bmac
Veteran Member
For those of you who followed my home construction thread, you probably remember me saying that we busted the budget on the house and had little $$ left for landscaping. We ended up with a few foundation shrubs, a little sod and a lot of seeded yard.
I had a landscape designer develop amaster plan for us that included both hardscaping and plant selection. We thought he did an excellent job (I've since learned that maybe he didn't, but that's another story), so our plan was to phase in the plan as funds permitted.
So, my lovely bride and I take the plan to our favorite garden center and order the plant material for the planting bed immediately in front of the house. Between what we picked up and had delivered, we had 3 trees and about 85 shrubs (give or take). The bulk of the stuff was delivered last Saturday AM, in the rain. Had to wait until Sunday after church to get started with the planting. Spent the entire afternoon getting the 3 trees planted. At this time, I'm really questioning our decision to get so many plants.
While I'm at work on Monday AM and Tuesday PM, my wife manages to get about 24 plants in. Nice start, but she's really hurting. Our schedule and the weather keeps us from doing anything else for the rest of the week. During this time, I come up with a great idea (or so I think).
Yesterday, I picked up a Toro Dingo with an auger attachment from a local rental yard. I knew our ground was still too soft from the rains we had to get my tractor on it, but I figured something like the Dingo would work out fine.
Wrong!!!. I bored the 1st 2 holes with the Dingo on the driveway. Like a hot knife through butter. I'm pumped. About this time, my wife has to pick up the kids from school so I'm left at home with a guy who's finishing up some things like installing doorbells and stuff. I drive the Dingo over a small sodded area and quickly sink the thing up to the axels.
Now, I've got a guy coming in about an hour to give me an estimate on some trail clearing and the other guy is there working, so I can't leave until my wife gets home. No worries, I think. As soon as she gets home, I'll go get some 3/4" plywood and then we'll winch the Dingo out of the muck and onto the plywood and we'll get back to work.
Although it took awhile to liberate the Dingo, we did and the plywood trick worked great. A little slow repositioning the plywood as we moved from one hole to the next, but it gave my son and I a nice workout and my son learned how to operate the Dingo and things were going well. For awhile. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
I checked out the terrain on the other side of the house and it seems firm enough to forego the plywood. And it kind of was. I had a grade to climb and the wheels were spinning some as I tried to approach the next hole, but I was getting there. Just as it was starting to get a little dark, I made it to the location for the next hole. At this time, my brother from Florida arrived and was watching my masterful control of the Dingo. But something was different on this hole. No "hot knife through butter" feel. Strangely, the auger was somehow being drawn in toward the Ding, instead of going straight down like on the other holes.
As I attempt to raise the auger out of the hole, my brother's eyes are getting big. He sees the PVC irrigation line wrapped around the auger before I do. Then we both see the hole filling with water. By the time we located the master valve to turn the water off, the entire area is swamped.
I did manage to get the Dingo through the muck and back to the driveway without using my ATV/winch. But with daylight almost gone, I knew the Dingo work was done for the day.
18 holes dug. 50 some odd plants needing a hole. Butchered irrigation line. Severed low voltage wire going to one of the control valves. And a big family get together scheduled for today. It was quite an afternoon.
With the Dingo rental, gas and plywood, I figure I spent about $20/hole dug. Plus whatever it costs to repair the irrigation line. The PVC I can easily repair. Finding the other end of the cut wire and getting a good, water tight splice is another story.
I'm thinking that the rest of the holes will be dug by hand. And probably by day laborers.
I had a landscape designer develop amaster plan for us that included both hardscaping and plant selection. We thought he did an excellent job (I've since learned that maybe he didn't, but that's another story), so our plan was to phase in the plan as funds permitted.
So, my lovely bride and I take the plan to our favorite garden center and order the plant material for the planting bed immediately in front of the house. Between what we picked up and had delivered, we had 3 trees and about 85 shrubs (give or take). The bulk of the stuff was delivered last Saturday AM, in the rain. Had to wait until Sunday after church to get started with the planting. Spent the entire afternoon getting the 3 trees planted. At this time, I'm really questioning our decision to get so many plants.
While I'm at work on Monday AM and Tuesday PM, my wife manages to get about 24 plants in. Nice start, but she's really hurting. Our schedule and the weather keeps us from doing anything else for the rest of the week. During this time, I come up with a great idea (or so I think).
Yesterday, I picked up a Toro Dingo with an auger attachment from a local rental yard. I knew our ground was still too soft from the rains we had to get my tractor on it, but I figured something like the Dingo would work out fine.
Wrong!!!. I bored the 1st 2 holes with the Dingo on the driveway. Like a hot knife through butter. I'm pumped. About this time, my wife has to pick up the kids from school so I'm left at home with a guy who's finishing up some things like installing doorbells and stuff. I drive the Dingo over a small sodded area and quickly sink the thing up to the axels.
Now, I've got a guy coming in about an hour to give me an estimate on some trail clearing and the other guy is there working, so I can't leave until my wife gets home. No worries, I think. As soon as she gets home, I'll go get some 3/4" plywood and then we'll winch the Dingo out of the muck and onto the plywood and we'll get back to work.
Although it took awhile to liberate the Dingo, we did and the plywood trick worked great. A little slow repositioning the plywood as we moved from one hole to the next, but it gave my son and I a nice workout and my son learned how to operate the Dingo and things were going well. For awhile. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
I checked out the terrain on the other side of the house and it seems firm enough to forego the plywood. And it kind of was. I had a grade to climb and the wheels were spinning some as I tried to approach the next hole, but I was getting there. Just as it was starting to get a little dark, I made it to the location for the next hole. At this time, my brother from Florida arrived and was watching my masterful control of the Dingo. But something was different on this hole. No "hot knife through butter" feel. Strangely, the auger was somehow being drawn in toward the Ding, instead of going straight down like on the other holes.
As I attempt to raise the auger out of the hole, my brother's eyes are getting big. He sees the PVC irrigation line wrapped around the auger before I do. Then we both see the hole filling with water. By the time we located the master valve to turn the water off, the entire area is swamped.
I did manage to get the Dingo through the muck and back to the driveway without using my ATV/winch. But with daylight almost gone, I knew the Dingo work was done for the day.
18 holes dug. 50 some odd plants needing a hole. Butchered irrigation line. Severed low voltage wire going to one of the control valves. And a big family get together scheduled for today. It was quite an afternoon.
With the Dingo rental, gas and plywood, I figure I spent about $20/hole dug. Plus whatever it costs to repair the irrigation line. The PVC I can easily repair. Finding the other end of the cut wire and getting a good, water tight splice is another story.
I'm thinking that the rest of the holes will be dug by hand. And probably by day laborers.
