The Gardening Thread (1 Viewer)

[jynx]

what type of stone? Or patio surface treatment?

I prefer 78m stone for base material. A 3/8” pea like gravel but top material can influence the base construction.
Crush n run (abc) is great but a pain to get just right and then if your stone thickness varies fine tuning height is a real pain. If I were to use it as a base I’d come back with 1.5” of screenings (granite dust) on top and skreet it off level (well flat with slope for drainage) and tamp it down. Then that material is easier to add or remove to adjust for final stone variances. Also if you don’t want to over dig base to get Tony dwelling stone just go down 4-6”. Add fabric, then 3” abc and 1.5 inch screenings, 1.5” thick stone.


+stone > pavers
+Big stones > little pieces.
+If doing irregular flagging break up the joint lines. Don’t let a joint run on across multiple stones
+Gravel makes a great casual patio too. Let’s you spend more on the fire pit, edging, furniture and plant containers...... and is a perfect base to add stone in the future.

I am talking about using the crusher as the surface. The existing grade (read the bedrock) is not going to lend itself to adding a lot of thickness to it. I am trying to stay within a few inches of the FFE of the shop. Based on the lay of the land, I am resolved that I cannot match it and the seating area is going to have to be a little higher. I am looking at some quarry stack rock for a small retaining wall along the drive coming into the door and then using the fines/ crusher to infill and create the seating area with a fire pit in the center. the drive into the end of the shop has to have a slight slope downward to get into the building. plan to add a trench drain at the door to collect run-off and either continue that along the full length or swap to french drain using stone and perforated pipe.

Have you used crusher/ fines for surface before? It is either that or I pour concrete and compacted crusher would be much easier on the budget right now.

 

[jynx]

Looking out the big door on the shop.

You can see the base rock peaking out. Starting to rough grade the drive slope. I will get a better picture when I get home. Area to the right is where the fire pit and seating area will be.

 

[jfz80]

@jynx

I’ve used screenings as a surface before but it tracks everywhere (less a concern next to a shop than say a house entry to hardwood floors.... screenings scratch bad)

how much total thickness from soil to top of patio?

I prefer gravel. M78 is just the right texture to me. Problem is if you put fabric down to prevent it sinking into earth or mud coming through you need 3” to keep from seeing fabric.

other idea I have implemented is 1-1.5” screenings then 1 stone thick layer of 3/4” river pebbles. Then tamp those into screenings. Firms up nice and has decorative finish instead of utilitarian gravel or construction look of abc. Have done a couple budget temporary patios this way that never graduated to next level and happily remained as they were.

Don’t have a lot of pics on the new phone but lemme look

thats PA full color bluestone but sitting on top of m78. I’m using m78 for my driveway expansion as well

 

[jynx]

Didn't think about the tracking aspect. We did discuss pea gravel or something similar, so that might be the ticket.

 

[jfz80]

Not sure what Tennessee calls or classifies it as but this is the M 78 or 78 here in the NC/va quarry so 35 bucks a ton or so and it shovels well. It will get lodged in my boot treads but otherwise love it. Use it as base. surface. Drainage. Backfill. Wanting 16T as we speak for drive expansion and misc filler.

 

[S4Cruiser]

Don’t use pea gravel river rock. It will never compact (I did a walkway in it and hate it). You could do the crusher run as a base and top with this stone which I think is the same size as what Jason is referencing. Color varies by quarry. I use this for another pathway and it’s great. Only downside is it can get stuck in shoe treads. Minor thing really.

edit...everything that @jfz80 said. Lol.

 

[jynx]

Here is the end of the shop and a terrible phonto shop rendering.

And I believe what you are referring to is just 1/2" graded stone. (Passes the 78M seive 98-100% according to the NCDOT specs). I will look into it. And good to know about using it on the drive.

 

[pawwright]

what type of stone? Or patio surface treatment?

I prefer 78m stone for base material. A 3/8” pea like gravel but top material can influence the base construction.
Crush n run (abc) is great but a pain to get just right and then if your stone thickness varies fine tuning height is a real pain. If I were to use it as a base I’d come back with 1.5” of screenings (granite dust) on top and skreet it off level (well flat with slope for drainage) and tamp it down. Then that material is easier to add or remove to adjust for final stone variances. Also if you don’t want to over dig base to get To underlying stone just go down 4-6”. Add fabric, then 3” abc and 1.5 inch screenings, 1.5” thick stone.


+stone > pavers
+Big stones > little pieces.
+If doing irregular flagging break up the joint lines. Don’t let a joint run on across multiple stones
+Gravel makes a great casual patio too. Let’s you spend more on the fire pit, edging, furniture and plant containers...... and is a perfect base to add stone in the future.

holy poop, what a great reply. wow.

 

[JohnVee]

holy poop, what a great reply. wow.

He stayed at a Holiday Inn once.

 

[jfz80]

Moving the garden to the field from containers. Hoping for better moisture retention and less watering obligations.

 

[S4Cruiser]

I dream of a garden that size!

