Landscaping Machinery – The Latest

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Steve

What a topic. From my humble enough beginnings as a landscaper in 1970 or so to today, not only has my trade advanced in colder climates from the description as “gardeners” to “landscape professionals” – complete with our own designers and architects advancing to the heart of all contracts and blueprints – but it has also developed technical aspects which make it all so much easier to install.

Naturally, it also saw an increasing complexity of design – “Give an architect an inch and he’ll take a mile!” – 😉 – hence to the notion of “hardscaping” and of all the ramifications inherent in water-related designs. But even there, modern machinery has proven adaptable and up for the changes.

Once there was a time when a pile like this was a day’s labor, delivered and loaded and then unloaded completely by wheelbarrow. I have bummed this picture from Farmer Fred’s excellent website because it rings so factually with my years of reality “on the ground”:

Lately – within the last 15 years, a yet-new technology has burst from the brain pans of those seeking labor-savings in our trade. It all revolves around the same pumping principle as vacuum cleaners except for one thing – the flow is reversible. This is what 100 yards of bark mulch can look like going in now, from a business in British Columbia:

At one time in the distant past it took 2 guys 3 days to load in this much (80-100 yards) of bark. And that was some fierce slogging, up grades and sidewalks, if hilly, and handling wet material, if rainy. To say this method is superior is today’s best joke. There is obviously no comparison.

Let’s have a look at things like dirt, shall we?

Which way is better? This one, loading each wheelbarrow by hand, then trooping up 50 feet of elevation?

Or this one, with a cup of coffee in hand?

These are not trick questions. Homeowners as well can pay strict attention to many of these developments with an eye towards their own needs. These technologies are not exclusive to landscapers whatsoever. The “thrower” above, for example, can also toss rocks, from pea gravel to drain rock, and even have them reasonably aimed to fall very much into the correct place. The mechanism in the driver’s hands above is amazingly useful, aiming the mechanism to wherever desired.

Who among us is familiar with the term “Dingo”? (No, not the Australian dog). “Dingo”, like “Weedeater” was the brand name of a product which has since evolved into 100 other names and concepts.

These machines are one man tractors – able to climb impossible grades and to squeeze into what were once impossible enclosures – such as 3 foot gates. Imagine matching the productivity of this:

Naturally, the discovery of the “Bobcat” – also the original name of a machine now sold by absolutely every major machine dealer and now more often referred to as a “skid steer” vehicle – was epic. Small enough in size for a 3/4 Ton truck to haul around, the productivity output in terms of moving materials around is literally off the charts.

Useful beyond measure, one can attach any number of helpful hydraulic tools to this machine, from Boring Implements for digging plant holes to forks for moving brick pavers or large humongous trees around.

Nearly as impressive are the modern sized excavators- some incredibly tiny but equally useful – whose uses are nearly as numerous and which vie with Bobcats for “must-purchase” items for any beginning landscaping business:

Their uses are numerous and efficient. For the record, yes, that is me riding this beast and, 2, that is a 700 Pound rock, cored through the middle for use as a Bubble Rock::

Once referred to as a “Raimey”, a machine sporting the “Knuckling Hydraulics” of this unit below became a wall-builder’s dream. Complete with essentially 360 degrees of rotation, nothing in the world is quite as efficient at placing large boulders into retaining wall structures:

Here is a look at “our version” of this cool implement:

The incredible explosion of modern technologies in dealing with landscaping products and materials goes further, as well. Here, below, are just a few items which makes what was once darn near impossible, possible.

This crane is what we used to place plants at the Portland, Oregon Chinese garden, as well as loading in monster buckets full of top soil. It is 180 tons – the largest crane drivable on city roads and it only required one setting to do its work over an entire city block.

Indeed, this may have been its only competition:

And, yes, we have used choppers.

The world of paving bricks also has developed a retinue of aids………

From small “Brick-forked ‘Dingo’s'”, to these specialisticals below:

Why waste time? 😉

Strictly Personal – My Mom – Part 1

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Steve

Here it is, Mother’s Day, 2012 and I find myself up and at ’em and ready to go buy a Mother’s Day card locally before she awakes. I will call my ‘other Mothers’ (That sounds just bad, heh heh) as well – My ex, Alice, Mother of our gorgeous child, my sister Diane, maybe by sister-in-law Lisa and I’ve actually been working for my other niece’s Mom, Mary Beth, on remaking her garden into her dream garden – a wonderful chore but rained out this morning.

