Bob: Here's a shot of the front yard greenery, a-growing like weeds, and darn big ones at that. We decided very early on to remove these and replace them with ornamental grasses and a few selected flowering plants. Now, I know what you all are thinking, about "Why pull out those big beautiful bushes?", etc, etc, but, believe me, it was all for the best. These tulip trees, or Rose of Sharon, as they're called, grow and propagate wildly, and, as I found out, put out huge root clusters. However, I left most of them for a little longer, to see them bloom.
Nan: These are Rose of Sharon, but I've called them tulip trees since I was 8 years old.
They are really beautiful when they are in bloom, but they're sorta like blackberry vines:
if they become overgrown, they're unmanageable, and these were hitting the underside of
the porch roof and encroaching on the sidewalk. Eventually the city would have asked us to
trim them back or remove them. If any come up this spring (which they may), we will plant one
in another place and keep it under control.
Bob: This is the southeast boundary between our property and Rubber Duckie Pool Service next door. I've already removed two tulip trees and a bunch of small wild ash trees along the side of the house. DISH is from previous owners. You can barely see one of the reasons why I have to glaze this area: there is a layer of brown roll plastic on top of a layer of mesh fabric all over the front yard, probably laid down about ten years ago, probably to stop the growth of weeds. Well, unfortunately it's decomposing and shredded and falling apart on a massive scale, and doing a poor job of its primary function, as weeds are growing all over it.
Nan: I've never been back here. The tulip trees blocked the way in, and besides that,
who would WANT to go in there? After Bob gets it all cleared, I want to plant lily of the
valley in there. It's a perfect place for that plant, and will be low maintainance.
Besides that, my grandmother, Eva Wethington, had lily of the valley planted along side
her house in a very similiar condition, and they were beautiful! Lily of the valley has
a wonderful aroma and will always remind me of grandma.
Bob: This is a picture of the west corner of the house, and shows the remnants of that brown plastic a little more clearly. Hey, I'd gladly keep some of these bushes if they were only a little less unruly. However, every clump is more like 20 or so trunks, and they weave and wind amongst each other, making thinning nigh impossible, so they'll have to go.
Nan: We've also moved the railroad tie to line the parking area. That will keep cars off
the only lawn we have. Eventually we will eliminate all the small stone and plant grass here.
Bob: I started out just sawing these trees off at the soil line, and you have to admit, it cleans up the act considerably. Here, the shrubs closest to the west corner (on the left) are gone. It became apparent, however, that this wouldn't be sufficient to renovate the front yard. We want to take control of this area, planting a number of things in exact places. Therefore, more drastic action is required...
Nan: This already looks more open and inviting. When we get it landscaped, it will
definately have more curb appeal.
Bob: We waited for some blooms to see what they looked like, and, indeed, they were beautiful!
Nan: The picture doesn't do them justice. If only they were planted somewhere else.
Bob: We kept these bushes as long as we could, but winter was coming, and I didn't want to wait until half-past-spring to begin digging them out, so I decided to use some of our very precious time to do this in the fall. These are the trees on the left side of the front porch, getting their root balls exposed.
Nan: Boy, am I glad that I didn't have to do all that digging.
Bob: You can clearly see all the plastic sheeting buried in the yard here.
Bob: This, the largest tree on the right side of the porch, is ready to extract. I had to use the pickup truck to yank out the big ones, as they were too heavy and rooted-in to pull by hand. The front yard is beginning to resemble a war zone, with all these craters and hills!
Nan: It took Bob several days to get to this point. Blisters, anyone?
Bob: And, yes, after three tries, this one was successfully removed, and it proved to be the toughest of the bunch. This root ball must've weighed 150 pounds!
Nan: This picture doesn't really show the size of these rootballs; they were huge.
The ropes kept breaking and they sounded like rifle shots when they broke.
Bob: The last of the root balls and sticks, by the curb. Lebanon Street Department does the courtesy of picking up yard waste for free. Hey, thanks, Lebanon!
Nan: This is the third time we laid out branches for the street department. They come
by our house often, and if they see anything, they just stop and get it. Only once did
we have to call to ask them to come get stuff.
