Absolute short term landscaping while designing for long term
Bharat Paliwal
5 years ago
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Oliviag
5 years agoNHBabs z4b-5a NH
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoRelated Discussions
Pavers with gravel -- how do people make this work long-term?
Comments (6)Successful pavers rely on a solid, tightly packed granular base, side-to-side interlocking and secure edge retention. It doesn't look like you have a solid base and for sure you don't have side-to-side interlocking. Gator Dust (which is dry-applied mortar) will not work long term if your base is inadequate as the pavers will shift and the GDust will break up (the same as how the grout of a ceramic tile floor gives way over time on a wood floor if it is slightly bouncy.) If you want to grow plants between pavers, you still need a solid base and must use a pattern that still interlocks while leaving gaps between the stones. If not using special "grass block" type pavers, the most common pattern for this is as in the illustration below. (Don't allow a plant-growing-gap dimension greater than 1/3 of the paver length. Alternatively, you may decide not to grow plants between the pavers and have them be contiguous and solid. You need good edge retention which could be plastic paver edge, or the old standard, tooled concrete with its surface sunk 1" below the surface of the pavers. It will be easier to apply the edge restraint if you install a row border of pavers (with the field pavers being cut where they meet the border. Plan for and prepare all of the cutting so it can be done in one day or less in order to keep rental cost of the brick saw to a minimum.) I suggest an 8" brick shape paver for the edge row. The pavers should be at least 2" thick or they're not designed to support vehicles. Not just any stone works for the base. Something like pea gravel would be unusable. Instead, it could be a combination of layers beginning with crusher run (driveway gravel) on the bottom and sand-like granite or limestone screenings above. (Limestone screenings is what we use in Florida and it's commonly referred to as "paver base." (In warm climates, the crusher run may be eliminated and only a thicker base of the stone screenings used.) The sub-base of the excavated hole is compacted by using a vibratory plate compactor before placing any of the stone. (This machine is run over all the work, handled much as if one was using a lawn mower.) The various stone is compacted in two-inch layers as it is added. First dry, then wet. Above the stone is a 1" layer setting bed of UNcompacted screenings/paver base on which the pavers themselves are set. After the edge restraint is installed, the pavers are compacted into the setting bed with the vibratory plate compactor ... first dry, then wet. Installed like this, it will last. Get all the plants growing at once so as to get the jump on weed infiltration. My own thoughts about using this scheme (growing carpet-like plants in between pavers in a vehicular area) is that it never works out as well as it's envisioned. I'm not saying that it never could, just that usually, it doesn't. The plants need attention and watering and unless this is kept up with, they're going to have too hard of a time. Also, having plants mixed in with pavers increases maintenance. It's not as easy to clean paving where plants are rising above its surface. I think it's better to have paver areas and then separate areas with plantings. Then, the issues of combining these two elements don't exist. In a paver area where no vehicular traffic will occur, it will be somewhat easier to allow plants to grow between the pavers....See MoreLong Term Potting Mix Recipe - Alternative to Gritty Mix
Comments (27)I thought I posted this on the gardenweb forum. Now it's houzz? Had to sign up for a new user name. Anyway soo - you can get the Naked Gardener Compost or Debco Premium Potting Mix from Masters (closing soon). Course Perlite is from The Perlite & Vermiculite Factory Myaree (much cheaper than anywhere else). Sand I got from a bulk landscape place (lawn mix) but you can get 10 or 20kg bags of builders sand at Bunnings. Zeochlor is in the pool section at Bunnings. Rock Dust I got from the manufacturer direct somewhere in Bibralake (called Natural PK) but I think but you can now get a similar product from Waldecks (in Myaree at least). Waldecks also sell bentonite clay. I still want to try the gritty mix but getting my hands on all the materials has proved very difficult when I tried last year. I found a Queensland company that makes course DE (for mopping up oil/chemicals) but they didn't have a distributor in Perth. Nobody I could find has pine bark in the right size - and even if they did I'd have to by a cement mixer and modify it with a fine wire to screen it. Honestly, if an agricultural company were to produce the gritty mix and sell it in bags I think they'd make bank - even considering how long it lasts....See MoreLong term care insurance?
Comments (31)chisue, insurance companies don't make money strictly off policy premiums. AIG's current headline news is a perfect example of this. When I worked at CIGNA (formerly Connecticut General, then they bought INA and changed their name), each of their 5 separate divisions was given an annual profit margin target to hit. This was called a "zero margin plus xx%". Note this was not a sales number, it was a "quick and dirty" percentage of how much revenue minus division expenses they made annually. My boss (one of the regional VPs with a shot at the division presidency) got interested in exactly where this target number came from. He learned that what CIGNA called "zero margin" was actually a base 15% profit margin. CIGNA could earn 15% off its money, through investments and such things as real estate development (for instance they bankrolled Foster City, a landfill development in the SF Bay Area that was considered risky at the time, but is now a desirable mixed-use suburb, selling it after a few years for a hefty profit), without ever writing another insurance policy. Therefore, their divisions had to earn OVER that 15% profit margin, to be worth expending corporate funds for. This is why insurance companies go in and out of market niches - they tend to keep a fairly conservative eye on what their profit margins are on each line of business. When people are discussing the stock market, the majority of money in it is institutional. Insurance companies are a very large part of that. They are even better than banks at leveraging their money. We used to make jokes about actuaries, but insurance companies realistically suvive on the number-crunching abilities of their actuaries. Like developers in a software company, they are what actually drives the financial corporate engines....See MoreDid I scare away the Short Term Rental guy?
Comments (29)I am also not saying that it is wrong to want to live comfortably in your home or to protect your property value. I don't believe there is a right answer, I believe there are just bad answers and hopefully a community can figure out which is the least bad answer. --- We have a lot of ordinances in my neighborhood to protect property values. We are not allowed above ground pools, cars being worked on, there are limits when trash can be out, etc. However, we also have a restriction that a house may not have more than two of any one type of pet. So you may have two dogs and two cats, but not one dog and three cats... the lots are over an acre. I love my neighbors because the first thing that happened is one of the lake lots found out their lot was not suitable for an inground pool so they installed a nice above ground pool and then everyone started doing whatever they want on their property. When the neighborhood became developed enough we had one meeting to dissolve the HOA which passed unanimously, and that was that....See Moreauntthelma
5 years agoNHBabs z4b-5a NH
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoHALLETT & Co.
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5 years agoPenns Woods Landscape Design
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5 years agoBharat Paliwal
5 years agoNHBabs z4b-5a NH
5 years agoPatricia Colwell Consulting
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5 years agoBharat Paliwal
5 years agoBharat Paliwal
5 years agoRevolutionary Gardens
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5 years agoNHBabs z4b-5a NH
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5 years agoRevolutionary Gardens
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5 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
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5 years agolast modified: 5 years agocpaul1
5 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
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5 years ago
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