Euyonomus Den & Progress Report

Pets are usually entertaining, I visited with some clients over the week end and observed some pretty cool and entertaining animal behavior. They have a small schnauzer and a young part Siamese cat who chase and wrestle each other incessantly they had me howling. Next time I go I will get some video to post those two should get the $10,000 Americas Funniest Videos prize money.
They also had a new litter of kittens to show me. Faith said to look behind the euonymus and sure enough there was momma cat and her brood of five. There are many reasons that shrubs are valuable, appearance, temperature control and air purification. They are also nurseries for many mammals and insects but this is the first time I saw a cat raising her family in a shrub. Really sweet.

The end is in sight on the hard scape of our large landscaping installation and the house construction is nearing the finish line as well. The lakeside patio is complete and the seawall will be fine tuned today. We pulled down part of the seawall to install an 8" drain tile that will handle all the water from the roadside of the property, M & C Trenching drilled a 10" hole through the 12" thick seawall and poked the pipe through, it will be painted black today and the rocks will camouflage the pipe.

The roadside patio and boulder retaining wall are down to the last few feet. We will keep the fence side open as long as possible to ease material handling then we will complete the boulder outcroppings and start planting. I met with the clients over the weekend and finalized the plant list and discussed location of plants. It will be exciting to install the plant material, it is like putting the trim on a new room, it ties everything together.

Why Pick Millgrove Landscaping?

It was a pleasure to see Claudia again, however we were saddened that her long time husband Bill had succumbed to illness during the construction of their dream, lake home.

The house is lovely, cheerful yellow and white exterior with ample porch, deck and garage. We contributed to outdoor entertainment space with the installation of a nearly 700 square foot, custom paver patio.

The two level patio is Paverlock pavers with a circle entrance at the main stairs. The surrounding field is Muster S pattern with a charcoal border and rec soldier row. The grill easily fits tucked away close to the kitchen, half the patio is in shade and half full sun. The surrounding landscaping is low maintenance, fragrant with peak plant performance during the summer months when Claudia will be at home on the lake.

Longevity in business has certainly paid off for me and Millgrove Landscaping. Many of our customers like Claudia call on us for projects years after we have performed the initial work. I feel that speaks well for us on all levels; customer satisfaction, attention to detail, high craftsmanship, well conceived and planned projects and product knowledge. Thanks for calling us again Claudia. And continued gratitude for all our clients past, present and future you provide an opportunity for us to express our artistic and practical abilities while keeping us challenged.

Pavers and More Pavers

I had a short and busy week since I returned late Tuesday from Seattle, Wednesday I over slept for the first time ever, good thing work is only 500' away.


We finished all but some trimming, wrapping up the paver patio and landscaping for our current customer. The patio is around seven hundred square feet with one step to accommodate grade changes off the deck. It is half shade, half sun making the existing Norway Crimson King maple an integral part of the design. We did our best to not disturb the tree more than necessary but we did cut some roots. I learned something new from this tree as well. It seems the leaves produce a dark stain on pavers almost immediately upon contact. We tried several agents to remove the tannin but were not successful. Hopefully the sealer we applied will help reduce staining.
The corner fences mark the property line, we built them in the shop since the wood is new it will need a second coat of paint in the spring. The three pieces of stone that make the pathway weigh in at around 2/3 of a ton and are over 4' wide. The perennials will provide a cutting garden this summer and annuals will be planted in the spring.



Our big project on Clear Lake is moving along nicely and I am pleased at the progress. The lakeside patio and stone wall are complete and Thursday Bill mortared pavers onto the existing concrete seawall top, it looks awesome. The homeowner is really pleased and we reviewed our final phase over the week end.


The road side wall is 2/3 of the way complete and the paver installation on the old cement is well underway. Monday M & C Trenching will begin the final excavation. A trench will be dug for drain tile, power and irrigation routes. The dig out for the boulder wall will be last and we anticipate needing to move the gas line. We are making some changes and will be adding a few boulders to the left of the entrance, that will enable us to raise the plant material adding dimension to our much needed privacy.

Sisters in Seattle

This past week I was in Seattle visiting my nephew Leo and his wife Marcy. As if that wasn't great enough my sister Cass and two of my best girlfriends (sisters) Carol and Sue also made the trip, we had a blast. Despite three and nine hour plane delays the first day we all managed to get up early and head for Vancouver, British Columbia where we planned to sleep over.


Vancouver was not the city I had romanticized. We spent the early part of our afternoon on Granville Island which is very touristy, full of specialty shops, expensive bars, restaurants and the wonderful city market, a converted ship yard with a cacophony of food, flowers and artistic expression. Late afternoon we strolled the Van Dusen gardens which offered a special treat, nearly 100 sculptures by Zimbabwean carvers who were chipping away and ready to chit chat. The gardens are rich with plant diversity, palms mingle with exotic evergreen specimens like the rough and tough monkey puzzle and softer weeping hemlocks while colorful heaths and heathers smoother the earth. Our evening meal at Blue Water Cafe in downtown was excellent, we devoured sushi, ceviche, salmon, ribs and steak paired with wonderful wine, their wine list included bottles in excess of $2,600.00 (we did not sample this wine). The city itself was the turn off for me, the architecture was reminiscent of the early 60's with high rises dominating the skyline line in an endless sea of green glass.

This was my second trip to Seattle but my first on The Duck, vintage WWII amphibious vehicles that tour both the city and Lake Union. Our captain, Noah Lott was full of himself and local knowledge keeping us laughing while giving us a bit of Seattle history. I would recommend the duck tour and include the underground tour in a future visit.


