Lake James Again & Dog Walking

Bruce designed and sold this job, Ryan installed the stone walls, Doug and Bruce P were on the snap cut steps.  I came in at the end for the landscape design having never seen the house.  The homeowners Judy and Dale are lovely,  Judy has spoiled the men with daily sweets cookies, brownies and popcicles.  After site assessment and conversation we came up with a design saving some of the original plants and installing new, I also added a third stone terrace out of stones which were all the same size to extend the planting bed.

Judy did not think there was time for landscaping so she is especially happy that we have progressed.  We installed a pretty little dwarf weeping beech which unfortunately has a nasty grub at the top of the leader so it snapped off after being bumped.  Now we have to find a replacement for the beech or wait until spring and try to secure another.  I stumbled upon some decent tulip bulbs so I decided to drop 100 in a bed where we intend to plant annuals, much to my delight turns out tulips are Dale's favorite flower.

Walking the two wanna be labs this morning was especially beautiful, clear, crisp, not another soul around for the entire hour.  We walked in a newly harvested soybean field in addition to our normal stroll down the road.  A deer jumped out and darted back into the brush, jets left their early morning vapor trails in the sky, neighbors cats bathed in the first rays of sunshine, combines loomed behind the next row of beans and clouds of dense smoke hung in the river it was a typical walk with the pack. 

When I travel I think I miss the pack the most, the unconditional love, tail beatings, the three of us howling full out while Baxter the cat shrinks into the furniture and sneaking up on the pack finding two cats and two dogs curled up next to each other on the couch.  I had intended on getting travel size dogs but the rescue of these behemoths was our destiny so I will miss them again soon as I head off to Florida next weekend.

Rocking in the Heat

A rare occurrence has taken place we did not work the crew from July 4 to July 9th and it was a great decision because it was still smoking outside with record temperatures over 106 degrees.  Our region has had a record number of triple digit days, crops are suffering, we have stopped applying fertilizer, herbicides and insecticides for those without irrigation. Lawns are crunchy dormant with no relief in sight.  But the beat or heat  goes on.........and we progress with the next jobs.

This job on Clear Lake is nearly finished and we have installed another Millgrove first, an old fashioned lake driveway with a modern day twist of pavers.  I have advised the customers that a slow and steady approach will be the best way to assure safe parking.

Placement of a 4" October Glory Maple on the right corner of the property serves to pull the earth closer to the high roof peaks.  The tree certainly makes a statement.  Likewise the the European Hornbeam on the lakeside corner of the house both grounds the corner and the low branching fills the space to the ground providing a great visual barrier between the neighboring deck levels. Intimate property lines often mean creative planting strategies are necessary fortunately we are blessed with a wonderful variety of hardy plant species and shapes.

Our next big project is well underway on Lake James (which has receded 8' )  our first shipment of 8 pallets of Allen Block Ashlar Hickory blend block is being installed as I write, well not all at once but we will need our second shipment by Monday.

We had lots of great excavation help from Dan Eyester Excavation and John Day,  John really cowboy ed up climbing a hill of loose soil in the mini sending everyone scurrying as he precipitously rocked and teetered nearly rolling  down the hill.  Having a mini excavator, a big back hoe and our tractor really greased the wheels on this project.

Before our arrival Dan and John applied the
 engineered solution to solve the soggy yard that plagued the customer lakeside.  Tile, soil stabilization fabric and fresh dirt raise the yard and the new swales offer direction for surface water should it ever rain.  Dan, John and crews did a swell job on the lawn all we had to do was a light rake and we were ready for seed.