We’re very happy with Chateau Steelypips, and we especially enjoy our back yard:<\/p>\n
Of course, it’s not without its problems, as you can see in that picture (and another that I’ll put below the fold). The yard is pleasantly private and shady, thanks to a row of maples along the right side, and an enormous oak tree in the back left corner (you can see the trunk at the left edge of that picture– the tree is probably 50-60 feet high, and almost perfectly round). The problem is, it’s damnably difficult to get grass to grow, as you can tell from the large bare patches of dirt.<\/p>\n
So, here’s a question for anybody reading this who has a greener thumb than mine (which would be just about anyone):<\/p>\n
\nWhat should I be growing in the back yard?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Grass obviously isn’t working very well, but I’m not that fond of dirt. Is there something I can do to improve the lawn, or some other plant that would fare better?<\/p>\n
There are, of course, some constraints:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1) Whatever goes in there needs to be safe. A big part of the reason I’m asking about this is the imminent(-ish) arrival of FutureBaby– we’d like to have something out back other than mud for him or her to play on. Any ground-covering plant we put out there needs to be something that a child can run and play on (and probably eat in small quantities) without ill effects.<\/p>\n
2) Whatever goes in there needs to be low maintenance. Anything requiring frequent watering, trimming, or feeding is going to suffer, because I’m both busy and lazy. Our yard maintenance is done by NT Lawn Care, namely the neighbors’ teenage sons, and I’d like to keep it that way.<\/p>\n
3) Whatever goes in shouldn’t be too aggressive. Our next-door neighbors mow their lawn about four times a week, so while I don’t doubt I could carpet the back lawn with dandelions or clover, I don’t think that would make me popular in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
So, suggestions from the gardeners in the audience?<\/p>\n
Here’s a picture of the area along the fence to the neighbors’ yard, under the big maple trees. You can also see Queen Emmy the Vigilant, making sure that there aren’t any invisible alien menaces from another dimension sneaking into the yard.<\/p>\n
![\"i-546e10b11784fa328b8393d422b7821d-sm_dirt_yard.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/467\/files\/2012\/04\/i-546e10b11784fa328b8393d422b7821d-sm_dirt_yard.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We’re very happy with Chateau Steelypips, and we especially enjoy our back yard: Of course, it’s not without its problems, as you can see in that picture (and another that I’ll put below the fold). The yard is pleasantly private and shady, thanks to a row of maples along the right side, and an enormous… Continue reading Horticulture Question<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"i-832ab1a673837adcf2e9514574cbd1f8-sm_back_yard.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/467\/files\/2012\/04\/i-832ab1a673837adcf2e9514574cbd1f8-sm_back_yard.jpg\")
<\/p>\n