https://earther.com/lawns-are-an-ecological-disaster-1826070720

 

 

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Duuude    That was good

 

good read!

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I troll 2L.com to be a better person in real life

FWIW - Maple Street had 4" pots of sunshine mimosa starts for $3 this past weekend. 

Go pink.  It saves lots of stuff. 

 

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We did 36 4" mimosa starts on April 3, 2017.

Had 100% coverage of 1200 square feet by July 4.

The bees were going bonkers this morning.

If you've got full sun, go mimosa.

 

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I'm waiting for APEX or TruGreen to sneak in and kill our yard to stop their customers that live next door from getting any silly ideas.

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hahaha!

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I troll 2L.com to be a better person in real life

The State of FL and some local governments would do good to adopt measures like a property tax exemptions and other incentives for native landscaped residential lots.

Scombrid-

Can you show us a photo of your mimosa lawn?

Since its been almost a year now- did it stay green all year long? Did it ever get yellow or patchy?

Irma brown the tips a little. Came right back with all the rain that followed in the weeks after Irma.

Growth slowed when the dry season hit but it stayed green.

Went 100% dormant in January and was totally brown. Greened back up when all that warm weather came in February. 

I remember a patch of it that grew wild up in Volusia County when I lived in Deland and it had an almost 3 month dormant period up there depending on the weather. I don't expect more than 6 weeks of brown down here in an average winter. Probably need a cover crop mixed in for winter interest if desired. 

Our soil is extremely sandy. We live on the relic sand dune that runs down the west shore of the IRL. I did work in some compost before planting but it is basically growing in sugar sand.

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I reckon I have to host pictures on a third party site so I can link to them?

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This is a good and very important post. Good job, sir.
My neighbor is the classic lawn pig. Mows 2-3 times a week. Constant fertilizer, all the time.Waters everyday.
Throws his weeds on my lawn, until i put the fear of god in him.
They, and the lawn:fertilizer services need to be regulated. And taxed. They are the problem, folks

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spindrift

Nice work you tuna fish.

You can resize pics to less than 200Kb and upload to the 2ndlight server as an attachment.  

Then open the attachment in a reply and copy the link in as a picture.

Yes, it's clunky.  But it's a surf forum after all. 

And yes, I want to see the pics too.

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We had a more or less mimosa lawn when I was a kid in Puerto Rico.

 

Where does that button live?

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In the "reply" pane, look bottom right and it will say "attach files".

It will open another window that allows you to upload.  Files need to be less that about 200Kb.

Once uploaded, you can attach.

Once attached, hit "reply to topic".

Look at your reply and click on the attachment.  It will open a new window and you can copy the address of the attachment from the address bar.

Go edit your reply, adding a picture using the address you just copied.  

whew.

 

EDIT:  AND THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!!

Dang squirrels are digging up my mimosa starts!!!!

Dang dog is useless because he won't chase them!!!!!!!

extra whew.

EDIT 2:  Just checking my procedure.

useless (but happy!) dog

 

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Edited: 05/24/2018 at 06:42 AM by tom

Nice thing the "attach files" button wasn't a rattle snake.

I never looked down at that part of the window. I was just hunting in the buttons up top.

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Mowed it a few weeks ago. The pictures at the bottom are 2.5 weeks after mowing (earlier this week). Letting the bees have their fun for awhile before I mow again.

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Edited: 05/24/2018 at 09:19 AM by scombrid

That's awesome.

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Capitalism is based on the ridiculous notion that you can enjoy limitless growth in a closed, finite system.

In biology, such behavior of cells is called "cancer".

Im using your pics to convince my girlfriend to switch our yard.

Looks awesome, Scom.

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

Edited: 05/24/2018 at 09:29 AM by worksuxgetsponsered

The planting happenned on April 2, 2017. We completely removed the St. Augusting, killed it with herbicide and then physically removed once it was browned out. Figured the one time application of herbicide for renovation beat continuing to maintain St. Augustine. Composted the sod that we ripped out and used it elsewhere.

