Tips for excavating dirt/gravel from yard?
dreamrthts
9 years ago
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marcinde
9 years agoYardvaark
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Help! We have an ugly gravel drainage ditch around our yard!
Comments (5)Thanks folks. I will get some pics up tomorrow. The gravel is crowned, the excavator said this was the best thing to do in case massively heavy rains run down the uphill slope... I spent a lot of time looking at landscaping books today and was convinced I could make a nice-looking "dry creekbed" sort of thing without too much money; I have a bunch of local granite rocks about that I fished out of the gardens.... but DH says tht this was part of the excavator's design for it..... that the gravel be HIGHER than the surrounding grade. What do you think of that? I have been resarching "french drains" and many actually say to cover with sod!!! So--- I just dont know what to do. All I can say is that it is UGLY, and I am spending a lot of time and $$ making a lovely landscape here. Granted, anything is worth having a dry basement and mold-free house (master bath is currently sealed shut because of the mold in the walls due to the bad drainage that necessitated the drain!)... But if I can camoflage this ugly scar somehow I would be a LOT happier... Will get pics tomorrow....See MoreGravel and rocks in my yard
Comments (2)Thank you for your reply, I apologize for my delay in responding. I just finished this area and it was a massive 4 week project. I ended up digging a wedge shaped hole 2 - 3 feet deep, 6' wide at the point and maybe 15' wide at the bottom. I filled this with the gravel/soil mixture, then brought in 5 yards of topsoil to fill two planters and cover the other areas. This was combined with roughly 1200 lbs of cow manure compost. In the spring we will continue with planting. This new gravel "wedge" is a low point in the yard and testing drainage with a garden hose it seemed to work well....See MoreIs this tree suffering from nearby excavation?
Comments (34)Hey KC, I had the gas company come through a couple of years ago and run all new gas lines in our neighborhood. They trenched approximately 5-6 feet from our saucer magnolia. It had wonderful buds all over the tree but about a week or ten days later the trench side buds all dropped off and that side of the tree didn't leaf out all summer. We moved that fall so I'm not sure if the poor thing ever recovered but I will try to drive by tomorrow and take a peak at it (you have sparked my curiousity!) Plus I want to take a look at the Bur Oak (Burnie as my daughter affectionately called it) my daughter and I planted 4 years ago this last Mother's Day. The first year it didn't do much, the second year it put on about 18 inches of growth on the leader, and last year that sucker shot up 3+ feet. That was probably the most pampered tree in Topeka! My daughter is now 10 and is still after me to plant another "Burnie" with her; maybe this fall. We now have 40 acres of mostly oak, hickory, bodark, and some thorny locust (the locust is slowly but surely being eradicated) so I suppose the least I can do is relish in the planting of another tree with her ....See MoreTips/tricks to getting dirt stained hands clean?
Comments (24)Hi All! I think I may have mentioned this before on this Forum. But if not here goes. How to keep stained hands clean? Do your best not to get them stained from the beginning. How? Rubber Latex Gloves. BJ's sells them by the box at a nominal cost and to cut down on that cost, you can use them over and over again even when they get holes. When the holes get to big or the cuff might rip when pulling them on because of stress it's time to discard. What I do before taking them off is spray them with a garden hose or wash off the dirt just the same as washing your hands in a bucket of rain water. Then I quick dry them with a dry cloth or rag. But the most important thing is having a large container like a 34 or 39 oz coffee can with a plastic lid. Put a fair amount of inexpensive talcum powder or corn starch in the can. Then before I take off the gloves, I rub the powder on the outside. Then I slip the gloves off and put them in the can. Then I put on the lid and shake vigorously to get the powder on the damp or wet inside of the gloves making them dry. Some of the powder will reach into the inside also. You can easily put several pairs in the can as there all the same size and there's no left or right. So if a hole gets in the stronger left or right hand side of the wearer you can put that glove with the hole on the opposite hand. When I take the gloves out of the can obviously the outside has the most powder. I turn the gloves outside inward and then blow a little air into the cuff and then squeeze to pop the fingers out. Now the powdered side is inside and this helps to generally make the gloves slid on quite easily. Hope this info helps someone. Jim...See Moredreamrthts
9 years agoemmarene9
9 years agomarcinde
9 years agogregbradley
9 years agoSerge Duval
8 years agorhdrico
8 years agoJessie Harrison
8 years agoHU-86840898
3 years agoWaste Removal USA
2 years ago
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