of the 4 foot passage way to the power company transformer...4 feet being the minimum allowable) and instead install it on the north side, on the otherwise blank wall facing the "Gazebo" area (which probably won't have a Gazebo after all, but perhaps a permeable paver patio).  Tuff Shed will come back to paint the trim and install boxes on Saturday.

The Tuff Shed installers insisted the shed be at least 2 1/2 feet from the back wall.  I had them angle it slightly so that the minimum 4 feet clearance from Lyndhurst is maintained.  So on that side, it is about 2 feet 2 inches from the wall.  Nevertheless,  is easy for me to walk behind it.  That little gap is actually another potentially useful area.  I was thinking of putting pervious pavers to prevent weed growth.

They worked all afternoon.  (I had suggested they come in the morning, but they couldn't do that.)  I ran a big fan (resting on the CPS transformer) to help keep them cool, and a friend gave them plastic cups of chilled RO water.

*****

Also on Monday I made the final decision on trees.  An email was sent to the planter who will pick up and plant on Friday (in addition to the 3 trees planted in July and the Palm):

Mexican Wild Olive
Texas Mountain Laurel
Yaupon Holly (x2)
Viburnum (x2)
Pomagranate (Wonderful)

And not a tree, but a non-invasive clumping bamboo (identical to one I already have).

Bambusa Multiplex Alphonse Karr

The planter's nursery may not have the bamboo, it's not on their list, so I have been looking for it elsewhere, with no success so far.  All the bamboo that was easily found in stores a few months ago seems to have disappeared.  I wonder if that's because of the bad reputation of running bamboo.

This followed a party I had on Sunday in which friends of mine discussed various plants.  That was interesting, but strangely I'm not sure it affected my final choices for various reasons.  People weren't getting the fact that I needed evergreen or semi-evergreen small tree/shrubs.

One guest got angry when I said I had a bamboo and planed to get another one.  I carefully explained that I was getting a non-invasive clumping bamboo, not a notoriously invasive running bamboo.  She was not satisfied with that, and claimed birds would spread bamboo seeds all over.  That was completely contrary to what I know about bamboo.  Bamboo doesn't spread by seeds normally (only in something like 50 year intervals does all of one variety die out and go to seeds).  When it does produce seeds (every 50 years or so) the seeds aren't very good.  And even the most heat and drought tolerant bamboo has difficulty in in central texas.  It demands irrigation here.

I asked for and got permission from neighbor to the south to plant a Texas Mountain Laurel along the fence on the south side.  It may drop a few poisonous seeds on her side of the fence, and I was worried about her dogs.  But her dogs are mature and only eat dog food she said.  A friend of hers with 4 dogs has TML's, and she likes them a lot.  Actually even if a dog happens to eat a few seeds, they usually simply pass through a healthy dog's gut unchanged.  It's when really stupid or hungry dogs eat a bunch of them that is a problem.  And yet, I've never heard of dead stray dogs being found next to TML's.  It might happen, but it's rare, dogs simply aren't interested in TML seeds.  TML is one of the trees highly recommended by the city, the power company, etc.  By the way, TML is only one of hundreds of plants with poisonous seeds.

*****

Also on Monday I did the last critical edging and whacking: south side of house, south side of sidewalk, north side of sidewalk, both sides of driveway, walkway to house, east side of house, north side of house.  I also whacked my way through the 4 foot weeds and Mexican Petunias on south side of my north neighbor's house that were gradually encroaching on my lawn.

*****

I changed to using Plant-IV for watering my oak on Wednesday morning.  The root ball was totally dry but the surrounding soil much too wet from letting the soaker run too long on Saturday night, I have now determined.  Plant-IV let me water just the root ball, which sucked up 10 gallons instantly from two Plant-IV buckets.  I was worried about the yellow leaf stems, but later determined that is the normal color.

*****

Several bags of topsoil acquired.  I laid down one more bag around the southwest corner of Lyndhurst on Wednesday morning.

I called sprinkler guy and confirmed Friday at 8am for sprinkler installation.