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Welp, I'm glad the guy who has been taking care of the pond for a few years is moving out, but now I gotta learn good pond care in his stead. Obviously, first things first I need to cut bait on the equipment that's not working anymore and learn how to maintain the currently working equipment. There's also a half aborted little trench to the left of this that's intended to divert surface runoff away from the pond. I'm initially thinking that I'll complete that trench -- 4 ish inches deep -- and just line it with some of the ample rocks that are all over around here. That, or get some tall plastic edging (edging would probably erode out though). Time to attack YouTube's algorithm and see if any useful information can be squeezed out of it regarding pond care. Naturally, I'd prefer not to have this drat thing but removing it isn't an option; the koi are quite stunningly large and the family is attached. Potato Salad fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Mar 14, 2024 |
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Mar 14, 2024 00:58
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Motronic posted:Yes, its people wearing flat brimmed hats with fart can exhaust on their 4 cylinder cars. Wait, are you just casually dropping that you knew Ken Block personally? Also, not sure if this is the right thread, I'm not a DIY guy and don't have the time but I'm looking to get pavers installed along the side of our house. For context I'm in Southern California in an suburb east of LA. I had a bigger retailer (System Pavers) come out and quote $12,000 for 422 sq.ft of pavers/installation/removal of existing DG. Casually combing the internet looks like it's a little more on the expensive side ($28/sq ft) but what should I be looking for with regards to comparisons? They're using Angelus pavers and had a pretty thorough schpiel of their methodology/installation. I've got some other guys coming by and dropping some quotes, and I didn't appreciate System Pavers' pressure sale tactics (if you buy now here's a discount) but their license/history/general reviews are pretty good. adnam fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Mar 15, 2024 |
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Mar 15, 2024 00:33
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adnam posted:Wait, are you just casually dropping that you knew Ken Block personally? Lots of us here that participate in rally do/did. It's really not that big of a deal. If you're starstruck by that wait until you find out that I have Travis Pastrana's cell phone number.
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Mar 15, 2024 00:42
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Has anyone ever used the anti-erosion mats in their yard? I thought they had the grass seed embedded, but maybe not. I live on a hill and my dogs (and several years of drought) have given me a sizable dirt patch on a slope. Saw one of those things for like $45 at Walmart, but I need a lot more coverage than that. I guess you stake them down, some biodegrade, some don’t? I’d rather the former but the latter would make them possibly reusable. There’s also some new variety of grass supposed to be widely suited to sun/shade and is fine with fairly dry. I forget the name but have heard widely mixed reviews. Main goal is dirt containment, really.
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Mar 15, 2024 19:34
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REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS posted:Has anyone ever used the anti-erosion mats in their yard? I thought they had the grass seed embedded, but maybe not. I live on a hill and my dogs (and several years of drought) have given me a sizable dirt patch on a slope. Saw one of those things for like $45 at Walmart, but I need a lot more coverage than that. I guess you stake them down, some biodegrade, some don’t? I’d rather the former but the latter would make them possibly reusable. The ones I get at the landscape supply house are some sort of cotton fiber with straw woven in. No seed. You put them down with landscape staples: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Southwe...-0168/312645120 They do not biodegrade well. I kinda hate them a lot. If there is any possibility of you being able to hydroseed that area instead do that.
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Mar 15, 2024 19:58
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I have red thread in my lawn. I called my ag extension and left a voice mail. In the meantime, anything simple I can do? The areas hit hardest are a drought tolerant conservation mix with a lot of white clover in it.
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Mar 16, 2024 01:18
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Are there any of those AI things for landscaping like there are for interior design where you upload a photo and it edits in options? Google turns up a lot but I don't want to go down a rabbit hole of creating accounts and free trials to find out if they actually work. The lawn just off the back porch doesn't get enough sun, so its just a mud pit. Once the kids are out of daycare we want to do a pool, so I don't wanna go crazy on a solution just to have it torn out. I like the big concrete squares surrounded by gravel that is really popular now but i'd really like to see a mockup of it and options first.
