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Landscape Ideas and Design

Landscaping ideas and landscaping design projects are the purpose of this page and the pages below.  As we improve our property I hope to document in pictorial detail our landscaping ideas and designs.  As always I'm trying to new techniques to get the best material prices.  I've already completed a surface water drainage system and some nice rustic red stone sidewalks.  I've also prepared 3 separate shed foundations over the years.  On my Tips and Tricks pages I've documented a simple lawn edging technique that will hopefully reduce edging time.  Hopefully more to follow.

Our New Kubota B7610HST tractor with loader

Well we bit the bullet and dipped into savings to purchase a new Kubota Tractor model B7610HSD.  Kubota Tractor.  Now the B2320, B2620, B2920.

My mower blades won't disengage

This problem has gotten worse over time and it's a significant safety hazard.  I've addressed this lack of disengagement in the past with a minor tweak in the mower deck design.  But now the problem is back with a vengeance.

Eurocardan PTO shaft puzzles and tips

Well we've purchased a PTO Post Hole Digger (or Auger) for our Kubota tractor.  Part of the assembly of this auger involves mounting the PTO shaft on the auger gear box.  Frankly this PTO shaft was rather puzzling and here are several tips that hopefully will help you along if you are in a similar situation.  PTO Shaft Tips.

My dual axle utility trailer review

We decided since landscape material delivery costs were so high that we could save money by buying our own tandem axle utility landscape trailer.  I reviewed a lot of considerations before choosing a tandem axle trailer.  Also a unique method of unloading the trailer.

Fix the stone driveway

The driveway is five years old, somewhat sunken, covered with grass and weeds.  It's time for some driveway repair, just add 75 tons of stone and the stone driveway is repaired!

Mulching a steep slope.

We have a couple locations on our property where there are short steep slopes we would like to mulch.  Of course it's great to put landscape cloth under mulch, but guess what happens on a steep slope?  Right it all falls down!  To compound our problem we have very high winds at times, we are in a high exposed area surrounded by open fields.  I'll document our attempts and hopefully success at resolving these problems.  Steep slope mulching!

An effort saving tip when using your hose reel.

This tip for your hose reel should save you time and effort, and, wear and tear on the hose reel itself (and you too!).  Hose reel tips.

Would you like to skip the installation of underground landscape piping?

I know I needed a shortcut.  I just couldn't afford the time and money for trenching and all the fixtures and fittings.  So here's my shortcut to landscape piping, a tip.

The following pages will be added in the near future.

Surface Water Drainage system 

One project I have already completed is a surface water drainage system around the foundation of our home in Springville, PA.  When we moved in the grading around the foundation was not that great and we had some moisture in our basement, even though we have a gravity driven drain pipe around the base of our foundation.  I was going to add several yards of topsoil to our front yard along the foundation to assure there was sufficient grade for good drainage.  But before doing this I proceeded to add a surface water drainage system along two of our foundation walls to absolutely assure the basement will be relatively dry.

A Stone Shed Foundation for a 12 x 24 building on a slope.

For this shed first a very rough cut was done on the top soil to build what should be a minimum 14' x 26' pad of stone.  Why 14' x 26'?  With out some form of retaining boards you need a foot more of stone outside the perimeter of the building to weigh down and retain the stone beneath the building.  Some will say its to handle the waterfall from the building but it really is for stone retention.  I know my pad isn't big enough and the building has settled some, unfortunately as I anticipated it would!

A Wooden Shed Foundation for a 12 x 16 building on slope.

This one was in a community requiring a permit ( $120 ).  Footers below the frost line were a requirement.  In this case I built a "deck like" foundation out of 4' x 6's and 4' x 4's using 12 concrete footers bored below the frost line.