Journey to the Center

Over the summer we started a landscaping project that will probably take a few years to complete. It started out innocently enough – we wanted to put in a fence to have ornamental plants and possibly a dog. Then we started adding the prerequisites: taking down the dead maple that would likely fall on the fence and make us redo the work, planning the automated watering, and doing something about the giant pit taking up 1/3 of the yard.

It wasn’t practical to put in a fence taking that pit onto account and then try to fix it later. That would have meant retooling the whole fence again. We came up with a drawing of what we wanted, called in the contractors and ended up with a large flat yard with a couple of tiers and paths bridging the height difference between it and the house.

After completing the foundation, the real work started.

I started looking around for grass seed. I was looking for something that would handle the soggy spring runoff and the hot July weather equally well and not go to moss, as the rest of the sodded yard has done. I figured that native plants would be best for this, since there was no way we were going to water 2+ times a week in that lower meadow. That’s just crazy talk.

So I ended up at Pacific Northwest Natives. All the other grass seed vendors were using grasses designed for Montana as their “Northwest” stock. Elevation aside, the climate difference between the west Cascades and the Rockies is enormous and their version of “west” just wouldn’t cut it.

I agonized over what grasses I wanted in our custom mix for ages, looking at the PLANT database and trying to figure out which grasses would do best in our mix of conditions. Finally, Craig made the following suggestion:

20% California oatgrass
20% roemers fescue
20% western fescue
20% pine bluegrass
10% spike bentgrass
10% slender hairgrass

This mix can only be mown 2-3 times a year, so I was sold!

When the 50 lbs of seed arrived, I was able to borrow a seed/fertilizer distributor and find the right setting to get the right coverage. I got enough seed down to cover most of the yard.

Then we had a mini-flood. Rain came down in buckets and tried to wash away all the seed I’d just put down. I had counted on birds eating some of the seed, but not on enough rain to wash it all down the hills. Fortunately, it had stuck in some places and just washed the rest down to the flats.

Two weeks ago I went out to check on something else entirely, and noticed a green sheen on the ground. Getting closer, I could see the new sprouts. I’m so excited to see what happens this spring (provided the snow doesn’t kill the seedlings).