Landscaping: Call your county extension service. No really, do it.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Landscaping: Call your county extension service. No really, do it.

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Hed posted:

Is Flexzilla a good brand for garden hoses? Are other brands� compact hoses a gimmick?

I have a large yard with no spigots near the back so want a 3/4� x 100�. Trying to decide if something that sits outside all summer is a replace every X years regardless of initial quality or what.

I've got a 50' Flexzilla and it seems fine. It gets super flexy in the heat and sun. It doesn't seem any more or less lovely then the other mid tier garden hoses I have. I've only had it two summers, not sure what to expect on durability.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2021 18:51

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 09:51

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Wallet posted:

Are we talking about expanding hoses or just extra flexible ones?

Extra flexible ones. I've seen a lot of people try the expanding ones because it sounds awesome, but the service life is a bit lacking.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2021 22:47

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

surf rock posted:

So, I'm mainly thinking of getting an electric mower instead. It's a little expensive, but I'd love the lack of maintenance issues and the cordlessness of their top pick. Anyone here have any negative experiences with electric mowers?

I had a reel mower. It wasn't bad but anything thicker than a stalk of grass seemed to jam it. My yard was small but contained a birch, ash, and maple. So every twig had to be picked up otherwise the reel would jam. It also kind of sucked around any sort of obstruction as your momentum would come to zero and you'd have to huff and puff it back and forth to clean up a little area.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2021 12:28

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

I just hired a guy to do 2 acres of lilac / tag alder removal with a skidsteer chipper. 3 hours of work at $175 an hour. It's all inside of a 100 year old orchard that has the most monstrous apple and cherry trees I've ever seen. Should look pretty cool when he's all done. We've got a bunch of hawthorn, mountain ash and crab apple we'll be planting in a few weeks. The trick is going to be to keep the deer off of them.

Anyone tried the tree tubes before? I'd rather not build an enclosure around all of the trees.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2021 16:43

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Hed posted:

I really want automatic mowers that work, I�d pay $TEXAS to not have to mow right now or pay some landscapers to do it. Some day after we get actual good floor cleaning robots, I guess.

Dude at work rigged up his lawnmower with servo controls and steers it about like an RC car from his house. He did this mainly because he has a steep slope that sucked to mow, but it worked so well he just kept it and does the whole thing. Not a huge lawn, and you're still steering it, just not right at it.

# ¿ May 12, 2021 15:03

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Blowjob Overtime posted:

Pasting from the Horticulture thread, which was apparently the wrong one for this:
Is this the right thread to ask about intentionally killing plants? I'm sure I can find a ton of different answers on Google, but I'd greatly appreciate experienced advice on the best way to deal with buckthorn. We are on a wooded 2.5 acres, and it is pretty prevalent in all sizes up to full trees. I would love to get rid of what's there and keep it as buckthorn-free as possible.

I recently cleared about 2 acres of tag alders out of an old orchard. Cost me $700 to pay a dude in a skid steer with a giant grinder to mulch it all up. Future maintenance will involve brush hogging it yearly.

Glyphosphate (roundup) is one option, but it only works on greenery, not seeds. Minnesota DNR has a good write up on it : https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/buckthorn/control.html

# ¿ May 18, 2021 16:12

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Anyone recommend a pole trimmer? Power or manual is cool. I'm tied into the Bosch tools, but I don't think they offer one.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2021 21:10

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Literally a day before the ground froze and the snow started we had a new well put in and a giant trench dug from it to my house. I've had beautiful white snow to look at it, but now it's melting and I am reminded of this...

I've got ruts, a spot where the trench has settled, drill mud, and it's almost all clay.

What's a good plan of attack? Level->topsoil->grass seed-> pray ?

Is there anything I can do to increase my chance of success?

