I had hoped we could possibly solve our mosquito problem with some sort of fragrant grass with magical mosquito repelling properties. Lemon grass was on my list, as was citronella grass, and I had read online that geraniums and marigolds can help keep mosquitoes at bay as well.
We went to a local nursery that has pretty good prices and where the employees tend to actually know something (versus 99% of the employees working at say, a HOME DEPOT.). Hurrah! They had a "Landscaper on Duty" the day we were there. What luck! We described our space, I showed her a few pictures and she made some recommendations.
Here's what we learned from our landscaping friend:
- The pine trees in our flower bed make the soil extremely acidic. Only certain plans can tolerate this high level of acidity. This was a key piece of information of which we were unaware. I think had we not been told this we would have spent a lot of money on plants and they would have promptly and mysteriously expired. I would have chalked this up to my inability to keep things alive (though we seem to be doing ok with the dog and I have a good track record with rosemary* as well.).
- Citronella grass might be mythical. And at the very least it doesn't grow in this part of the country. The other plants (marigolds, lemon grass) might help, but for them to be effective, we'd basically have to crush up all the leaves to release the repelling plant oils anytime we wanted to sit outside. Dreams=crushed.
- Given the amount of time each day our patio is completely shaded, we should buy partial to full shade-loving plants. This was a rather profound concept for us. See above re: track record, living things.
With a list of shade and acid loving plants in hand, we cruised the nursery for about an hour before we decided on eight Hostas (four "Guacamole" and four "Montana"), and two red and white Columbine plants. Yew (the upright or spreading variety) was also recommended, but it wasn't clean cut enough for me. The flower bed back there already has a propensity to look unkempt. I thought the clean lines of the Hostas would look tidier under most conditions that the Yew would under even the best. Hostas are kind of the Scandinavian furniture of the plant world. They just look so clean and sleek no matter where you put them.
Three trips to Home Depot later to purchase mulch and landscaping rocks piecemeal (when the recommendation on the bag of rocks indicates you need 16 bags to cover your 12x3 area, just buy the 16 bags), and 10 hours of hard labor later, we had this:
The pictures do not do justice to how glouriously pleasant it is compared to the before (and I didn't even give you a real before shot). It's so clean, and neat, and green. And I love the contrast of the black mulch again the green, green leaves of the Hostas. The Columbines are already looking like maybe they would have preferred to stay at the nursery, but whatever. The Hostas look great.
Here's a nice wide shot of the patio. We actually have more chairs and tables, but I have a weird compulsion about leaving them out. I must to fold up the chairs and move the tables against the house when we aren't using them. It must be from working in restaurants, that I need to close up shop when we aren't using the space. I took out those two chairs you see there just for you!
The mosquitoes seem generally less aggressive since we cleared out the a lot of the brush and the crap, but they are still there. We bought some Cutter fogger which we sprayed a couple hours before we used the patio the last couple weekends. It does seem to help, but after only two (albeit very aggressive) uses, the can was empty. We've also bought the Cutter spray that attaches to the garden hose (sort of like those old Miracle Grow plant food thingies), but I question whether spraying more water, even if it does contain mosquito repellent, is really solving our problem. Til we find a better solution, praise the Lord and pass the OFF!
*Rosemary is indestructible.
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