Bob: After clearing the last of the major stumps, I continued to cultivate the soil down to about 20 inches, piling up several huge piles in the process. This yielded plenty of roots and smaller weeds, as well as a well-formed line of bricks about even with the front of the porch and running the width of the house. Just as we thought, this house had a much bigger front porch in former times.
Nan: This is our major outside project for 2009. I want to put pampas grass and other ornamental grasses in here. Low maintainance, gorgeous, and distinctive. Along with some purple lantana and red begonias, it will be striking.
Bob: Unfortunately, this was about all the time I could put into the front yard for now. Fall was
falling, and we had to get the inside ready to move in. However, and meanwhile...
Bob: This is a closeup of the big sign on the boundary between us and Rubber Duckie. According to the business owner, this is the remains of a service station sign built in the 1950's (note the steel column legs). He seems amenable to removing it, and I'm hoping that, sometime by the end of next summer, we (some combination of he and I) can tear it down and haul it away. It would be a vast improvement to our view from the living room and dining room, as well as the appearance and safety ouside.
Nan: Safety is the most compelling reason to remove that sign. If a major windstorm
comes along with winds out of the southwest, that sign could very well become a part of
our living room. That is not in my plans for decorating.
Bob: An absolute necessity, a combination screen/storm door for the front entrance, seen here installed. I removed the discolored wood trim. You see the old shingle siding peaking out under the vinyl siding surrounding the door frame. This screen door, pre-hung in an aluminum frame, installed easily, and it, with the one we installed in the kitchen door gave us a nice breeze through the house during the fall months. The glass insert makes this a great storm door in the winter, too.
Nan: I like this door because it is a full-panel door. No crossmembers to block the
view. Sandi, I wish I still had the louvered screen thingy that I gave you. It would be
perfect to set in front of this at night to give us privacy. But I'm sure I'll find something
that will work equally well.
Bob: The screen door, with the surrounding mouldings installed. I cut them from one-by-six pine and leveled the walls out with scrap plywood and two-by-four bats, planed down to exact thickness. Primed for now to protect the wood, color next spring. Really finishes it off!
Nan: The front door eventually will be a dark rich burgundy, and we're thinking about a
deep green color for all the trim on the house. Sort of Victorian in flavor, like it would
have been when this house was new.
Bob: The signs are down! Larry, the owner of Rubber Duckie, and I tore them down in two afternoons. He's hauling all the scrap away (a significant pile), and I'm doing detail work, like cleansing the area of weeds and small wild trees.
Nan: My plants love the sunlight. It makes a difference in the ambiance of the living room also: open, light and bright.
Bob: This is GREAT! We finally have a view through the tall window in the living room, and
a lot more light through the dining room window. My guess is that it's been over
sixty years since this side of the house has seen the sun.
Bob: And here they are: 1500 pounds of rusty sheet metal on the concrete pad in back of Rubber Duckie, awaiting disposal. There were four layers of signs up there! Never saw a prettier sight in my life than to have this eyesore removed!
Nan: One more rust-heap in the pile of life! I'm sure Larry recycled that metal; at least I hope so.
Bob: Yes, he did, Nan.
Bob: Another view, showing the south corner of the house, unencumbered by any signs. I figure I can have these posts shortened to maybe 3-1/2 feet and install a nice dog-eared privacy fence along this boundry. We'll probably even take down the ratty chain link fence.
Nan: What a difference. At last one can see the house instead of that rusted heap of a sign.
Bob: But what happened to my front yard? While I've been busy with other things, apparently
the weeds have not been idle! I'm gonna have to do some preparation if we're to have
ornamental grasses planted in here.
Bob: Ah, now I can plan. Here, I've rough-leveled both sides of the front yard in anticipation of planting our tall grasses. Given that there is no guttering in front, and that I don't plan to install any, I'll have to accomodate the drip line from the roof. My plan is to line along the porch and the front of the house with an about-20-inch wide brick "pathway" set on rock dust. That way, runoff from the roof will seep through and disperse into the ground without eroding anything.
Nan: It took a lot of persuasion on Bob's part to convince me that we wanted/needed a
brick path behind the plants. I acquiesed, and have to admit now that it was a great idea.
Remember this concession, Sweetie, it may be the last time you ever hear me say, "Yes,
dear. You were right, dear."