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Mar 18, 2024 18:24
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Think carefully about a pool. It sounds lovely in the abstract, but most people aren't prepared for the amount of maintenance required, or the cost of repairs to equipment like pumps and filters, or the insurance costs.
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Mar 18, 2024 18:50
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Think carefully about a pool. It sounds lovely in the abstract, but most people aren't prepared for the amount of maintenance required, or the cost of repairs to equipment like pumps and filters, or the insurance costs. You are preaching to the choir my friend. I absolutely don't want one. Wife wants one, and she doesn't really have other big asks. Meanwhile I have numerous hobbies and a woodshop, etc.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:22
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I've got a similar patch in my back lawn, but I'm probably just gonna throw some zoysia seed at it to see if it sticks. Rest of the lawn is bermuda.
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Mar 18, 2024 21:23
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Suggestions please for some plants. Zone 7. The reliefs I've dug out and walled off look good, and I just need some stuff at the top here against the car park. Was thinking flowering bush or maybe even some kind of privacy tree. It gets medium sun at least. I just tore out a poo poo ton of juniper.  This little area at the front of the house is....pitiful. Good suggestions for flowering bush? Medium sun.  These two little skinny dudes sit at the top of my driveway. Gonna take them out, build out that space a little bit, and I want to put something eye catching there.   bobua posted:You are preaching to the choir my friend. I absolutely don't want one. Wife wants one Looks like you're about to compromise and get a pool.
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Mar 19, 2024 19:02
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Have you considered some native azaleas? There are several height/ flower options, though the natives aren’t evergreen like the Japanese azaleas
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Mar 19, 2024 23:10
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Hutla posted:Have you considered some native azaleas? There are several height/ flower options, though the natives aren’t evergreen like the Japanese azaleas There will be some azaleas, yes. I’m also thinking of some Muhly grass on the hill above the terraces. Also just bought this bad boy for the “marquee” spot I guess. Gonna have to build it out a bit but that fine. https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/products/ruby-falls-redbud-tree?variant=39435584667710
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Mar 22, 2024 17:43
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Potato Salad posted:Welp, I'm glad the guy who has been taking care of the pond for a few years is moving out, but now I gotta learn good pond care in his stead. I'd throw some lilies and other floating plants in that bad boy. Floating plants work to keep the algae down by soaking up excess nutrients and preventing sun from reaching the algae. Plants also give the koi places to hide from predators. Some irises would also look lovely. The good news is that pond equipment is pretty darn easy to maintain, and the less you do the better. The only caveat is to make sure the inlet to the filter stays free of clogs.
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Mar 26, 2024 15:10
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Anyone give Dirt Locker a try? Got a small but steepish 25-30° slope in my Socal backyard that's pretty much shed all topsoil due to rain. Idea looks neat, if admittedly a bit of work.
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Mar 26, 2024 21:30
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bobua posted:Meanwhile I have numerous hobbies and a woodshop, etc. Easy on the bragging there, dude. Jeez.
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Mar 27, 2024 18:00
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I'm going to be doing a bunch of drainage poo poo to the yard this year as soon as the soil can be worked. Any drainage nerds here that I can bounce an idea off of? Edit: Basically, I am hoping to do buried pvc pipes at each downspout, except two that are over concrete, which will get rain barrels). Additionally, I'll put a French drain along the northern facing side of the house, where snow tends to stick. The pvc and French drains will both run to drainage swales in the front and back of the house for passive rainwater harvesting. The swales will be filled with a layer of inorganic mulch and topped with organic mulch at grade and we will plant some native wetland plants in the center surrounded by a border of more drought tolerant shrubs and each one will have a fruit tree along the perimeter. Am I missing any crucial details that would prevent this from working? Should I have a pop up emitter at the end of each run or would a debris trap be fine? How frequently should I T in catch basins along the French drain? We have heavy clay soil if that changes anything. Justa Dandelion fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Mar 28, 2024 |
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Mar 28, 2024 21:32
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Okay. I have a small yard that is very lumpy from the previous owners dog. I'm considering either getting some sand and dirt and filling in the bigger holes or just rototilling the entire thing and reseeding. What would probably be the better route to take?
