Gardening / landscaping thread.

[alek]

@Skid, thanks for the advice and link, but that's probably overkill for this particular application. I plan to put a retaining wall on the down slope of the property--it drops off pretty steeply just beyond the backyard--and bigger, heavier block would likely be more appropriate there.

ETA: Also, the gravel base is definitely the hardest and most important part of the wall. I'm using a 6" layer of 3/4" base gravel for the wall foundation and backfilling with 1" clean gravel.

[alek]

For @iamsmu.



This update is from a couple days ago when I rounded the corner and brought the lower wall to about the intersection with the upper wall.

In the corner, I deliberately left some small gaps for good drainage as the previous timbers had completely rotted out at the bottom corner. I’m also not using any drainpipe.

The top course will be glued down and properly backfilled once I complete the whole thing. Then I’ll add cap block, which will cover the gaps between the block. This particular block is not meant to be alternated as only the front is “designed” and there’s a lip on the back to “lock in” with the lower course.

I did a lot today—the upper wall behind the AC that’s perpendicular to the house is nearly complete; I ran out of daylight. I’ll probably put out another update tomorrow.

Cheers!!

[alek]

I was able to finish the wall on the other side of the AC and begin the turn up the hill. It’ll stair-step up.

[Idlehands]

wall updates? Had my mason do some little aesthetic touches this week back to my patio that he built last year. Loving it. Though he reprimanded me about getting burn marks on the top of the firepit cause the stone is so pretty/mint and says if he can find the stone again he'll replace the darked ones and don't ever do that again.
Love artisans.

[mbasic]

I was able to finish the wall on the other side of the AC and begin the turn up the hill. It’ll stair-step up.

yeah, looks good. Its actually fun work after your get the bottom course set.
Those are awesome now because there are so many different styles, colors, and finishes.

What/how are you going to backfill behind the wall with?

I did a huge project with those at my first house back in 1998?
There's two type of those blocks ...big and small, both an ugly ass color.
I was actually protecting my house from errosion from a big wash....so I used the 6" x 16" ones.
3 to 4 consecutive terraces, each one maybe 30" high ...net height, as I sunk the foundation course (whatever term) like 2 rows down below the grade.
Fun times. Hot. On a slope.
Can't believe I did that.
So many pallets of block.

[mbasic]

In other news.

The grass in my backyards looks like shit.

#1
The dumbass landscapers who 1st did the yard when I first bought planted sissoo trees. (since removed)
The fucking roots go/are everywhere, sending up shoots.
I have to rip all that shit out

#2
Dog pees on the grass, making brown spots.

#3
The grass/turf is just old. I don't use chemical fertilizer or chemical weed killers.

#4
Shade from trees and shit causing bare spots, etc. Tired of doing winter grass.

#5
Its a horrible waste of water (in Phx, AZ area)

---------------------------------------------
I think I'm going to rip it all out. Cut all the roots.
Do wood chips everywhere and plant fruit/nut/crop trees on about 1/3 to 1/2.
The other 1/3: two long 30" rows of planting areas for vegetable.
Open area in the middle.

Its going to suck digging out the grass and 4-6" of dirt.
I don't think a turf cutter is going to work .... because my grass isn't very "turffie", and the tree roots all sprawled throughout it.
It will all have to wheelbarrow-ed out. Unless I get somekind of super mini bobcat thing.

[alek]

I was able to finish the wall on the other side of the AC and begin the turn up the hill. It’ll stair-step up.

yeah, looks good. Its actually fun work after your get the bottom course set.
Those are awesome now because there are so many different styles, colors, and finishes.

What/how are you going to backfill behind the wall with?

I did a huge project with those at my first house back in 1998?
There's two type of those blocks ...big and small, both an ugly ass color.
I was actually protecting my house from errosion from a big wash....so I used the 6" x 16" ones.
3 to 4 consecutive terraces, each one maybe 30" high ...net height, as I sunk the foundation course (whatever term) like 2 rows down below the grade.
Fun times. Hot. On a slope.
Can't believe I did that.
So many pallets of block.

[alek]

I’m done for now. I’ll have to put on the final touches another time, but it’s looking good so far.

[alek]

Well the wall was still standing, which is good. I didn’t notice any movement or settling.

Here’s the final product of the wall. Top course and cap block are glued down; backfilled with drainage rock up to cap block. Not sure what we’ll do for fill inside—dirt, mulch, more rock...



I started on the next block project. I ran out of block, and Lowe’s didn’t have enough in stock to complete it. It needs one more course plus cap block. Next time...



I still have a long list of other block projects, but it’s gonna take years to finish it all.

[mbasic]

looks good dude !