Anyway, I decided to reissue these posts in honor of my Mother – posts which I actually wrote back in February. So you can see, I am not a latter day Mom-lover ……not a fair weather Mother guy at all……I come by my love and care for those Mom’s who were unfortunate to produce us quite honestly.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you and to all those wonderful women who began life for morons like me.

I could – and may – just as easily write about my father, Fred Snedeker. But Dad passed away in 1983 and my Mother is still around, “fresh off” Father’s passing, still in love with the man after 42 years of marriage and now 27 years after his death. We pass December 22 each year in a bit of prayer and remembrance as it is one of Mother’s worst days. Her devotion to Pop honestly is an awesome characteristic which I can barely even imagine, considering the course of my own uneven married events. But she is most definitely what you see. She has been through so much in general, and she feels so young at heart and so full of life and curiosity at 92 years old, she will forever stand as a guiding light for me and innumerable others who have encountered her.

I returned to Louisville, as I had announced, on September 30, 2 years ago. It was a beautiful Autumn in Louisville that season and Mother and I traveled all over town.

It gave her a chance to walk and talk, exercise and do what she does so well – teach. She reintroduced me to the area and we also discovered much which was all brand new. Yew Dell Gardens, Bernheim Forest, the wonders of Main Street in Louisville including the brand new basketball palace – Cave Hill Cemetery, the glories of Cherokee Park, their old rental apartment on St. James Court where they renovated into magnificence an entire floor of a beautiful historical old home. We were peripatetic after my arrival, getting out all over town.

(She had taught – Accounting Principles – at various small colleges in Louisville until she was 84. These were full loads, standing all day, after which she would often walk up to 3 miles per day. At 90, she had given up her season tickets to Louisville basketball games – what used to be my Christmas Gift to her every year – although I did accompany her and her great good friend Kathleen Drummond to the opening basketball game in the new arena – Yum! Center – for the Louisville girls against Tennessee.)

Here’s a cool pic of Mom grasping her little Beena Girl at our place in Reno. I’s say she looks rather pleased.

Anyway – this changed a bit after she suffered a couple of falls – while with me both times, sadly enough – and she has found herself just a bit less inclined to get all out and about, certainly not as much as when I first arrived. Her fragility has increased a bit, in short, although to this very day, she just finished 2 weeks on jury duty downtown. So she aint crippled, lol.

If one gets nothing else from reading this strictly personal tale of my own selfish interests, please know I do it because I can – for one thing. For the second “thing” – I admire this lady endlessly. For the third “thing”: even if I did not, I feel we gain from knowing older people. Their versions of history are remarkable and all-too-often silent. In our rush to buy the next new gizmo or catch the fab new TV sitcoms which so often determine our off hours, we overlook the hard yards the generations prior to us had to cross in order to deliver us to our Present. This person endured a period in our history which was at equal turns deadly, depressing and inspiring. When you ponder Mother’s birth year – 1919 – and what she may have encountered as an active, intelligent woman with an independent streak, you will find elements of the evolution of our National Consciousness represented nearly completely. It is supremely humbling to me, finding out about the casual cruelties administered to racial “others”, the poor and dispossessed and to women themselves during her lifetime and how she dealt with that.

Just the same, all I take from it all is currently, in real everyday life today – at worst – is that we were able to relish what we experienced since I have been here. Nor is it as if there’s not some mighty fine events which have taken place within the very walls of where we now live. While we haven’t set activity records, the love pretty much never stops in the persons of visits from her grand daughters and now her great grand daughters from the same gorgeous Meagan. Her other “grands” – my kid Alena, Mike and Lisa’s Beckett and Zoe, the very sunny Hannah, Meagan, Jenny and Aaron – simply exist as parts of a heart more than roomy enough to entertain stories and attention at any given time – on any given day.

It is often hard to relate to young folks what it means to have spoken and loved her Dad and Mom, for example, and hear about what life was like prior to automobiles and electric lighting. It was always amazing listening to her Dad speak of opting for a horse on snowy days to deliver the mail in the flatland and bitter winds of central Illinois during severe Winters.

