|
Seconded. My first guess was mower blade sharpeness but thinking about it, their grass seems healthier and yours maybe more dried out. There's a lot to that. What's your soil made of, how well does it drain, what's your watering cycle, when was the last time you fertilized, do you both get the same sun ... ?
|
#
¿
Jul 20, 2022 00:01
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 00:03 |
|
|
Motronic posted:Find a better arborist. Again, this is the truth. Find a good arborist and they'll get it down. Just make sure they're licensed and bonded and I would be skeptical of anybody who offers to do this without a crane. Between the roof and the utility lines, its going to be a pricey and delicate job. Not the time to try a budget arborist.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 20, 2022 22:03
|
|
|
MrChrome posted:Yeah, something like this: My only recommendation if you do this style is to use big enough pavers that don't move when you step on them. They should be wide and thick enough that they'll stay in place. My PO made a patio out of small flag stone and its not very thick so it moves when you step on it and you can kick them up if you catch an edge. Its drives me nuts and I can't wait to replace it with something more functional. Placing pavers over river rock, depending on size, might prevent your pavers from settling well. It might be nice to use a compactor to get the rocks to settle flat where the pavers will be.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 18, 2022 01:50
|
|
|
cross posted from the home zone So after tilling and ripping up everything in my yard last June, and choosing to lay sod for a quick install of grass ... it mostly all died despite following the instructions step by step. I'm, really regretting not trying to just grow from seed. I tilled a good 10" deep, multiple passes to really break up the soil. Added sand and compost into my soil to loosen it up a bit. I dug a square foot hole and tested the drainage speed of my soil. It tested really well and healthy. I had foot long earth worms all over the place. It felt very nice and loose, very rich dark black soil without being too clumpy/sticky. When I ordered the sod, it came from a reputable local farm and I installed it as their installers were already booked solid for the season. It was backbreaking work (I had tendonitis in my hand for a few weeks after) but I got it down. Laid it in a brick pattern, overlapping. Ensured to fit the seams very tight so there were no gaps. I watered as scheduled and it grew pretty well during the summer and into the fall. Once the temperatures dropped and leaves started falling, it started to die. I'm in seattle so its not like it was super cold and plenty of rain. I wondered if it maybe got too much water or not enough sun (we do have some tree cover). I overseeded and fertilized, also adding lime to the mix. The seed barely seemed to take root at all. Upon closer inspection, the sod seemed to have an incredibly clay rich soil. I don't think anything is even getting through it. I've tried overseeding several times and nothing seems to bite. I've raked it trying to create some texture in the soil so that the grass can take root. Nothing. I've tried covering the seed lighty with soil. Nothing. The seeds are still there weeks later without any growth. I've tried different seed brands/varieties but its mostly ryegrass/fescue out here that grow well in sun/shade areas. I think it has to 100% be the amount of clay in the soil the sod was grown in at the farm. Its an inch thick layer of clay thats preventing the seed from rooting through. I REALLY don't want to rip it all up and trash it but part of me is about to say gently caress it and call a dumpster. Now I understand why people choose hardscapes. Lawns are stupid. Sorry, thats my rant.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2023 01:30
|
|
|
Well, my in-laws are coming into town next weekend and my wife suddenly has the urge to take care of this patio situation !!!THIS WEEK!!! before they get here. We've talked about trying to find matching stone and lay a similar pattern but I wasn't aware it was happening this week. The POs just put those cheap gray rectangle patio pavers and white decorative rock which has long been buried in dirt, kicked up, or knocked loose. Below that was weed barrier cloth.  We went to a rockery and picked up a few Penn blue tumbled stones. I kept loading and my wife said she thought it was enough. I should've trusted my intuition. Every project always requires a little more than you think. First, I had to dig down a few inches to create room for the rocks, sand, and pavers. Fuuuuck me.There were two old cement post anchors sitting just an inch below the surface so they wouldn't have allowed the stone to sit level. They were about 2' long and weighed at least 100lbs each. Then I hit a bunch of roots. That was unpleasant.  I used 8 bags of base rock and 8 bags of leveling sand for the small area. I laid the pavers out in my driveway and instantly realized we only got two large ones, the rest were very small fillers when compared to the existing rocks. I'm definitely going to need a few more.  When I laid them out, I didn't like the size disparity when compared to some of the smaller rocks we found around the house when we moved in. Given it's a walk way, the small ones are more prone to coming loose and don't fit in. The big ones are 2" thick and super heavy so they're not moving. I need more of those. I want it to look like it's part of the whole, not an addition.  This looks too different. More heavy rear end rocks it is.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2023 07:41
|
|
|
The Dave posted:Disclaimer: I don’t know poo poo about hardscaping As far as matching the stone, I'm not too concerned with color/aging at the moment. I was more concerned with the type/size/shape of the rock matching. The aging can happen naturally over time, or if it really bugs me, I can look into dying/staining the rock to look more similar in color. It was difficult enough to find rock that looked similar (large, flat, 1.5-2" thick, rounded edges). This stuff was the closest I could find. Everything else was thin, jagged flag stone which wouldn't visually match at all. Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Moving that poo poo around must suuuuck The average rock is about 12-18" wide by about 24" long and 2 inches thick, so probably anywhere between 50-100lbs. It is ... not fun.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2023 18:34
|
|
|
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 
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2023 07:19
|
|
|
KKKLIP ART posted:So I have this area along the side of my house about, a screened porch, 20-25 feet long with a bit of an incline going down (maybe 1.5 feet over the course of the side of the porch). it currently has a totally unkempt spot that I want to add some stone edging until it butts up against my fence. How hard is something like this to do: That looks like a fieldstone or flagstone style stacked wall. It's not terribly difficult just tedious and lots of heavy lifting if you do it yourself. The rocks will likely be pricey and you'll need more than you think due to the puzzle nature of it. Learn how to break the rocks accurately with a rock hammer to modify them to fit a specific space. If you want them to stay in place better, consider a binding agent like mortar. You'll need a variety of large medium and small. Big heavy rocks stay in place better. Lay a hose or pant your border you're trying to follow. If you're following a grade, try to keep the rock surfaces level so they don't side down the hill.
