Another Autumn In Louisville

My personal update: (Including Magnolia Seed Pod Fall)

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I celebrated my first whole year of living here on September 30th of this year.  It has been a good year – a very deep drink of spending oodles of time with my nuclear family – Mother, brother and some of his offspring. There were even babies involved which pretty much always make my Millennium. Now we have a wedding coming up for another niece – Hannah – who is marrying a delightful guy and another favorite of mine, ‘Jimmah’, as Tom and I call him. 😉  My older brother, Mike and my sister Diane are steaming in for the wedding, so we’re all over this family deal. My daughter visits in a couple weeks, so I am partially delirious – more than usual, I guess. If, of course, that’s possible. Finally, we are celebrating the extreme good health of my 92 year old Mother. She and I have torn around the neighborhood and “scenic Louisville” with some abandon ever since I arrived, her showing me the town and me clicking pictures. I guess I’m pretty happy with how things have proceeded thus far. Life is pretty good.

(click images to enlarge, even this here good ol’ Dogwood tree)

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So here we are, holding off Winter with another typically “Kentucky” transition season. Reliably, Kentucky presents the most distinct 4 season climate I’ve ever seen. Each season is utterly separate and individual and they occur without fail. From an extremely hot Summer, we now evolve into Fall. This year is complicated by a virtual drought. There are many trees we suspect are dropping leaves owing to thirst, although the clay soils here and the deeper roots of some of the big monster trees would need another year or two of drought to really make a difference.  I do know drought, let’s be clear. I have seen it out West in severe fashion. Since today it’s raining here, I am a bit more sanguine about these concerns. I mean, we had a wet Summer, with very green grass up into September.  But it’s here, in any event, just not the same degree of outrageous which it was last year. Last year was frankly epic for color. This year – just OK. (Look how spoiled I am.)

But this year has also been a heavyweight pleasurable year for grasses. I’ve always adored the seeding process, watching the soft seed fronds develop. Taken in just the right light, this year’s grass seeds are a bit parched, but lighter for that and somehow a bit more ‘whispery’  than normal.

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Naturally, the trees are the thing here. Bernheim Spring 252 Check out this set of Maple Twins. What’s most interesting here is the location where the color begins, up on top. They will spread the wealth almost gravity-like into the brilliant colors they’re generally known for.

I’ve always enjoyed this cluster. The Blue Spruce enjoys its position and the large spreading Maple behind presents a redder cast this season. It’s a fascinating and an altogether complimentary contrast.

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And here is the view, just walking up a bit, as the gorgeous Maple shows its looming magnificence as a corner tree………the “Guardian” of this cozy and slow-moving little residential street.

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As can be seen, it is not quite yet the full-blown Autumn. We’re borderline! Green leaves still abound, raising some suspicions among us concerning the weather alluded to earlier. And, yet, it also makes for more interesting shadings of color in general. Below, for example, if you enlarge the picture, you can see the yellow highlights forming among the apparently green leaves. It is very subtle but gorgeous, in my opinion. Such small differences are a small element behind the prettiest Autumns.

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Here’s the “head on” view of the same tree, illustrating just a bit better the yellow tinges of the season itself.

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Then the more colorful neighbors, taken from underneath a canopy of equally-intriguing Maples across the street:

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And now a look into the canopy above from the picture-taking location. Delightful color, just taking place:

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Then a look back as we pass the trees featured above, but from a different angle, with the Sun playing some very cool games:

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You have to admit, this is an interesting 200 feet of walking!

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Let us not forget our little sidewalk canopy, either – it has some special coloring as well……….just more

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This park sidewalk always provides such ample pleasures. In Spring, they feature a slew of Chinese Plums, in brilliant bloom. Now, this time of year, the stunning success of their landscaping plan reveals itself in the intended colorful offerings of spectacular Autmun color:

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Red is such an impressive swath of coloring in Nature. Here we see some local Euonymous Elata (Burning Bush) as it catches the sun an a cool angle and shows itself off in bright detail:

Bernheim Spring 259When all is said and done, this Fall thing is taking shape as slightly different and yet no less interesting, as Autumns go. Plus, Mom is kicking butt as a very healthy 92 year old old young pup. Life is OK. Thanks for tagging along.