[mbasic]

Yeah, tree maintenance is 'annoying' (lolz)

I just spent $3K to have a tree taken out in my front yard. (22" dia trunk)
Roots were getting into neighbor's property, lifted a decorative extruded curb/mow strip thing.
They haven't complained or anything....yet. But I can see what its doing.
Its on/near my gas service line and my water service line too.
Its too big to be that close to my house, and my neighbor's house.
- They have to cut down the tree (that took an entire day pretty much)
- Leave the stump in place.
- Drill and poison the stump/root system.
- Wait to see if suckers shoot up everywhere (typically happens if you just cut in down willy-nilly)
- And then a couple months later, finally grind the stump into oblivion OR re-poising.

I took down three of the same species in the back yard this past summer.
Sent suckers up everywhere from their root network.
I knew that was going to happen; I didn't use poison because my back yard in full of vegetable gardens and the chickens live back there.
Spent a lot of energy and effort digging out roots and suckers everywhere for about two months.
Rented a small mini-tracked-loader thingy .....had to cut the whole yard down about 12" to get it all out.
Major fiasco. All this forced me to completely re-do the backyard.
Basically, I took out all of the grass/lawn (root infestation, grass was fucked up with weeds, dog pee spots everywhere, etc)

Turning the whole thing into a small mini-orchard and into a few row-crop garden beds .... woodchips all in between.
Water bill should go down. Grass here in phoenix is ..... retarded.

Should be pretty awesome when done. Whole backyard is dedicated to growing food now.
I'll post some pictures soon.

(4) 4'x8' raised beds
(1) 30" x 24' row crop/veg garden bed
(2) 30" x 16' row crop/veg garden bed.
All kinda of trellis vines and shit.
(12)-(16) fruit tree of some sort or another
(5) chickens making eggs and "fertilizer".

[alek]

I finished the tree wall planter thing. Looks good.

[alek]

I’m thinking about the next project.



In these photos, there’s the long retaining wall above the gravel. I want to make a block wall to replace the timbers and raise the ground level so that it’s less sloped behind the wall. You can see a wood pile in the background; there’s a fire pit area up there that’s not level. It may take two retaining walls to get that area level—we’ll see.

The block I’ve used close to the house are about 10kg apiece, which I think are too small for the long wall. Lowe’s has 30kg blocks that are just larger versions of the 10kg block that I like. It’s not the same color, but it’ll do.

[mbasic]

(from the other thread .... but more relevant here)

Either way this is some creepy shit. If anything because it doesn't actually make much sense as a meme in and of itself. And then add the caption with the hash tags. Is this what happens when you do an intellectual LP? You go from creaming your Neo-Nordic sperm all over Beowulf to growing turnips on 6 acres 5 miles outside of the inner suburbs?

Well, if you don't grow turnips and live action roleplay as a soldier at the gun range while pretending to be a rural country bumpkin as you go driving a $30,000 dollar truck and owning an ENTIRE data hosting company which would put you as one of the highest earners in your fuckin county you dishonest bougie fuck then the GOVERNMENT might be able to force you to live around black people/Mexicans who can't even read English let alone PARSE the LOTEM!

$30,000 truck? That is some poor ass white trash fucker. Try more like 50. Then add the mods like loud tractor trailer exhaust, big pipes, blacked out wheels and grille, lift kit, and psychotic imagery, your'e looking at even more. These guys are hard working Americans though. They're up at sunrise to drink black rifle coffee with their cage free eggs, and applewood smoked bacon cooked on a traeger grill. Then they wipe down their Oakleys, and go out and sweep their driveways. Chores include feeding their chickens pellets and picking up 3-6 eggs, sweeping the front steps and mowing their lawn 3 times a week with their farm tractor. Then it's time for sharing memes on Facebook with a dram or 12 of bourbon.


ETA: I forgot. Grass fed Steak (carefully chosen by a butcher with a leather apron and wrapped in wax paper) and atrisan potatoes for dinner. And lots of pills.

I don't post much on this forum, but damn that made me laugh!

Yes, the especially hits home.
In a way I am one of these people^, but not one of these people^ ... at the same.

I own chickens, have garden beds, and do the whole organic suburban farming thing.
That whole "enterprise" is a fallacy, it would damn near be impossible for a family to grow all their own food and be even 90% self-sustainable or self-reliant with the "system". The amount of inputs is a real mother fucker.... even things like water.

An entire crop from one medium-small-sized orange tree yielded like .... only 5-6 quarts of OJ I think. WTF!

I don't think many people realize how much hard work, or the amount of "dirtiness" one has to accept to go that route.
Compost, mulch, recycling everything ...every damn food scrap in the kitchen....chicken shit every where...just fuck.

People like Scott Hambrick, and corporate ultra-progressive techies buying Testla's to save to environment, are the same people in many ways.

The best are people that will build a raised garden bed, and then the most expensive part of the whole thing is BUYING the soil that goes inside.
I was guilty of this on my first two beds. I realized how stupid it was once a started filling the bed with BOUGHT soil and compost.
After this we got chickens, and they make endless soil now as we compost all of their bedding (w/ poo) with our other yard trimmings and kitchen waste. Its still hard to make enough soil to replenish the beds and row crops though.

