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Jaded Burnout posted:On initial investigation, both of these tools appear to be near impossible to find (online?) in the UK. For sharpening, normal stones will work fine. Axe stones are like hockey pucks made of oilstone that fit in a pocket and are easier to hold in the hand since sharpening axes etc. you are bringing the stone to the tool, not the tool to the stone. They’re cheap too, and it keeps whatever sap or dirt might be on an axe off the good stones. The steel on most yard kind of tools is soft enough to sharpen with a file, but the extra sharp from a stone makes a difference.
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Aug 9, 2019 15:04
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Your green and pleasant land has substantially fewer overgrown thickets than the US so I guess there isn’t as much call for them. Maybe a scythe? A machete and string trimmer will certainly do it, it just might be slower and more backbreaking, but I think British yards are the size of an average American living room anyway so idk.  See that really tall bush at the back? That marks the point where there's another 10 feet to go. Off in back right the corner (invisible in this photo, the shed-like thing you can see is a greenhouse) is my shed with my string trimmer in it. In the middle back is 200sqm of 100+ year old floorboards with nails sticking out of them. Every bush is 6 to 10ft deep. The middle-distance "bushes" are actually large patches of nettles around 7 to 8ft tall. Kaiser Schnitzel posted:For sharpening, normal stones will work fine. Axe stones are like hockey pucks made of oilstone that fit in a pocket and are easier to hold in the hand since sharpening axes etc. you are bringing the stone to the tool, not the tool to the stone. They’re cheap too, and it keeps whatever sap or dirt might be on an axe off the good stones. The steel on most yard kind of tools is soft enough to sharpen with a file, but the extra sharp from a stone makes a difference. kk
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Aug 9, 2019 15:16
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driptorch I’d get what grassy stuff you can with a string trimmer and then just start hacking away with a machete. It’ll go faster than you think and I think it’s very satisfying, stress-relieving, instant gratification sort of work.
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Aug 9, 2019 16:02
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My elderly neighbour tried something similar, nearly burned the street down. Kaiser Schnitzel posted:I’d get what grassy stuff you can with a string trimmer and then just start hacking away with a machete. It’ll go faster than you think and I think it’s very satisfying, stress-relieving, instant gratification sort of work. I'll need to machet my way to the shed to get the strimmer, but yeah I think a nice sharp machete will help a lot.
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Aug 9, 2019 16:55
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Rhyno posted:They will literally let anyone have a chainsaw! I have two now! Me, too, in the middle of suburban DFW, TX. I don't even have a forest, just a giant Live Oak that likes to drop limbs every storm. Kaiser Schnitzel posted:A brush axe will save your back. They’ve got to be razor sharp (your machete should be too. Get a good file and an axe stone). Surveyors use them here for making perfectly straight lines through the woods and this guys knows his trade: They also make brush heads for weed whackers, but your weed whacker has to be beefy enough to use it. Jaded Burnout posted:
So like he said, about the size of an average American living room.  
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Aug 9, 2019 18:04
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Darchangel posted:So like he said, about the size of an average American
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Aug 9, 2019 19:05
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Not inaccurate.
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Aug 11, 2019 20:50
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Since we bought our house back in December, we've noticed ponding water in the way back of the yard under the power lines. Our guess is that the power company compacted the lawn when they were trimming the right-of-way. Since ponding water is gross and I have small kids that I'd prefer don't catch a mosquito borne disease, we decided to get rid of the standing water. Cue: 3 yards of screened topsoil, delivered!  So then I had to shovel it and wheel it in the backyard  Spread it around and rake it level(ish)  Tamp it flat and do another bit if it was still too low  And then 4 hours latter, done! 
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Aug 12, 2019 16:15
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Got a lot done! The well and drain pipe are buried, I need to buy a tamper so I can start evening out the ground  I started raking up all the brush, leaves, twigs and crap  For perspective, this is what the yard looked like before I started  
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Aug 16, 2019 18:55
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I've just been clearing and cleaning up of late. Did a bunch of big stuff this morning This tree is dead dead dead. Nothing was in danger of being damaged if it fell but I wanted to make sure it didn't fall on a person at any point.  Down and done  Also chopped down two smaller ones and dragged a ton of poo poo over to the burn pile.
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Sep 5, 2019 16:23
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I'm not sure this is the best thread for it but I couldn't find a better one. I have a lilac bush that came down in a storm a couple years back. Apparently, enough of the root system is still there that it's basically been coppiced and there are now a good number of growths out of it, with the largest of them being 3-4 feet tall at this point. What's the best way to deal with this? Keep all of them or trim it down to only a couple?  The black paper stuff is the weed barrier that got ripped out when the bush fell and I haven't bothered to mess with it yet. The previous bush had two main stalks that split a bunch. One fell hard and took out the second. ssb fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Oct 1, 2019 |
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Oct 1, 2019 18:05
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Depends on what you want it to look like long term — as in, how big in diameter. Me, eyeballing it I think it would look better at least twice as wide as shown. I’d keep them all, leave a little unpapered area where you’d like it to expand, and then trim it in Spring (I don’t know if this is correct, but I always pruned mine in late Spring, right after the blooms died, and they always seemed to thrive).