Installing a Paver Patio – Part 1

This is a repeat performance of an entry over a year old. I wanted to get back to the nuts and bolts of this blog, featuring some sweat and manly men in action. I love all the dogwood pictures and have oodles more, all set up to feature my new home base in the currently outrageously gorgeous Louisville. For now – it’s the work that rules, however. Click any image to enlarge, by the way. I’ll put up the accompanying Part 2 tomorrow.

I’ve done bits of this before, just not of this particular place. This post will deal with the in’s and out’s of encountering different soils at the base of a project and how we coped with them in establishing a firm bottom for a durable and permanent patio. A look here at the onset of the project shows what we were up against. The client – a busy lady who was CEO of a big concern in Reno, wanted a place to entertain. She had a smallish lot with a fabulous view and as we worked on the design, her primary request was for space to seat 4 tables with hungry eaters. She also wanted a small water feature – a bubble rock – and a place to put a sculpture of a Heron, rendered from Pink Granite. Oh – and irrigation up by the house. It was actually a big project, complete with an absolutely homely point of departure.

Essentially, no one had laid in any base material whatsoever under the original patio which had been constructed using some exceedingly odd principles, including using wood for the patio itself – not raised but embedded in the ground. No doubt it was a rapid and temporary solution that was simply never addressed again, once completed. So, needless to say, it was a mess, rotten and falling apart and adding – daily – yet more soft, spongy material to an already-soft base.

(click all images to enlarge)

We removed the covering and arrived at the dirt floor we looked for. Once here, we could decide on what material and how deep we needed to go to provide the adequate foundation for permanence. Naturally, we had to remove the spongier material. What was next was a determination as to how deep we had to excavate in order to get to soils which would support a durable foundation. So we dug down until we reached a reasonable clay base, something that would actually take compaction.

Making life even harder for this project is the fact that it had a tiny gate through which – oh – approximately 12-14 tons of material would pass – in both directions! Obviously, we had to get rid of some stuff and, just as obviously, we had to bring in even heavier “stuff”, including bricks, base rock, sand and the always-lightweight irrigation materials – whose existence got provided for by yet more good old excavating!

Oh – and the Pine Tree – it had to go, too. For guys spoiled by machinery, this one was a nasty project 😉

Note also the small white arbor. The client wanted a sort of “private area” – away from the rush and quieter. This area was far shadier and oodles more private than any other possible spot. We would install an intimate seating area, suitable for romance, perhaps or for some fine reading and contemplation.

Irrigation was intended to go under the patio and to be accessible for the placement of pots and containers adjoining the house itself. This is a great idea and totally do-able. Planters such as these can thereby be nearly maintenance-free, inasmuch as water is a daily additive run off a clock, adjustable to run as often as is necessary. The wonders of drip irrigation once again surface, making life easier as well as requiring more exactitude as far as quantity.

Thus we see the trenches going under what will eventually become the base of the patio itself. We use “hard pipe” (Schedule 40, PVC) to run under, then attach the more flexible and fragile drip hoses to them at the destination.

As shown above, the trenches are nearly ready. We add the pipe, then cover, then we are finally at pretty much Stage 3, which is the heavy lifting – bringing in the base material, spreading it, then compacting. We try to get somewhat perfect at this stage. We shoot for adding an exact amount of sand for the next level – that just below the pavers themselves – for a variety of reasons, including having enough! But it also pays off in spreading the load out as far as what to expect for compacting later. An area with a thickness of more sand than another will be just a tad spongier and require extra work in the end. Kenny here is getting it pretty much as close to perfect as we can get it. Being pretty much perfect himself made it easier – by his own admission. 🙂

Note the compactor in the foreground to the right. These machines are modern miracles, in many ways. They can also adjust waves and high spots and they knock down what appears to be chunks and pieces of gravel down to a smoother surface. They also render the base flat and immovable underneath – our primary goal anyway.

Yes, there are pipes everywhere. The extruding gray pipe with the blue wire is the electrical line which will power up not only our little pump for the Bubble Rock we will install but is also intended to provided an assembly for plugging in other stuff – a gang box of outlets for radio, barbecues and Lord knows what else. The white pipe, meanwhile, is a water pipe, connected to the irrigation system itself and intended to act as an “automatic fill” for the water feature, to add water when necessary to the pond. It all seemed so simple, didn’t it?

