MY FIRST LANDSCAPE PROJECT (for pay)

Sequoia, I don't seem to have those blue rings in any of my soaker hoses. I checked the ones at the top of the hill and neither one does. The flat hoses I have that "inflate" with water don't have them either. I think I wanted a faster drip. I use one on a perennial bed and it gets soaked in less than 30 minutes.

Critter, I have the plastic one, but the metal one probably is sturdier, gets better reviews, and I see that the prices are the same.

You can adjust this sprinkler's settings so that it waters even a small rectangular area like my front bed without waste. Make sure you don't toss the instructions before using it, because those yellow adjuster levers aren't intuitive (at least they weren't for me!).

Alright, well thanks for the tips. I think I'll experiment and see what works for me.

I'd vote metal sprinkler- last plastic one i got, something stripped very soon and it quit.

Morning is starting out nice and cool, can't wait to see what Jeff's into today

Yup, just getting ready and about to go pick up a load of top soil. It's cloudy here so that should bring some relief from the beating down sun as there is no shade here.

Critter, I'm not sure you'd want the kids knocking this sprinkler around too much because the yellow plastic adjusters could break.

Sequoia, how did the tree look? Load some photos when you're done for the day!

We'll keep the "daisy" sprinkler as our usual play one... but if there's a sprinkler going, it'll attract kids sooner or later. We'll get the metal one and try to take it easy with it. Thanks for the recommendations!

You're welcome!

The tree looks good still. No yellowing leaves or any sign of transplant stress so far...fingers crossed.

Here are some pics of today's progress. I finished the wall although, I realized at the end of the day that the right side has a tighter curve to it than the left. Oh well, you'll only notice it if you look really hard. I regraded the left side and planted 5 of the shrubs. I started the larger walk and got pretty far. Tomorrow I'd like to finish the walk and then start on planting more of the shrubs.

Phew Jeff! I've seen less accomplished with a crew of five and heavy equipment!

Wow, Seq, I'm sore just looking at those pictures! D:

It's looking really good!
I like those pavers; what kind of stone is it?

Great progress and quality work, Jeff... good stuff and thanks for the pics !

looks super!!

Thanks for the kind words everyone! The steppers are earth rainbow rock, same as the rock wall, just larger and flatter. My guess is they are some kind of sandstone with some iron ore. Some of the rocks have oxidation on the, which looks really cool.

Question though, does anyone think the freeze/thaw of winter will unsettle the steppers? Right now most of them are perfectly balanced on sand and small rock shims. When I was rinsing them off I noticed the landscape fabric drains but only about as well as clay. I don't know maybe it's just me being a worry wort.

Good question, Jeff.

In the photos, it appears that slope is on a pretty decent grade. You think the rain and melting snow will run down hill fast enough to ensure it doesn't freeze before it adequately drains ?

Well yes but there is also black plastic edging on both sides to keep the rocks tidy. I don't know I think I'm just being paranoid.

Maybe. Any engineers among us?

Jeff, how deep did you put the sand, and did you use any sort of base beneath that? Ya know, like CR6 (crush n' run) or stone dust?

But meanwhile, DANG that looks great!! You give our landscapers a run for their money, that's for sure! You looking for more regular landscaping work on a crew? =)

Haha that's Speedie! To answer your questions though, I didn't do any of that. The walk is overtop of tamped clay. Then the landscape fabric and I only put sand down occasionally to help steady the steppers. Have I done it wrong?

Well, I'm not sure I'd say "wrong", but it would sure give it a lot more stability to have at least an inch (maybe 2) of a base first (like stone dust or CR6), tamped, and then an inch, maybe 1 1/2 inches of sand, also tamped. And each layer leveled as well. Then any gaps filled in as you and/or the homeowner like, be it sand, or even polymeric sand. All that is a lot of work, but not only does it help out with stability and levelness, it also helps prevent "frost heave". I think it's possible that you may end up with some frost-heave type unsettling over time, we'll just have to wait and see.
Heck, those seams could even be filled in with a steppable ground cover, like maybe a creeping Thyme... or if it's in full sun, ya could fill the seams in with soil and sew a deep shade grass seed; that would give a nice grass seam that doesn't grow very tall (deep shade seed grows short grass in full sun) and would never have to be mowed. :)

Holey Moley, Jeff!!! LOVE the wall!! Great job

Well I started to use some stone dust rather than sand for the last 1/3 of the walk. Only to settle the steppers though, not to the level you had suggested. I guess we'll see. Worse case is I go back next spring and throw some more stone dust under each of them.

Here are progress pics for the day. I finished the walk and planted the 4 winterberries. Three are female 'Winter Red' and one is a 'Southern Gentleman'. I could only work a half day today so there wasn't as much progress today.

Thanks Jan! We cross posted.

CAMfromMD wrote:

To which I'd say: If there were, they would have cut down all the trees within 50 yards, graded that site down to bedrock, and brought it back up in 6" compacted lifts guaranteeing stability of final elevation for the next 150 years.

Now, if you were looking for quality design and installation specifications for a residential walkway, you'd be looking for a Landscape Architect. Just sayin'...

Seq:

"Wrong" is such a subjective and loaded term (as speedie notes). You've done it a certain way, and you are going to learn from your efforts. Since you asked, though...

I think the look of the finished walk is handsome in design, scale, and color. As far as construction, though, you might have gone a little light-handed.

