At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Looking great! I don't think you'll notice the Y pipes after a while. If you wait to seed, you may find areas that start to grow moss. I know a lot of guys battle it in their lawns, but it can be a good alternative in some locations. You can feed it with powdered milk.

Hobie,
I haven't seen any moss around here. Also, we won't put down the topsoil until just before we plant so it'll be hard for anything to grow.
Obed

 

[CurlyDave]

Rick,
My wife mentioned letting the woods take some of it back. We'll have to see how it all goes. Wildflowers could be pretty there at the edge of the woods if they can get enough sunlight.

Obed

You could speed that up quite a bit by planting desirable trees around the edge of the area.

Personally, I don't count fruit trees as desirable. We once lived in a house with 8 or 9 fruit trees, plums to persimmons. They all came ripe within a month every year and mature trees can produce incredible amounts of fruit. Probably 50-100 lbs of fruit per tree.

Giving it away was a full-time job. If we let it fall, it was the biggest mess ever seen. DW had an American Eskimo dog, which loved the ripe apricots. She started out being able to jump high enough to reach the low ones on the tree, but by the end of the second season, she was as big & heavy as a medicine ball. Couldn't even get into the floor of the back seat of the car, much less jump up on the seat.

 

[mikefromnh]

Hobie,
I haven't seen any moss around here. Also, we won't put down the topsoil until just before we plant so it'll be hard for anything to grow.
Obed

I'd consider growing a green manure or cover crop now to avoid run-off. Rye or buckwheat maybe. Areas where you don't want to have to mow you might try growing clover -doesn't get very tall so you barely every have to mow.

 

[Obed]

The grading contractor keeps covering up the roots of our trees with dirt. I have told him over and over not to do so and it still keeps happening. I'm about at my wits end. Last night I spent the entire evening removing dirt from the roots of the grandest tree in our front yard. There was almost a foot of dirt covering the roots. All the dirt in the shown in the last picture was covering the roots of our large chestnut oak tree.

After moving the dirt, I put a stake with a flag in front of the tree to show the contractor where dirt cannot be added. You can just barely see the stake in the last picture. I would think that telling him "Do not cover the roots of any trees with dirt" would be explanation enough but apparrently that is not the case.

 

[Obed]

Garden Water Line Question
Hey guys. I have asked the grading contractor to give me an estimate for running a water line from the house to the garden area. I told him I wanted two 1" PVC lines buried 2' deep. The second line running to the garden is a spare in case the first line breaks. I'm guessing we are talking around 200' of trench. I would like to run the water line to the garden before we put down topsoil and seed our yard.

Question #1: While the trench is open, can you think of anything else I should put in the trench?

In addition, I would like to be able to shut off the garden water line close to the house. The picture above shows where the water line that runs from the well meets the house. The second pipe is a spare. There is a T-connection with a 2 foot long pipe capped off. The capped off pipe was put there in preparation for running a water line to the garden area. These pipes have long been covered up about 2 feet below ground.

Question #2: I would like to put a valve in the waterline below ground to prevent freezing. Do you have any idea how to do this? Obviously I need to access the valve in order to operate it.

Thanks in advance,
Obed

 

[Dishpointer]

Why not just run some PEX straight from the house and put a 2' burry yard hydrant at the garden. Pex will not crack even when frozen and the yard hydrant will not freeze since the water drains out the bottom when shut off. You could always put a shut off valve in the house.

 

[Tororider]

While the trench is open: Speaker wire? Who knows you may want to listen to music while gardening and the trench is open. But seriously, do you want an outlet out there to run electrical tools for gardening, etc? Just a thought, and smart to do it while it is open the first time.

 

[dstig1]

Orange snow fence may be your best option to keep them away from trees, but by the time you get it in they will probably be done.

You can always add an electrical conduit or 2 in the trench so you can pull wires later on (LV or power or both but you don't want to run both in the same tube).

There are faucets that have an extension to shut off below the frost line, but I think those all include a hose bib (outlet), and are not a simple line shut off. If you wanted to get crazy you could use a shut off like they do at the street for city water. I think your best bet is to put it inside the basement.

 

[dcyrilc]

Orange snow fence may be your best option to keep them away from trees, but by the time you get it in they will probably be done.

You can always add an electrical conduit or 2 in the trench so you can pull wires later on (LV or power or both but you don't want to run both in the same tube).

There are faucets that have an extension to shut off below the frost line, but I think those all include a hose bib (outlet), and are not a simple line shut off. If you wanted to get crazy you could use a shut off like they do at the street for city water. I think your best bet is to put it inside the basement.

I know I'm crazy, but the fact that I have curb valves and water valve boxes on all my water lines must prove it.:laughing: It does make it easy when you need or want to work on a line though. Remove the lid from the box, drop the valve handle over the valve, give a quarter turn on the handle, and replace the lid. Done.

 

[dcyrilc]

Garden Water Line Question
Hey guys. I have asked the grading contractor to give me an estimate for running a water line from the house to the garden area. I told him I wanted two 1" PVC lines buried 2' deep. The second line running to the garden is a spare in case the first line breaks. I'm guessing we are talking around 200' of trench. I would like to run the water line to the garden before we put down topsoil and seed our yard.

Question #1: While the trench is open, can you think of anything else I should put in the trench?

Thanks in advance,
Obed

I would recommend running automatic sprinkler cable out to the garden area. It's inexpensive and if you ever want to automate the watering this will make it much easier.