Why my lawn is wonderful today
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My lawn is wonderful today because I don't own it*. I live in a townhouse and someday soon, a young man will show up and start caring for it. So, for all you who have lawns: suckers! *I did have a strip of grass in the back of my townhouse. I dug it up, put in rocks and spray them with Roundup twice a year.
Nothing beats "alt.pave.the.earth". :-D
Watched code never compiles.
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Nothing beats "alt.pave.the.earth". :-D
Watched code never compiles.
Neighbors of my wife's maternal grandparents did that many years ago. They then painted the concrete green. It was rather hideous. I actually prefer [planned] natural landscaping around the house and letting it go completely natural away from it.
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Neighbors of my wife's maternal grandparents did that many years ago. They then painted the concrete green. It was rather hideous. I actually prefer [planned] natural landscaping around the house and letting it go completely natural away from it.
Joe Woodbury wrote:
I actually prefer [planned] natural landscaping around the house and letting it go completely natural away from it.
You'd like the area in front of our house. The house is partially bermed (unreal winds in these parts), and the berm extends out around the end of the house and tapers in a curl in the front, with the pond on the inside of the curl. The rain runoff from the roof is all channeled into a stream bed that runs between the berm and the house, feeding the pond. The berm is planted with trees (although bark beetles are killing all the pines), and everything beyond the berm is prairie.
L u n a t i c F r i n g e
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It's just the rodents that suck. (Sorry, Christopher. :-D ) I've never seen anything like this. The snowdrift that has covered the front yard for the last ... oh, 5 months or so, is finally melting off, and revealing absolutely incredible rodent damage. The lawn is quite small - just a small area between the front of the house and a little pond. It only takes about 15 minutes to mow - the perfect size. But now... The half of it that has been buried so long has been completely destroyed. It looks as if every square inch has been burrowed under - it's all torn up and mixed with the melting snow. It looks as if the rodentia are having their revenge - between the possum living in the shed and our cats, the local land critters were noticeably reduced in number by the end of last summer. (Bubonic plague may have played a part, too - there are occasionally outbreaks among the wild rodents in these parts.) But they've apparently been living it up under the snow drift all winter long, probably breeding like crazy and supporting their broods on grass roots. :mad:
L u n a t i c F r i n g e
By "rodents", I'm assuming you mean moles? We had a really bad infestation last winter. Although we don't get snow here, a family of moles set up house in our front yard and just went berserk. There were huge mounds all over the place. Most people try to pound the dirt back into the holes, but I've found that scooping the dirt up and hauling it away seems to be somewhat of a deterrent. Maybe the moles don't like having their tunnels exposed. But in this case, there were too many of the little buggers and they just kept digging away. It's illegal to use mechanical traps here but I Googled up a recipe for some juice made with cod liver oil, liquid dish detergent, and water that sounded worth trying. I mixed up a gallon of the stuff and after scooping up the dirt to expose the holes I dumped it into each of the holes, and then spread the remainder on top of the ground where the tunnels ran. I also heard that they like to nest in shrubbery near the lawn, so I found a bush that looked like a likely habitat and thoroughly soaked the ground around its base as well. This was last spring and so far I've only had one incident, a few weeks ago. I applied some more juice to the solitary mound that popped up, and so far that's been the only case this year. I don't guarantee that this actually works, or that it might have just been coincidence that the mole family decided to move on. But for the cost of the ingredients, it was certainly worth it.
QRZ? de WAØTTN
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By "rodents", I'm assuming you mean moles? We had a really bad infestation last winter. Although we don't get snow here, a family of moles set up house in our front yard and just went berserk. There were huge mounds all over the place. Most people try to pound the dirt back into the holes, but I've found that scooping the dirt up and hauling it away seems to be somewhat of a deterrent. Maybe the moles don't like having their tunnels exposed. But in this case, there were too many of the little buggers and they just kept digging away. It's illegal to use mechanical traps here but I Googled up a recipe for some juice made with cod liver oil, liquid dish detergent, and water that sounded worth trying. I mixed up a gallon of the stuff and after scooping up the dirt to expose the holes I dumped it into each of the holes, and then spread the remainder on top of the ground where the tunnels ran. I also heard that they like to nest in shrubbery near the lawn, so I found a bush that looked like a likely habitat and thoroughly soaked the ground around its base as well. This was last spring and so far I've only had one incident, a few weeks ago. I applied some more juice to the solitary mound that popped up, and so far that's been the only case this year. I don't guarantee that this actually works, or that it might have just been coincidence that the mole family decided to move on. But for the cost of the ingredients, it was certainly worth it.
