Renovating an overgrown landscape-part three of a series.
One of the lessons I learned the hard way in my years of building and rebuilding landscape projects has been to realize that the project will generate a lot of waste that must be dealt with. During my initial talks with Holly (the client), I asked if the area had pick up services for such waste and she told me that we would have to cut it up and put it in special bags in order to put it out on the street. I chuckled at that because I knew that there would be a lot of stuff and that the bags and the time to fill them would not be cost effective. Since I was not familiar with the Atlanta area, I asked Holly if she would make some arrangements.
The site had been way over planted and then had been allowed to become overgrown. As we pruned and cleaned, we piled the debris in a corner of the circular drive. It grew and grew.
We ran out of room on the front drive and started piling the clippings and leaves on the lower parking area in the back yard. I wanted to have the piles in places that offered easy truck access. It was sort of fun working around a 1970 Karman Ghia. Both of the piles got rather large.
Holly said that she had been pleased in the past with results from Angie’s List and that she liked reading the comments and reviews. Well, let me tell you-Holly did a good job of finding someone to haul off the waste material. While I was working and watching the pile grow, a nice looking man pulled up, got out of the car, and asked, “Are you John?”
His name was Ryan Tabb, owner of Peachtree Junk Removal. Ryan is one of those people who I liked immediately. He walked around with me and looked at all of the details involved with the waste removal. He even noticed some old paint cans and told me that there was a special, environmentally friendly way of dealing with them.
Ryan gave Holly a reasonable bid price and had his truck at the site promptly on the day and time that he had promised. I was impressed. I was told that all of the biodegradable waste would be taken to a composting site and would be turned into something useful and eco friendly. I liked that. Ryan sent a giant truck with a lift gate and two delightful helpers, Jason and Ebie.
Everyone teamed up and loaded the truck. One of the things I liked about Peachtree Junk Removal was that everyone was cheerful and worked hard. No one complained when the job required two loads instead of one. They turned waste removal into a pleasant experience.
Ryan called and told me that the weights at the dump site were 3300 pounds for the first load and 3800 pounds for the second. That was a lot of pruning. We were both surprised at the amount.
After the waste removal, we put out 150 bales of pine straw to make the yard shine. I wasn’t able to get “after” pictures because the light wasn’t right when we got finished. The next job on the yard will be to repair the sprinkler system and the 12 volt lighting. After that, we will fill in a few places with new plants and seasonal color. The series will continue in a couple of weeks.
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You may wish to see a previous article which explains the dynamics of plant pruning:
Pruning as an art form-the basics of pruning
February is also a good time for carefully shaping your Crape Myrtles. Read about it in my article, Zen and the art of crape myrtle pruning
If you would like a consultation with John Schulz, Landscape Artist, in your yard, Please contact me by email
As usual, I would just love for you click here to go to Amazon and purchase the ebook edition of my wonderful book, Requiem for a Redneck to go on your Kindle. I have also noticed that Amazon now has a free Kindle app for iphones and tablets. Is that cool or what?
johntheplantman--Gardening 