Mulch Madness

Have you ever thought about getting rid of that water sucking front yard of yours but don't have the motivation to do it? Well, I think I have just the motivation you may need. If you are a resident of Petaluma and have over 500 square feet of lawn that your considering removing, the city will pay for all the materials that you'll need to do it. I'm not talking a credit on your water bill, I'm talking, they will coordinate with various vendors from the community to bring out the compost, mulch, cardboard and irrigations supplies to cap off your old sprinkler heads and convert some to accommodate a drip system. They will even arrange for a discount to a nursery so that you can plant some native plants if you like.

Probably, like you, I talked about doing this for over a year now. Instead, I just kept paying those outrageous water bills so I could look at my green front lawn as I drove off to work every morning. Oh, I did on occasion get to feel that nice grass feeling between my toes as I walked out to get my mail, but of course, that was only if I was barefoot. I also did get a feeling of accomplishment as I spent my hourly ritual of lawn mowing every week. I could stand back with pride as I looked at my freshly manicured lawn before I headed to my back patio to enjoy my cool refreshing beverage of choice.

Well, a couple of months ago, I received a post card from the City of Petaluma explaining the program. I thought, what the heck, I'll see what this is all about. It took about a month before someone could come out and measure my lawn to see if I qualified. Once they did come out, within a week I got my first load to begin the process, the compost. I spread that out over the existing lawn. That's right, you don't need to remove any of your current lawn. The next day, the cardboard arrived for me to spread out over the compost, this is what keeps your lawn from growing and then composting back into the ground. I went to Wyatt Irrigation to pick up my supplies from them. I'll admit, this was the hardest part of the job. I had to dig out my existing sprinklers and cap them off. What I thought would be a couple hour job turned out to be about a 6 hour job. I had 25 heads I needed to cap or retrofit. The hardest part was digging around the root systems from the trees in my yard. I am now ready to spread out the mulch that will arrive on Tuesday.

If I sparked any interest you may have in this, I would suggest you call the city at 707-778-4507 for more information; or,  you can go to the City of Petaluma web site, http://cityofpetaluma.net/wrcd/mulch-madness-program.html.

Once this job is completed, I will post pictures of my new front yard for you to see.