Cart-Away®

Six Secrets

Six Secrets to Planning a Landscape Project

 

1. Plant PVC:  Every landscape plan will change.  Some plants will die.  Some will outgrow the space you allowed.  You will tire of others and want a different look.  You will want to change a path or move a planter or add a patio space.  Things will change.  If you bury PVC under every hard to change feature, you will be prepared to make the changes with the least disruption to the rest of the landscape.  See my post on this at Plant PVC (May 12, 2008).
2. Prep is half the battle:  As with most construction projects, preparation is about half the labor but it is the important half.  If you don’t provide a good foundation, whatever you put on top will suffer.  Though the finish and detail work is what you ultimately see, when it starts to fall apart because it was built on a poorly constructed foundation, you will appreciate the importance of the foundation.  Plan half your labor and one third of the cost of your project for the preparation and foundations and you will be thankful you did.
3. Too much variety is no variety:  Often people do a landscape plan with the goal of having one of every plant material known to man.  What usually occurs is that instead of having all these great unique plants, you end up with a blend that is so confusing to the eye that nothing stands out.  Planting too large a variety of plant materials also creates a care problem.  In theory, each plant will require a different amount and type of fertilizer, different amounts of water, and different pruning.  I have seen yards where the owner meant well but ended up having to compromise on the care of all in favor of doing something that is good enough for everything but allows nothing to thrive.  Plant an oak in a lawn and either you get too little water for the lawn or too much at the surface for the oak.
4. Focus:  Much like #3 above, one key to a successful landscape plan is to establish focal points.  Like any art, composition is critical.  I once had a back yard that was very narrow.  Though 100 feet wide, it was only 25 feet deep.  By placing specimen trees in the far corners and plants leading the eye to them, it appeared as if the yard was much bigger because the views were longer.  Planning and building a landscape plan to feature items like benches, specimen rocks or trees, or unique structural features is a great way to put more interest into the landscape.
5. Spacing:  The best landscape architects and designers make plans for gardens to look the way they want them in 10 to 20 years.  You may not want to wait that long, but be sure to plan for the growth of the plants for that period.  If you want early cover, you can plant twice the number of plants needed, but, you must do it in a way that you can remove half the plants as things increase in size.  The classic example of this is the garden planted with 100 juniper plants in a bed that is 10 feet by 20 feet.  When the plants first go in, it covers nicely and gives a good look.  Three years later, it is badly overgrown, looks terrible and is almost impossible to control.  The junipers have woven their roots together and probably around the sprinkler lines.  Try to pull them out and you just destroy everything nearby. 
6. Think about height, not just spread:  When planning gardens, we often look at the spacing needed between plants but in doing so forget to consider height.  Often a tall plant will shade a smaller variety and affect its health.  Planting tall plants with appropriate understory plantings is an effective way to plan.  Failing to do so usually has negative impacts on some of the materials planted.  Height is also an important consideration when you are planning your focal points.  Varying heights of plants is often more interesting than just having everything at one level.  

BlogWorld Posts

I confess to being a true newbie in the blogoshpere.  I don’t yet know how to pass on all the great experiences of Blogworld and still make this blog about landscaping and hardscaping.  My next post will be about landscaping.

 

I will try this evening to schedule posts each day with one or two items from Blogworld.  Between those posts I hope to have new and better posts about landscaping topics.

 

Tom Vail is the President of Cart-Away Concrete Systems and one of the owners of CPC Holdings, the owners of the Cart-Away Supply Franchise offering.  He blogs about landscaping and hardscaping at

http://cart-away.typepad.com/cartaway_supply/

BlogWorld Expo #2

For those of you who came here to read and comment about landscaping/hardscaping issues, please see the many posts below and bear with me for a couple more posts on BlogWorld.  It was pretty great and worth the few comments below.  Those who know nothing about BlogWorld Expo, go there to learn more.

