Bountiful Landscapes & ConsultingTransforming People & Places to Create Vibrant Health & Beautiful Outdoor Spaces
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Taming the BlackberriesMy vision was to cover the "weeds" with cardboard, then add wood chips. This is what I tell people to do. I have done it a hundred times on large and small properties.
We worked hard to put in some logs for terracing and planted a few shrubs.  And then the rains came, And the blackberries got a BIG boost.  Year 3 One (popular) idea is to use a dark plastic tarp, to prevent photosynthesis which kills the weeds. SO, in the fall we put a giant tarp at the bottom of the slope and it stayed on from October until the next June. My father built greenhouses for a living, so I was skeptical of the tarp idea, (plastic with heat=greenhouse). So, I kept up with the cardboard on the top part of the slope. Then the leaves fell and the winter came.  Then early in the year cardboard again, then wood chips to hold the cardboard down.
And now to check on the weed suppression tarp method!
Still fighting all the invasives, but we are also implementing more trees & shrubs. Progress! Year 4 Every year we start in the early spring with more cardboard - a truckload of it!! Otherwise, all the work from the previous seasons gets nullified, and all the plants & shrubs will get overtaken. LOOK how it's thriving in year 4!!
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I really love to use ferns in the landscape! They're versatile, abundant, inexpensive, and quite beautiful with their spikes of bright green, grayish-purple and orange. They can grow BIG or small, as with all plants, depending on how much they like their environment! These are a few of my favs! And here's a few pruning tips! 1. Healthy patch of our native Sword Fern. It's clearly 'picture perfect' and all the dead fronds have been clipped away.
2. Here's how mine look in the spring! 3. First, I look deep inside to the middle of the plant to see if the new fiddleheads are emerging, and I'm careful not to cut them off when I prune. 4. Then, I pull back all the OLD fronds even if they are still a little green AND I cut them off all the way to the center. Yes, all of them! 5. This allows light for all the emerging fiddleheads to unfurl! 6. It is such a lovely sight to see the tiny little pruned fern transform into a bright green lush plant in the early spring! DO Experiment with different ferns in your landscape! Some are more sun-tolerant than others, but a good filler plant nonetheless!! **As always, if you want guidance, Please contact me** |