 

[Rice]

Moving the garden to the field from containers. Hoping for better moisture retention and less watering obligations.
View attachment 2309424

I was anticipating a little more "woo".

 

[AJR]

I guess I’ll post up here in this thread. I can’t really take credit for all of this, as my wife does most of the hard work. I just do the fun stuff. This past weekend, I abandoned the rotor tiller and expanded the garden significantly with this IH Cub. The neighbor came by a few weeks ago and said there was an old tractor in the barn that hadn’t been used since her husband passed away 6 or 8 years ago. She sold all of the other tractors but her sons wouldn’t let her sell this one. She said it was just rotting away, and if I could get it running I was welcome to use it. I rebuilt the carb, drained the tank, put new points and condenser, changed the oil and it fired right up. It’s got all kinds of attachments, this could easily be another hobby. The new spot will be corn, winter squash, melons, pumpkins and probably something else I’m forgetting. There’s already some potatoes planted there. Next to that is a cover crop that will soon be tiled in, some strawberries, some garlic, some chard that’s gone to seed, and all kinds of other stuff. Lots of work but it’s nice to have, we usually have some through the winter, hopefully this year, a lot more.

 

[S4Cruiser]

I guess I’ll post up here in this thread. I can’t really take credit for all of this, as my wife does most of the hard work. I just do the fun stuff. This past weekend, I abandoned the rotor tiller and expanded the garden significantly with this IH Cub. The neighbor came by a few weeks ago and said there was an old tractor in the barn that hadn’t been used since her husband passed away 6 or 8 years ago. She sold all of the other tractors but her sons wouldn’t let her sell this one. She said it was just rotting away, and if I could get it running I was welcome to use it. I rebuilt the carb, drained the tank, put new points and condenser, changed the oil and it fired right up. It’s got all kinds of attachments, this could easily be another hobby. The new spot will be corn, winter squash, melons, pumpkins and probably something else I’m forgetting. There’s already some potatoes planted there. Next to that is a cover crop that will soon be tiled in, some strawberries, some garlic, some chard that’s gone to seed, and all kinds of other stuff. Lots of work but it’s nice to have, we usually have some through the winter, hopefully this year, a lot more. View attachment 2311108View attachment 2311109View attachment 2311111

so freaking jealous!!

 

[JohnVee]

so freaking jealous!!

Too bad you built that pool...

 

[S4Cruiser]

Too bad you built that pool...

First priority in life - make wife happy. Then land cruisers then garden. Just need more land now...sigh.

 

[lt1fire]

First priority in life - make wife happy. Then land cruisers then garden. Just need more land now...sigh.

I hear you on space.... my brother is moving back up this way from LA. They are under contract for this.

I look at my 8,000 square foot lot and wonder about all I could do with over 650,000 sq/ft of land to work with.

But it has the right things he to get his import business into full swing and his wife will be selling their current business and then she will just raise my nephew and farm crops on the property.

 

[jfz80]

almost 3” of rain overnight did not bode well for the freshly tilled and planted garden.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

 

[alk747triodad]

I want to play!

We have had a garden for 25 years so I am glad to see members jump on board with their own gardens. Must be the threat of a food shortage or not wanting to go to the grocery store. The garden has always been our therapy but it does take a lot of work.

I'm not sure why we never had an ONSC garden thread but when I joined MUD in 2011, I remember posting in the Upstate Cruisers thread, Guns and Garden. That is probably what you remember Al. I was always jealous because those guys had the great, dark sandy soil, like AJR's soil, while we were trying to work our clay soil into something fertile. As we are getting older the soil is finally fertile but the trees keep growing and shading our garden. Others have said "get out the chainsaw", but we have too many to cut. And like I said, it takes a lot of work just to get the plants in the ground. Not to mention the hoeing, weeding, staking, tying up, and picking green worms off the tomato plants, etc, etc. I think we get about 5 hours a day of sunlight so we have shrunk it down to less than half the size we use to have. We were always planting 24 tomato plants, a green bean row, a cucumber row, couple squash plants, a few green peppers, and a couple hot peppers. This year, we are down to 3 cherry tomato plants, couple parks whoppers, couple better boys, a few unknown tomato plants, and maybe 3 pepper plants.

As an idea for your cherry tomatoes, I had an old easy up frame that worked great. It had gotten bent in a wind storm but it worked great for that purpose. I can't find the pic but we planted 4 tomatoes at each leg and as they grew, I weaved them up and around the frame so once they made cherries, they were off the ground and I, being vertically challenged, had to use a step ladder to pick the cherries. Picking cherries over my head was pretty fun.

We got a late start this year because of the cool weather and my old tiller was being a pain in the a$$; so I got my BIL to plow it for us. You can see we are not using the upper side because there is no sunlight like there use to be.

Started with some tomatoes and 1 pepper that a friend gave Lydia that he had started from seed. What we bought at the store was still too small to plant so we had to wait until they were big enough to put in ground. We did get them in the ground before the rain came in but I haven't got a pic yet.

This is a pic from the garden in 2017. Since then we have cut back the size even more due to not enough sunlight, time, and energy.

This makes all that work worthwhile