The Beginning of the End

I have stared at this mess for over a year. It is across the street (little more than an alley, it is so short) from my apartment, backing a commercial property, about 2’ wide and 100’ (or so) long. There are large containers on the other side of the dilapidated chain link fence along part of it, open space (along with piles of old wood) along another part. In the entire time I have lived here (14 months now) it has not once been mowed or trimmed or cared for in any way whatsoever. It is infested with thistle and non-native grasses. I have finally had enough and plan on tidying it up a bit. It is a huge eyesore to the neighborhood.

Today I cleared about a 10’ section of the fence, which took about an hour; it was all I could do as, even wearing gloves, my hands were sore and itchy from the stickers of the thistle. Don’t worry, I left the sapling, whatever it is, and the baby palm.) I found all kinds of “exciting” things – in addition to the usual garbage (newspaper, disposable cups, cigarettes, etc.) there were half a dozen golf balls, numerous plastic bottle tops, and a moldy old tennis ball. Not to mention one section (further up, that I did not tackle today) smells of dog poo. Joy. The land is not even completely cleared, as I only had a long-handled cultivator for tools. There are plenty of broken stalks of grass that still need to be pulled, and the thistle has such deep roots that several broke off when I tried to pull them up. I have no shovel, so I’m not sure what I will do about that. One could easily become overwhelmed with such a daunting task, but I am going to try hard not to be. If I am going to be stuck in this apartment I might as well have something nice to look at.

My first task (along with clearing more of the fence line) will be to water the area each night with just a little bit of water. I am hoping this will trick the millions of grass seeds that are now in the soil to germinate so that I can pull them up when they are a reasonably small size. After that I will likely have to remove some “soil” (if you can call it that) as there is a slight slope and we don’t need dirt running into the street when it does finally rain. Then add some topsoil to give the new plantings a fighting chance, and compost to help it retain water.

It’s too bad I can’t plant anything edible there, but there’s just no telling what kind of crap has been dumped on that strip of dirt over the years. I’ve been thinking of laying down a groundcover of yerba buena (Satureja douglasii) – it’s native to California, does ok in full shade (which part of the strip is in) and is drought tolerant. Yerba buena is actually edible, but I’m not eating anything growing there! It grows only 3-6" tall, so behind it I need to find some drought tolerant, shade tolerant shrubs (perhaps some salvias, I know there are some native shade tolerant species that are hummingbird attractors, such as hummingbird sage (Salvis spathacea)), and possibly some climbing vines as well. Further up the fence gets essentially full sun, so I’ll have to find something else for that section. Whatever I do, it has to be affordable – who knows when someone might come along and rip it all up.