Landscapers?

[kjkenney]

Any other landscapers in the house? Have been doing (some) renovations and irrigation for about three years now, but rarely have people to talk to about design outside of my partner. Any diyers or professionals? Stuck in AZ, which is generally desert landscaping which I love, but would also love to see some other sweet designs in other regions!

[mrewest]

Ugh, I'm insanely jealous of those that do this as a profession. I wish I got into this stuff before college so I didn't waste my 4 years on something I've never used. If I ever change my career path, it'll be to do this stuff. I love working on my yard, although I am as amature as it gets haha. Recently tried taking a landscaping class at a career center. Only problem? I was the only person that signed up so it got cancelled haha.

[kjkenney]

Hell yeah do it! Lots of creative outlet has drawn me to it. My community college where I took classes has trouble filling classes as well sometimes. A couple years ago I took a turf management class which had four people sign up hahaha. They had to merge another class, plant ID, into it since they're both required classes. Those people didn't learn shit about plant ID except the common types of grass out here

[mrewest]

Hell yeah do it! Lots of creative outlet has drawn me to it. My community college where I took classes has trouble filling classes as well sometimes. A couple years ago I took a turf management class which had four people sign up hahaha. They had to merge another class, plant ID, into it since they're both required classes. Those people didn't learn shit about plant ID except the common types of grass out here

 

I'll for sure have to look into the community colleges in my area to see if they offer anything.  There is one literally 5 minutes from my work, so maybe that could work out.

 

Anyways, onto actual landscape discussion, a few years ago I tried installing a flagstone path, and tried to use polymeric sand to fill in the gaps.  But it always crumbles away and ends up looking terrible.  Any success using that stuff?  I'm thinking I might be watering it to much and washing away the hardening properties of it.  

[kjkenney]

I usually save the polymeric sand for pavers, but I have seen it done with flagstone as well, it seem tricky to me. Getting it to settle right is key, and water in increments, like wet it wait 20 min and allow to soak in and repeat. use a blower on the idle setting before hand to remove excess on the stones. It sucks to clean off after its wet haha. On pavers I use a plate compactor to really settle it in the gaps. With flagstone I generally lay 2" of concrete and mortar the stones down, and filling the gaps with mortar as well. Here's a picture of some I did:

Shit will last a real long time. We have no frost line here though so its a huge advantage with the concrete working.

[mrewest]

Damn, that looks awesome! I've thought about redoing it that way. Figured it would hold up a lot better. The problem too is that my stones are pretty thin, so they aren't as sturdy. But I was working on a budget & got a half pallet of stones for pretty cheap.

[thebiglebowski]

Different kinda landscaping but I am in a neverending war with Yellow Nutsedge in my lawn. It took me a while to figure out 1) what it was (no training at all on weed control and 2) that it needs special chemicals. Now this year I'm ready to kick this shit right in the teeth.

[kjkenney]

Damn, that looks awesome! I've thought about redoing it that way. Figured it would hold up a lot better. The problem too is that my stones are pretty thin, so they aren't as sturdy. But I was working on a budget & got a half pallet of stones for pretty cheap.

thanks! I ended up sealing them too to give that color. Thin ain't bad, and the cheaper the better imo! It can be a pricey venture if you let it. I do see people on Craigslist giving away materials sometimes that they over purchased for a project.

Different kinda landscaping but I am in a neverending war with Yellow Nutsedge in my lawn. It took me a while to figure out 1) what it was (no training at all on weed control and 2) that it needs special chemicals. Now this year I'm ready to kick this shit right in the teeth.

Hell yeah man, weeds are still hard for me to identify sometimes, but figuring out how to control them properly in your lawn is some god type power shit haha.

[mrewest]

What are your thoughts on rubber mulch?  Just bought some for this small area covering a couple hostas, brunnera & a small Japanese maple but didn't think to research it much.  My mom sent me a link saying how terrible it actually is.  What do you think?  