 

I’m driving back to McMinnville, Oregon from the BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas, towing our MixKing concrete mixing trailer.  I am visiting a few customers on the way so won’t be back for two more days to really comment or properly thank all the folks at the Expo who were so helpful and friendly to Bruce and to me.

 

Bruce flew back (since he drove the unit down all 1100 miles).  Today he has sent out notes to many people.  The gist of his message and mine is, “Thank you.”

 

Thanks for starting to inform us about the world of blogging and the universe of social and new media.

 

Thanks for showing us a glimpse of the amazing power and potential of these new (to us) means of communication.

 

Thanks for tutoring us and give us great tips on what to do to maximize the effectiveness of our blogs and websites.

 

Thanks for being such a friendly and open community.  To a person, the folks we met were helpful, interested and interesting.

 

We have already seen a number of posts that include photos, videos and nice stories about Cart-Away Concrete Systems and our Cart-Away Supply offering.  Now we have to decide how we are going to measure the effects of this marketing effort.  If you have any suggestions, let us know.

 

Comments are appreciated.

Below is Marty Frahncke, who was the second person to blog us at the Expo.

AMAZING!!!!!

We (Bruce Christensen and Tom Vail) said we were headed to the Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas.  The first full day has just ended.  My head is just swimming with new knowledge and new respect for an amazing community about which I was barely aware.

We have been welcomed by a group who has nothing to gain from helping us.  We have been offered help and advice from all quarters. 

Everyone (and I hate 'allness' statements) has been friendly.

The show management has put together a true, world-class event.  I only wish I could have attended every session.  Anyone in this industry who does not attend this show is missing the best bargain in industry conferences I have ever seen.  I have attended events, conferences and expos of this type in a half dozen different industries over the past 30 years.  None come close to the value I have received here at Blogworld. In short, it has been simply AMAZING!!!

I took photos of about 50 of the bloggers and others who have dropped by our booth to hear our story.  It is a great story but the reaction of the new media community has been over the top.  I promised many of those I photographed to do a blog post with their photos/names.  I am afraid that will have to wait a day or two. Please be patient.  My skills are limited and my time is prioritized for the next week.  Below is a single example - It is a photo of Anita Cohen-Williams, the first person we met at Blogworld.  She's a Renaissance Woman.  She is a Cybrarian, an Archeologist, a Search Guru, a ghost writer and all around helpful person.  If we had met no other person at the show, it would have been a success.  We have met 50 like her and hope to blog about them soon.

Until my next post about this event, I just want to thank everyone involved.  What a great day.

OOPS - Just discovered there is no easy way to visit our websites from this blog.  Will have to learn how to correct that today.  In the meantime just go to Cart-Away Concrete Systems, Cart-Away Supply Franchise Page, or The Concrete CUBE page using these links.

BLOG WORLD EXPO

WOW!!!  WE'RE GOING TO BLOGWORLD EXPO IN LAS VEGAS!!!!!

September 20 and 21, Cart-Away Supply will be at the 2nd Annual BlogWorld Expo.

The 2008 BlogWorld & New Media Expo will take place September 20-21 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Like we have in the past, were plan on breaking the mold.  Rather than marketing our great franchise opportunity, Cart-Away Supply, in typical media outlets, we are using new media.  We are going to learn from 2000 (or more) of the most successful bloggers in the World just how we can get our message out. It should be a gas, and, a great learning experience.  

In exchange for all the great advice and knowledge we hope to receive from the bloggers, we are going to treat them with a chance to view, hands-on, the MixKing, our 1.75 cubic yard Concrete Mixer.  We are pretty sure we will have the only piece of construction equipment at the show.

Be sure to log onto your favorite blogs on the 20th and 21st and see if they mention any of the activities at the Blog World Expo.  Who knows, they might even have something about us or even a picture of Bruce and Tom begging for blogging help.  You know we need it.

Landscaping or Golf? What will it be this weekend?

Let’s pretend you love to golf.  Let’s also say that you are planning to build a new patio in your back yard.