|
|
#
¿
May 7, 2023 19:09
|
|
|
KKKLIP ART posted:Yeah my thought is only really about 2 or 3 courses tall with the first course probably at ground level. Even the second picture is taller than I am thinking. Good information, going to take some measurements, look up local hardscape companies, and try to get an idea of cost. I think for a low ledge it's maybe not *as* important as something like a walkway, but generally you dig down 6-8", level the ground (several terraced levels for your slope), apply a decent layer of drainage rock (gravel etc) and then a layer of leveling/paver sand or polymeric sand if you don't want it to move. That might be a little over the top for a 10" ledge but that's generally how you would go about prepping for hardscape. I think it might be extra important if you're somewhere with a freeze thaw cycle. You don't want rocks in wet dirt freezing and thawing. If they're in a bed of gravel and sand, the water should drain away so they don't shift as much. If you're doing a short ledge, you might want to bond the stones as there won't be as much weight keeping them in place. There are definitely YouTube videos showing how to go about it. Start at this old house and go from there. It's funny you bring this up because I'm probably going to do something similar at some point in my yard.
|
|
#
¿
May 7, 2023 22:19
|
|
|
For a weed proof gravel driveway, you really do need to dig deep down, put a very thick layer of good weed blocker, and then a solid layer of sand and a deep layer of gravel to prevent weeds from coming through. You will also want to install a physical barrier (plastic, metal etc) between the gravel and the grass areas so that the soil/grass doesn't overgrow. The other issue is trees overhead. If you have trees overhead they will drop leaves, pollen, etc onto the gravel and it will eventually break down and create new "soil" over the years filling in some of the gaps in the gravel and allowing new weeds etc to grow. You really need to be on top of keeping it clean and killing any new growth in there. If you're going to go through the effort of putting in new gravel, you may as well just pave it and it will be infinitely easier to keep clean. I had a rental house with a lot of different types of rock beds (not my doing) and I will never do that again. It was difficult if not impossible to keep weeds from growing through a poorly installed rock/gravel bed. Digging the rocks out of compacted soil was a bitch to say the least and I would never dream of putting more in its place. If you do decide to dig it up, rent a skid steer or something mechanical to do the digging. Its a bitch.
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2023 20:56
|
|
|
This is why people had children.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 23, 2023 20:45
|
|
|
I picked up some fiskars loppers and they're pretty good. I think they're 20-24" long. Can take up to 1 3/4" or 2" branches I think.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 28, 2023 02:28
|
|
|
Every time I use loppers I just think, this is the perfect tool for removing a finger.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 28, 2023 04:36
|
|
|
Lol imagine doing all that loving work only to do it wrong. Or worse yet, paying someone to do it wrong.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2023 19:59
|
|
|
"I tried ... lol" - Gary
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2023 21:34
|
|
|
MrChrome posted:I have a blue spruce in my back yard that always has stuff growing under it. It's hard to get in there and weed. I was thinking of removing a foot or two from the bottom. If you decide to trim the base of the tree, I would recommend raking and cleaning out anything thats currently above the soil and putting down some landscape fabric or some cardboard and put down a bunch of bark/mulch. Be careful not to stack it up against the tree like a volcano though, leave the base of the tree exposed. Imagine putting a donut of bark around the base of the tree.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 13, 2024 23:48
|
|
|
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 |
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2024 23:49
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 00:03 |
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 5, 2024 00:04
|
|