 

[kjkenney]

That looks great, flagstone and all! I've used rubber mulch once for a flooring option for a little kids playground. Out here in AZ I don't trust it much due to the heat. That being said I don't know tons about it. Mother may know best here. What were her gripes with it?

[mrewest]

31 minutes ago, kjkenney said:

That looks great, flagstone and all! I've used rubber mulch once for a flooring option for a little kids playground. Out here in AZ I don't trust it much due to the heat. That being said I don't know tons about it. Mother may know best here. What were her gripes with it?

She just sent me a link saying that due to chemicals and stuff that eventually leak out of the rubber over time it's not a great long term solution.  Plus it's not providing extra nutrients for the soil when it breaks down.  

 

Probably not a huge deal for that small area in my photo, but I probably won't use it elsewhere.  Plus the high cost makes it tough to buy a lot of at the moment anyways.

 

Here's that article.

http://www.finegardening.com/its-red-its-rubber-it-safe-your-garden

 

Yeah that flagstone path is what I mentioned above.  You can see the polymeric sand crumbling away in the cracks.  I may just redo it the way you spoke of above.  Any tips for using cement correctly to secure the stones?  I already have a gravel/sand base under everything, but one thing I didn't do was support the sides underneath.

[kjkenney]

Ahhh that makes sense, mulch isn't huge out here surprisingly, but I see gardens with it sometimes and the color makes it a really cool accent with the wood chips. Synthetic stuff always seems to have a downside in the green industry.

 

As for the flag, I would check to be sure if you have a frost line, so you'll have to make sure it's deep enough when you pour it so it won't crack super easy when the cold hits. You can also pour concrete and lay them right in, very permanent that way and you don't have to use mortar, but I like the mortar for extra stability and getting the grout lines. If you go for it my advice would be to use a sponge and wet the bottom of the stones before you place them in, so they don't immediately suck the moisture out of the concrete or mortar, and have fresh buckets of water and lots of heavy sponges available for cleaning the stones within a few minutes after they settle enough. It can be tedious with cleaning, but once that shit sets, you'll be in for a lot more work to clean them. 

[kjkenney]

Also...new landscape in progress. Got a referral who is finally letting us go with the western theme, no one ever wants to do it and wants stone or modern shit instead, which is cool but we're in AZ dammit. Finished the water feature and some accents. 

 

[mrewest]

43 minutes ago, kjkenney said:

Ahhh that makes sense, mulch isn't huge out here surprisingly, but I see gardens with it sometimes and the color makes it a really cool accent with the wood chips. Synthetic stuff always seems to have a downside in the green industry.

 

As for the flag, I would check to be sure if you have a frost line, so you'll have to make sure it's deep enough when you pour it so it won't crack super easy when the cold hits. You can also pour concrete and lay them right in, very permanent that way and you don't have to use mortar, but I like the mortar for extra stability and getting the grout lines. If you go for it my advice would be to use a sponge and wet the bottom of the stones before you place them in, so they don't immediately suck the moisture out of the concrete or mortar, and have fresh buckets of water and lots of heavy sponges available for cleaning the stones within a few minutes after they settle enough. It can be tedious with cleaning, but once that shit sets, you'll be in for a lot more work to clean them. 

Awesome, great advice!  Thanks!  We do have frost here in Northeast Ohio, so how deep would you suggest going with the concrete?  And I've never used mortar before.  Do I just set the stones in concrete, then fill in the cracks with the mortar, and wipe off the excess from the flagstone?  

[kjkenney]

I'm not positive since we have slab on grid here, which just means very little prep and pour concrete without having to think about that. I want to say like 6 inches below the frost line but I'm not 100% on that. Mortar is similar to concrete, in terms of mixing it but you want.like a peanut butter consistency, think enough to be kind of stuff but not overly so. If you do concrete, it's like tile, spread the mortar on the concrete slab and place the stone in. You can go kind of heavy with it and when you push the stones in, the excess fills the grout lines and you can finish it with a small trowel, like a tuck pointing one that's thin. I'd pull up YouTube and watch some guys. I've learned more than I'd like to admit watching other guys do it online haha. Happy to help!