 

You run the numbers and make your estimates.  You think you can get the patio done in four consecutive weekends.  You think it will cost you $2,500 in materials and services, not counting your labor.  You decide to get a couple of quotes from Landscape Contractors.  You get one quote for $5,000 from a Landscape Contractor who gave very good references.

 

What do you do? 

 

Do you spend $2,500 more and have the job professionally done?  That will allow you to play golf each weekend and keep your handicap low.  If you do it yourself, you will lose four of the best weekends of the year.  Winter will be here before you know it. 

 

Or, do you take on the job yourself?  You are fairly handy.  Think of the personal satisfaction when you have friends over for a barbeque and you’re wife tells the friends, “Sam did all the new patio himself.”  Then you think how expensive that golf will be.  Even if you get in 8 rounds in the four weekends, that works out to over $300 per round.

 

Of course you have heard horror stories about the results of do-it-yourself jobs.   What happens if the patio starts cracking apart right after you finish?  Do you really want to dig the garden up again to find the leak from where you backed over the lawn with your truck to deliver materials closer to where you were working?

 

My advice?  (You knew that was coming.)  Ask yourself a few questions, make a decision, then get on with life.  The questions you should ask are these:

 

1. What is your level of confidence?  The local Cart-Away Supply store experts can help you with great advice.  The proper equipment and supplies are available there.  The question is this – do I have the requisite aptitude or would I be taking too big a risk?  Only you can answer this question.
2. How will this decision affect others?  If it is just you and lost opportunities to golf, that is one thing to consider.  If it is displacing your family from using the yard for a significant part of the season, would it not be better to have a pro do the job and inconvenience everyone for only a week?
3. A year from now, will you be happier that you did the job or that you had it done by a contractor?  Again, only you can evaluate your level of confidence, the disruption you might cause, the value of your golf game, etc.  The value of that feeling of accomplishment in a job well done is a wonderful thing.  You have to consider also the $2,500.

 

I’m not suggesting that either way is better than the other.  I am suggesting that like any project, planning is a very important tool for success.  Sometimes just planning properly gets the job halfway done.

 

Whatever you do, don’t underestimate the time and money it will cost to do it yourself, and, don’t overestimate your chances of hitting a hole in one if you go for the golf. 

Posts (fence posts, not blog posts)

Most projects that require posts come with the same important decisions that accompay almost every construction project – foundations and roofs.

 

Wherever you need a post, you need to place it on or in a foundation..  Most of the time this means digging a hole (or lots of holes) and lowering the post into the hole.  The foundation is made by packing material around the post to refill the hole.  Sometimes, especially for more temporary structures, the material packed in the hole is the same native soil that was removed to make the hole.  Other times, you will want to make the foundation out of concrete.  If you are working  on a concrete  or masonry surface, you may be anchoring a base plate to the surface with expansion bolts.

 

Let’s start by considering placing a post in a hole and refilling the hole with native soil.  If you are in an area with sandy or loose loam soil this may not be an option.  Most soils have enough clay or rock that they will pack well and make a good foundation.  There are a number of advantages to refilling the hole with the soil that was removed. First,  you have no additional cost of materials.  In fact, it saves you from having to haul off all the material that was excavated from the hole.  Second, if you have to remove the post, it is a simple matter to just pull the post, not an easy task with concrete foundations.  You may have to dig a deeper hole than is needed for posts set in concrete.  This also means you may need to use a longer post.  The post will also be in constant contact with the soil. Such contact  encourages rot, bugs, etc.   Even with pressure treated or high-tannin (redwood, cedar) posts, over time, the posts will fail. 

