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Verman posted:Every time I use loppers I just think, this is the perfect tool for removing a fingat. FTFY
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Sep 28, 2023 11:15
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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.
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Sep 29, 2023 01:25
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Eeyo posted:Alright thanks for the suggestions! 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?
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Sep 29, 2023 01:39
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Eeyo posted:Alright thanks for the suggestions! just look around the area to see if your electric meter, gas meter, or coax / fiber boxes are nearby. fiber and coax lines to homes are usually done as cheaply and lazily as possible and can be like 1” deep in places. if you’re far away from them then you’ll probably be just fine, but if you gently caress it up you’ll get in trouble if you didn’t call 811
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Sep 29, 2023 03:14
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BigFactory posted: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? I won’t be digging but afaik the roots for perennial wildflowers can go quite deep, like many feet deep. right arm posted:just look around the area to see if your electric meter, gas meter, or coax / fiber boxes are nearby. fiber and coax lines to homes are usually done as cheaply and lazily as possible and can be like 1” deep in places. if you’re far away from them then you’ll probably be just fine, but if you gently caress it up you’ll get in trouble if you didn’t call 811 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.
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Sep 29, 2023 03:32
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Eeyo posted:I won’t be digging but afaik the roots for perennial wildflowers can go quite deep, like many feet deep. If you haven't bought your seed yet, I'd recommend digging a hole just so you can see what kind of soil you're working with. That's one of the things I learned from setting up a native plant garden somewhat nearby (more in the Milwaukee area). I threw my seed out in early winter, then when spring came I planted some plugs. I assumed the soil was all black and loamy but it turns out beneath 3-4" of that is an thick layer of clay. So no surprise that the plants in the mix which aren't adapted to growing in clay soils are doing terribly and are going to be crowded out by other species. About the depths of the root systems, you might want to send Prairie Nursery and/or Prairie Moon Nursery an email and ask them what they think. Each apparently has a mix which is supposed to play nice with septic fields. From one of their descriptions: quote:When planting over a drainfield it is important to avoid wetland, or high moisture species, which will seek additonal moisture and are more likely to invade pores & pipes.
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Sep 29, 2023 05:37
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Eeyo posted:I won’t be digging but afaik the roots for perennial wildflowers can go quite deep, like many feet deep. 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.
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Sep 29, 2023 08:45
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Eeyo posted:I won’t be digging but afaik the roots for perennial wildflowers can go quite deep, like many feet deep. If you live somewhere that freezes, they will all be buried below the frost line, which can be 4-5+ feet deep depending on where.
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Sep 29, 2023 13:44
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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.
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Sep 29, 2023 17:25
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Yooper posted: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. Formerly of a related industry (finance, not field). I once had some indirect involvement with a company that drilled through an underground gasoline tank. They had everything located, but the tank was not where it had been marked. Turns out the city had widened the road some years before. The gas station owner had been given funds to relocate the tank out of the right-of-way. He took the money, gave the gas station to a relative, and then left the country. 
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Sep 29, 2023 20:26
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Eeyo posted: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. 811 will not mark sewer lines other than those in the street so you’re SOL. if you see the clean out though it’s most likely that it’s close to a straight shot from that to the street where the main is as there’s typically little reason to weave it around in someone’s yard also your service line will typically be feet deep, not inches deep, so I wouldn’t fret about it especially if you’re hand digging, not using an excavator to plant flowers lol
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Sep 29, 2023 22:42
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Once again ymmv, but here, digging with a shovel is fine. But using a pick axe or mattock, or a t-bar driver requires a locate because swinging a pick axe, or banging on a t-bar driver is an "impact" that is more easily able to gently caress something up compared to a fat goon just kinda stepping on a shovel. The electric and gas company will *probably* mark everything right up to the meter, private property or not, but the city will only mark up to the property line or shut off valve (the valve will be on city property) cable and phone company may or may not mark on private property. Once again though this is only in Ontario, it may vary elsewhere. It won't hurt to call as the locates are usually free. For more info on where YOU might need a locate try looking for (your state)811.com or some poo poo.
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Sep 29, 2023 23:47
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Sewer lines can be deep as gently caress. I just had to cap one that was 13’ down before it hit the main.
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Sep 29, 2023 23:51
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BigFactory posted:Sewer lines can be deep as gently caress. I just had to cap one that was 13’ down before it hit the main. 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.
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Sep 30, 2023 00:18
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Ambassadorofsodomy posted:I drilled through a big concrete storm line that was 5 or 6 feet diameter, it was 20 feet down. 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
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Sep 30, 2023 01:17
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Alright thanks! I remembered there's also a cleanout in the house, so I figure it's got to be a straight shot between the two. I'll probably just pick up some of the "septic friendly" mix, and that will hopefully be fine. I am also going to install some bushes on other parts of our yard, and I'll get those located before digging. It'll be easy enough to move something around a bit of needed.
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Sep 30, 2023 01:52
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Worth pointing out that the quality of service you get from an 811 locate varies to an absurd degree. I've seen them very diligently swinging their sensor back and forth for well over a minute to nail down the exact center of the pipe, and I've also seen them using a dowsing rod they fashioned out of a scrap of rebar tie wire that they nicked from a nearby construction site. The daylighting crew working after the latter guy looked really pissed off.
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Sep 30, 2023 02:24
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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?
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Sep 30, 2023 14:54
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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' You could test dig and expose it in a few spots. I wouldn’t assume the flags are any more than kinda accurate
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Sep 30, 2023 15:15
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Around here its "hand dig within one meter" of any paint marks.
