Paver deck in townhouse front yard and tree root system?
Neil K
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
I have a small space in front of my town house that I want to install a small paver deck. I understand that the ground needs to be prepped with paver stones followed by placing the paver stones etc.
As I was doing the prep work to move some plants I realized that my Japanese maple trees root system has grown a bit far from where it is. The roots arent very thick at the place where i was going to start the pavers now the question is how do I get around this? Can I just move the roots without damaging the tree, if so any recommendation here?
Will the root system cause any issues with my paver stones in the future and destabilize them? I am guessing it will not but wanted to confirm. Attached two photos for reference of the area in front of my house.
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PROYardvaark
4 years agolast modified: 4 years ago
PROPatricia Colwell Consulting
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Sloped Front Yard Lawn Removal
Comments (23)Hey Mike, Ouch! Did you really need to be so harsh on me, guy? It's somewhat of a relief you weren't here from the beginning. I asked for the constructive criticism before & during the job. It's not really all that 'constructive' when you focus on telling someone all the things he or she did not do, pointing out all the things done wrong and throw out a bunch of subjective, opinionated insults in my opinion, but never offer any ideas or solutions. I hope you don't waste any of your time in this forum insulting people and calling it constructive. If your intention is really to be helpful and not hurtful, focus more on the ideas & suggestions to correct the errors and omit the meaningless comments such as 'The design is too timid' or 'A professional would show some clout' and instead share some ideas or make suggestions as the other professionals here have done. It would serve you well to read some of their posts so that you can gain a better understanding of how to be constructive with your criticism. I was a teacher for a little over 12 years before I burned out & went back to school to study horticulture. I've always really loved gardening & filling empty spaces with lots of plants, but after this job, I realized, at the age of 40, it wasn't something I could do for the next 20 years or more. (notice how I figured that out all on my own) (>‿◠)✌ So I actually pursued another dream I had for quite some time and started my own dog walking & pet sitting business. I didn't just put an ad out there on craigslist and call myself a small business owner either. I have a registered business in SF, pay my taxes & carry insurance. I celebrate 1 year in business this January! Anyway, I just wanted to share that because if I still was working as a gardener, I would have woken up this morning, read your comment, & felt like a complete failure on my birthday! Here is a link that might be useful: Golden Gate Dog Walking...See MoreNeed landscaping ideas for our terrible front yard
Comments (8)"Any idea on how to make the front garden more presentable?" Just because an object is pretty, in and of itself, it's not necessarily the case that a collection of pretty objects set randomly about will create a pretty scene. In landscaping, one's goal is to bring a complete scene together. Here, I think your yard looks like it it filled with junk ... in spite of the fact that Hosta are pretty plants. The sharply pointed wedge bed (flanking the walk) that points at the viewer is patently unfriendly and hostile looking. I'd get rid of the bed (completely) and place the good plants in better places and in better arrangements. It's not easy now to say where as the photo is very unclear about the spaces at the far right and left side. If you could rake the leaf camouflage away and take a sharp, clear picture in better light, it would help. There need to be some indicators in the photo as to where the lot lines are located. Your yard would look MUCH better if you just had decent grass instead of the bad bed and bad grass. It's likely that there is not enough light to grow good grass (maybe at all) so, first,analyze the light conditions to determine where it's possible to grow decent grass. Where it's not possible, your only other choices are mulch, paving or groundcover. It looks like English Ivy growing at the left of the drive. This could end up being your "friend." Keep it sharply edged (mechanically) at the drive. Keep it edged (mechanically or chemically) at the ground along the base of the house. Don't "edge" it on the house itself. You can let it grow on the base of the tree, but don't let it escape up into the tree. Trim it around the trunk at a uniform height a couple times a year....See More2 Feature Trees In Front Yard
