[Greenbuilding] Lawn advice

[Speireag Alden]

Sgrìobh Frank Flynn:

>I live in the San Francisco Bay area where we typically have dry 
>summers (no rain from April to October) and rain but no snow in the 
>winters.

     I grew up there, so I know the climate well.

>We are in a drought and I've let my lawn die by not watering it.

     Good for you!  When I was growing up in the seventies, we let our 
lawn die, but we managed to keep the hedges alive by siphoning the 
second rinse from the washing machine.

     We also took "Navy showers" (wet, water off, soap up, water on, 
rinse).  We kept a few buckets in the base of the shower stall, and 
they caught some of the shower water.  We used the buckets to flush 
the toilet.  Pour firmly into the bowl and everything goes down just 
fine.

>I
>want to replant it with something that will thrive in our dry 
>conditions here.  My particular soil is rich but also has strong 
>Adobe tendencies (it turns to stone if left dry and baking in the sun
>all summer).

     If you have hard-packing clay soil, then I would suggest 
improving it before you plant anything.  Till in lots of organic 
matter.  Peat moss, compost, wood chips, almost anything to add 
organic material will help in the long run.  The better decomposed it 
is at the outset, the sooner it will help.

     As long as you're tilling in organic matter, you could go 
all-out:  remove the topsoil as far down as you can, say a foot or 
so, install a layer of expanding clay or somewhat punctured poly 
plastic, mix the removed topsoil with lots of organic matter, and put 
it back on top of the somewhat waterp

     If you want to walk on it, then iceplant is out.  It's the 
spreading succulent you see along some freeway borders.  As you head 
south out of San Francisco on 280, there used to be some on the 
islands where main roads merged in.  It's probably still there.  It's 
fireproof and needs no watering, but it also gives a variable surface 
and probably can't be walked on a lot.

>Does anyone have any suggestions?

     Xeriscaping?  No watering at all, and you can walk on it if you 
design it that way.

     If you want something actually growing, but which won't spike 
into your feet, and which doesn't need watering, and which is hardy 
underfoot... I'm out of ideas.

Sgrìobh YankeePerm at aol.com:

>A fig tree should thrive there.

     It will.  My grandfather had fig trees in Palo Alto, in pretty 
hard clay soil, and ate them for breakfast in season.  Funny-lookin' 
tree, but fun for a kid to get in under the canopy and sit.

>There
>is citrus that will do well if you get enough sun--you didn't mention summer
>sun and I know that is quite variable, depending upon what part of 
>the city you
>occupy.

     Unless he's right in the fog zone right on the coast, any citrus 
should thrive in the Bay Area.  Even in the fog zone, they should 
live fine; they just might not fruit as much.

     My grandfather also grew apricots on his property.  (He wasn't in 
the fog zone, but he was near it.)

>Your main problem with mulch will be slugs and snails.

     Recipe for beer-battered slugs.  You'll need some beer, a frying 
pan, and a stick.  Put out the frying pan.  Pour some beer into it. 
Wait for the slugs to come.  Drink some beer.  When the slugs come, 
batter 'em to death with the stick.

     :)

-Speireag.

-- 
Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the 
injury that provokes it.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca, philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)