I feed the birds too and some seeds always drop. If the squirrels would just come and eat the seeds on the ground, I would be happy. However, that is not the case and they are quite destructive.
3 black and 2 grey so far for me.
They either get relocated to the zoo or wherever I happen to be golfing that day.
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Some of them make a flying leap from my garage roof to a small crabapple tree that I have and then jump down to the ground, knocking down, or breaking off stems from my perennial flowers.
And they dig, constantly. See the white owl in the last picture? Well it is no longer…they hated that owl, finally got the owl off the stake and then chewed up the stake.
My wife has informed me that we have a gopher living under the front steps, near her flower beds. Any way to get rid of it without potentially poisoning a bird of prey?
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Following up on my earlier post about alternative lawns....Bee Turf in our backyard is looking awesome now. Still needs to thicken up a little bit but I'm super happy with it. Going to let it grow for most of the summer but you can mow it down like a normal grass if you want the "traditional" lawn look and it should be fine with traffic. Doesn't need to be watered now that it's established and will stay green even during hot dry spells. Lots of little bugs and pollinators flying about it as well.
I like the idea, but that looks pretty fluffy and not something I'd want to use like I normally use my lawn (mainly playing with my kids). Is that actually true? I'd love less maintenance plus something that is good for the environment.
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Looks amazing! FYI: the creeping thyme will take 2-3 years to really establish. Every spring you'll see more & more of it. I love the idea of the bee turf!
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I like the idea, but that looks pretty fluffy and not something I'd want to use like I normally use my lawn (mainly playing with my kids). Is that actually true? I'd love less maintenance plus something that is good for the environment.
It's fluffy but you can walk on it, kids or pets are fine playing on it as well. Really soft and nice barefoot
If you mow it, it will look a lot more like a traditional lawn. Just one that stays green (with flowers!) and doesn't need to be watered, aerated, and manicured because it uses stuff that actually wants to grow here
There are photos post-mowing on the reviews. I'll post my own photo after I've mowed it, but I'm going to let it get established for most of the summer. https://www.westcoastseeds.com/products/bee-turf
I like the idea, but that looks pretty fluffy and not something I'd want to use like I normally use my lawn (mainly playing with my kids). Is that actually true? I'd love less maintenance plus something that is good for the environment.
You can mix it into regular grass which is what I will be starting to do this fall. The clover creates nitrogen for the grass so it’s beneficial and you can get micro clover that when kept low, just looks like grass. Grass/clover was a standard lawn before broadleaf herbicides became common.
I plan on cutting it regularly keeping the flowers cut as we and our dogs are on the grass all the time and I don’t want to be stepping on them. One of my dog goes into shear panic mode when a fly lands on him. If there’s a fly in the house he hides in his bed. He’s 90 lbs. I think he’d have a massive coronary if we had bees.
The bee turf conceptually it seems pretty neat, but I think it's just something I'm not used to seeing and it seems kinda messy. I am just way too used to the look of a well preened lawn.
That being said, it also looks and feels kinda... wilderness like? As if you're sitting only a few inches away from natural beauty. That aspect is kinda neat. I could see the concept and look growing on me after a while.
Silly question, but how does bee turf fare under a spruce tree? I'd really love to conceptually explore a concept of covering the ground underneath a spruce tree that wasn't purely gravel/stone or mulch. I've had success with poppies and peonies under a spruce tree that come back year after year, but they don't really migrate/have a lot of coverage beyond where I first planted them.
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Silly question, but how does bee turf fare under a spruce tree? I'd really love to conceptually explore a concept of covering the ground underneath a spruce tree that wasn't purely gravel/stone or mulch. I've had success with poppies and peonies under a spruce tree that come back year after year, but they don't really migrate/have a lot of coverage beyond where I first planted them.
I'm not sure. Spruce trees make the soil super acidic, plus they drink up the majority of the water, so you might want to look into another acid loving plant.
I've seen others suggest burying pots into the ground so that you don't get the same impact of the acidic soil and water depletion, and planting in those.
Lily of the Valley or Snow on the Mountain would grow under it if you just want ground cover but they're super invasive so you have to make sure you have a barrier and control them.
I'm not sure. Spruce trees make the soil super acidic, plus they drink up the majority of the water, so you might want to look into another acid loving plant.
I've seen others suggest burying pots into the ground so that you don't get the same impact of the acidic soil and water depletion, and planting in those.
Lily of the Valley or Snow on the Mountain would grow under it if you just want ground cover but they're super invasive so you have to make sure you have a barrier and control them.
Keep that in mind if you plant either Lily of the Valley or Snow on the Mountain.
Goutweed would also grow there...it would grow anywhere, but it is as invasive as Lily of the Valley, if not more so.
Yup. We had some filling an entire bed when we moved in. Dug up all the roots, covered it in cardboard.and mulch and spent the summer plucking leaves as they came up. Amazingly, it seems like we won that battle.
I had the roots sitting in a clear garbage bag before they went into the trash and I couldn't believe it, but they were sprouting leaves even in a garbage bag. Nuts.
I'm not sure. Spruce trees make the soil super acidic, plus they drink up the majority of the water, so you might want to look into another acid loving plant.
I've seen others suggest burying pots into the ground so that you don't get the same impact of the acidic soil and water depletion, and planting in those.
Lily of the Valley or Snow on the Mountain would grow under it if you just want ground cover but they're super invasive so you have to make sure you have a barrier and control them.
Years ago, I did that for my Mom under her spruce trees. I buried several old kiddie pools that I'd trash picked, and put the LotV's in them. A couple of decades later, when one of the trees got hit by lightening, and had to come down, I thanked myself for putting those in the kiddie pools - they couldn't spread outside of them and I was able to get all the roots and bulbs out simply, leaving the area nice and clean.
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Following up on my earlier post about alternative lawns....Bee Turf in our backyard is looking awesome now. Still needs to thicken up a little bit but I'm super happy with it. Going to let it grow for most of the summer but you can mow it down like a normal grass if you want the "traditional" lawn look and it should be fine with traffic. Doesn't need to be watered now that it's established and will stay green even during hot dry spells. Lots of little bugs and pollinators flying about it as well.
Years ago, I did that for my Mom under her spruce trees. I buried several old kiddie pools that I'd trash picked, and put the LotV's in them. A couple of decades later, when one of the trees got hit by lightening, and had to come down, I thanked myself for putting those in the kiddie pools - they couldn't spread outside of them and I was able to get all the roots and bulbs out simply, leaving the area nice and clean.
I also had a Lily of the Valley cleanup… previous owners had let them run rampant in a back bed and at the base of a tree. They were literally growing under the sandstone rock wall - had to take the entire thing apart, dig out the roots, and reassemble.
As promised, here's a post-mowing photo of the bee turf. Supposed to thicken up as you continue to mow it. Just as walkable/kid playable/whatever as grass IMO.