Speaking of my Grandad and Grandma, they flank everyone here, with my Mom being second from the left, her sister Jody the Bride standing next to Grandad. My older brother and sister are obvious, as is the apprehensive young baby – me – seen in the foreground in the fashionable killer shorts.

But it can be equally instructive listening to Mother relate what the times were like as she grew up a kid in East Central Illinois in the ‘massive’ (insert cynical chuckle) urban metropolis of Humbolt, Illinois – population 350. Our visits to “Granddad and Grandma’s” house always involved pretty much an all day ride and were spaced throughout my entire life as a kid as near routine. We got to make Icons out of various elements of this setting – my brother Mike, for example, has these “often-chthonic” dreams of the huge corn silo’s which existed beside the railroad tracks which also bordered the home there. Inside those silo’s, Mike has encountered a Stephen King-like retinue of events and weirdness which inspire creepy deep psychic exhumations and symbols which that sort of setting completely appropriately provides. Think “Children Of The Corn”. Also, inasmuch as we moved so often during our childhoods – with our Father being a contractor and upwardly-mobile at that – Grandad and Grandma’s place was of pivotal permanent importance to Mike – and even the rest of us – who went to something like 10 schools in 12 years.

Mother’s beginnings were humble enough – one of two daughters of the local Postal Dude who pretty much knew everyone in the local world, Paul Rogers and his wife Etta. In the end, Paul Rogers – her Dad – ran that route for 47 consecutive years. This placed them in a reasonable spot with permanent incomes as the Depression and the Dust Bowl wore on throughout Mother’s childhood. She was even able to attend college at Eastern Illinois University, where she met my Pop. Their stories are private but her confidences concerning their romance have absolutely warmed my heart like few other events. It is moments such as those where I almost always reflect on how incredibly cool it is to be able to share these splendid times with such an experienced yet loving Mom.

“The Choice” – whether to return to Louisville in person and launch things totally ready to help out – arrived at one evening out on the porch at Mike’s home during one of our many Sunday dinners in Portland, talking with he and his wife, Lisa. It remains a decision I am more than content with and one which I actually wish more could share. I feel lucky now.

A cool look at the ‘fam’ – brother Mike, sister Diane gabbing at Meagan and Jeff’s wedding while Mom proudly looks on.

Whereas Mother had recently experienced a broken back (lol, true story) at the time of our sibling confab, and seeing as how she had also experienced a few financial setbacks, we sat and contemplated what we could do. The more we explored things, the less satisfying they were. I had recently stopped landscaping full time and had undertaken writing for a living. It was actually working, providing me with an income of at least some stability, even as new as it was to me. I had never really considered myself a writer at all, frankly, but life brings us to some odd crossroads.

I had a small epiphany: Why don’t I go live there a while? I mean, I am mobile now. My market is in the ether.

I broached the subject out loud, looking for holes to punch into the theory, and we decided it was impossible to find many, provided I didn’t mind the trip ‘back in time’ – to Kentucky and my early life. Hell, that one was easy at the time – it was actually exciting. That night we booked my flight, I made the local arrangements, and the rest is history.

But this is current stuff. Mother’s story is more Prehistoric! (She’ll kill me for that, lol.) If there are no further posts here in the future, look no further than her room for the perp.

More On The Huntington Garden

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Steve

Having negotiated the Desert Garden with rare relish – what an amazingly creative set-up – my daughter and I then proceeded to the next exhibits…..specifically the totally contrasting Lily Ponds. Here is a “jungle lush” view of our approach…..

(please enlarge images by clicking)

Once again, the entire Gardens are simply World Class edifices. I just feel and felt then so lucky to be able to take part in all this incredible landscaping. This is pretty much the best in the galaxy.

Next…..

Later, we pass by the Australian Garden section, rife with Eucalyptus and these guys….. This is where Hummingbirds go to retire.

Flowers are the primary attractions here…..with some Eucalyptus trees, of course. I am so jaded now towards Eucalyptus, I didn’t even bother taking pictures. That was actually a mistake because the bark and trunks congregated there were richly-colored.

Guess where this leads…….

