Progress in the back corner, plus prepping for a meadow

Back corner now

I haven't given an update on the back corner since March because my plan for the year was to simply work on eradicating the knotweed and I didn't expect to have much else to show.

Well, the knotweed is still a struggle but I think I'm making progress. I chopped and pulled it all spring and summer and started digging some of the roots out this month. I won't know until spring how much of it is left; there is more outside the fence in the alley, which I'm not sure is even on our property but if we don't control it there it'll spread back into our yard.

Everything other than the knotweed is under control though. In the spring, I planted six hazelnut bushes about four feet back from the fence, and out of the way of the main knotweed problem.

Four of the hazelnuts

Then I got ambitious and decided to work on the whole bottom section of the yard, which is this back corner and the rest of the flat area to the north (below the sunny hillside). This was all grass and weeds. I really dislike the arborvitae that are along the whole fence line, but they do screen out the alley and the houses below it, and they're so big that I'd feel bad about killing them now. So I'm planning how to put in other plants to soften the monotonous wall of green.

The whole area, solarization in progress

I've been looking at mainly native plants, a mix of trees, bushes, and a meadow. I did a lot of reading about solarization and decided to try that for two large sections where I want to plant the meadow. The theory is that clear plastic will kill all of the grass and weeds and will also heat the soil enough to kill the seeds. The hardest part about planting a native meadow is keeping all of the seeds that are already in the soil from outgrowing the new seeds. The plastic is supposed to be able to get hot enough to kill the seeds - but that depends on enough hot sunny days. You use clear plastic, not black, because the soil will get hotter under it.

I started the solarization in early June, just before a couple of 90 degree days, so that was looking good. And then the weather turner cooler and cloudy, which I really enjoyed but wasn't helping the solarization. Finally we got some hot weather in late July and August, so I'm hoping it was enough.

Looking north from the middle

Now I need to remove the plastic, kill any vegetation that is coming back to life - there is a little, a sign that it might not have been hot enough - spread a thin layer of very fine mulch, and then plant meadow seeds. I have a meadow seed mix from a local company so I'm ready to plant.

I already planted a  native crab apple (malus fusca), a vine maple (acer circinatum) and a thimbleberry (rubus parviflorus) in the spring. I've been keeping an eye out for plant sales that have some native plants, got a couple of evergreen huckleberry last week. The Washington Native Plant Society has their fall sale in early October and I think I'll be able to get the rest of the bushes that I want there.

Looking north from the back corner

For the back corner, I already planted the hazelnuts and crab apple and plan to plant shore pines, just have to decide if I can fit two or three. I want three but have to convince myself that there's actually room. They can be planted fairly close together especially since I don't want them to ever get too big but I do want them to eventually cover most of this corner. I will plant meadow seeds in the part of the corner that is covered by plastic, but knowing that it'll become shady as soon as the trees start to grow and then I'll transition to other plants.

The middle, which is currently covered in cardboard, has all of my non-native bulbs underneath and I really liked those this spring so I'm not digging them up. I'll try to plant native flower seeds over the top, but not sure if the cardboard will have killed enough of the grass and weeds to allow that to work. If not, I'll end up with grass and weeds again, but I can deal with that next summer.

Update: I didn't take pictures yet, but I did remove the plastic this week, sprayed Roundup on a few stubborn weeds that were growing under it - mainly near the edges - and now waiting to plant seeds.