We managed to fit in a day at the zoo and of course no trip would be complete without a visit to the Space Needle. We ate Sunday brunch at the Needle and it was wonderful, we were blessed with great weather our entire trip and the prefect blue skies provided a stunning view up 650', the city is fabulous as you spin in the restaurant.


One evening we took in a play and the final night we saw the Mariners get beat up by the Boston Red Sox. Our friend Carol who is from Boston and a huge Sox fan especially enjoyed the park, if you go get a cold beer and garlic fries, you can't go wrong.

Driving to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic Mountains was certainly a highlight of the trip. We took a ferry across the bay and drove through small coastal towns as we climbed toward our goal. For fans of the Twilight books you can even dine in the same restaurant as Bella and Edward. But it is the view on top of the mountains that will blow you away, getting above the clouds is ethereal.

From what I have seen of this part of the country it is super groovy. You could spend lots of time here especially if the great outdoors is your thing. Oh yeah, if you get a chance try Pinot Noir, 2008 by A to Z vineyard out of Oregon. It was voted the best Pinot Noir two years running, under $20.00 per bottle, it is lovely.

Auburn Auto Auction`

The tradition continued and some new ones were established as the annual labor day auto auction in Auburn, Indiana was staged by new owners, who bought the financially troubled Kruse Auction house just two months before the auction. Somehow they managed to repaint and pave most of the facility.


They attracted over 1,000 classic and collectable cars. I visited with some friends and we had a good time. Junk food alley got a good work out form us. The scenery was stellar as the cars gleamed in the perfect summer day.

I saw lots of cars I would like to own, some that brought back memories and some that kick started fantasies. Certainly the Labor Auction makes the small town of Auburn come to life for a long week end each September. Glitz, glamour and some thirteen million bucks were all part of the show.

100 Tons & Counting

We have moved nearly one hundred tons of materials to one job site in the last two weeks, that's a lot even for us. Boulders up to 1.75 ton are being swung into place as a one row 3 foot tall retaining wall at the lakeside. Thirty ton of rock comprise the natural glacial stone wall that is free stacked in front of the existing concrete seawall. What a dramatic transformation in a fairly short time period, the bones of the landscape plan are being carefully put into place as the plan begins to come together.

It is difficult for most people to imagine what their landscape blueprint is really going to look like when installed. The ideas might sound good, the drawing appears professional but to actually be able to visualize in space at grade is a concept that alludes those not familiar with the genre. But there comes a time when the design elements begin to speak, shouting their form and function making it all so easy for everyone to see. That is one of the exciting times of installation and when "awesome," is the word of the day, you just might think to yourself that we're starting to get someplace.



Unlike HGTV our projects can not be accomplished in a thirty minute show or the generous two days some HG shows allow. We will be on this installation for several weeks with the hard scape taking nearly a month. We do not intend on finishing the entire lot this season. A new garage may be built in spring hopefully we will be a part of that project.

The large boulders were culled from various gravel pits in our area and a local excavator on Clear Lake, we try to handle them gently as despite their hardness and girth they scratch and split easily. The steps are Arkansas natural stone which we custom cut using a concrete saw, Bill tries to get one step from each stone by cutting them in pairs making the two pieces from the same stone. This also helps to maintain height consistency. The cracks in the steps will be filled with plant material, mosses and gator dust to prevent any wash outs.



Generally we start at the bottom and work our way up in this case we began in the lake building a glacial stone seawall which is the preferred seawall of the DNR (Department of Natural Resources). DNR governs land and water use in Indiana. The rocks we used in this seawall were as large as allowable as we anticipate winter ice will break up and slam that shoreline in early spring taking rocks and soils. The rock wall will absorb much of the impact protecting the pavers and landscape beds, it might be moved but it can always be stacked again.

Buckeye Patio

This is a patio that Bruce designed which features the Ohio State logo, we installed the pavers not the walls. Having graduated from Purdue Bruce and I root for the Boilers. Bruce is passionate about Purdue and all sports, I like to see them win just to keep Bruce happy. This week end will be the big match up between Purdue and Norte Dame in South Bend, so I just got to say, "Boiler Up!"

Paver Art is limited only by imagination it is a great medium and expanding rapidly. I have seen some very exciting large projects in Florida that blew me away, especially from 30 stories up.

Paver Patio for Sun & Shade

I have never seen a 4" drain tile run into the riser of a step, we never know what little jewels the builders are going to leave for us to try and disguise.

Hard to believe we are already on our final three months of work for the year. We do not plow snow the weather usually shuts us down around Thanksgiving, we have a lot to accomplish before then. Seems we just finished spring clean up and now I am worried about meeting all our installation goals before the snow flies. I think I can safely say that the employees are anxious for fall and cooler temperatures we continue to bake, even today September 1st the mercury will reach for the 90's and the dew point is high. This summer was sure a cooker, next week I will be going to Seattle for a few days and the average high will be around 64 degrees.


Last week we took delivery on 80,000 pounds of pavers for two jobs I sold on Clear Lake both have large paver patios. This job was a past customer who finally built their dream house and we were fortunate to be asked to bid and design a landscape plan. I was put through my paces bidding against two other companies but thankfully we prevailed. It is actually very interesting to see other companies ideas and be able to compare pricing but it is nerve wracking as well.



I am really pleased with strong design elements in the paver patio and think the guys are doing a terrific job executing my concept. I hope to finish the pavers this week and have the plant material laid out before I go to Seattle leaving an easy finish for the crews. We have built two custom fence corner posts which will make the property lines and be among the final things installed.