Bob: And just where do you suppose I'd get bricks? Well, it seems there was this huge stack of bricks next door across the alley, between two garages. I started asking around, and my neighbor, Ed, said I could have 'em! He took out some porch foundations some years ago, and didn't need them. I sure jumped on that one!
Nan: Lots of bricks here. What to do with them? Well, Bob had a plan....
Bob: And what do you do with free bricks? Well, first I clean them up! Yeah, I know, I hear you ("Why clean bricks when you're just gonna put 'em in the ground?"). Well, these were sitting for many years, in a moist patch between two garages, with no sun to speak of, and they were full of soil and old mortar and bugs and slugs (eww!) and dead slugs and slug trails (double eww!) and moss and slime and you get it, alright? So a soak in water and a pressure spray to knock off the worst of it, then a soak and a scrub in Magic soap (that's a trade name) to loosen the grunge, and they're ready for my great plan! Besides, you have to work a LITTLE bit to get a $200 stack of bricks for free.
Nan: Hummm, whoEVER heard of washing bricks? I mean, well, gee--they're just going
into the ground, right? But, Bob insisted. Again (last time ever for sure, Bob)
you were (choke, gasp, sputter!) right.
Bob: But first, one has to plant some trees, a gift back to the community, you might say. Nan and I decided on five Emerald Arborvitae, cute little pine trees that grow up to 15 feet, while retaining this narrow shape. I planted them about every sixteen feet in the front curb lawn, and by next fall they should be another two feet taller!
Nan: I always wanted to plant a tree! So now we have five, and I can hardly wait to see
them grow.
Bob: Here are all our little precious trees, snug in their beds. At last, I can concentrate on getting the two areas in the front yard ready for bricks, ornamental grasses and lawns. As you can see, I have to remove all the weeds AGAIN! This makes the third (or is it the fourth?) time I've prepped these plots in preparation of planting...
Nan: Five all in a row...and one more (in the future) to the left of them, in the area just west of the gas meter you see here. It will be a fir tree with a bigger circumference than the arborvitae. (I wonder if we can get the city to paint the yellow curb area, so our curb lawn will look nicer?)
Bob: Actually, they do...
Nan: Bob is great at coming up with solutions. Watch this one progress and you'll see what I mean.
Bob: So, I set out to do the dirty deed. First, I lowered the soil next to the house and
the porch, in preparation for a bed of sand for the bricks. Several things influenced my
determination of the final level for the bricks, none the least of which was a rather
ragged edge on the foundation castings for the porch and basement concrete. I guess someone
figured "out of sight, out of mind," when they poured the cement footings; both sides of the
porch, in particular, had wide flanges of extra material down in the ground, right where I
wanted to put my bricks, natch! However, I came up with a solution to make them look good,
and still have the correct slant, so water will run off.
Nan: It was interesting to watch this work in progress. I had not much of a clue what this would end up looking like. It's hard to see what is in Bob's brain! :)
Bob: I found some junk two-by-fours in a construction dumpster last fall, and apparently kept them for just this occasion! I used little stakes to support them at the height and angle I wanted, using the good ole 2-foot level to guide me.
I needed the brickways (and, indeed, the yards themselves), to slope away from the house and the porch, and, having dug up the dirt here three or four times already, there was no existing level to go by. As you shall see this setup did a thoroughly adequate job.
The piece of wood hanging on the two-by-four rails in the corner is a sliding gauge that I used to level off the ground under the sand, which is not yet here. Also, the height of these rails, particularly the ones next to the house and the porch, are set to the height for the bricks, which will neatly avoid the aforementioned crudely cast concrete projections.
The five lines of bricks will just fit between the concrete walls and the rails farthest
from the walls, which will serve as guides. The rails closest to the walls will be removed
before the bricks go in.
Bob: Here, I have added and compacted the sand, using the legendary "bigfoot" method. If one is going to do this stuff on the cheap, it's no fair to use expensive compacting or rolling equipment, including rentals. No, with just my hands and my feet, I slapped this yard together.
And that sand: we priced underlay at Lowe's and by my figures, we would've paid over $275 just for sand! I then called a local quarry, which priced a ton of sand at $6.72! However, yard access was $16.50 per entry, and I quickly figured that delivery at $40 was a better bet, so for $47, I got sand. The yard guy delivered it in a recently restored 1958 Chevy Apache, upped to a ton-and-a-half capacity and a real dump bed.