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Sep 30, 2023 20:09
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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' It could be plastic gas lines, which may not be completely straight. Don't assume anything other then "there's a gas line nearby" with surface marks.
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Oct 1, 2023 01:10
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A few days ago I planted two bare root pagoda dogwoods. However I think I planted them a bit too deep. Should I just dig them back out and try to get them higher, or will that hurt them?
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Oct 13, 2023 16:27
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Leave them in the ground. Planting and digging the roots is stressful on the plants, you don’t want to do it twice in the space of a few days.
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Oct 14, 2023 12:52
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Eeyo posted:A few days ago I planted two bare root pagoda dogwoods. However I think I planted them a bit too deep. Should I just dig them back out and try to get them higher, or will that hurt them? ohhyeah posted:Leave them in the ground. Planting and digging the roots is stressful on the plants, you don’t want to do it twice in the space of a few days.
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Oct 14, 2023 18:17
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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?
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Oct 19, 2023 13:44
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Yooper posted: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. Burn down the airbnb.
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Oct 19, 2023 13:57
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There's obviously a bunch of other shrubs you could replace the buckthorn with, but that's going to be a slow job and they'll take a while to establish. And will cost lots of money to replace a large area if you buy bare roots or potted plants. Like a bunch of dogwood and hazelnut could probably slide in there, they tolerate shade. I looked around and couldn't find much of anything that's annual (so it will establish really quickly), tolerates shade, and won't be noxious/a nuisance. 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 
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Oct 19, 2023 16:31
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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...
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Oct 19, 2023 16:39
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Yooper posted:I'd love a shitload of sunflowers, but I think I'll see more nuisance neighbors in the winter than summer. Make friends with the township board and get a targeted nuisance abnb ordinance passed. Every vehicle at an abnb must have indoor storage, you know, for safety.
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Oct 19, 2023 16:47
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And until then you should absolutely be "that neighbor" that calls the cops every time they violate anything. Airbnb needs to die.
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Oct 19, 2023 16:52
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Yooper posted:I'd love a shitload of sunflowers, but I think I'll see more nuisance neighbors in the winter than summer. Oh right I didn't understand what all those words meant, I obviously do not love things that go braaaaap. This may be a bad idea, but the middle path is something like just cutting down all the female buckthorn so it at least doesn't spread, then planting your favorite privacy shrub and wait until that's filled in to go in and kill off the rest of the buckthorn. You'll be dealing with it for years that way though. If you want to hit it with herbicide though the fall may be better, I thought you want to hit it when it's not dormant so it will move down to the rest of the plant. And you can probably tell which ones are female still too?
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Oct 19, 2023 16:57
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Oh, lord, I looked up "hoonigans" and I'm so sorry about your impending neighbors.  Depending on how rural you are, it's possible that this use of the land may be forbidden by town ordinances.https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a42384610/original-hoonigan-ken-block-1967-2023/
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Oct 19, 2023 19:40
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Yes, its people wearing flat brimmed hats with fart can exhaust on their 4 cylinder cars. Not to speak ill of the dead but Ken and I did not get along. His wife is a sweetie though.
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Oct 19, 2023 20:55
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Planted a whole bunch of bulbs in the drier areas of the wildflower/prairie grass sections last week. Today I cast out all of the seed with a hand spreader, so now I wait for cold moist stratification to do its thing. Kept about 2cups of seed mix for future use in case I want to add an area. The area I am converting was probably the lushest grass in the entire yard because of the swale. Since killing off the grass I haven’t seen anything grow in the area so I am hopeful that there is little to no weed seed bed to compete with the first year growth next year. devmd01 fucked around with this message at 12:25 on Oct 22, 2023 |
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Oct 20, 2023 20:11
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Discussion Quorum posted:Just moved to a new house with a nice shady backyard - which means I have a whole new set of weeds to learn One of these little assholes finally sent up a flower which allowed me to make a definitive ID: Lycianthes repens There seems to be very little information about it out there except that it is a toxic nightshade native to Brazil. It doesn't seem to be widely cultivated as an ornamental so what it's doing all over my yard (because once we finally got rain a few weeks ago, it started popping up everywhere) is anyone's guess.
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Oct 30, 2023 00:27
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Taps thread title. (seriously, if this is a new thing they will want to know)
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Oct 30, 2023 00:34
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I'm going to update them, but:Discussion Quorum posted:Contacting the extension didn't help.
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Oct 30, 2023 02:15
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FINAL UPDATE: Lycianthes asarifolia, aka gingerleaf. Found a list of local invasives published by the local parks and rec department that lead me to it. Seems like it is pretty limited to my area of the US (Houston) but it's pretty darn hardy, so I'm sure it's coming soon to a warm coastal climate near you! Bad news: resistant to herbicides Good news: edible fruits? https://archive.org/details/biostor-159037 Discussion Quorum fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Oct 30, 2023 |
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Oct 30, 2023 04:58
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TAMU studied this as far back as '97, say it's likely to become a noxious weed that should be identified and destroyed, and your ag extension just shrugs. High quality.
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Oct 30, 2023 14:09
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I got a little more traction this time. They asked for pics of the flowers and confirmed my ID. All they said was that they would let other agents know to be on the lookout. Our weather is swinging between the 50s and the 80s, but I guess I have a date with Roundup and a paintbrush once we settle into the 70s for a bit.
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Nov 2, 2023 02:04
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