[mbasic]

The block I’ve used close to the house are about 10kg apiece, which I think are too small for the long wall. Lowe’s has 30kg blocks that are just larger versions of the 10kg block that I like. It’s not the same color, but it’ll do.

Yeah, for something like that, the bigger blocks are more appropriate.
Those were the one's I used.

Bad thing is a pallet of those is super fucking heavy. It takes so many to do a sizable project.

[alek]

Yes, the especially hits home.
In a way I am one of these people^, but not one of these people^ ... at the same.

I own chickens, have garden beds, and do the whole organic suburban farming thing.
That whole "enterprise" is a fallacy, it would damn near be impossible for a family to grow all their own food and be even 90% self-sustainable or self-reliant with the "system". The amount of inputs is a real mother fucker.... even things like water.

And it's expensive to start. For a while we were selling a dozen eggs for $4 or $5 dollars and then started trading a dozen for locally roasted coffee. No matter how many dozen we'd have sold, or how much coffee we traded for, we never would have "made a profit" between the infrastructure of the coop/yard, purchasing and raising the hens, feeding them while they're layers, buying new hens as they die off, etc.

And don't get me started on beekeeping...

An entire crop from one medium-small-sized orange tree yielded like .... only 5-6 quarts of OJ I think. WTF!

I don't think many people realize how much hard work, or the amount of "dirtiness" one has to accept to go that route.
Compost, mulch, recycling everything ...every damn food scrap in the kitchen....chicken shit every where...just fuck.

People like Scott Hambrick, and corporate ultra-progressive techies buying Testla's to save to environment, are the same people in many ways.

The best are people that will build a raised garden bed, and then the most expensive part of the whole thing is BUYING the soil that goes inside.
I was guilty of this on my first two beds. I realized how stupid it was once a started filling the bed with BOUGHT soil and compost.
After this we got chickens, and they make endless soil now as we compost all of their bedding (w/ poo) with our other yard trimmings and kitchen waste. Its still hard to make enough soil to replenish the beds and row crops though.

The economy of scale certainly applies, and without some type of subsidy, it's foolish to think that "everyone" could do it, let alone with any type of positive ROI.

[alek]

The block I’ve used close to the house are about 10kg apiece, which I think are too small for the long wall. Lowe’s has 30kg blocks that are just larger versions of the 10kg block that I like. It’s not the same color, but it’ll do.

Yeah, for something like that, the bigger blocks are more appropriate.
Those were the one's I used.

You used the big ones for that job you described earlier? Bless your heart.

Bad thing is a pallet of those is super fucking heavy. It takes so many to do a sizable project.

And what? There's like 30 per pallet or something? Yeah, it's gonna take a lot of block to do some of the projects I've got lined up.

[mbasic]

The block I’ve used close to the house are about 10kg apiece, which I think are too small for the long wall. Lowe’s has 30kg blocks that are just larger versions of the 10kg block that I like. It’s not the same color, but it’ll do.

Yeah, for something like that, the bigger blocks are more appropriate.
Those were the one's I used.

You used the big ones for that job you described earlier? Bless your heart.

Bad thing is a pallet of those is super fucking heavy. It takes so many to do a sizable project.

And what? There's like 30 per pallet or something? Yeah, it's gonna take a lot of block to do some of the projects I've got lined up.

wait I'm doing the kilo to freedom units math .... you sure on the 66# blocks?

[mbasic]

edit: I see it now.

Now I used what I will now call an intermediate size.

small was small 3"x8" crap

I used the 4"H x 12"L x 6"D ones.

You are talking the 6"H x 18"L x 12"D ones pretty sure.

That shit you are talking about is crazy, you might need a machine to move those around (100's of units).
OR .... some really specialized stuff, like a hand truck/dolly with floatation tires to move shit around "off-road".

All that said, they didn't a have those for sale in the store when I did mine ("off the shelf")... BUT I probably would've used those big ones if they were readily available.

[alek]

edit: I see it now.

Now I used what I will now call an intermediate size.

small was small 3"x8" crap

I used the 4"H x 12"L x 6"D ones.

You are talking the 6"H x 18"L x 12"D ones pretty sure.

That shit you are talking about is crazy, you might need a machine to move those around (100's of units).
OR .... some really specialized stuff, like a hand truck/dolly with floatation tires to move shit around "off-road".

All that said, they didn't a have those for sale in the store when I did mine ("off the shelf")... BUT I probably would've used those big ones if they were readily available.

Yeah, the 67#; I think it's Item #225260 Model #110813999 at Lowe's, but the ones they had in stock were a sandish brown color.

Thankfully, the wall I want to build with them first is just a few feet from the driveway, and yes, I'm crazy.