This thing is a nightmare. It truly is. It's 2.5 feet wide and like 50' long. What's even worse is it's divided in half by a big 'ol "ivy arch". My house is an "Art's and Crafts" bungalow and these often have a carport constructed from two brick pillars that act as the pylons for the covering of the carport as it connects to the house proper. With houses this old it is inevitable that at least one owner bought an RV and guess what? That RV will not fit under the carport to get it into the backyard. That's when the carport covering gets demolished but the brick pillars do not and they inevitably become support structures for either Irish Ivy, English Ivy or both. Mine is both with the Irish Ivy almost 15 feet high and the English Ivy taking cover from the sun beneath it's canopy.
It should be really easy to see just what an umbrella this thing is and while I would love to tear it out of the ground I still find it interesting as a microclimate not to mention it's a wind break but I might have to anyway because it's freestanding with tons of weight on it so I doubt it's safety. Anywho, let's get to what I can get growing on "The Strip". I'll start with the bad news first:
This is the Strip that is West of the Ivy Arch and to the South is a 7' fence so this is like a sunlight sink: This is where sunlight goes to die and it shows in the anemic growth of the cover crop in this area. Let's compare this 8th Circle of Hell to this:
That's my cat for some scale on the cover crop just to the East of the Ivy Arch. These things are friggin' monsters and I barely even have to water them now. I assume because the extreme leaf surface is not only halting any evaporation but now provides a massive surface area for condensate collection. The dirt underneath is constantly moist. 2 months before this was a particle beam blasted, sun scorched weed patch and even the weeds weren't doing well. The only thing that was here before besides weeds was a mint plant that I got from the grocery store (it was a living herb) that I shoved the root ball of into the soil. I rarely water it as well. The other is a dead Butterfly Bush. This is the only place I put compost this year and I'd say I put about 5 small wheelbarrows full and turned it in. That was late Spring 2015. Then I did nothing but plant Marigolds, planted the Mint and Butterfly Bush . . . and water . . . and water . . . rinse and repeat. It would dry out in 3 days. This suffers from what I think is a running mistake I have made: Seeding density is outrageous and has made much of the winter cover mix from Johnny's Seeds die off. I should be seeing a bunch of Crimson Clover but . . . yeah it ain't there. Oh well, I'm still really happy with this.
So, that's it for now. Adios Friends.