Landscape Spending to Save

The longer we live here the more difficult the steep slope is to maintain. Never mind walking on it; I can't do it so Gary has to do all the maintenance. Here's a bird's eye view of the lower terrace. To the left you see the vinca vines I planted two years ago on the slope. The vines are covering the slope nicely. Covering the slope with weed barrier cloth and plants means Gary didn't have to weed whip that area for the last two years or from now on. One less place to maintain.

The past several weeks we covered the lower level with weed barrier cloth and bark and Gary and I built another vegetable bin. We waited till bark and ground cover cloth were on sale. We already had the fire pit (bought on sale) which we placed on 12 x 12 stepping stones. We plan to paint the stepping stones. Believe it or not you can paint concrete stepping stones with house paint to match your home or trim and it lasts. Just make sure the stepping stones are completely dry before you paint them.

We also built another vegetable bin (used lumber) which I planted yesterday with peppers, basil, eggplant, and lemon cucumber which were also on sale. I'll let the cucumber trail outside the bin. Here's a link to the commercial grade weed barrier cloth I purchased. It was $79 for 250 feet which is 3 feet wide. It was free shipping so really a savings since ground cover cloth is quite heavy. Do yourself a favor if using a weed barrier invest in the commercial grade. Most has a 10 or 20 year life and is well worth the expense. It is held in place with commercial grade landscape anchor pins, purchased at the same company. I used commercial grade weed barrier for my lavender farm in California and it saved me a ton of time not having to weed and the cloth never deteriorated in the five years we lived there. Wherever I want to plant a plant I cut a small x in the cloth and dig the hole and place the plant.

Here is the slope below the previous level. On the left to the rear you see rosemary plants I planted two years ago. Another slope with no maintenance needed. The first plant was bit by the cold this past winter but I expect it to recover. The portions uncovered are as yet unplanted. The foreground is about a 45 degree slope. On the right is a slope about 85 or 90 degrees. You can see why mowing or weed eating for those areas is near impossible. We are trying to minimize the maintenance we need to do each week for our property thus saving on our bad knees, and hopefully reducing the potential for a fall or twister ankle.  We're spending on weed barrier cloth to reduce maintenance and potential injuries while maintaining our property. Isn't that landscape spending to save since medical care is so expensive and injuries so debilitating? Thanks for reading and for all your comments.