Tamped clay is a firm base, most of the time. Since it seems it is quite shallow (in this instance) it will eventually get wet (expanding), then dry (contracting), then wet, then dry, then wet, then freeze - upon which it EXPANDS again - then thaws. Are you imagining what is going on above this clay layer?

The slope seems adequate to drain, provided there is a corridor for the excess moisture to follow. If you didn't provide subsurface corridors (pipes, coarse graded aggregate, etc.) it will flow downslope where it can. If it is moving in the sandy profile, it will move those particles with it (over time) and the sand will no longer be where it started out. Small rock shims are also an indication that it will be fine for some time, but those will eventually compress into whatever is below them when that softens, and lose efficacy in providing a level step.

All this will be exacerbated if anything heavier than a human traverses this path.

Here is the front walk at the Valley. These random stones are set into/on 12" of compacted coarse graded aggregate limestone known locally as 57s - the gravel that goes into concrete. I built this six years ago, and I can back my truck down to my front steps on it - and nothing moves.

Great houses are built on solid foundations.

Yeah, what he said. :)
I suppose now it's up to you to decide if you want to do any re-working, and if so, how much, but meanwhile, I must say that sure did turn out beautiful Jeff. It's one of those wonderful things about being humans; we get to learn as we live and experience things.

Oh and also...

... and in hiring him, you would end up having spent more to do the job than you would have made on it.

John, have the stones filled between with creepers or moss? That looks so brand new.

Jeff, you are there for lifetime adjustments, since this is an aquaintance, I wouldn't make a big deal of it with the owner, just say, you will be happy to adjust stones over the years if needed. I'm sure you'll want to see how things grow anyway. You sure have busted some part(s) of your body on this job.

Well I guess it will all go to crap in a few years but as I stated to her multiple times before taking the job, 'I'm not a professional'. Thanks for the tips and advice. Your walkway looks very nice VV.

Btw...what does the place you work for charge per hour for this type of job Speedie?

FWIW, I've placed stepping stones within my garden on just a "base" of stomped-down clay. They needed an occasional small adjustment but mostly leveled themselves as I walked on them. If you're doing a walkway with stones set close together, you definitely need a deep base... with stepping stones and gravel between, I think you can go "light" on the construction and still be okay, especially if you're willing to go back and tweak a few stones (or show the homeowner how to do that).

Chiming in with everybody else -- it's really GORGEOUS!

As for the rock wall, I noticed the difference in the curve on either side but thought it was a deliberate design choice, and I really liked it. The tighter curve helps define that outer corner, and the more gentle curve leads the eye to the rest of that landscape bed.

Thanks for the confidence injection on the stepping stones Jill. The rock wall curve was a mistake but I guess we'll keep that between us...Lol It's not easily noticeable at least.

FWIW? Took me a few minutes to work that one out lol.

Jeff, it all looks really nice. I'll chime in with everyone else, I wouldn't fret about the shallow base of that walkway. Give it a year or two and see how it does.

We originally did the flagstone walkway from the garage to the side door in a shallow base of sand. I don't recall that it shifted and unleveled all that much, my biggest gripe was all the weeds that kept growing up between the cracks. Constant maintenance. I guess I could have planted a ground cover, but I think it would still required a lot of maintenance. We opted instead to redo it by pouring a concrete sidewalk and then putting the flagstone back on top like a veneer. Always multiple ways of doing anything.

Thanks Terri. I hope I'm good on the weeds because there is landscape fabric underneath and since there is no real 'base', only the 3/4" stone, there might not be much for them to grow in. It sounds nice what you ended up doing with the stone on concrete.

It looks great!

I'm putting together a drip system for the back treeline area, and I had an AHA moment regarding soaker hoses... one reason mine haven't clogged over the years is likely that I have a 200 mesh screen filter at the start of the system (along with a backflow preventor and a pressure regulator).

It really truly is very attractive Jeff, and who knows, maybe it'll never have any troubles... ya just never know. :) I'm sorry to say that I have no idea what the per/hour cost is for our landscaping guys, there's so much involved in it, and the head guy Tim does all the estimating. He's the estimator/designer/Head Landscaping Honcho, so there's hi$ time, then it depends on which crew(s) he sends out, then there's material costs. Very complicated and I have no part of it, sorry I couldn't be more helpful there.

The going rate for a registered Landscape Architect that plans, designs, and implements projects like this - including selecting, procuring, delivering, and setting large stones - is around $150/hour.

That of course covers the full health insurance required for a suite of chiropractic and PT sessions when the back says "uh uh"...

Lol..thanks VV. I think I planned on getting 28/hr on this but I wildly underestimated the time on the job so I'll probably be making much much less than that.

But the experience gained... priceless.

Yeah that's true. Not sure how long it will be before it ever happens again though. I miss working in our yard and it's only been two weekends...LOL

Labor of love, Seq , labor of love...

The stones might get a test tonight with this heavy rain.

Gee John, I thought all your landscape work was on the desk and on your feet at this point- sounds like you've been putting your back into it yourself recently. Or should I say putting your back Out in it...

For future estimates, the guy who used to mow our yard also did some "landscape" work and charged $40 per person per hour, with 2 or 3 people working. He was FAST, and so were those working with him generally, but he wasn't terribly good at telling garden plants from weeds... I think he was used to landscape beds where 2+ feet of blank mulch separated elements from one another. I did use them a couple of times, though, and he helped me edge beds a few times as well. From your photos, I'd say you work about as fast as he did, and you're definitely a more expert horticulturist and designer.