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.

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

BIG-DICK-BUTT-gently caress posted:

Anybody have experience with used railroad ties? They're available for cheap by me, and I was thinking about using them for some coarse landscaping. Is creosote really that nasty or can I get away with using gloves + mask when cutting them?

Gloves and a mask should be fine. Watch for spikes. Eye protection is sort of a given, right? I don�t even know if you need a mask, but it�s great if you want to wear one. I�ve processed thousands of junk ties and never been concerned with respiratory protection. Maybe I should have been.

Also, if you�re getting them for free they could be in really cruddy shape. They might fall apart depending on how much cutting you�re doing. Re-useable ties go for some money usually.

BigFactory fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Oct 11, 2022

# ¿ Oct 11, 2022 13:49

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 21:50

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

But if the space is actually a kids play area, and it�s small, and there�s going to be swings or something in there, fake grass isn�t crazy, it�s just not what I would necessarily choose. Small patches of lawn that get walked on constantly look like they get walked on constantly.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2022 16:03

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

BonHair posted:

Not really a qualified opinion, but plastic grass would feel fake and cheap and off putting to me. I'd rather have some nice stone pavement if real grass (clover) wasn't an option. Go for plants if you want plants or stone if you want easy.

Rubber grass that they use on playgrounds is pretty good. If I was a kid I�d rather play on that than stone lol

# ¿ Nov 21, 2022 19:26

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

The Demilich posted:

Are there any good books or texts for laying concrete slabs? I want to lay a slab in my backyard to build an inexpensive woodshop on.

A slab or a pad? You�re looking to pour the concrete?

# ¿ Mar 6, 2023 12:42

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

DaveSauce posted:

Anyone have experience with, or know where to find good info for, clover lawns?

We're in the SE, NC to be exact, and our lawn is, of course, bermuda. I loving hate it. We could re-do it with zoysia, but I've read that this still requires a decent amount of maintenance. Plus it'll be expensive to nuke our bermuda and re-sod with zoysia.

So I figure if we're going to that extent, why not explore clover? Lower maintenance long term, cheaper short term, and more environmentally friendly.

I glanced at NC State's ag extension and they have a little info on it, but not much. From what I've read so far (haven't dug too deep), they actually recommend a tall fescue/clover mix. I'm not keen on more grass, especially fescue, but I dunno.

The clover/grass mixes I�ve seen work pretty well. I�m wondering if a full clover lawn would fill in enough to not get weedy. Maybe it would.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2023 14:32

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Hydrangeas are very thirsty and might soak up water.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2023 19:09

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

caluki posted:

Yeah, i'll do that. Does the extent of the excavation and fill look like overkill, or is that pretty normal for this type of application?

That definitely sounds like how I would want my patio built if money was not an object. It�s more earth removal than I would do in my yard, but I�m built on sand.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2023 11:55

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Verman posted:

So I finished the patio extension. Our PO just put a few regular blocks to continue the walk way.

600lbs of tumbled irregular bluestone, 400lbs of sand, 600lbs of gravel later ...

The rocks don't match as the current ones have probably been in the ground for decades, so we'll see how they age but if not I'm already looking into how to dye/stain them. But also

That came out pretty good! I was very skeptical after the first pic you posted but that came out great

# ¿ May 1, 2023 22:07

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Kaiser Schnitzel posted:

Looks alot like some kind of thin fiberglass insulation?

It�s just plastic. Looks like the same stuff padded mailers are made out of. Doubt it�s fiberglsss.

# ¿ May 3, 2023 10:41

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

bawfuls posted:

My understanding is that the state requirement is to just have some kind of rain capture system, so one barrel per section of gutters is acceptable. The issue is what to do with the excess once the barrel fills up.

Here's a bad Paint diagram. House and garage outlined in red, thin red lines indicate where roof peaks so you get an idea of drainage to the gutters (blue lines) and rain barrels (blue circles). The rain barrel on the right side is the one I'm talking about. The gray in the bottom right is all concrete and pretty flat, so there's not an obvious way to drain excess from that barrel to the street. And I don't want to dump it directly into the planter next to it, because that's still pretty close to the house and the fence. I'd rather redirect that excess to the greenery in the back, near the top section of the image.

Run a soaker hose off it.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2023 18:55

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

bawfuls posted:

I like the simplicity of running a soaker hose, I guess the only question is if rain barrel overflow is enough pressure for that. Pulling from the bottom of a 55 gallon barrel that'd be only a bit over 1 PSI, even if I got creative and used the full height from the gutter to the ground that's only gonna be ~3 PSI.

Looks like recommended pressure for soaker hoses is more like 20-25 PSI, which google says will put out 224 gallons per hour, or 54 gal/hr at 10 PSI. If I assume the flow rate scales with the square of the pressure as that looks to do, then at the max recommended 250ft of soaker hose I could dump 8-28 gallons per hour with 1-3 PSI. That corresponds to about 0.1 inches per hour of rain at most, a rate that we can certainly exceed here.