So below is the aforementioned “private area” forming up. Naturally, we began here, inasmuch as it is the most remote spot to build ourselves out from. You can see our 1″ of sand, laid in over the compacted base material here in good relief. Yes, we literally just add pavers after reaching a desired surface. Typically, we use a “screed board”, notched to travel along premeasured width and height lines. A couple of passes with this board and we’re off.

It gives us something like this:

You will notice the “edge restraints” and aluminum – sometimes plastic – edging. Obviously, these act to hold evertything in place just marvelously. When you see the size of the “nails” we use to insure its stability, you can see why it stays intact. Those are each 8″-12″ long.

Yes, there is pipe under the pavers here, leading into the small bed at the center. We also ran lighting wire for eventual outdoor lighting.

Below is what it looks like when we are essentially done with an area. You will notice the drip pipe, connected elsewhere and supplying water to the center bed. While working elsewhere, we spread kiln-dried sand over the top – for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that we spread it all over the place anyway, for purposes of grouting and filling the tiny spaces between the bricks themselves. However, at this stage it also protectas the surface from accidents like spills or excessive traffic.

This area is now pretty much complete. Naturally, we will add plants, sweep in the sand and then – on this project – spray on a semi-gloss finishing sealer. But that is for the next post.

Installing A Paver Patio – Part 2

As promised, here is Part 2 of the post dealing with this new patio construction at a place which challenged us concerning the original soils and their ability to hold things in place for The Duration – which is how I view projects. Surfaces like driveways and patios, done right, should last longer than the homes they serve. Sure, I have overbuilt things before. But that error is one of caution and the results have spoken for themselves. This is the primary method of getting yet more work. A happy client is a beautiful thing.

And so it begins….We start at the house on the major portion, bearing in mind the stubbed up pipes and electrical paraphernalia and providing for those things by making precise cuts in the bricks. At this stage, we screed out the sand over our compacted base, then add pavers. It gets fairly simple from here on out, bearing in mind the pattern we select for laying them.

(click all images to enlarge)

The saw shown here gets ample use from this stage out. In a crew like ours – 3-4 guys – we generally have one guy dedicated to bringing the bricks around and placing them for the “layer” on the ground. Another will usually be cutting pavers in order to conform to our needs. Another – that is often me – will work ahead of this pack, preparing for the next round of laying.

Since I believe in curves in landscapes, naturally I make it harder on us. But my sense of things reflect a respect for Nature’s curving lines. I rarely make anything square.

Here is Jason cutting away and in the next picture, the reason for someone constantly cutting. The bricks used here come in very tight, straight rectangular shapes. We find that by making very exact straight cuts, we can usually induce a nice gentle curve out of the straight product.

Building our way out now…. We approach the outer edges. Note the cavern where the water feature will sit. We need a basin to hold water, needless to say, on top of which we will rest the bubble rock. But the pavers are still the focus at the moment.

Nearing the end of the line for the major portion of pavers, in order to finish, it will require the building of the water feature first. It is designed so that the edge of the feature itself will meet the pavers. Thus, we have now put i the liner, as the picture below illustrates. Next, we’ll fill the hole with rock and with supporting bricks and or rocks to place the actual bubble rock itself. Once that is adjusted and tweaked enough for the perfect fit, we will add the hardware – like the pumps and any underwater lighting we opt for. Only then will we consider finishing off the edge itself.

We get the rock in place – a nice big juicy 600 pounder which was quite an experience to bring inside – and begin the finishing cutting, then placing the edge restraints. We are getting closer. For those who wonder, the house in the distance is owned by a Casino Owner. He thanks us all for our contributions.

We complete an area of bricks which then allows us to begin planting and bringing in the new soil.

Rake some, add a bit of bark mulch…..

And spray on the sealer, which gives a mildly “wet” look and acts to preserve the color and finish.

In a year, the barren areas which seem so vast will be over run with the very plants you see here. It looks so bare, I admit, at this stage. Our job was to make her happy with it all, of course, but the plants are the easiest part of that. It’s the patio and its long term stability which was the goal. We made that happen, in spades.