Hardscapes Head Home

This week we should finish the paver driveway on Clear Lake. The landscaping will follow close behind but requires a bit of redesign on my part, the home owner wants more extensive plantings with the addition of ornamental trees, more perennials and larger beds along the proposed fence which will complete the cottage garden theme.

The compacted limestone base made for easy driving and material handling on the drive installation. Bill is filling the material handling role and Ryan and Bruce Pardue are slapping down the pavers. Once a good rhythm is achieved they are a well oiled machine, they are finally able to use some time saving techniques on this installation secreting off 1" steel gas line pipes and laying sand with the tractor.

The tulips we planted last fall continue to make their peacock like display, they are spectacular even in the gray, cool, mist.

The drop in grill surround at Jane and Craig's should also be completed this week as Dave got a good start on it last week while Rick works installing the pavers on the entrance porch while dodging the movers who must use that entrance to get the larger furniture items into the house. Rick also got the block fire pit built out on the island and the island walk sanded.

If it ever stops raining Mike from Opus Building will get some top soil dropped around and we will start to stage the landscaping to prepare for operation green up next week. I always like it when we sod a new house because everything is instant pretty, all that green will set off the block and pavers, I always get more excited as we chase down the happy ending.

Kat Stewart

This morning I am in Corbin, KY the air outside the hotel is thick with fragrance the flora is a couple of weeks ahead of Indiana and the higher temperatures mean dogwoods, viburnums and hydrangeas are all ready full of flower and scent. Seven hours from home makes a lot of difference. Bruce and I left Angola Thursday night on a very sad mission, going to a funeral in Franklin, NC.

With heavy hearts we drove through the darkness, tears rolling down my cheeks for the unthinkable had happened, every parents worst nightmare, a child had died. Kathleen "Kat" Stewart, age 19 was killed last Monday night in a car accident in Franklin. She died at the scene from head trauma and internal injuries. She pulled out into traffic on a four lane highway they think she may have been receiving a text message on her phone and looked down to see the message.

Kat was the daughter of Mike and Joyce Stewart our brother and sister in laws by marriage. She arrived later in Mike's life and joined her older sister Jackie to complete the Stewart family. It was heartbreaking to feel the loss that radiated from Mike, Joyce and Jackie who loved her so completely. She had an infectious, dimpled smile that loved the camera and just a bit of devil child in her when she was young.

We were fortunate to have spent time with Kat and her family mostly around the holidays in Indiana and Florida with an occasional trip to North Carolina. We watched her grow and blossom into beautiful young woman with so much potential, she will be greatly missed.

I took the photo above this past Thanksgiving, Kat (in red) is with her cousin, baby Bella and grandmother for whom she was named.

Dirty Dozen

When Gary Baker gets back to work next week (he was injured riding a three wheeler) we will have an even dozen employees counting Marg who is the part time "bookie", (book keeper). We've a lot going on right now and we just finished up a couple of landscaping projects. In addition Theresa is out running spring maintenance with our two newest recruits.

The weather continues to deliver its usual one-two spring punch. Chilly and windy last Monday, Tuesday started heating up and by Thursday we had a high of 84 degrees, hot and sticky Friday with heat lighting and thunder that dogged us as we wrapped up another job on Clear Lake. Around 3:30 the tornado siren went off at the lake and our client checked the radar but nothing was showing. The sky, wind and barometric changes told us different so we hustled to beat the rain as we were putting in a yard by seed.

It was all rain and driving wind again by Saturday and Sunday was just hideous as the wind chill made it feel like 35 degrees. They say if you don't like the weather in Indiana just wait a day and it will change, I say dress in layers, carry sunscreen, a big umbrella and tornado insurance.

We are installing two paver driveways currently, one at Clear Lake and one we just started the excavation for on Lake Gage, my old neighborhood. We are using a new permeable paver on Gage, it is made by Belgard. The permeable pavers are part of the "green revolution" in pavers, more about that later.

Progress at Jane and Craigs went well last week the steps are beautiful, the sleek paver design match's the house well. We will finish up the fire pit and pavers this week and get a big start on the grill surround. Dave is pouring the foundation for the grill today. Landscaping is only two weeks away. When it is all done it will be one sweet job.

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.

Outta Site Chain Saw Sculpture

Noticed this great chain saw tree sculpture on Clear Lake over the week end, one of the best I have ever seen.

Boulder Table & Chairs

The past two weeks have been especially soggy, devastating since spring is the busiest time of the year and we are just getting geared up for mulching and annual flower installation. Our regular 400 odd man hours was reduced to just under 200 two weeks ago, this week we managed to get back up there with about 300 man hours, lets hope the skies quit leaking this next week.

Many of the jobs we work are on hills so it often becomes impossible to get down those hills with equipment when they start getting greasy. We are working a job on Clear Lake where we used plastic to cover up much of the lot to keep it dry, it helped but was not completely reliable. The customer found the slapping of the plastic rather annoying as the wind howled and lifted the sheet in rhythmic obnoxious beats.

Installing a patio and sidewalk with stones that weigh several hundred pounds each is difficult enough without adding wet, muddy, clay soils that cling to every surface but somehow Bill and Bruce Pardue managed to get it done. It looks awesome. I can't wait to plant the yard and get some green growing between the gaps in the walk, the patio will be infused with a variety of ground covers. They even took advantage of a warm and dry Saturday to get the yard roughed in and ready for irrigation. Our next challenge for this project will be a surprise retaining wall that is now needed, the result of excavation required for the installation of the concrete driveway and drains.

We wrapped up the flagstone patio for Charlene and Larry in Timber Bay having to wait almost a week before the rain stopped long enough to finish up with the "Gator Dust" we used to form a near solid grout between the flagstone gaps. When Larry and Charlene finish the planting, the grass seed comes up and they have their new patio ready to party I will snap some new photo's for the blog.

We average maybe one flagstone patio or walk per year and so far this year we have done two each with a different type of flagstone. Jo and Stan chose classic gray which goes really well with their new home on Lake Pleasant, which is only three or four miles from the shop (a nice break with the price of fuel). We installed the patio, built the beds, put in the big trees and Jo, Stan and their children are installing the plants, mulch and preen this week end.

One of the unique features of this patio is the large boulders that are used as tables, chairs and climbing rocks for the grand kids. The boulders are built into the edge of the patio and Jo thinks they will be well used, the certainly are low maintenance.