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The most common way of anchoring posts is with a concrete foundation.  Depending on the number of posts, how deep they are, how much they are supporting, you may use anywhere from a sack of premix to a truck load of readymix.  Premix sacks are commonly available in 40#, 60# and 80# sacks.  These are the perfect solution for very small jobs and where the load on the post is not great.  Typically, people set the post, pour in the premix and then just fill the hole with water to activate and eventually cure the premix into concrete.  This creates a foundation that is one step stronger than packing native soil.  If the post will see a significant load (wind, support of an arbor, etc.) it is common to properly mix the premix (usually in a wheelbarrow) and then pour the concrete into the hole.  This makes a much better concrete and therefore a much stronger base for the post.  This is hard work and very time consuming if you have a number of posts to set.  This is a perfect excuse to get your concrete in a trailer (hopefully from your friendly local Cart-Away Supply store or a rental or landscape yard that uses Cart-Away® trailers).  Concrete made and transported in a drum-style mixing trailer should be a strong as any concrete you can buy.  A four sack mix is usually good enough for posts but some uses will call for a five sack mix.  A one cubic yard concrete trailer will hold the equivalent of about 50 of the 40# sacks of premix.  If you have a very big job, you may even need to get a readymix truck to deliver the concrete.  Remember that the readymix trucks are rarely dispatched for less than about three cubic yards of concrete.  That means you would need to have about 100+ posts to set to make it worthwhile to use a truck. 

 

To make sure that your posts last the longest possible, two things should be considered:  water coming from above and water in the soil around the post.  Capping a post will extend its life by preventing water from causing rot from the top.  You can accomplish much the same thing at the base of the post by setting the post on a base of gravel in the hole before pouring the concrete and by tapering the concrete away from the post at the top of the hole.  If you go check out failed fence posts you will often discover that water was puddle against the post for years just because no care was given to the concrete poured around the base.

 

Various hardware manufacturers offer post bases for setting into your concrete patio or for anchoring onto the concrete surface.  Check your local codes as many now require that the post be set with a gap above the grade to prevent ground contact which invites rot and bugs.  

Borders and Edging

Formal gardens and most normal gardens, today , have distinct boarders and edging between features.

Paths almost always have a distinct edge. Transitions from lawn to planter often have a special edge treatment. From a flower bed to a lower care planting of perennial shrubs and trees will often have some sort of border to divide the two areas.

Borders and edge treatments serve a number of purposes but chief among them is to keep things where they belong. A lawn can become an invasive pest if it starts to grow into the annual flower garden. Similarly, you don’t want your gravel path migrating into your lawn where your mower will have the opportunity to turn into a machine gun, shooting the small stones all over the yard.

There are more choices than you can imagine when looking for edging or boarder treatments. First, you have to consider whether you want a sharp or a soft edge. If you are drawing the line between a garden path and a lawn, typically, you will want a very distinct edge. If, on the other hand, you have a quiet bark or natural stone path through your shrubs and trees, you might want a much softer transition.

Here are some of your options listed from the distinct, sharp edge to the softer, less definitive edge effect:

Concrete curbing - This is a great choice around a lawn. It is easier to cut and trim against a durable concrete edge. It can hold up under the pressure of a lawnmower every week. One of the nice new things about concrete edging is color. No longer are you stuck with a concrete grey curb. You can choose from colors as dark as lamp black to warmer tones of brown and red. You can even stamp concrete curbs to look like stone or brick.

Brick or paver edging – In the past, setting the bricks or pavers was a real challenge. Today products like Diamond-lok and others allow you to easily set the pavers or bricks and keep them in place under foot and machine traffic. Many paths are now constructed with the sharp edge of pavers in a soldier’s course on the sides of a more natural look like gravel or bark between the borders.

Natural Stone edging – Some paths are created with vertically placed pieces of flagstone as edging while others may use river rock more as a visual than a physical barrier on the edges of a path. The beauty of using the river rock is you can place it casually and let it move as the path is used. Its lack of a formal look means that if a stone is moved slightly out of place it doesn’t look out of place.

Wood edging – Bender board is the old standby. The plusses include ease of placement and the ability to form nice smooth curves. One downside is bender board’s short lifetime. It breaks easily when stepped on or run over with a mower, and, it is hard to get it made of quality cedar or redwood that will last more than a couple of years. Another downside is the cost. When viewed over its short lifetime, bender board can be more costly than most of the stone and concrete alternatives.

