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Mid-Atlantic Gardening

Assistance digging up hill

18 years ago

Not sure if this is the correct forum so if it is not please forgive me and point me to the right location.

We have two fairly large hills in our front yard. I'm looking to find someone to dig up all of the existing, grass, weeds, plants, etc. and haul it away so we can start over. Anyone have any ideas how I could go about finding someone to do the job. Most landscape companies don't want the job as it is too small since we don't want them to plant the new plants.

Thanks in advance.

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Comments (5)

cpayne68
Original Author
18 years ago
Forgot to mention that we live in Kensington, MD.
laine713
18 years ago
When do you plan on planting it? If it is next year, I would do a lasagna style bed on the hills. It save the back and wallet. Check out the Soil Forum for more information.
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Tulips are different from daffodils. Unless the daffodils are smitten with hungry grubs or speared by the gardener, they'll sit and clump up and flower until they're overcrowded. Tulips grow to flowering size, do their thing, then produce daughter bulbs which then have to grow to flowering size. If you have a clump of species tulips you can see this going on season by season. If they aren't deep enough they produce 'dropper' roots and pull themselves further into the ground. It's a fascinating structure to see. If you want a guaranteed display of a particular tulip then your best bet is to buy fresh each year to be sure of uniform flowering and creating the picture you had in mind. If you have one of 'those' gardens (like mine!), where the leaves are as welcome as the flowers, then you can dig up and replant each year. Or you can leave them in place. Generally, in this zone and place, I do not fridge my bulbs. Not any of them. They resent it to death. In zones with baking summers I can see it could be necessary to persuade the bulbs that it's time to put out the starter roots before winter sets in. A little shiver down the spine, so to speak. For me, one tulip I can count on to return without being lifted is 'Spring Green'. And T violacaea. Most of the others are taken out, left so the leaves fall, then put into net bags and hung in a cool shaded place. They stay there until I replant in May and June (your November-December). However, there are always daughter bulbs that go unremarked until they show up the following spring. If you don't like that, and digging is not an option, then you can use a Roundup wiper wand on the leaf to remove the problem.
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So many times I write a response, check it, change it, check it again then neglect to hit Submit.... Now I am not sure if they are Chionodoxa but my mother always called them Squills. Small pearls of bulbs that seem to roam all over the yard, even up hill. I have Hyacinth, tulips, many kinds of daffodils (but nothing eats those anyway) gladiola, crocuses, Jack in the pulpit, Caladium, Elephant ear, Spanish bells, and two others that I forget the names.... No voles, moles, mice, chipmunks, skunk, hedgehogs, or even squirrels touch them. However, once, I planted about 150 crocuses in the lawn and the next morning found 150 holes instead but that is the only evidence of critters. No deer either but I did see a fox once. I have a large wooded area about 400' away in back of me.
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If you had purchased them with flowers or fruits already on them I would have suggested pinching them off. This isn't the case, so I don't think you have to do that. Over the last month they have probably been working hard on developing their roots. Planting them deeper would have allowed them to develop more roots along their stem, but this is not a necessity. I would say leave them alone rather than risking injury to the expanding root system. Since they have begun to flower, it sounds like they are happy and healthy where they are. Kim Here is a link that might be useful: Kim's Garden
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creatrix
18 years ago
See if you can catch a crew, or a guy, mowing lawns and ask them. Check the want ads under 'services'. If your paper lists new business licences, maybe someone just getting started wouldn't think the job was too small.

Are you going to spread new topsoil?

Most of your decent soil will probably leave with the grass and weeds. It might be better to do the lasagna thing, or just cover the area with black plastic until everything dies. The remove the plastic before planting.
braspadya
18 years ago
Hello:

I also live in Kensington, near Homewood Park.

One suggestion is to try to hire day laborers. I believe that there are some of these folks who wait for work in Wheaton, near the intersection of University & Veirs Mill. I have never done this, but my neighbor has. Speaking a bit of Spanish might be helpful.

If you need, I can contact my neighbor & get more details about how much it cost him to hire some help.

Cheers,

Dan
lynnt
18 years ago
CASA of Maryland has an office on University Blvd just East of Flower Ave where you can hire day laborers for $10-$12/hr. This is more than mimimum wage, but CASA vets them to a certain extent and you can ask for specific skills (I ask for workers that speak English or French and who are willing to take orders from a woman -- not all will -- in addition to any particular skills I need that day). The office is open 7 AM - noon Mon-Fri, and workers often are available there freelance on weekends. It's negotiable whether you pay them for transit time (it's rare for them to have cars, so you'll need to bring your workers back to CASA at the end of the day) or lunch arrangements. I usually provide a range of soft drinks and cold water in addition to a simple lunch.

If you put the pulled-up weeds into black plastic bags with a cup or so of high-nitrogen fertilizer and a coffee-can's worth of topsoil, then seal them and sit them in the sun, the contents will ferment into decent compost in a few weeks. They'll get hot enough to cook most weed seeds. Easier than hauling them off somewhere, but doesn't work well for woody stuff.

Lynn

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