Maybe I can do something clever with a pump in the barrel and an overflow switch that would also be used for on-demand watering from the barrel, but now we're into not-so-simple methods.

edit: this site has soaker hoses specifically for gravity fed rain barrels, so maybe it's nbd at low pressure https://www.soakerhosedepot.com/Rain-Barrel-Soaker-Hose-38_c_107.html

I probably need to route the hose NOT into the plant beds though, since that would tend to over water them during rain. So maybe in a shallow rock-lined trench that is then buried? Or is this a dumb concern and I should assume the soil around here can handle the extra water?

You keep the valve closed when it�s raining, open it when it�s dry and the barrel is full.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2023 22:13

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Eeyo posted:

Alright thanks for the suggestions!

Another question:

I was going to seed a little area for a native planting. Should I call the dig hotline to get a locate around that area to make sure there aren't utilities nearby? I'm not actually going to dig, so I'm not sure if the call-before-you-dig service is the "right" thing to use. I'm in chicago 'burbs if that matters.

It�s free but do you have a reason to think there�s a really shallow utility where you�re digging? Are you using an excavator?

# ¿ Sep 29, 2023 01:39

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Eeyo posted:

I won�t be digging but afaik the roots for perennial wildflowers can go quite deep, like many feet deep.

I�m mostly concerned about the sewer, I think the area is away from the incoming utilities. I know there�s a sewer cleanout port on the same side of the house I�ll be planting but IDK where the sewer actually exits.

It�s rare to get sewer marked out around where I am. Almost never. Depending on the age of your place, there�s a chance the city doesn�t really know where it is, either. But it�s free to call.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2023 08:45

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Sewer lines can be deep as gently caress. I just had to cap one that was 13� down before it hit the main.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2023 23:51

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Ambassadorofsodomy posted:

I drilled through a big concrete storm line that was 5 or 6 feet diameter, it was 20 feet down.

Seen water mains daylighted that were 15+ ft.

This goon is talking about a service line to a house and I've never seen them more than 5-6 ft deep at the most. Have to admit though that I haven't *seen* that many in person, just the green paint marks for them usually.

It�s a pointless derail, but it depends on how deep the main is and where he�s planting on his property relative to that

# ¿ Sep 30, 2023 01:17

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

road potato posted:

I'm running into an 811 issue too! I got a marker for where our gas line runs, which appears to be directly to the corner of the house, almost perfectly on a line where I was planning on pounding in some T-Posts and digging in some 2-3/8 chain link posts to put in a fence/gate. Unfortunately, the yellow line they flagged is not particularly straight. Do I assume a straight line and move the fence out 6 inches? Do I assume it weaves like it does and put one post on the outside one on the inside? And of course, it's a gas line and by the time I got home from work yesterday everyone from the city had gone home early. There wasn't any guidance on how much space to give each side, just 'only use hand tools within two feet'

T-Posts are going down 6 inches with a pounder, gate post is going down a foot using a post-hole digger.

Related question: it's been lightly drizzling all week and might lightly drizzle some more this afternoon & tomorrow. Do I need a dry hole to pour quick-crete into?

You could test dig and expose it in a few spots. I wouldn�t assume the flags are any more than kinda accurate

# ¿ Sep 30, 2023 15:15

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Kaiser Schnitzel posted:

Yeah I will definitely edge it in something (probably brick) but I still feel like gravel always gets everywhere.

What do you mean by gravel? If it�s tailings off a screener or peastone that�s one thing, but if you get something with a shape like washed 3/4� trap rock (or even 1 1/2�) and compact it, it will tighten up.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2024 03:45

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

FizFashizzle posted:

Drainage chat?!?!

Here is the side view of my terraced (front?) yard. I've been digging out a lot of english ivy which is why you kinda can't see the bottom terrace

This is the view facing the front. You can see the retaining wall on the right is leaning: that's getting fixed soon. What I'm interested in is that space in the middle. Theres a ton of stones here, all covered in dirt and underbrush. No idea if this was originally a decorative stream or just rocks or whatever. This house was designed in the 1980s for two things: cocaine and swinger parties

I want to build a path straight across the top to the deck. Unfortunately I've got that downspout and that extension. Right now it just kinda points into my driveway that goes down. It's....steep.

Not sure what to do with this.

A. Bury it so I can build a path over it? Where does it go? Figure I need to avoid the rest of the terrace levels because they'd flood

B. Blow my budget to pieces and build a koi pond in the middle level and set up some irrigation system?

C. Embrace Asheville and install a rainwater catch right there and use it to water all the various things I'm going to grow in those terraces actually as I'm writing this down that's probably what I'm going to do but I'm still open to suggestions.

I�d do C

# ¿ Jan 15, 2024 13:16

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

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.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2024 01:18

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 21:50

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Motronic posted:

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.

Last year I grew my tomatoes against a wire fence and clipped the branches to it as they grew. It worked great.

# ¿ Apr 7, 2024 12:58

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