Nan: With our small pick-up truck, Bob would have made at least 4 trips at $16.50 each, plus gas, and time and mess...and well, you get the idea...more money, mess, time and aggravation than having it delivered. I expected a really TALL pile of sand. It looked like a sand-bucketful, instead of a ton! But it turned out to be just enough to get the job done.
And, although the bigfoot method worked in this small sandbox, it could have been a sonofabeach
if it had been bigger.
Bob: I used a sliding gauge similar to the one I used for setting the height of the dirt beneath the sand, just shallower, to set the depth of the sand. After spreading and compacting several times, I slapped up a chalk line for height and pulled out the rails nearest the wall and porch, and backfilled and compacted the chasms. This completed the bed for the bricks.
Nan: Isn't this neat looking? So ordered and regular. Just what we want for our front lawn.
Bob: Laying bricks on a bed of sand is pretty easy when you have this setup! The hard part was hauling them up here from the patio in the yellow pails, sixteen at a time. The guide rails made it easy to keep everything in line, and gave me good feedback as to height. Lead pipe simple!
Nan: Sixteen bricks at a time, not sixteen pails! :)
We couldn't find a wheelborrow to barrow, or is that a wheelbarrow to borrow? (I'm sure that Bob wished I could have carried those bricks for him!)
Bob: Yeah, but I woulda shot myself first, 'cause that woulda killed you!
Bob: With all the bricks in, and after pounding them down with a chunk of two-by-eight and a small sledge, I filled all the holes and cracks with more sand, a process that was repeated, and will be repeated, numerous times. Eventually, like next spring, I'll get a material that I'll spray on to solidify the sand in place (made for the purpose). Here, you see the use of a two-by-four as a float (or skimmer, or level, or screed, or whatever you call it) to level the dirt in front of the bricks. I dug out the high spots and filled in the low ones, using the sidewalk and the front rails as guides.
Nan: Each step that Bob finished made our yard look more civilized. I'm sure the neighbors appreciate the new look.
This is shaping up right nicely, and gives a good idea of what it will eventurally look like.
Bob: How many bricks can a brick breaker break when a a brick breaker...breaks bricks? I needed only a couple of shorter bricks to finish the brickways, and battering a few with a claw hammer got me what I wanted, along with some goofs. Several half-bricks were needed for a couple of mini-planters I made at the front ends of the brickways; you can see the excavation and stack of bricks being prepared on the right side of this picture.
Nan: No bricks were harmed in the making of this lawn. I promise you, they didn't feel a thing.
Bob: Now, with the yard graded, all two-by-fours removed, and the bricks backfilled, it's finally time to plant these ornamental grasses we've been nursing all summer. Nan and I worked out the arrangement based on the mature height of these various varieties.
Nan: I can see these all grown up and gorgeous looking. From front left to right rear:
1. Hameln fountain grass
2. Varigated silver grass
3. Zebra grass
4. White pampas grass
5. Red Carpet Stonecrop (Sedum) (not seen in the picture)
An Alice Du Pont Mandevilla will live on a trellis at either side of the steps come
spring. Vining and blooming will tranform the front yard all summer.
Bob: Now we're getting close to the finish line, which is what I'm burying here! This three-inch plastic bed edging worked perfectly as a border for our new ornamental grass beds. Just a little more digging and compacting... ;-}~
Nan: With some newspaper and wood chips around these grasses they will have a snug bed
for the winter. Come spring they should bloom their little shoots out.
Bob: It's taken just over a year, from start to finish, and of course, nothing's ever really complete, but this gives a good idea of what we're shooting for. The day after I took this picture, I raked and fertilized and planted grass seed in both sides of the yard. You can see the results in the bottom picture on our "home" page, about two weeks later. We'll get some bark chips to fill in the oramental grass beds, and probably plant some mums and begonias and such next year, but for now this finally gives a face to a house that hasn't had one for a couple of decades.
Nan: Isn't this a big transformation? With our golden star that Michelle gave us,
and the golden eagle that we bought on eBay, and maybe some shutters, this will look
like the genteel lady she is; our home.