Weed Control

After having had a talk with our neighbor on Saturday I reread the Brush Clearance Ordinance for LA County. Turns out that, in the area where we live, we have to clear brush and weeds 200 feet around every structure on the property. When I looked at the current state of the brush clearance of our property, it was quiteclear to me that this wasn't up to code. So that had to be addressed otherwise we would be fined by the county... and I really don't have any intention of paying a fine that can easily be avoided.

The north facing slope of our property is pretty much fine, since there is no grass or weeds growing. Lots of shrubs and that is OK. Eventually the shrubbery needs to be thinned out to transform the north facing slope into a Fire-safe landscape. But for now that will have to wait.

The east, west and south facing slopes of our property will have to

be addressed

first since they are way too overgrown with weeds.

Today I started with the south facing slope. First I started to clean up the area along the driveway. Next on the agenda was the the area around the well pump and the propane tank. Then I started clearing the steeper part of the slope. While I was working on that part of the south facing slope it hit me that pulling the weeds out with the roots is just a loosing battle. On the one hand it takes way longer and on the other hand you get only 1/2 of the

weeds out with the root anyways. So that pretty much defeats the purpose. So I changed from weed removal to weed management.

While taking a break I checked the Brush Clearance Ordinance again... in essence it states that grass and weeds have to be cut down and are not allowed to be longer than 3" at the most. That certainly makes my job way easier.

While I was clearing the slope of weeds I discovered that there were parts of what used to be a irrigation system for the south facing slope... and at one point there must have been a couple of trees there as well. Eventually we will have to decided what to do with this part of the property and what we're going to do with the non functioning parts of the old irrigation system.

All in all I spent about 5 hours working on that slope and I only managed to get about 1/3 done. But it definitely looks so much better now and I'm quite pleased with the progress I made.