Steel edging – Though rising in cost with the price of steel, this is a product with a long life, can contain almost any material or planting, is easy to install, and can be made almost invisible while holding a sharp edge. This is a personal favorite of mine when combined with a simple quarter minus gravel path.

Plastic edging – This is a reasonable alternative to steel edging with one advantage and one major disadvantage. Advantage? It is less expensive. Disadvantage? It doesn’t hold its shape as well and often, after only a few months in place will move with the soil and look very uneven and unprofessional.

As with any building project, the preparation is essential to the success of the project. With the possible exception of a casual garden path of bark defined by edging of natural stone, any edging treatment in your landscape will require proper excavation, tamping, and careful construction.

Plant PVC in Your Garden

I am posting this again today because I was reminded yesterday of the importance of planting PVC. I went to dinner at the home of friends who decided they needed to take power to the far side of the lawn. It will be years before the level of the lawn and the color and texture of the grass match. Until then it is an eyesore that would not be there, had they planted PVC.

Tom

May 12, 2008

Plant PVC in Your Yard
Of all the landscaping advice I have received over the years, the one tip that has saved the most time and effort is this:

“If you don’t want to have to dig it up, ALWAYS plant a pvc pipe under it.”

If you are building a new natural stone path, plant a pvc pipe under it.

If you are pouring a new stamped concrete walkway, plant a pvc pipe under it.

If you are building a low wall planter bed, plant a pvc pipe under the foundation.

You get the idea. Just do it.

Use 3”pipe. It is just over 3 inches inside which will allow you later to push a number of smaller pipes for water, electrical, or drainage. You can fit up to three 1” pipes inside. It never hurts to have more room than you think you will need. Be sure to put something in the ends of the pipe or use standard pipe caps to keep soil from migrating into the pipe. Trench down below the lowest layer of the feature you are building. It is best to set the pipe in a base of sand and cover it with sand.

Make sure, also, to mark where the ends of the pipe are located on your landscape plans. It also helps if you can mark on your new landscape feature. For example, on a new stamped concrete walk, place a small nail in the concrete at each end of the pipe.

The cost of a 3”pvc or abs drain pipe is only $1.00 to $1.50 per foot. It could save you hundreds of dollars in sawing and repair. Have you ever seen what a walkway or driveway looks like after someone had to saw across it to put a drain underneath? Trust me. You want to have a pvc pipe buried, not a bill for concrete sawing and replacement.

PVC pipe won’t grow if you plant it, but, it will have you smiling from ear to ear when you decide to add lighting to that new brick flowerbed that you just finished and planted.

Hose Guides

I’m not sure it can be proven but my guess is that more plants are killed by pulling hoses, than by gophers, moles and voles combined.

Why do I think this? I’ve killed quite a few, myself. Rather than walk back to where the hose is hung up against a plant, I think I can give it a whip and it will come free. Often times it does come free while topping a plant in its path.

Most people figure out ways to guide their hoses so that this won’t happen. I have tried three basic methods:
1. Driving a stake at the corners of the areas I want to protect;
2. Using the plastic roller on a stake type guide (around $3.00 each at a garden center) or other fancier ‘hose guides,’ some shaped like rabbits or turtles, etc. ($5.00 - $20.00 each) ; or
3. Use a stone or other hardscape feature.

My personal choice is the natural stone. If you choose the right size and shape stone, it will both blend into your landscape and will also do a better job than the other choices. Remember, it does need to have a fairly vertical side facing to where the hose will be. If it is overhung, it will only serve to pinch the hose underneath.

I am not posting a photo with this but if you want to see what the decorative hose guides look like, just do a google search for “hose guides” and then do a google image search for the same. There are some very fancy (read, “very expensive”) options out there. Choosing the right natural stone still seems best to me.