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Apr 1, 2024 13:09
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You should probably start with a roller.
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Apr 1, 2024 13:45
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cut a path from my driveway to the top of my lower deck now I just need to find a poo poo load o gravel and i'll be good to go. going with landscaping timber to match paths that are already here. Gonna do some pebbles with big stepping stones. broke two pickaxes clearing out roots! spaces in the right side are roots i'd need to whip out a chainsaw for and honestly they're probably just a strong.    
FizFashizzle fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Apr 3, 2024 |
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Apr 2, 2024 23:56
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That's one hell of a job to do with hand tools. Looks like a great start.
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Apr 3, 2024 00:16
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Finally removing this enormous jackass tree in my backyard this week  . It's like 1 ft away from my house and it's a biggun. Looking forward to my house not being slowly tilted into the ground.
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Apr 4, 2024 20:28
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That was me last year. $20k later, it's all gone. Long story short: Last July, we had quite the fiasco with the first company. $20k to do the job. Then there were injuries, electrocution, they knocked the power out. It was bad. They swapped crews and brought the trees down to 10 and 20 feet before calling the job as complete as they can get it without a crane, which they don't work with. We renegotiated the price to $13k as they only finished a little more than half the job. I made a big post about this last year when it happened. No red flags initially. Once they started working it became obvious they were not that crew for the job. They were licensed, bonded and insured, and came via recommendation from friends. They were also in the mid-upper range of our quotes for non crane removal. Using a crane would eliminate all of our privacy hedges on the side of the house which we wanted to keep so cranes weren't preferred.   9 months later (2 weeks ago) we hired a new company to finish the job. $6k and they were incredible to watch. So efficient and capable. They were in at 9am and gone by 2, including stump grinding and taking the wood dumpster. I wish I hadn't tried to save $5k the first time and just got it done with these guys from the start.     Also before anybody asks, the trees were 120' lombardy poplar. They were severely rotted and brittle, breaking constantly. The one was directly over the house. The wood is not usable for nearly anything as it's not very strong and not great for woodworking. The growth rings were almost an inch apart. The tree company said the only use for it is compost or toilet paper pulp. Verman fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Apr 4, 2024 |
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Apr 4, 2024 23:49
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I would be terrified to be that guy in orange
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Apr 4, 2024 23:55
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It's just the camera angle. He was further back than it looks. Only the face cut was made, the holding wood on the back was still in place. It took a lot of cutting and wedges to finally topple it over.
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Apr 5, 2024 00:04
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They lied to you and are currently making $500,000 worth of live edge coffee tables out of that tree.
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Apr 5, 2024 04:42
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Cow Panel Trellis boxes are set up. I was planning on having a cute little tunnel down to that bottom terrace, where I was gonna have some chairs and a nice little relax area. However, I don't think the view will be very good there, especially once the foliage is full send. Can't decide if I want to make it anyway or make another part of the tunnel. TUNNELS!  
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Apr 6, 2024 00:15
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That looks great. Want to see how it works out throught the season. I'm in a "I don't have a garden" period and I'm being a bit pouty and specific about how and where I'm going to put another........it's probably going to have a hard sided greenhouse that I can electronically control the roof panels for ventilation, which was my biggest gripe with my former hoop house. But I love seeing things like this because that's the kind of thing I can use outside. I still don't have a good tomato solution. Every tomate cage I've bought has been garbage that I have to prop up with stick and zip ties throught the season, so those are all going to meal recycling. I'm starting clean when I do restart.