QRZ? de WAØTTN
Very good info - I'll look into it. Re traps - I imagine anything I would want to do would be legal here. They're definitely a possibility. I'm not absolutely sure they're moles, not having seen one. Could just be ground squirrels. But the damage is amazing - there are tunnels bored through the snow drift itself getting exposed as it melts, in addition to the burrowing under the soil. And yeah, there's an island planted with shrubs and trees between the driveway and the lawn - they seem to have nested there. There is a birdfeeder there, too, so there were seeds and hulls scattered on the ground there when the snow covered it. :rolleyes:
L u n a t i c F r i n g e
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It's just the rodents that suck. (Sorry, Christopher. :-D ) I've never seen anything like this. The snowdrift that has covered the front yard for the last ... oh, 5 months or so, is finally melting off, and revealing absolutely incredible rodent damage. The lawn is quite small - just a small area between the front of the house and a little pond. It only takes about 15 minutes to mow - the perfect size. But now... The half of it that has been buried so long has been completely destroyed. It looks as if every square inch has been burrowed under - it's all torn up and mixed with the melting snow. It looks as if the rodentia are having their revenge - between the possum living in the shed and our cats, the local land critters were noticeably reduced in number by the end of last summer. (Bubonic plague may have played a part, too - there are occasionally outbreaks among the wild rodents in these parts.) But they've apparently been living it up under the snow drift all winter long, probably breeding like crazy and supporting their broods on grass roots. :mad:
L u n a t i c F r i n g e
Can you get a tiller for a day? :rolleyes:
I need an app that will automatically deliver a new BBBBBBBBaBB (beautiful blonde bimbo brandishing bountiful bobbing bare breasts and bodacious butt) every day. John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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Can you get a tiller for a day? :rolleyes:
I need an app that will automatically deliver a new BBBBBBBBaBB (beautiful blonde bimbo brandishing bountiful bobbing bare breasts and bodacious butt) every day. John Simmons / outlaw programmer
I'm thinking about a renting a roller as the first step; you know, one of the ones that's basically a drum you fill with water. I have to wait till the rest of the drift melts off, first; that'll be another week, probably, at least. :sigh:
L u n a t i c F r i n g e
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Yeah, yeah... I'm really not a big lawn guy myself. We have 8 acres, and all but this little piece in front of the house is left as wild prairie. You'd think the little beggars would be satisfied with having the majority of it to themselves, but noooo..... they all move in under the snowdrift. I don't want to use any kind of poison on them, because it'd inevitably get into the pond and affect the salamanders that live there... along with anything else that might come into contact with it. :mad: Guess I better go out to the shed and give the possum a pep talk. ;)
L u n a t i c F r i n g e
I've seen some company online that deals with rodents in tunnels like the army deals with terrorists in them: Delivers a thermobaric (think fuel-air explosive, IIRC propane-air) charge to the tunnel and blows it up with everything inside.
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
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I've seen some company online that deals with rodents in tunnels like the army deals with terrorists in them: Delivers a thermobaric (think fuel-air explosive, IIRC propane-air) charge to the tunnel and blows it up with everything inside.
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
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It's just the rodents that suck. (Sorry, Christopher. :-D ) I've never seen anything like this. The snowdrift that has covered the front yard for the last ... oh, 5 months or so, is finally melting off, and revealing absolutely incredible rodent damage. The lawn is quite small - just a small area between the front of the house and a little pond. It only takes about 15 minutes to mow - the perfect size. But now... The half of it that has been buried so long has been completely destroyed. It looks as if every square inch has been burrowed under - it's all torn up and mixed with the melting snow. It looks as if the rodentia are having their revenge - between the possum living in the shed and our cats, the local land critters were noticeably reduced in number by the end of last summer. (Bubonic plague may have played a part, too - there are occasionally outbreaks among the wild rodents in these parts.) But they've apparently been living it up under the snow drift all winter long, probably breeding like crazy and supporting their broods on grass roots. :mad:
L u n a t i c F r i n g e
You could try the swimming pool method. Fill a five gallon bucket half full of water and cover the surface in sunflower seeds (they float). Create a small diving board that has some seeds sprinkled on it. The rodent(whatever it happens to be) eats the seeds on the board, gets to the end and dives into the water. They can't get back out... X I know this is cruel ;P My lawn also looks terrible. The 10 foot snow drifts finally melted off and in the process slid and took half of the lawn with them :omg:
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You could try the swimming pool method. Fill a five gallon bucket half full of water and cover the surface in sunflower seeds (they float). Create a small diving board that has some seeds sprinkled on it. The rodent(whatever it happens to be) eats the seeds on the board, gets to the end and dives into the water. They can't get back out... X I know this is cruel ;P My lawn also looks terrible. The 10 foot snow drifts finally melted off and in the process slid and took half of the lawn with them :omg:
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Can you get a tiller for a day? :rolleyes:
I need an app that will automatically deliver a new BBBBBBBBaBB (beautiful blonde bimbo brandishing bountiful bobbing bare breasts and bodacious butt) every day. John Simmons / outlaw programmer
I had an ex-brother-in-law rent one to dig trenches for a automatic sprinker system. He dug the trench and ended up cutting thru the main water feed to the house (which apparently was not as deep as it should have been) :(
Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am
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Now THAT sounds like fun! Hell, I'll go dig the burrows myself, just to see it. :laugh:
L u n a t i c F r i n g e
My grandfather used to keep the gophers under control using chunks of calcium carbide, water, and a road flare. He'd dig up a large mound to expose the main tunnel, toss in several chunks of carbide, add water and bury for a while. After a good soak ( and time for the acetylene to spread out) he'd dig up another good mound and shove a lit road flare into it. In time, the gas would eventually meet the flare with entertaining results. I suppose you could get similar result with CO2, but not nearly as much excitement. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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My grandfather used to keep the gophers under control using chunks of calcium carbide, water, and a road flare. He'd dig up a large mound to expose the main tunnel, toss in several chunks of carbide, add water and bury for a while. After a good soak ( and time for the acetylene to spread out) he'd dig up another good mound and shove a lit road flare into it. In time, the gas would eventually meet the flare with entertaining results. I suppose you could get similar result with CO2, but not nearly as much excitement. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"