I Finally Figured It Out

No, I don't have the secret to life, the universe and everything. Well, I do. The answer is 42. However, that's not what I'm talking about. What I have figured out is how to kill the Bermuda grass in my lawn. It's really quite simple and I stumbled upon it over the weekend. All you need is a pool cover. Just spread it out on your lawn for a day or two. The heat trapped under the big tarp (which is really all a pool cover is) will kill the weeds and most of the grass.

When I removed the pool cover on Saturday, I was careful to pile it up on an area of lawn which was nearly all weeds and crabgrass with very little actual lawn grass, not even Bermuda grass, just in case the trapped heat would kill the grass. Just a few hours turned that area a nice uniform brown. (I checked again today. The dratted crabgrass is still alive.) Sunday I flipped the pool cover over to scrub the top clean and dragged it onto one of the clover sections. Today I dragged it further up the hill onto more clover. Tomorrow I'll drag it a bit further north and kill the clover there. If I thought I could pile the pool cover onto the side lawn and not risk having someone steal it, I'd kill all the weeds there too. Once the pool cover has done its job, I'll hook the dethatcher to the mower and tear out the dead stuff, then overseed it and cover it with straw. Yay! Fescue/bluegrass is sooooo much nicer on the feet for a lawn. I like that it stays green year round too. Warm season grasses only look nice in the winter if there are absolutely no weeds in them--a scenario that is rarely observed in my experience. The pre-killed Bermuda grass will make it a whole lot easier to get the new lawn growing. As an added bonus, I just eliminated a fairly large area of lawn from my mowing routine since I won't be mowing the new stuff until it's well established.

The Yard Zoo Census
I got buzzed by a ruby-throated hummingbird the other day. One visits the day lilies outside the front window every evening. Unfortunately I have no photos. Every time I see the bird, I don't have my camera. While I was pruning the rosebushes the other evening, three bunnies thundered past me and into the backyard. I startled an additional bunny a few days later. Today I saw a tail-less skink on the deck. Add these to the yard snake, the miscellaneous toads, the evening bats and the broad variety of birds that visit my birdfeeder and I've got quite a wildlife refuge going. One day last week there must have been a dozen goldfinches around the bird feeder. I will have to work on photographing the menagerie.

Yardwork Photos
Here are the newly degrassed raspberries...

and blackberries....
Here are the scratches on my arm from the aforementioned berry bushes...
and the blackberries waiting to ripen....

I still have lots of work yet to do with the blackberries. I got a little under 1/3 of the whole bed done on Sunday. I can work on it a little bit at a time after work this week and finish it this weekend, weather permitting. That would give me time to get mulch spread on it this weekend.