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Edited: 05/24/2018 at 09:20 AM by scombrid

Accidentally deleted this one from earlier post. They're stingey with the server space around here.

We thought this image was funny. Looks like the cover of the brochure that FNPS hands out at plant sales.

 

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Outstanding!

I did not kill my mixed St. Aug / weeds first.  Just letting the two coexist.

I hope mine fills as nicely as yours!

 

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The coexist method should work well enough. Once you get the mimosa established then withholding irrigation during our blazing summer mini-droughts should whach the St. Augustine. We are thinking about getting some winter blooming weeds established in the mimosa so there's something that looks alive when the mimosa is dormant.

Our back yard isn't sunny enough for mimosa. I'm going natural selection route for the turf area back there.

I do wonder how the mimosa lawn will age. Ours is 1 year old. Will it stand the test of time?

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I stopped putting any kind of chemical/treatment/additive/pesticide on my grass 4-5 years ago and have had pretty good luck taking care of it all manually (pulling weeds is hard work). Finally this spring the chinch bugs have won, so your examples for turf grass replacement are perfect. I expect to have a turf grass free yard in a week or two.

From my experience, if you never put any fertilizer, fungicide, or pesticide on a turf grass lawn, it would eventually succumb to the unstoppable forces of nature and cease to exist as a monoculture.

Yep.... I laid off the stuff for 2 of years and my yard became a dollar weed farm. 

Coming in, the rain has been nice.

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We are about 700 feet to beach and did not go all native. Had a goal of varied color/texture and no watering requirement. We did have to water occasionally when yard was getting established. Has been about a year I would say at this point. Never requires water now. Some things go dormant in winter with less rain but perk back up for the summer. 

Dune Sunflower (yellow flower) is main ground cover. Also includes: Blanket Flower (red/orange) which puts out seed and pops up in various places now including my neighbors lawn. Bushes are Texas Sage which have nice purple flowers that come and go all year. Native Necklace pod with yellow flowers.  Blue Daze (purpleish Blue) come and go with rains. Rounding things out are a few Coontie, Muhly Grass, Cardboard Plant, Coconut Palm, and some decorative fat lighter chunks we found on the Withlacoochee River on a canoe trip that we dragged back with us. "Protect Our Lagoon" florida friendly yard sign courtesy of Project H20 in Volusia county. We put down pine needles to keep the weeds down. Was more of an issue when things were getting started but less so now. 

I like it. No monotony. 

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Yes, well done WB!

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Update. August-December were the hottest and driest on record. Mimosa lawn went dormant and was totally brown. Had a little warm weather and a little rain in January and February. It is looking lush. No fertilizer and no irrigation. How many people put down "weedNfeed" right before the deluge and hail storm on March 27? Lot of neon green St. Augustine in the hood.

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Thanks for the pics.

This is a great site to easily upload and shre photos on 2ndlight btw: http://imgbb.com/


Just upload there, and then copy URL and use the image button in the regular "reply" function (not quick reply)


Those look like 1gal (6") pots. Where did you source them from?

I'd love to see a close up photo of the texture if you have one.

Looks really good mowed.

How does it feel on bare feet?

Do you water it at all, or just rain?

Looks like your nabes across the street may be trying the same thing. Unintentionally, of course.

I was gonna ask you to fight me, but after seeing your physique I have decided against it.

Nice work.

Very cool! We rent and the landlord will not fix our sprinkler system, so we basically have a weed yard. We have these little white plants/weeds that grow and look almost like yours, except they're white. Our yard looks like it snowed when they grow out and then green when mowed.

Yeah, it as gallon pots and not 4" for the starts. We got them from Rockledge Gardens. Kind of surprised that they had that many in stock at one time. Called Maple Street at the time and they were out but expecting a shipment soon. Maple Street didn't want to take a pre-order.

Hand watered every every 2 days early on and tapered that back over the course of 2 months during establishment. April and May last year were super dry and hotter than average so watering during establishment was necessary. But now that the stuff is established it is mostly on natural water except if something else in that zone is newly planted and we use the broadcast irrigation for watering during establishment phase. Once established the stuff is almost cactus level drought tolerant. 

