Tornados, Driveways and Annuals

Talking about the weather is right up there with watching paint dry but it has been an unusual spring in Northeast Indiana. The wettest April and May on record, Sunday a small but F-1 tornado touched down on Clear Lake and Lake Gage was hit with particularly heavy winds over the Memorial Day week end. A pontoon boat was picked a hurled through the air landing on someones porch and there were multiple large trees uprooted. High water levels in the lakes due to excessive rain have resulted in "no wake" restrictions or in some cases prohibiting motorized boats period. This twisted garage was just one of several destroyed.

Despite the wild weather ride we managed to get over 500 man hours in last week, a new record for Millgrove Landscaping. Eleven people in the field, a bit of overtime and working longer hours on the clear days are helping us catch back up. Theresa is basically done with spring clean up and will concentrate next week on spreading fertilizer, she will be applying "Screaming Green," which as the name implies has high nitrogen. Flat after flat of annuals were installed this past week.

Trish and Doug's driveway is finished and it looks great. A test run with Trish at the wheel of Doug's full size pick up went pretty good. When Trish insisted I drive the truck the results were not as positive when I reversed, I am reverse challenged when driving. I still think it would have been wiser to make the driveway 9' wide instead of 8' but Trish says she will get used to it.

The Belgard permeable paver, Subterra is going down at Dan and Marla's and it is an awesome match to the house. Since the paver butts up to the stone work on the house it is especially rewarding that it looks so cool.

Over on Lake George we are taking a bit of a break from Jane and Craig's as we wait for the builder, Mike to bring the yard up to contractor grade, he is working on it and should be ready Friday. Our next steps in there are finishing up the grill, installing 24' of fence, some large hemlocks and then on to the main landscaping. Jane and Craig are all moved in with big grins, their new lake home is now home sweet home, almost finished except those darn landscapers.

We also started the first phase of landscaping for a log home off 327. Ryan is over there with a crew and they are installing large rocks (boulders), medium rock curbing (50-60 #) and riverwash in the beds. We will be taking a break from this job next week so I can put lots of bodies on finishing Jane and Craig's, then Trish and Doug's.

My blog, GMail account and all things google were lost to me over the Memorial Day week end.

I got a nasty virus imported by accident from a customer. The virus lay in my system for several days collecting address's and worming around. After several days the virus sent over 100 emails from my computer to people from my address book, trying to infect them. I am not sure if anyone opened those bogus emails but I hope not. It took me a lot of work and a visit to the computer Dr. to get my machine up and running. Be careful what you open in your emails.

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.

The Man From Masolite

Hopefully next week we will take Mark Disler to task as we install a large paver job using his products and expertise. We will also be building a grill surround for a new drop in BBQ grill. We are anxious to incorporate his ideas to increase our productivity and see if he has any new tricks up his sleeve.

I say hopefully because the weather this past week sucked, we only got in 20 hours because of the rain and cold. Next week the prediction is bad as they are calling for rain the first three days in the week. We are building the patio and grill for Craig and Jane and have to wait for the excavator to dredge the channel which was finally permitted this past Thursday.

Two Down

The first two weeks of work have gone rapidly. We had a couple of episodes of putting "humpty dumpty" back together again after winter damage but overall not to bad. Things are shaping up, we have four new houses signed with complete landscaping, a large finish for a project we started last season, a job with rock wall terraces and a large flagstone patio and walk.

Theresa has been out applying fertilizer and herbicides, evaluating the needs of our maintenance customers and gearing up for spring clean up and flower planting. We do not install annuals in this neck of the woods until after mothers day the traditional last frost day.

We have picked up a couple of new crew mates this season and lost Darrick who left us to move away and get married. Rick Roudebush has returned, a former employee who has been attending college he will work through the summer. One of our good pals has a son taking landscaping in college he has joined us part time and will work full time in May. Our multi talented employee Gary crashed his 3 wheeler last week end and has been in the hospital having had surgery to repair a broken bone. He will be missed during his convalesces but we are fortunate to borrow Bruce Pardue a 16 year veteran equipment operator who is laid off from M & C Trenching our excavation partner.