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Apr 6, 2024 01:02
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But a welder and some 3/16" round bar. Make your own.
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Apr 6, 2024 02:15
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Motronic posted:I still don't have a good tomato solution. Every tomate cage I've bought has been garbage that I have to prop up with stick and zip ties throught the season, so those are all going to meal recycling. I'm starting clean when I do restart. My father spent an afternoon fashioning cylinders of field fence similar to this stuff using a 55 gallon drum as a jig about 25 years ago and has used them ever since. He tied the fence as best he could and then used a oxyacetylene torch and some solder to place stakes around the lower perimeter and to make drat sure the whole thing wouldn't come apart.
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Apr 6, 2024 02:20
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Motronic posted:That looks great. Want to see how it works out throught the season. Last year I grew my tomatoes against a wire fence and clipped the branches to it as they grew. It worked great.
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Apr 7, 2024 12:58
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Motronic posted:That looks great. Want to see how it works out throught the season.
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Apr 7, 2024 15:30
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Pruned my Bradford pear all the way to the ground yesterday and had an arborist take out the large white mulberry and forsythia in my yard for good measure. I'll be putting a bur oak and a hackberry in my front yard but I am undecided about what to put in the backyard. The shade from a large silver maple and overhead powerlines really limit what I can plant.
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Apr 9, 2024 15:38
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Got everything planted yesterday for the main section of hardscaping next to the patio. I already moved a butterfly bush a week ago from a bad spot that didn’t get good light so it should be much happier there. My wife bought some peonies, lavender, and a perennial mounding flower. Had a hosta in the back corner so I moved that over, and I also thinned out the irises up front. A few were planted by the patio then I spread the rest through the swale. Next up is landscape fabric and getting a big order of rocks delivered. Once everything is done it’s going to be a very nice place to have a fire.
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Apr 9, 2024 16:46
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goatse guy posted:Pruned my Bradford pear all the way to the ground yesterday
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Apr 9, 2024 16:50
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i decided this looked like poo poo and tore it out and redug the path.  ahh, much better. That just has the foundation timbers in, and obviously not the landscaping fabric. Now I have to figured out what I want it to look like. I went with the timbers because there's some preexisting stuff on my property and I wanted to match it. They did just the gravel with stepping stones and it looks....fine. Now that I'm here tho...kinda wanna do something fancier but I don't know what.
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Apr 9, 2024 23:40
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The landscapers came by and did the front lawn. Pretty sure the maintenance of it is covered under the HOA but the wording is vague, gonna wait and see if it ever gets cut. Mostly I want to get rid of the lawn mower and the patch of grass is less than 150 sqft, not even worth having a full size mower
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Apr 13, 2024 16:53
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I need to plant a handful of young trees (zone 6) in a couple weeks. Are any of these growth products you get advertised useful/necessary? I'm wondering if they actually help or if they're snake oil. https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/products/root-rocket-fertilizer?variant=13940847247412
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Apr 14, 2024 22:47
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:The only right way to prune a bradford pear  Ordered $150 (inc shipping) bucks of hard-to-find herbs for my (sob) container garden. I can vouch for the quality at https://mountainvalleygrowers.com/.e: Root Rocket isn't a fertilizer. It's "endo and ectomycorrhizae fungi, soluble sea kelp, soluble yucca plant extract, beneficial bacteria and Horta-Sorbe Water Management Gel. " I wouldn't bother. Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Apr 14, 2024 |
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Apr 14, 2024 23:18
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The Wonder Weapon posted:I need to plant a handful of young trees (zone 6) in a couple weeks. Are any of these growth products you get advertised useful/necessary? I'm wondering if they actually help or if they're snake oil. https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/products/root-rocket-fertilizer?variant=13940847247412 That's a packet of woo for the non-scientific feel-good "organic gardening" crowd who are afraid of "checmicals" in general. I'm sure my mom bought it.
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Apr 14, 2024 23:34
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