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Oct 3, 2019 01:24
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Bought a wheelbarrow. The game is afoot. Or.. awheel.
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Oct 5, 2019 12:45
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shortspecialbus posted:I'm not sure this is the best thread for it but I couldn't find a better one. I have a lilac bush that came down in a storm a couple years back. Apparently, enough of the root system is still there that it's basically been coppiced and there are now a good number of growths out of it, with the largest of them being 3-4 feet tall at this point. This guy has has good advice about pruning lilac. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGOGsORv5EE
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Oct 8, 2019 01:32
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JB, have you considered hiring somebody to come clear that out for you? I have no idea what landscapers cost in your area, but here across the pond there's a zillion crews with the proper equipment that could rough clear that in a day for a few hundo.
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Oct 12, 2019 19:22
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Coasterphreak posted:JB, have you considered hiring somebody to come clear that out for you? I have no idea what landscapers cost in your area, but here across the pond there's a zillion crews with the proper equipment that could rough clear that in a day for a few hundo. There are some, and I've contacted a few, it can be surprisingly hard to even get a quote. We'll see if my motivation holds, otherwise I'll start calling around again.
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Oct 12, 2019 19:47
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We were quoted $7000 just to tear everything out and cut it up. Haul away and disposal was extra.
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Oct 12, 2019 20:02
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Rhyno posted:We were quoted $7000 just to tear everything out and cut it up. Haul away and disposal was extra. Define "everything". Are you talking just the brush and undergrowth, or trees as well? IME trees add a zero to everything. Or they might have just overquoted you because they didn't want to gently caress with it.
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Oct 12, 2019 20:38
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Everything, 7 large trees were part of that. I've cut down 4 of them myself and cleared 3/4 of the yard in my spare time.
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Oct 12, 2019 20:44
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Double posting, but based on what my parents pay for rough landscaping work, underbrush is about $1000/acre and trees are about $120/ea for somebody with a bucket truck, bobcat, and chipper. Depends on the season though, that's early spring prices.
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Oct 12, 2019 20:44
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$120 a tree? How big are we talking? I have a 200 footer that was $600 on it's own due to size and difficulty.
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Oct 12, 2019 20:46
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Oh no I'm not talking about anything like that, I'm talking 50 to 80 footers that are nowhere near anything important. You've got a big boy.
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Oct 12, 2019 20:56
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It shares it's roots with an almost same sized tree so that one will likely die soon as well.
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Oct 12, 2019 20:58
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Neighbor has some major project going on. This is like 5+ guys working every day for the last 3 weeks. A lot of the time with pickaxes and wheelbarrows, for some reason. I don't even want to know what it's going to end up costing. 60 grand+ based on what it cost to do my backyard. If he doesn't do a second retaining wall further uphill above the current one to make another flat area I think he screwed up 
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Oct 13, 2019 15:07
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Anyone here have any experience with drain fields? I have a square one (25'x25') in my backyard. I'm curious about a few things. 1. Is it correct that I have to worry about where the lines run, and some buffer away from them, rather than the whole square? 2. I really really really really really want to get rid of the sod, what sorts of things can I put in that square instead? I live in the PNW. 3. Given that only my wife and I live in the house and that's all it's going to be, would it logical/cost efficient/even legal to consider changing the layout of the field to make it affect a smaller area? Also, I have a couple of long term landscape projects - a japanese maple grove*, fruit trees in the front yard and raised veggie beds. Is this a good place to talk about the first two?
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Nov 5, 2019 21:30
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   Anyone able to give advice on how to fix this monumental fuckup? Grass hasn't been cut since July, and I cut it today and it's all brown and ugly. Afraid to touch the front garden as I don't want to butcher that as well and stick out like a sore thumb compared to all my neighbours' green gardens. I live in the UK.
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Nov 6, 2019 13:02
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You scalped it. Not much you can do about it now. It'll come back in the spring, just don't stress it out more. Mow your other lawn at the highest setting and hope for the best. To prevent it in the future, don't stop mowing for 4 months.
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Nov 6, 2019 18:37
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Any chance of me getting fertilizer to hopefully rectify the colour situation over Winter? I'll feel very awkward having a scalped front lawn when everyone else has such nicely maintained ones.