Larry and Charlene's flagstone patio and walk is nearly complete and looks awesome. One of the coolest features are the two snap cut steps that span the 16' staircase and they were not part of the original plan. After taking drop (the distance between the top of our patio and the bottom stair) it was evident that we would either have to have steps or a retaining wall or possibly a combination of both. I saw the opportunity to add a greater sense of elegance with a sunken patio in an already stunning location. It took a bit of convincing for others to see my vision but I think everyone really likes the result. We should wrap it up this week. Charlene and Larry will be grilling bunnies on the patio for Easter .

Progress at Jane and Craig's has been stellar for the painters, they are mostly finished and have produced the warm and cozy background that is the foundation for the interior decor. I did learn a new unique method of painting doors from the painters. The barrel roll porch has been framed and the concrete steps and porch have been poured. We will be installing pavers over the concrete surfaces. The siding is progressing and should be complete this week. Our final hurdle is waiting on the dredging of the channel between the shoreline and the island, the state of Michigan has been holding this up since last fall in the Never Never Land know as the permitting process.

Unilock Unplugged

This is Adam he is the Territory Manager for Unilock Pavers a product line we are pleased to now carry. Jane and Craig on Lake George will be the first to benefit from our new paver line, I am stoked. With Adam from Unilock, Mark Disler from Masolite and Matt Felger from Felger's we have increased our sales team and product knowledge. There should be no application where pavers are involved that we can not solve. I am currently working on paver driveway quote on Clear Lake and a permeable paver quote for a customer on Lake Gage where they will violate the 50/50 rule (50% of your lot can be covered with a hard surface and 50% must be green) if they pour all the walks, patio and driveway surfaces they desire. Permeable pavers are counted as 50% more porous than concrete.

Bob Seger at the Huntington Center

I came one step closer to high speed Internet today when I shut off my Wild Blue Satellite and signed on with Hughes Net or so I thought. Hughes claimed to be 70% faster than Blue and they were but come on it still took six hours to load this video. One of the interesting facts of the Hughes installation is that it is part of the governments pledge that rural areas be able to have Internet connections at a reasonable price. Hughes delivered and installed my dish for free and my only expense is the monthly fee of $39.00 which is 10 bucks less than Hughes. I do notice the speed loading photo's and surfing. However I now have an unsightly dish poking holes in my new roof and detracting from my clean roof line. I hope I don't decide I have made a mistake but the speed of the old service was a real bummer. It is amazing that I could upload a video in St. Lucia in ten minutes. Any way I wanted to share this video I recorded a couple of weeks ago at my first Bob Seger concert. Our great seats made for a pretty decent video. Special thanks to George. Enjoy Bob singing, "Main Street."

Felger's

Felger's located off Dupont Road is a third generation business in Fort Wayne, IN. Started by Grandpa Felger on land where he grew up it is now run by son Jerry who is known by many as the King of Peat, along with wife Dee Dee and their children who are working in the office and the field. The fourth generation of Felger's are already riding in the loaders and wearing company hoodies.

Grandson Matt is responsible for the hardscape development and he has done a fine job. Felger's boasts one of the tri state's largest selections of hardscape products. Their display area is retail friendly, well planned, amazingly representative of their various product lines and has a knowledgeable sales staff. In addition we can meet our customers there and see all the materials to take the guessing out of hardscape selection.

Three different product lines of pavers and wall stone including Unilock and Belgard are on display. A grill enclosure with a stainless steel drop in grill, various free standing walls with columns and caps along with a swell fire pit are just a few of the items in the elaborate examples awaiting perusal.

Matt's goal is to have every product they sell all encapsulated in one display area and he is well on his way. The landscaping industry is bursting with manufacturers of pavers and block. The shape, color and variety of these products is mind blowing. Looking at the new paver and block catalogues is eye candy for even those with minimal interest. It is a great time to be designing and installing landscaping as we have never had such an abundance and variety of materials with great accessibility and reasonable pricing.

When I first got in this business state of the art meant upgrading retaining walls from used railroad ties to rough cut timbers. Installing boulder outcroppings was once considered out of the box and we had to dig through farmers rock piles to get the boulders or unearth them in the fields. Or years ago if you wanted something exceptional and your client could afford it you could import some rocks from Wisconsin or the Carolina's and Tennessee, there were no places like Fort Wayne Rocks or Felger's.

As my career winds down my job is actually getting better and better, more challenging with a wider palette of materials and better educated customers who have seen the explosion of hardscape and are anxious to renovate their gardens with 21st century ideas and materials. It is easy to maintain a passion for your job when your job is exciting and rewarding.