New growth is soft but the runners are hard. Not the softest surface for bare feet. Feels better than scratchy St. Augustine.

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Tudor house on Rockledge Drive down by Park Ave hired a firm out of Orlando for a full native renovation of a fairly big lot. They have lots of different ground covers and plants. Have a couple of small turf areas that look like Bahia grass. The huge back yard looks like they went medow look with lots of various spartina type bunch grasses and taller wildflowers. It is kind of a demonstration of possibilities beyond mimosa.

Yesh, Bahia is not a native but I think it is considered a FFNN because of its drought tolerance and because it doesn't invade and completely remodel ecosystems when it escapes. I know too that Harvester Ants love Bahia seeds so at least one native critter likes it.

BTW: we have tried perennial peanut on the side that gets about 3/4 sun and have not been able to achieve great coverage there. Caving and using Jasmine minima over there for now. 

Another note: I really wish we could get the condos between Barton and Orange to re-do their landscape. It is acre on acre of chemlawn St. Augustine.

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I had a neighbor that hated grass so much he covered his yard in white river rock about 4" deep and gave it a monthy Roundup treatment to abolish anything and everything green.  When he retired and sold his place the new owners just let it go.  Now 3 years later it is the most outstanding collection of native flowering vegitation and grasses you'll ever find.  It might be a rodent haven, but damn it looks good. 

These new folks put absolutely zero effort into it too, not even a single seed.  Nature did all the work, and that yard is showing up the dude across the street who thinks he's the head greenkeeper at Augusta.  He's also complaining to the HOA that they're growing weeds.  Fortunately the HOA isn't listening. 

pretty cool.....

 

anyone have a similar suggestion or a yard that gets part shade and plenty of water? (not irrigated, just low lying)

^ We got some of this mint at Maple Steet to use between our house and the neighbor.  

Low sun, dampest place in the yard but far from "wet".  

Grows like crazy and smells great when you mow or trim.

https://www.fnps.org/plants/plant/clinopodium-brownei

 

 

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cool.  Not all my yard is wet... and the "highest" point gets a good amount of sun.  Alot gets a fair amount of shade from all my oak trees, but unforunately the lot next to me (in the direction of natural water flow) has been retardedly backfilled, and the dude runs sprinklers all the time.... basically rain water now collects in my yard now.... and I'm sick of all the dollar weeds (that spawn from his winter watering)

 

Edit:  just checked that link... said "Not salt tolerant".  I'm a block west of A1A (which is a little further from beach than it is in brevard) but closer to the marsh

I'm on the beach side too, but west, just one house off the Lagoon, 

a few blocks from the ocean, and the salt isn't killing it.  YMMV.

Your neighbor sounds like mine,

full on "Death to the Lagoon" yard. 

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Sort of.... in St. Augustine.

About 3 blocks east of marsh / ICW .... about 1/2 mile (as a crow flies) from ocean

great link on how to post pics on this forum by Cole.... http://www.2ndlight.com/fuseta...d=190089&enterthread=y

Only kicker is that [IMG] doubles up on each end so you need to delete one on each side.


Edited: 04/30/2019 at 10:36 AM by RocketSurf

We replanted our front yard with a lot of mimosa 2 months ago and it is rocking. I really like that it is a sensitive plant (the leaves close when you touch them)

Not to highjack this thread but Scombrid I have some photos of possibly you paddling in the Indian River in front of Oleander Point on a misty morning.....PM if you want copies


I cant seem to get it to rotate to the right......damn

^^Woah! Look at that wall!!!^^ He's gonna have to dodge that ski on the way down, it's going over the falls for sure!

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late, late take off.....

That's definitely me sweeping.

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native lawns are awesome. may do eventually for front. gotta have grass in back, though been inquiring about the latest artificials. my aussies destroy grass

I thought scombrids had gills.

And I'm riding an Exocoetid board. Go figure.

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