Flagstone patio w/ lighted sitting wall in Vestavia, Alabama...just pictures

Flagstone patio, fire pit, steps and sitting wall, Emerald zoysia sod, and drainage. That's the not so condensed title of this post.

Here's a project I recently designed/installed in Vestavia Hills, AL -

 

This project objective was to create an additional outdoor space to the existing deck. The middle rail of the deck was removed to allow access to the flagstone patio area.

Elevation and drainage were given careful consideration while designing the project.

The sitting wall was installed so it could be backfilled creating a slight slope away from the patio.

This drainage basin with a heavy duty plastic grate was our fix for a substantial drainage problem. There are 2 four inch pvc pipes that handle the rain water depositing it 110 feet at the other end of the property.

The fire pit will be put to good use in the Fall and Winter months.

 

My brother, John, helped me with this project which included installing six pallets of Emerald zoysia sod.

90 percent of this patio was installed using a buff polymer sand. Method: The original dirt was hand tamped. Then #57 gravel was installed follow by a 1 to 2 inch layer of #8910 gravel. We followed the addition of the gravels by tamping with a plate compactor. Finally, a thin layer of sand was added which assisted in leveling the flagstone.The polymer sand was used as a substitute for a mortar grout. The product set up great.

Here are the before pictures!

Purple Heart/Wandering Jew/Purple Secretia... (tradescantia pallida)

I am a fan of this purple leaf, evergreen perennial plant. It is actually a species of the common native, spiderwort, of which there are several species. Secretia is certainly planted prolifically throughout the Southeastern US....at least the species pallida is, which is the purple leaf plant that looks like it might be a succulent, growing to about 2 feet tall (but can get taller). There are varieties of this plant that offer unique characteristics such as variegation, but I am of the opinion that those, in some instances, can be more difficult to grow and some are less hardy than the common Secretia that we see everywhere. Secretia is typically planted in a linear border type of arrangement. I thought I'd make this post to encourage folks to think about this plant differently; more of a plant for a mass grouping where it can be very impressive.

These two photos are from a planting I did for a customer in Hoover, AL in the Spring of 2017.


A couple of notes about Secretia:
*It can grow in full sunlight to medium shade.
*It prefers loamy, well drained soil....doesn't do so well in heavy clay.
*While it is considered an "evergreen perennial", the plant may not look all that happy during the Winter months where you can see a reduction in foliage and what leaves remain can appear to be less turgid and appear, "flat". My location is in central Alabama where Secretia is planted on every block. Our USDA zone rating is right on the fence at 7 and 8, just to give you an idea.

Flagstone Stepping Stones

A few random pieces of flagstone can make a nice stepping stone path through your lawn. Situate your flagstone to that the top is just above the soil line and lower than the level where a mower might make contact. Twist and turn the stones into a pattern that doesn't seem too regimented and make the distance between the stone comfortable for folks to walk across.
And, as so often is the case, it is what you don't see that makes what you do see look good or not so good. The base soil beneath these flagstone pieces should be excavated deeply enough  so that the soil can be tamped and  then leveled with a paver base gravel or sand that the flagstone will actually sit on. Also, be sure your flagstone pieces are not too thin. I prefer at least 1" thick flagstone and if the pieces I'm using are particularly large, I'll try to select pieces that are 1.5"+ thick. Some of the larger flagstone pieces in this photo are close to 3.5' x 2.5' (wide x long).

Photo: Step stones I installed about 1 year ago.

A friend and client I have worked with, off and on, recently had their grounds highlighted in Birmingham Magazine. I'm excited and honored that I am mentioned in the article.  Most of my participation in helping Julie was done close to 25 years ago. I am proud to see, however, several of the plants I installed still thriving after nearly a quarter century.  Make no mistake about it, though, Julie Cash is a creative and knowledgeable plant person. What she has done with her yard is wonderful. Here is some of the article that I was able to pull from the Birmingham Magazine Facebook page.

 

Gorgeous Gardens of Birmingham: Charming Cottage

This Homewood garden has been around for 26 years. Photo by Jean Allsopp.

Birmingham magazine 

on April 06, 2017 at 10:25 AM, updated April 06, 2017 at 12:21 PM

 

 

