The first step was to remove the old cement and to make sure that the area to be dug out was at least one foot deep.
Next, 3/4″ gravel stone was laid and then tamped down by that yellow machine. Then two inches of concrete sand was spread and tamped down over the gravel. This locks the bricks into place and holds them steady, to prevent the pavers from shifting postion over time.
Next, the guys laid 1″ pipe on each side of the walkway. By sliding a board over these pipes, they were able to create a level surface to build the walkway.
A Herring Bone pattern was used for the antique style brick pavers. The border of sideways bricks for this walkway is called a Sailor’s course. If you line the bricks up the other way it would be called a Soldier’s course.
See the line of bricks on top of the walkway? They will trace those brick with chalk, then follow the chalk marks with the saw, to create the correct shape of the path.
The last step of this process was to sweep stone dust into all the cracks. This helps hold all the bricks into place.
Hi! Elise’s son Ben here to shamelessly plug the new webcomic my sister Megan and I are working on:
“Cuddles the Friendly Spore is a comic about… uh… well we’re not sure, but it has a happy mushroom in it.” — Megan
Today’s post celebrates the new Star Trek movie. I’ve been a Trek fan (read: huge nerd) since I was a kid, so it seems appropriate to celebrate it on the release date of the new movie. Which is today.
Just click on Cuddles to be taken to his site!
Every year we pick a few projects to do around the house. Last summer we had our house redone wiith vinyl siding and we extended the pipe under our driveway to deal with erosion issues. One of our projects this time around is to remove the old ugly concrete walkway and garage entryway that spoils the look of the front of our house.
You can see how the concrete here is cracked and buckling.
I guess it’s no wonder that this is happening, as this concrete was poured back in 1956. I’ll do a seperate post to show you what we did to replace this unslightly mess.
We have a patch of Periwinkle in front of the house that encircles several Locust trees. Residing also in this shady spot is one White Trillium. It has bloomed every year that we have lived here. That would be 27 years.
This picture is one I took last year, around May 10th. In it the Trillium has turned pink, which it does right before it dies for the season. Trilliums have three petals. The name translates to “three” in Latin. In 1987, it became the official wildflower for the state of Ohio. You can see that the Lillies of the Valley are just starting to bloom, as the Trillium is fading.
I was taking pictures of my buckeye tree, happened to look straight up and there he was. I don’t think he even knew I was there. Zoom lenses are a wonderful thing.
Angel Eyes Narcissus is a short cup variety of daffodil and a good choice for naturaliztion.
Salome is a white trumpet daffodil that has a pastel apricot colored center.
This type of daffodil is classified as “long cup”. But it does have a shorter cup than the trumpet varieties. It’s name is Sempre Avanti, which is Italian for “always forward”
We hired a tree service to inspect all of our large locust trees which were close enough to our house to do major damage, if they were to fall on our home. Eight trees were identified as being rotted inside. How was this assessed? A hole was located and a stick inserted. Damp saw dust was scooped out from inside the trees, as evidence that the trees were indeed rotting and potentially dangerous. Many of them were also leaning towards the house. This new wood pile is THREE rows deep.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this and I couldn’t watch for long, I think my fear of heights started to kick in.
The next day, we hired a stump grinder to get rid of all the remaining stumps. as you can see, we still have lots of trees left!
Exactly one year ago I made this post on Guinia Hen Lillies. They are an unusual springtime perennial that has bloomed like clockwork in my garden for the past 27 years. The flowers comes in two different colors. Most are a maroon in color, with a checkered pattern. There are also pale yellow flowers, which appear in smaller numbers.
In Europe, these are considered wildflowers.
This checkered lilly has been given several really ugly nicknames. Snake’s head lily, and Sullen lady are not very nice! Shaped like the bells carried by lepers in medieval times, it was also called Leper’s Bell.
Aren’t Purple Finches pretty? If you wish for them to visit you on a regular basis, try offering sunflower seeds, millet, or thistle.
This male has a drop of water hanging from his beak.
Here he is again with his better half. Did you know that House Finches tend to compete with the Purple Finches for resources and usually win out? This unfortunately, has lead to a dwindling number of Purple Finches. They do prefer to live in coniferous trees, so if you have a pine tree in your yard, your’e in luck.