Comments (24)Hello FB1- A white oak is very, very beautiful and must have acidic soil, from my understanding, so I am assuming that's what you have. Out here, you can only find them in East Texas (acidic). But the OP said his soil is alkaline. They can be successfully grafted onto a bur oak rootstock, and I'm considering getting one of these (probably the next tree I plant). My hunch is that your microclimate doesn't resemble the OP's at all. A black walnut gives off a toxin harmful to other plants and trees. This effect will likely be more pronounced in SLC. A tulip tree requires a ton of water in the heat and and will drop leaves in mid to late summer, when shade is needed most. A hackberry is very common here and plumb ugly. I hear that a lot. I think all native trees have their uses, but I personally wouldn't plant one in a front yard. A sycamore is a beautiful tree, but with a destructive root system. Any maple that is not native to an acidic soil is going to be shorter lived in an alkaline/droughty soil, and are known to have shallow and greedy roots. Many well established maples (that are not on the list I provided earlier) died recently in the drought of the last few years. here in Texas (10-20 percent, statewide). There is plenty of information on this forum, OP, why smaller is better. Interestingly, small seedlings of gingko (non-named cultivars) may turn out to be female, but aren't as slow as one might think, at least here in Dallas. It's a "must-have" tree, imo. It should be planted where shade isn't needed quickly. It would be real easy for me if I lived in SLC, given the information provided, what trees I would chose. The last thing to think about, and this might not be as important to you, is how responsible is it to plant a tree that wastes resources in the form of irrigation. Costs money, and is a lot more work than a tree that you can simply let go for the most part, and will thrive and be happy, healthy, non-destruvtive, long-lived, and BEAUTIFUL, as well. Never undertstood the fascination with most maples planted where they were never meant to grow. If you don't give them a lot of tlc in that type of environment, they're chlorotic and ugly, imo. All for a few weeks of fall color. You can tell a yankee down here, lol, by the type of maple in his front yard. Best, best wishes, OP, I've exhausted the subject or at least my experience/knowledge on droughty/hot/alkaline microclimates. M This post was edited by Mackel-in-DFW on Wed, May 14, 14 at 9:42...See MoreNeeding help with front yard landscape
Comments (35)If you're going to own a car it requires that you know something about car maintenance: periodically, the oil and tires must be changed; it must be washed and fluids filled, etc. These are things one learns to do in order to have the pleasure and convenience of owning their own vehicle. Similarly, if you're going to own a lawn, you learn to mow it weekly, edge it periodically, and keep the weeds out, etc. Groundcover is no different. Depending on what plant you make it of, you must learn how to prepare for it, what maintenance that plant requires, and how to control it. Groundcover requires a bit different approach than grass, but it is not necessarily harder or more time consuming. It is just different. I find it to be easier so my yard is 100% groundcover. The number one difference is that weeds must be kept out. This is not harder than weekly mowing. It's just different and there are methods one can employ to make the job easier. In the long run, groundcover can be considerably less work after it's established (which depends on the plant used) than a lawn. Your example of "battling an ivy plant for years" has me thinking that no one is employing any effective methods of controlling it. It is a bit like never mowing, edging or weeding the lawn and then blaming the grass for being out of control. One thing is for sure, only weeds will be happy if you try to grow grass where there not sufficient light to do it. It boils down to the fact that you must have something growing to cover the ground, or you must cover the ground with mulch (and replenish it ongoing). The something growing can be a sad attempt at a lawn (which is what is there now); it can be groundcover; or it can be a mixed variety of plants (like in that picture above). What else is there other than solid hardscaping which is not the least practical? Of those solutions you can already see exactly what one of them looks like because you have it now. You can probably envision the mixed variety of plants covering the ground. Is there any question that it would not be the highest maintenance of any solution? If you take another look at the left side of the photo I submitted of the houses with sloping fronts, you'll notice that it is solid groundcover. It doesn't look like there's a weed in it. You can see at its left side a sharp division where it abuts its neighbor's grass lawn. Each planting is distinctly separate. The groundcover is neither running into the grass, nor is it rampaging over the edges of the walk or steps. How is this even possible? The fact is, it happens in millions of places all over the country. It's obvious that one can learn how to employ plants in such a way. Or they can refuse to do that....See MoreNeil K
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agosuezbell
4 years agolast modified: 4 years ago
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
4 years agoNeil K
4 years agoNeil K
4 years agoNeil K
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agosuezbell
4 years agoNeil K
2 years agojck910
2 years ago
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Neil KOriginal Author