April Showers Bring May Flowers

Last week was crazy good. First it was birthday week and Cass and Jim came from Florida so we had a small party on Thursday night, then Friday night two old college buddies came to celebrate and Sunday was spent with Jim's family of mom's in Wabash, IN. Eat, drink and be merry.

Birthday week was almost a nuisance since Millgrove Landscaping is wildly busy in the spring and last week I started two big projects that required a lot of my time, plus getting it all together for our first permeable paver driveway (more on that later). So we finally got started on Craig and Jane's plus we are back to finish Trish and Doug's project that we got about half done last year.

We have been waiting for the dredging at Jane and Craig's and that got done a couple of Friday's ago, I shot some video but am having technical difficulties loading it so we'll just settle for photo's. Hauling out all that muck was done by Shimp Excavating. A dude named Leonard who works for Chuck Shimp actually did the dredging, Leonard is 77 and Chuck says he simply has not found a better operator. He was a surgeon. As soon as he took the first scoop the water went black but Leonard knew where he was with each bucket. He removed muck until he hit the original sand then stopped. You can see the drag marks in the now 3' deep, clear channel.

Bill has gotten a good start on the pavers. Excavation is done, limestone laid, compacted and today they are actually about a third of the way done with the pavers. Brian King of King Concrete poured the concrete steps with our assistance so that we will be able to install pavers right over the steps. Working with the siding guys, gutter installer and builder were all requirements to ensure a smooth finish for the exterior work to mesh well with the landscaping, so far so good.

Since Trish and Doug's garage is over seventy feet from their home and walking down to the house loaded with groceries and supplies is not convenient they decided to install a paver driveway. The driveway is 170 feet long and 8 feet wide. It will be made with the same pavers as their walk and patio but the base is prepared differently. M & C Trenching is excavating and installing the base as well as tying in the additional drainage to that big cement drain we put in last year. Controlling water is paramount. The base is 12" deep with soil stabilization fabric on the bottom, the limestone is installed in three inch lifts and each lift is compacted.

The pavers should arrive this week and we hope to get started right away. Once the drive is done we will be able to get the much anticipated lawn installed and keep the mud and silt out of Trish's beautiful new home. Remember this is the house we planted over 1200 bulbs in last fall and now they are popping up, ooh, la, la they are lovely.