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Nov 6, 2019 18:54
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Qubee posted:Any chance of me getting fertilizer to hopefully rectify the colour situation over Winter? I'll feel very awkward having a scalped front lawn when everyone else has such nicely maintained ones. No, don't do it. Does it get cold enough there for your lawn to go dormant over winter? I would just wait until spring to fertilize, since it might do gently caress all if your lawn isn't even growing through winter, and worse yet it might gently caress up your already damaged lawn. It's really not that the grass itself is not green, it's that it's been so long since you cut it last that the lower part of the plant has become part of the root structure. You just gotta wait for it to come back, and then mow consistently at the height you want so it doesn't happen again. Fertilizing might make this happen faster, but I don't really want to recommend something that has a good chance of being useless or counterproductive. Wait till spring, and then topdress to help it recover. Once you see it's growing again, do your regular fertilizer routine.
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Nov 6, 2019 19:47
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Added some drainage/erosion mitigation along one of my fence lines. Put some treated 2x4 scrap across, and cut out slots on the bottom half for the water to flow through the rocks. This particular drain handles a lot of flow off the roof. 
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Nov 10, 2019 18:40
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I hope this isn't too offtopic, but this is a rather interesting take on landscaping. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvtqKMxZ95s
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Nov 11, 2019 16:44
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This thread still alive? Posted this question in another thread, then finally found this one. We just had a bunch of landscaping done and it looks great, except we now have some drainage issues:  How bad is this? Obviously they intended for this to be the drainage path, but it doesn't look like it's working out so well. Granted, we had a TON of rain yesterday in a short amount of time, but I want to make sure this isn't going to wreck everything. This sort of rainfall happens at least 1-2 times per year. As an aside, most of that was previously grass, but was landscaped over because surface tree roots made it nearly impossible to maintain. It's always had SOME drainage problems, but never this bad. edit: also the rock is steep, but not as steep as the picture makes it seem (especially closer to the top where the water is pooling). The mulched bit by the corner of the house is WAY steeper than the rocks. edit again: also it's a very simply build. It's just 1 layer of rock on top of a plastic weave layer. Don't know exactly what it is, but it's different from the typical fabric mesh weedblock. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Feb 7, 2020 |
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Feb 7, 2020 21:00
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I’m glad somebody resurrected this thread. I love landscape poo poo! I’m about to embark on a project of planting a row of 20 apple trees along the side of my house to do an espalier. Gonna be a fun time! 
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Feb 7, 2020 21:19
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When the weather gets better you could dig a drain and just fill it with stone, probably wouldn't look out of place. I'm assuming it's puddling there because of compaction, otherwise it would just do what water is supposed to and go down hill, unless the picture is deceiving and the rock creek actually has some incline to it.
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Feb 7, 2020 22:06
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Looks to me like the rock is doing its job, but just a little slower than needed in this particular instance. If it doesn't rain this much most of the time, I wouldn't worry too much, otherwise, I'd likely make the rock drainage area wider. Note: not a professional landscaper or drainage engineer. Barely a functional homeowner.
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Feb 7, 2020 22:19
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Does anyone have some guidance or ideas on getting a small backyard landscaped? Mine is about 25 x 30 so fairly tiny, which I think is going to make a lot of landscape designers pass. I'm mostly looking for a private place to relax and for a dog or two to play in.
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Feb 7, 2020 22:30
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Shall I buy a 30 ish year old JCB 3cx?
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Feb 7, 2020 23:33
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Jaxyon posted:Does anyone have some guidance or ideas on getting a small backyard landscaped? Around here I had no problem getting the attention of landscape designers for a yard not much bigger than that - but the prices were absolutely eyewatering for even relatively basic stuff.
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Feb 7, 2020 23:38
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DaveSauce posted:This thread still alive? You might want to look into turning some of that area into a rain garden. If my suspicions are correct that you’re in the PNW, the various county surface water management sites have a lot info about these. More of a general thread question here: what’s the delineation between this thread and the general gardening thread? Was I supposed to post my tree planting and lawn destruction escapes here instead of the gardening thread? Edit: Jaxyon posted:Does anyone have some guidance or ideas on getting a small backyard landscaped? Are you looking for ideas on what to do, or are you more concerned about finding folks to do the work? If it’s the former, Better Homes and Gardens has tons of sample landscaping plans for various sizes and types of yards, and I think This Old House has some stuff as well. Solkanar512 fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Feb 7, 2020 |
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Feb 7, 2020 23:40
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So for that apple tree espalier thing I mentioned in my above post, we’re looking at removing about 120 to 150 cu ft of dirt from an area roughly 40’-50’x2’-2.5’ and 1.5’ deep, then mixing between 2/5ths and 1/2 of that dirt with a growers mix and putting that mixture back in the ground. I don’t know if anyone in this thread has ever had professional landscapers remove or put in dirt before, but what is a typical price I might expect to have to pay for this with labor included? I had a guy give me a quote this afternoon and the price he gave me was between ~$600 and ~$850, which is honestly better than I was expecting but I’ve never done this before. Is that a good price range?
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Feb 8, 2020 01:01
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