Hi Mark,   
      
   On Sat 2012-Jul-14 12:48, Mark Hofmann (1:261/1304) wrote to Richard Webb:   
      
   RW> Trouble with the front is that it slopes downhill to the   
   RW> street, and the solution for that soil erosion has been   
   RW> railroad tie barriers which shift over time.  Were it me,   
   RW> I'd try to  find a plant that gets a good root hold and   
   RW> doesn't suffer if sunlight levels are a bit low because of   
   RW> all the foliage overhead.  But, that's me, and, I don't own   
   RW> it ,grin>.   
      
   MH> That sounds logical to me.     
      
   It does to me, and were it mine that's what I'd do with this front yard.    
   Landlady's handyman and another strong back   
   repositioned the rr ties recently again, I've done it with a strong back a   
   couple times myself since we lived here.  I   
   don't push the issue on seeding it with a good low ambient   
   light cover because getting the turf to take hold is a lot   
   of work, and this year it would require a lot of water from   
   the meter.  Lady in other side of the duplex has also sort   
   of done the desert landscape bit with lots of little statues this and that,   
   and a little table with wrought iron chairs   
   under the big oak tree on her side.  iN fact, if I'm   
   servicing my one wire antenna system that uses that tree for one end I have to   
   be very careful to put her cuties back   
   where I found them if I bump them out of position.  She's   
   more understanding if my dog does it while being   
   rambunctious, because she's got a lab mix herself she   
   rescued.  She relates to fact blind man doesn't mean to mess up her decorative   
   arrangement.  She quit doing a bunch of   
   stuff with flowers in planters when water bill ran past the   
   minimum and since we pay the water bill we hit her for the   
   difference .  They work that weird with local water   
   utility, duplex is on one water meter, they figure the   
   minimum for each place, total them up and any overage gets   
   tacked onto our bill.  Still, were i landlady I'd try to   
   research a good low light grass variety to go in that front   
   yard.   
      
   MH> I always buy the black dyed mulch, which doesn't break down as fast.   
   MH> I put it on thick and it typically lasts a few years.  It looks   
   MH> really good up next to our freshly painted deck (which was my other   
   MH> late spring project).  That took 13 gallons of paint.  Glad it   
   MH> should last around 10 years before the next coat.    
      
   Can relate.  I'm nto sure that would do with as little   
   sunlight as anything's going to get out here in front, those two big oaks are   
   almost too close together.  She needs to do something with the hillside behind   
   the house too, they lost   
   a couple trees back there over the last few years, and   
   that's changing things a bit too.   
      
      
      
   MH> I'm really happy we had no issues in my local area.  It was so hot   
   MH> that week, there were people without power the entire week when it   
   MH> was in the upper 90s / low 100s.  Not fun at all.   
      
   I've been doign the knock on wood on a few things this year. I thought we   
   could get a little severe wx Tuesday night so   
   didn't go into the city for radio club meeting as I'd   
   planned.   
      
   RW> We've gotten a taste of rain, and the heat's let up a little bit finally.   
      
   MH> We had a very slight taste of rain this morning.  If you can call   
   MH> ".01" a taste. Just enough to coat the ground for a few minutes.   
      
   That's about waht we seem to have received here.  That   
   little creek to the west of us is a bit more healthy looking now though.   
      
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)