Phase II begins

Dave of LandShaping came by yesterday to start the planning process for Phase II of your garden. This blog details many of the things we talked about.

Fire Mitigation

Plants should be in clumps, burn by them selves, not is stretches that will fuel a path for a wild fire. Visualize a fire ladder when planting next to the house, not good.

Put a garden hose at each spigot. When a fire starts the time to bring the hose around from the other side of the house is critical.

AI 4 jaya- talk to the local fire house. Ask them what we can do. Ask them if there is a way to mark the house so that in case of an emergency they will see that we have a high volume hose for them to utilize.

Weed Control

We will be putting down weed fabric to minimize the growth of unplanted plants.

Poison Oak

I had hoped that Dave would see our poison oak and say "poison oak, I can get rid of that for you." Instead he told us that we should work on getting rid of it and that it may take years to totally eradicate. All the usual warning. He also noticed that the trash shrubbery on the east end of the back fence is a "poison oak tree".

I'm going to start removal after band camp. Should I get some poisoning I don't want to have it on my vacation.

I'll need the large red bio-hazard bags from work, disposable gloves and some Brush-B-Gon . I found Ortho® Brush-B-Gon® Poison Ivy Killer, I think this will do the trick.

Patio

We are looking at almost 400 square foot of pavers. Dave suggested we stain the existing concrete pad to match the pavers (less expensive then removal or covering with thin pavers that will show the transition between the types of pavers. We will be using A & A Stepping Stone, just down the road. They have a good website for discovering the possibilities.

Steps and Path

Dave mentioned Three Rivers Wall Stone for consideration out front. We decided NOT to use crushed/decomposed granite as it will get tracked in and damage the floors.