This spot is on the march between the Aussie Garden and the splendid Japanese Garden, of course. It was yet another present for the senses and featured some absolutely amazing Bonzai plants which made me wonder at the ratings these plants would receive in comparison with absolutely any others. I mean, I just suspected these were also some of the best Bonzai examples in the world. Incredible stuff!

Here’s today’s Daily Double worth a billion – I was really beginning to believe these guys knew what they were doing.

The Japanese Garden was closed for a year or so as they remade a water feature and added some features. Indeed, it had just been opened for a couple weeks before our visit. This is a real sweet Japanese Garden.

I rate the Water Feature a total success……with a perfectly bubbling sound and the absolutely correct flow rate.

As always in Japanese Gardens, we get to witness the changing patterns in the sand or stones lavished daily for our pleasure. More minimalist, gorgeous lines soothe our souls as we connect with the purpose of this combination of Man and Nature.

We then cut through a grove of Camelias which were almost spent by this date. But what was even cooler were the hardy orchids which so adore life under the canopy between the Japanese garden and The Chinese Garden.

Here are the beginnings of the canopy, complete with some Camelias:

And here are the orchids along the paths……

Cool stuff………….and now our Favorite

The Chinese Garden……..note the ham welcoming committee. These guys even supply gorgeous models!

I now consider myself somewhat of an expert on Chinese gardens, having worked on the actual construction of the Portland, Oregon Chinese garden personally. I rate this version as near-equal. This is simply a phenomenal place, no if’s and’s or but’s. It’s simply just as good as it gets.

Walk with us…..

As always, the gorgeous foot-massaging pebbled walkways are the eye candy that ties it all together.

Hide the women and children! 😉

The consistent fascination Chinese Gardens illustrate for windows and the Feng Shui aspects of peeks into another dimension never fails to please.

What a wonderful place. Alena and I both offered that the Chinese Garden was out favorite spot on the entire Huntington’s grounds. This is a stunningly beautiful garden.

Oh yeah – and a great beautiful Mahonia, too.

And, finally, a beautiful bridge.

Next, I’ll finish Huntington up.

The West Coast Journey – Huntington Library and Gardens

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Steve

Eventually, maybe sooner rather than later, I’m going to split off a different blog for strictly personal stuff. My days have been so loaded with friendship, communion among old friends and family and the more serious issues of life, they have nearly overwhelmed my more technical pleasures in presenting landscape-specific posts, information and results. As it is, I guess I’ll just punctuate things with a few examples of some of the ridiculously arresting places I managed to see and capture on digital film. In fact, today will be rather easy.

This comes later……..after the Desert.

Below, we’re munching on breakfast at a place famous for its French Toast on a bread they manufacture – more like a roll. Good Lord, there’s a reason for the fame. Here we eat beside the barking seals up the beach in La Jolla in the San Diego area. I regret I’ve forgotten the name of the gorgeous seaside restaurant, but they do a bang up business anyway….plus, its setting is totally unique. I bet Alice Joyce knows this one.

(enlarge pictures by clicking)

Today it’s the Huntington Garden and Library, in beautiful downtown Pasadena, California. I had long heard about it, specifically from James at Lost In The Landscape. I had made up my mind that if I ever got there, I’d check this garden out.

Wow.

The literal forests of Cactus were extremely gorgeous, busy and arresting.

It was a total thrill, seeing these as we approached, but my delight was just beginning. Famous for its rare and exotic species, collected for nearly 100 years and tended to by true experts, the Huntington’s Desert Garden display is absurdly rich in impractical colors, made even more rare and other-worldly by the electrifying vividness of the blooms.

The Cactus above features a bloom so bright Yellow, it’s as if it creates its own Sun – from inside!

Below, these apparently “Interstellar/Transgalactic” Yucca’s provide us with colors we cannot find in ordinary gardens, certainly not in such combinations.

Looking magnificent comes easy to these guys – the entire lot of them.

Once again, the “artful arrangements”.

There is some amazing material to work with, no less…..

There are also some beautiful accidents 😉

This gorgeous area below looks like something of a transition between the Desert Garden theme and the Japanese Garden. I really dig the blue color – it’s like this air conditioner for the eyes. Plus, the layout is minimalist and tight for that.