A little greenskeeping change

got tired of the grass in this small wedge of earth at the corner of the driveway looking quite so bad, and with the onset of brown patch declaring the grass irreparable until new growth next year, i decided to do something about it.

the problems with that particular patch of grass were numerous. most notably, we don't have a sprinkler system to keep that spot well watered. next, we have st. augustine grass which requires insane amounts of water and a decent amount of shade to keep happy. the earth was completely domed in that spot and i suspect the water couldn't soak in before it ran off. an exascerbating factor i didn't understand until was forced to use a pick to dig into the stuff is that there is a very high concentration of clay in the soil that helps to keep the water from soaking in well. top that all off with the fact that the spot gets full sun from about eight in the morning until five in the evening, and you have a recipe for dead grass.

after developing brown patch from watering in the evenings and letting the fungus grow on the wet leaves each evening, that spot looked a little haggard. knowing there was nothing else i could do with it until spring, i decided to at least level it out a little.

then the thought occurred to me that we would need a completely different zone for that spot once we got a sprinkler system next year, i decided it might be worth to go with the slash and burn approach. to that end, we bought an indian hawthorne as the centerpiece. it's an evergreen that requires little care and is pretty common in this climate. it won't get much bigger than it is now, so won't be tripping people coming up the stairs and won't likely need to be trimmed much.

i decided to get cute and add some annuals around the edge for color. i planted a smattering of snapdragons around the periphery and with any luck they will fill out the spare space a little. they are looking a little worse for wear today, as i think the transplant and the clay soil is a little rough initially. hopefully they'll find the small cone of potting soil i placed each of them in a little more hospitable and perk up soon (although it's clear they won't find roots much outside that radius. if i decide those are too much work (and i just might next planting season, maybe i'll fill in with some perennial groundcover...

anyhow, here's a before and after. not the prettiest, but i think an improvement and certainly lower maintenance.