# ¿ Mar 20, 2022 00:13

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Sirotan posted:

Oh ho, there is a landscraping thread after all. Cross posting from the Home Zone since I didn't get any responses and I am hoping to buy something to use this weekend:

There is a vine that has basically taken over my yard. I think it's some kind of pipevine, though it has never actually flowered. I've done my best the last two years to exterminate it as much as possible (mostly by ripping it out), but the neighbors on all sides of me seem to not care that it is actively strangling their trees to death, so I'm probably going to be battling it forever. This year I want to be a bit more tactical. One side of my yard has a double fence line. Chain link with about a 12" gap and then a wooden fence. The vine loves to grow in this space and it is a bitch to remove it. I don't want anything to grow in this space at all, ever. I've considered removing the chain link fence just so I can dig out this area to make life easier, but that is going to be a huge project. I'd instead like to dump some kind of chemical here that will kill things. What is going to be the least environmentally terrible thing to use for that? As of right now, the vine hasn't sprouted up in the space yet, so I think I'm looking for a pre-emergent? An added challenge is there is a lot of plant debris within this 12" space that I can't really remove, so anything I dump on top of this isn't really hitting the ground. My neighbor with the wooden fence has a small child and a dog so ideally whatever I put here won't wash into their yard and give them cancer, or something. Tbqh for a while I was considering literally salting the earth, but I guess that's actually worse than glyphosate.

At work we have a quarter mile of chain link fence that gets vines and glossy buckthorn growing into it. We sprayed with glyphosphate but it was always a pain in the rear end and required regular spraying. Eventually we called a place the specializes in spraying lawns, they came by with two dudes in white suits, a tanker truck, and sprayed. Within a week all the vines turned brown and died, this stripe of deadness lasted for about two years. They claimed once it was sprayed and dried it was no longer harmful. I don't know what it was they used, but it worked really well.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2022 14:07

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Ambassadorofsodomy posted:

New fuckin thread title right here if I ever saw one

That's the truth too.

First thing we did when the snow melted at the new place was hire a dude on a skid-steer to grind up every single thing that wasn't a tree on 2.5 acres. Totally worth the $650 it cost me.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2022 18:55

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Comrade Gritty posted:

The other thing I'll need to figure out a solution to is how to clear my driveway of snow without a landscaper as our driveway is longer than I'm willing to shovel by hand. When we grew up with a long drive way we had a skid loader and just used that but I don't have that here. Is getting a plow for my truck a terrible idea for a single driveway and is plowing with a truck particularly hard? Is something like a 4 wheeler or tractor with a smaller plow a better idea?

What kind of truck do you have? How much snow do you get? Is it usually wet and heavy?

Most folks around me (northern Michigan) try to use a heavier duty, older, truck to plow if they plow. Like an old F350, as a plow is really heavy. Now if you don't get much snow, you might be able to deal with a "plastic" plow on a light duty pickup. Some folks use an ATV with a plow, but if you get heavy, wet, snow you'll have problems moving it. I'm a big fan of a snowblower myself, I have a 500' driveway and can snowblow it in like 4 passes. Not as quickly as a plow, but it doesn't tear up my yard and I can put it where I want it. Mine attaches to my lawn tractor. I'm in a fairly high snowfall area, so being able to have a place for the snow becomes a big issue with a plow, as you may end up plowing halfway across the yard to have a place to push it later in the year.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2022 17:29

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Comrade Gritty posted:

I'm in SE PA, which the internet says Philadelphia gets an average of 15" of snow a year, which seems about right. We, very occasionally, get more than that (our first year in the house we moved in like 4 days before a snow storm dumped 2' of snow... which had me rushing to buy a walk behind snowblower as I walked up and down the driveway for 10 hours trying to keep it from getting to deep for the blower).

It's generally not enough that I feel bad about shoveling the bottom of the driveway, but the whole thing is long, and there's a steep spot that if it gets any ice on it makes it hard for anyone to get out of the driveway.

I drive an 2008 F150, with the.. supercrew? whatever the full four doors is with whatever the longest bed was that year, 8' I think.

It's not unusual for my snowblower to go through 20" at a pop, and I've got drift busters for deeper drifts. It takes me maybe an hour to do the driveway, parking areas, sidewalks, etc. If you get a solid dual stage Ariens, Husqavarna, etc, something you spent $2k on, it should easily snowblow everything you are getting in your area. I have no experience with a single stage snow blower, but it probably sucks and would explain the 10 hours.

Your truck can run a 7' straight blade plow, a V plow is too heavy for it. Boss Snow Plow has a web tool on the website so you can input your vehicle and they'll tell you what works. You have the 5.4 3V Triton, which is not the torqueist engine ever, but for minimal snow should work fine. I hope it's 4WD, or you have 500 lbs of steel in the back with snow tires. Probably $6k - $8k installed.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2022 20:12

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Motronic posted:

Yeah, you want to let them get all the energy they can to shove back into the bulb for the next spring so its best to leave them as long as you can or until the leaves drop.

