Help with flower bed drainage
chris0831
10 years ago
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chris0831
10 years agocatkim
10 years agoRelated Discussions
Raised flower bed and drainage issues...
Comments (4)Hi James, I was wondering if those steps are new concrete steps and if the house was tuckpointed recently before you bought it? The reason I ask is that there appears to be some very recent work done in those areas that you are having problems with (notice the lighter color of the mortar in the joints of the brick surrounded by darker mortar joints in picture 3). Was there settling around the steps and was the footer replaced or were the stairs just re-pointed with new slabs layed for the treads? I also see a long vertical joint that looks like it was caulked near your family room. You may have some deeper settling issues that were camouflaged with some touch ups. I would like to advise you to call a bricklayer in to see if there is a problem that you may need to worry about with the foundation walls. You may have already addressed the issue permanently by diverting the water. But I would advise checking into it with a professional before you do any more work around that section of the house. An estimate will not cost you but you will have some peace of mind before you invest any more time, effort and energy into it....See MoreNeed help with very long and narrow flower bed
Comments (8)I see you are in zone 10. I'm assuming that is USDA zone 10, in the US, but is it the southeast or southwest - very different environmental conditions. Without that knowledge, I will not recommend specific plants. For aesthetics: 1. select some plants that will drape down over that wall in places, softening it and visually connecting the flower garden to the lawn. You could use a hardy perennial like creeping for wooly thyme, or a cascading annual. 2. select plants that will not grow too large for the bed 3. select plants in a variety of mounding and upright habits, in varying heights, and position them for an undulating effect. 4. select plants for a succession of bloom throughout the season, keeping bloom color as well as leaf color and texture in mind when arranging for a pleasing effect. For the butterflies & hummingbirds: 1. Include a variety of plants that will provide blooms throughout the season. Native plants are best. When using perennials, choose them so you have a succession of bloom (as one is finishing, another is starting). 2. Provide fresh, clean water. Butterflies will also appreciate a muddy spot for "puddling" to obtain minerals. 3. Eliminate or reduce use of pesticides. 4. If you want to support certain species of butterflies, know their host and nectaring plant requirements - certain ones need certain plants: monarch/milkweed, pipevine swallowtail/dutchman's pipe, etc. There are any number of websites that will list plants native to your region. Below is an excellent article on butterfly and hummingbird gardening; this is written for the Northeastern US, but the same principles will apply. Scroll down and click on the link for the plant list. Again, this is for the Northeast, but there may well be some overlap. Here is a link that might be useful: How to Create a Butterfly & Hummingbird Garden...See MoreNeed help starting new shrub/flower beds near San Marcos
Comments (9)Bringing in dirt from anywhere means bringing in weed seed. The dirt can be sandy, silty or clay, but it will have seed in it. Expect to pull weeds for the first year and possibly more. Many soils (especially clays) in Texas are calcareous, that is derived from limestone, chalk and limey marls. They are naturally high in minerals, but need lots of organic matter to unlock those minerals. This information comes from a book—Gardening Success With Difficult Soils by Scott Ogden. Plan to add composted plant matter and manures to these imported soils. Sandy soils need compost primarily to hold water and nutrients that naturally leach through. "Garden soils" are mostly composted tree trimmings. In fact, potting and garden soils don't contain soil at all. Even the minerals perlite and vermiculite found in potting soil add no mineral nutrients. The addition of major and minor mineral nutrients is important. Dillo Dirt is a product of Austin's waste recovery efforts that combines sewage sludge with tree and lawn trimmings that are composted together for several months. In my opinion you should start with real soil and add 20% compost to it—1 container of compost added to 4 containers of soil. Overfill the beds you make, and water them well to settle the soil. It may settle by half over the next year; wait to plant shrubs until the soil level stops radically settling. Expect to top off these beds next year with more compost-enriched soil. Each year after that 1/2 inch of compost should be added as a top dressing to maintain soil fertility. My advice is long term, because that is, IMO, the better way. Too often people buy plants and bring them home without knowing where to put them. One really should consider what the plants need in the way of water, sunlight, soil and climate before digging a hole and plopping them in....See MoreNeed help with drainage from flower bed
Comments (0)We recently moved into a home where there's a flower bed enclosed on all sides by concrete (See picture). We noticed that quite often the bed gets waterlogged. In digging deeper, we found that the two gutters drain to a single popup emitter (see red arrows). I am suspecting that due to the stone flower bed edging, the popup emitter is discharging the storm water back into the flower bed causing it to get water logged. Looking for some creative solutions on how i can get better drainage in the flower bed? Thanks! picture of flower bed...See Morebigbigblake
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