My Big Ass Yard

Native landscaping is using plants and trees that are native local ecotype stock familiar to the area. For example: A lot of people including myself are using ornamental grasses in their landscaping. They add a unique look to the lawn. It is ideal to use an ornamental grass that is native to your area. They will grow better, have less diseases, and will require a lot less water.

I like to use native prairie grasses as my ornamental grasses. Examples include switchgrass, side oats grama, indiangrass, and big bluestem. They all are a bunchgrass, they grow 4 to 6 feet, and have outstanding colorful heads on them, and they hardly ever require any care.

Check around your area and find out if there are any existing prairie. Contact the owner,and I bet if you ask nice they would even let you dig up a few plants to transplant.

I would like you to meet Phil the Pheasant!
Just about every evening around 7:00 Phil walks across my yard. He usually walks out of the alfalfa hay field, across my driveway and yard, and then heads into my wildlife area, (used to be a big ditch). It's always a pleasure to watch him strut his stuff like he owns the place.

I have tons of wildlife in my big ass yard, and here's why.
Down in my wildlife area is a wetland that always has water in it. A good source of water for wildlife and they all use it.
I have several wildflowers and forbs that bloom all the time. The blooms and legumes like the alfalfa attracts insects. Insects attracts birds of all kinds.
One of the first things we did on the property was to plant berry producing shrubs. The berries also attract lots of birds.
Wildlife also need habitat. 4 of the 7acres is habitat which includes trees, bushes, and lots of prairie grasses. Always a good place for wildlife to honker down.

So far on our little 7 acre spread we have seen, deer, badgers, quail, pheasant, bluebirds, gold finches, hawks, owls, orioles, coyotes, foxes, and the list goes on.

No matter what size of yard you have, you can always make it better for wildlife.

The first thing I did when I acquired my big ass yard fours years ago was to start planting trees. They say the best time to plant trees is ten years ago. The second best time is now!

Since I didn't have the land tens ago I had to go with now. I bought the biggest potted trees I could find. Sure I wish I could have planted bigger trees, and had them tree spaded in, but they were four times the cost. And with my big yard I needed a lot of trees.

When selecting a tree to plant always keep in mind how big it will get when it is mature, how many leaves it will produce, how long it takes to grow, the climate your in, and the best soil type for optimum growth. You could research all the needed information yourself, but if you don't have time just become friends with your local nursery people, and check out others people yards.

I live where there seems to be a lot of wind. So I always stake my trees up with one stake on each side, just to make sure they don't get blown over. But make sure you remove the stakes after a year or two. That way the roots can get stronger on their own. It's just like having an arm in a cast. If you leave the cast on too long your arm will get weak. You need to get the cast off to build up the muscle. Tree roots are the same way. They need some resistance in order to get strong.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and plant some trees.

One reason I wanted a big ass yard in the first place, was to get more exercise. Believe me, I get plenty of exercise working on my yard. It is a total of 900 ft. long and I'm usually all over it.

As the years creep up on me I realize that it is really hard to keep up with all the work. Thankfully I have a little gopher who helps me. His name is Connor, and he is my 6 year old son. I wish I had all his energy.

When we are out working in the yard, doing some planting, watering or whatever and I need another tool, I can send my gopher to go get it. "Connor can you run get the rake for dad?" "I'll time you to see how fast you can get it." Whoosh! He's off in a split second running as fast as he can to "go for" it. He's a great gopher.

If you too have a big ass yard, I highly recommend that you have some young legs to help you.

I love working in my yard and planting tons of plants to add to my landscape. Of course planting plants means I have to water them, at least for the first growing season.

My front yard is 500 ft. long and my back yard is 300 ft. long. So needless to say I have to have a big ass hose. Actually I use a 300 ft. hose most of the time because I have a hydrant half way down my front yard. Let me tell you, a 300 ft. hose gets real heavy dragging it plant to plant. But the worse part is rolling it up when I'm done. I don't really roll it up, I loop it up on the ground.

Now watering plants right up against the house is a whole lot easier. I use a 100 ft. hose for the front and a 150' hose for the back. But the problem of rolling the hose up is the same. When I loop it up the hose just sits in a pile next to my garage door in the front and back. The looped up hoses look like a pile of mess.

Finally I found a cool gadget that neatly rolls the hoses up for me. At least the hoses next to the house. I still have to drag the big ole 300 footer around.

Anyway, if you get the chance check out my new favorite gadgets. They work slick, and they make a lot of sense.

No-Crank Hose Reels
The Leading Auto-Winding Hose Reels
See our Full No-Crank Product Line
www.Garden-Gadget.com

Using rocks and boulders add detail and uniqueness to any landscape. But how do you go about getting the big rock you need?

You could just go out and buy it. However it can be very expensive. I know places that sell rock for ten cents per pound. It doesn't take much rock to add up to a big price tag.

Here are some ways that are a lot less expensive.
1) Start out local. Go drive around in the country near your area. Check out some farm fields. Many times farmers will pick up rock out of their fields and pile them up next to their field borders. If you find some make sure you check with the landowner first. Chances are he will let you have them if you haul them off.
2) Check with a local quarry. They will probably have lots of rock, but you may have tto pay a little for them.
3) Contact your county road department. Many times they are doing some road repair or construction. Chances are they have come across some rock and just have it piled somewhere. Ask them nicely and they may let you have some.
4) Any place where construction is going on is a good place to look for rock.

We have had an enormous amount of rain so far this spring and early summer. So much in fact that I now have big ass wet spots in my big ass yard.

About half way down my driveway a new side-hill seep has emerged. A side hill seep is exactly what it sounds like. A water seep coming out of a side hill caused by underground water pressure. The lower layers of soil are so saturated that it caused the water to seep out of the hill.

I haven't been able to mow this 50' x 50' area all spring. However the worst part is that the excess water is killing the shrubs I planted there two years ago. So I figured if I can't beat it, I'll work with it.

I drove down the road to a wet road ditch where "horsetail fern" was growing. I dug some up and transplanted it into my seep area. Horsetail fern is a cool plant. It's unique looking, loves saturated soil, and is very hardy. If you plant it in bunches and add some huge rocks, it makes a great addition to your landscape.

The moral of the story is to use local plants adaptive to your local soils.

I think I have found the best online garden store there is. It is called "Yardiac", (Even the name fits my personality). I really like this store because they have a real passion for outdoor living. They know what a person needs for a big yard.

I like their easy shopping website, and I like their variety. They have all sorts of sprayers, various animal repellants, garden supplies, they just have it all. The only thing I don't like about it is that the main store isn't in my home town. But that is probably a good thing, because if I ever visited the place I would probably never leave.

If you get the chance check it out. It's a lot of fun to look.
Yardiac.com - The Ultimate Garden Center