Most of mine are tiny (like snowdrop) so when the grass or some weeds get too tall I just mowed them at like 4-5" which evens things out but left the bulb no-longer-flowers.

This sounds cool as hell, where do you order bulbs from?

# ¿ Oct 14, 2022 15:26

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

I've got a solid plan this fall to attack the Glossy Buckthorn in my woodline involving a chainsaw, clippers, and a dauber of glyphosphate. Tests I did last winter show 100% success in killing the main tree.

The Buckthorn, lovely as it is, does make a nice barrier between my neighbor and I. Is there a thread favorite shrub or hedge I can plant that is deer resistant? I'm looking at Juniper or False Cypress to start but would like some variety. Zone 4.

# ¿ Aug 25, 2023 13:01

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Eeyo posted:

But just grinding it is a good way to get more buckthorn suckers everywhere.

I had 1/2 acre of buckthorn ground up with a guy on a skidsteer, it was just too much to go through tree by tree. Two years of mowing and the suckers quit coming up, I still see an odd sapling here and there but that's easy enough. The glyphosphate is really the way to go.

How are you handling them post cutting? Some of my thickets are so gnarled up it's really tough to tug them out without limbing them. I'm tempted to cut, treat, and just leave them standing and let nature rot them.

# ¿ Aug 25, 2023 19:12

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Has anyone tried any of the big box less than $2k chippers? Or am I better just to get a rental of a big Vermeer for a weekend? I potentially have a lot of chipping, but not sure I can justify an expensive chipper.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2023 14:55

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Motronic posted:

- Size: what's the largest opening? If it's a 4" remember this means you'll need to fully cut all the slash off of 4" stalks to get it through. It also means a lot of bending and fighting to get your slash through especially if it's lacking:
- Feed: automatic feed that's going tp pull thing in and through, or "gravity" where you have to shove it. You can make it work with slash, but you're gonna be doing a lot of work and need pusher sticks, etc on the smaller ones to clear and re-start leaf clogs, etc.

That's a great point, I really don't want to limb Buckthorn as it's nothing but limbs. I'll get the monster chipper for a weekend, thanks!

# ¿ Sep 1, 2023 18:37

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

If you are digging, you need to call the dig. In the US (Michigan at least) if you hit a utility and did not make a call, you are liable. Full stop. If you are not digging, but planting, then you have no need for a dig. None of your utilities will care if roots are grown into it. The only exception is a waste line, but even then it's a very long term problem. You could have the most invasive angry root system in the world and it will not pull up a utility.

Even if you are only digging beneath the sod, do not assume your utilities are at the frost line. Don't assume the utilities are routed anywhere intelligent. Don't use the lack of boxes as evidence of no utilities. Your main utilities "should" be at proper depth, but what if the PO regraded a hill and now your gas line is a foot down? Or what if the contractors wanted to gently caress off and smoke weed all afternoon and didn't wait for a proper plow? Or what if a crew used a directional boring machine across your yard and you never even knew?

I worked as an underground-overhead contractor in college and saw the dumbest poo poo imaginable. But never once did a shovel go in the ground without a white flag signaling all clear or knowing where everything was.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2023 17:25

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

The recently foreclosed on home next to mine is going to be an AirBnB that caters to "Sledheads, Hoonigans, Side-by-Sides, and guys that like to go braaap!". There is currently a 20 yard wide strip of woods between my place and the other place. It is mature spruce, balsam, tag alder, and a shitload of buckthorn. I had planned to cut the buckthorn over the winter, paint the stumps with glyphosate, and spend a couple of years dealing with the saplings.

Now though as much as I hate the buckthorn it gives me a nice privacy barrier. I'm at a loss on how to effectively remove and replace the buckthorn while still retaining some privacy. Short of a fence, does anyone have any ideas?

# ¿ Oct 19, 2023 13:44

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 09:51

Yooper: Apr 30, 2012

Eeyo posted:

Maybe like plant a big swath of sunflowers somewhere where the'll get enough sun or something like that? You'll probably end up with sunflowers everywhere though

I'd love a shitload of sunflowers, but I think I'll see more nuisance neighbors in the winter than summer.

Motronic posted:

Burn down the airbnb.

I wish I could...

# ¿ Oct 19, 2023 16:39

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Landscaping: Call your county extension service. No really, do it.