WATER FEATURE CHALLENGE - 4
I bought a house and inherited a jungle. When I moved in, I had a thick green wall of overgrown trees and shrubs, with ivy growing every which way, in the back of my yard. Privacy, yes, but no sunlight reached down there. Ivy is rats' favorite habitat and who knows what else was living in there.
During the infamous "heat dome" in the summer of 2022, a lot of the vegetation on the sloped part of my backyard died. I had to cut down those shade trees. I hated to do that, but after talking to a couple of different tree guys, I knew nothing could be done to resurrect them. I was heart-broken but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Suddenly, there was a lot more light and air. Water from the sprinkler system could reach the areas that it couldn't before. I went in to clean out the knee-deep debris during the winter (took out 10 trash bins of dead leaves!). Remaining plants - Indian hawthorn, birds of paradise, lantanas, agapanthus - began to thrive.
Still, there was a lot to be done to bring this part of my backyard into shape. One obvious solution is to bring in a pro but I decided to take a DIY route, chipping away one small area at a time (more articles coming on my "backyard reclamation project"). Since I decided to put the fountain in this part of the yard, I needed to prepare the project area before installation.
CLEAN-UP: The first order of things was to remove vegetation and debris and level the project area and expose the existing wooden frame.
Another homeowner many years ago built three of these wooden frames - I don't know for what, maybe to plant some annuals. They were abandoned and taken over by ivy, spider plant, etc., planted for erosion control quickly turned invasive. I decided to take advantage of this existing feature.
I removed all the vegetation and cut back adjacent plants. After all was said and done, this area alone produced half a trash bin of debris.
PREPPING THE GROUND: With all kinds of thick roots sticking out, this was a tough job but had to be done. Once the ground was level, I placed a 12x12" concrete paver to serve as a stable foundation for the fountain (which would be quite heavy when filled with water).
PAINTING WOODEN FRAME: The wood was weathered and not exactly in the great shape. I decided to paint over it to extend its life and to make it look nicer.
But before I could paint, it had to be sanded. This is where my solar generator came in handy. I hooked up the palm sander. It took me 10 minutes to go over the exposed sizes of the plank wood. Then, I used leftover paint from last year when I built the raised bed garden ($0).
PLANTING: I wanted a nice backdrop to my fountain, and chose a blue anise sage and autumn sage for nice foliage and colorful flowers with long blooming season. Both plants are drought tolerant and doesn't require much water once established. Finally, I placed the landscaping cloth to deter weeds. I left an opening in the front, because I planned to put another plant there after the fountain was installed.
COMING SOON: "Installation!" and "Post-Installation Changes"
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