Shell in place of a lawn on a slope?

6 years ago

Hi, we purchased a house in Florida last year that is on a slight rise compared to our neighbors, which is great in case of a flood but creates a slope on our front "lawn". I put lawn in quotes because it's more in the prairie state right now, and we need to get it looking OK by May when the house will become a vacation rental until fall again. My first inclination was just to lay down sod, but it turns out there's a substantial leak in the irrigation system and even if we got that fixed, for whatever reason they didn't put enough sprinkler heads to cover the lawn area anyway.

So instead we're considering killing the grass and weeds and just putting down shell. We see that around in Florida quite a bit but I don't know anybody personally who can tell me what challenges or issues shell presents. I also don't know if the area being sloped would be a problem. Shells aren't round so I guess they wouldn't roll away, but I don't want to come back in October and find they've all slid down to the street!

The only other thing I can think of is to go ahead and do grass and use a hose sprinkler, but I don't know if it would be established enough to get by just on rain water by May. The photo shows the front yard, and I sure appreciate any suggestions!

Matt

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Comments (5)

Christopher CNC
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Who is going to maintain the lawn and beds while it is a rental unit from May to October? White shell in the Florida sun sounds blinding as well as debilitating to walk on in my rubbah slippas.

You want it to look OK by May but don't seem interested in fixing or adding some irrigation pipe in Florida sand to keep it that way while you are gone.

In the time you have, water, fertilize and mow what is there. Maybe you can over seed it with Centipede Grass, an excellent southern turf and be done with it. You don't need a pristine lawn for a rental unit.
functionthenlook
6 years ago
I live in Pa. We use wood chips instead of shells. Shells sounds so low mantainince and long lasting. We put down a weed block and stake farm wire to the hill side, then put down the chips. and it keeps the woodchips from washing away.
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While I love the strategy of cardboard with thick mulch on top to kill off grass, IME doing this on a slope is tough since the cardboard is smooth and the mulch slides. If you are going to do this, research to find the most irregular, jaggedy, fringy mulch you can so that it will knit together. Use heavy boards or rocks or bricks placed periodically to help hold the mulch and cardboard in place. Or alternatively, use Lacyvail's glyphosate (generic Roundup) strategy or strip off a section of sod, mulch heavily, and then do the next chunk since the mulch will cling to bare dirt better. Be sure that before you get started you set in a barrier of some sort between the lawn and the slope so that the two can't grow into each other. It can be an edging buried to ground level or a trench that is V shaped in cross section to keep the roots from crossing. Do you or your kids use the slope as a way to get down to the lower level of yard? If so, plan either steps or a path. A couple of other plant suggestions for sun: I have a steep slope in sun that I have planted with a combination of old-fashion orange daylilies, and Centaurea dealbata, both of which will spread and are about a foot tall when not blooming. In June it's mass of screaming magenta Centaurea, and in July the daylilies bloom. Butterflies and hummingbirds like both, and the seeds feed the finches. I'm in the process of trying out shrubs to add that will withstand both the voles and the aggressive plants already there, but it may just stay the way it is with the two tall ground covers mingling.
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Christopher CNC
6 years ago
Weed block plus farm wire so the wood chips don't slide on a slope. Never ever, absolutely, do not do anything remotely similar to this. Plant a groundcover.
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Yardvaark
6 years ago
The picture doesn't convey your exact slope but it looks like enough that I'd be worried about any granular mulch glacially sliding downhill over time. Too, would you really want a whole yard of desert in Florida? I'm just thinking about it fitting into the neighborhood. I'm around Tampa and very few yards are mass amounts of granular material. Mostly, it is seen in snowbird mobile home parks, put there by those who don't care diddly about plants. They just want a (supposedly) maintenance free lot. However, it is not even that. Eventually, as windblown dirt sifts into the mulch and algae grows and decomposes in it, it becomes capable of growing lots of nice weeds. Also, installing such mulch properly is neither cheap nor easy. Getting rid of it is more expensive and difficult. I'd seriously consider limiting such a solution to a smaller area (a landscape bed) than the whole yard. It would be easier to fix the irrigation system and install grass, either by seed or sod, depending on what type and method you choose.
Matt
Original Author
6 years ago
All interesting points, thanks for your feedback. If anybody else has comments or suggestions I welcome those too!

Shell in place of a lawn on a slope?

Comments (5)

Christopher CNC

functionthenlook

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Matt
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Shell in place of a lawn on a slope?

Comments (5)

Christopher CNC

functionthenlook

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Christopher CNC

Yardvaark

MattOriginal Author

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Matt
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