Homeowner Julie Cash has been cultivating the grounds of her Homewood home for more than 26 years. "Our gardens evolve every year," says Cash, who
enjoys both the digging and design aspect of landscape arts. With some help from Rob Huckestein of Harmony Landscaping, the Cash family has turned their little plot of land into a personal haven.
"My favorite design element is our stone wall that was built more than 10 years ago," Cash says. "The wall defines our flower beds and provides options for trailing annuals, plants of different heights, and places for us to sit and enjoy our garden and mingle with our neighbors."
Each spring and autumn, Cash selects different annuals and perennials to add to her garden. She admits her ideas are constantly changing, but she stresses the importance of having fun with the designs and trying new things. "This spring I am planting nasturtiums behind the stone wall, hoping they will drape over the wall," she says. "I planted poppy seeds last fall, too, and the babies are
growing well. By March 1, I plan to start seeds for different varieties of Black Eyed Susans, and I will plant these in a sunny spot in my backyard."
The avid gardener attributes her success to a few key practices. "Organic gardening has been a big part of the health of our garden," Cash says. She explains that she uses leaf mold and homemade compost more than any other soil amendments. Though she shops locally for most of her supplies, she acquires the majority of her seeds from Johnny's Seeds in Maine. And she also tries to stay vigilant in protecting her plantings from "the numerous wild
animals in our neighborhood who keep us entertained and frustrated."
All in all, Cash maintains that the work is well worth it. "My favorite spot is sitting on my steps, watching birds, hanging out with my dog, and drinking coffee in the morning or wine in the late summer evenings," Cash says. "But, after just a few minutes, I find a flower in need of deadheading, a weed to pull, or a flower to pick to go in one my old glass bottles."
She enjoys seeing pansies, foxgloves, and snapdragons come into bloom, but she also loves the day-to-day duties of gardening. She says, "Any day when I have dirt under my fingernails is a good day!"
--By Andrea Fanning | Photos by Jean Allsopp
This story appears in Birmingham magazine's April 2017 issue. 

A rose is a rose is not a rose.

Not this one, any how. It's Lady Banks Rose and it differs from what we normally think of when we think rose. It is thornless and that's nice. Also, it is evergreen..another plus. One negative is that it is not a repeat bloomer. Don't let that deter you from wanting one in your yard, though. The plant can be breathtaking when it does bloom in the early Spring. This is a climbing rose, although, I've heard of people using it as a free standing large shrub. Lady Banks works well trained over an entrance or up a trellis. It can easily grow 20'+ from the ground out. These pictures are from a plant I installed about 10 years ago. I've been maintaining it since the installation by pruning it back during the Summer from time to time and supporting it above the garage door.

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What's a landscaper to do during water restrictions and severe drought?

Hardscaping!

Well, the 3 month drought finally ended a few days ago while I was finishing up this job in Helena, AL. There were water restrictions in some places and the ground had become really hard, so the rain was exciting. Up until this week, no one has been interested in planting anything this fall. This job was a drought stricken-ed landscaper's dream....stone work!
Job - Steps, walls, grading work, prep for Spring sod work.
 

Secure Mail

A very nice couple in Pelham called me and asked me over to take a look at their situation. It seems that in the middle of the night a "not so cautious traveler" swerved into their mailbox which was mounted onto a fairly heavy duty metal pole. Both the pole and the mailbox were crushed.
This new stone mailbox was fun for me because I needed to try to match the stonework on the home to the mailbox. Also, I built a couple of planters
to match the mailbox. My homeowners intend to plant mums in the coming days. Hopefully, I can swing around and take a picture or two of the mailbox dressed up.













Please feel free to click on the picture for closer inspection!

Bang for your Buck...Rip Rap Stone Bench

Stone benches like the one I completed a few days ago can cost a pretty penny when you add together the cost of the stone, cement, rebar, mortar/sand and the labor. This bench was 8' long by 12"+ deep by 17" tall,,,fairly substantial, and it didn't break the bank. I used rip rap (a limestone product quarried here in Alabama and typically used for drainage applications) for the majority of the bench. Concrete pavers (2 or 3 dollars a piece) were used for the coping (sitting surface) as another a way to achieve a desired affect for a fraction of the cost. It's not a bad way to go if you are sticking to a budget.

                                                              *click on pic for closer inspection!

SNAP! Transforming a Mulch Path into a Solid Stone Path

Large (and heavy) snapped slabs of brown stone, quarried near Oneonta, AL, is what I used to form my step treads for this converted mulch to stone path on Lake Martin, near Alexander City, AL. Each slab was about 40" by 14" by 3" to 4" thick, giving the overall look of the project a "solid" appeal. I decided to make the riser heights just under 6" and that made traversing the incline easy and gave the project the look I was after. In between each snap stone step are lengths of Alabama brown flagstone walkway...the width is a consistent 40", same as the step treads. Beige mortar was used in the mortar joints for continuity. Finally, moss rock was the stone of choice for what remained of the risers. The use of darker moss rock was a subtle attempt to break up the shades of brown in the step treads and flagstone.


Note: What you don't see is the hand excavation, the relentless tamping, and the ample amounts of gravel, concrete and rebar that was used under the ornamental stone to make this pathway reliable. Also, there was plenty of consideration given to where steps were placed and how to incorporate the curves and gradations along the length of the pathway.
Additional Note: It is quite interesting to watch large stone being snapped at the quarry. A large piece of stone (for instance, it could be say... 4' by 7' by 4" thick) is placed on a table with heavy duty rollers and the size being ordered is marked off. Then the stone is placed under hydraulic splitters where they are slowly lowered until the slab is broken off at the desired dimensions. It's a much better look, for certain applications, than cut stone.

Lighting Up an Old Friend

I'm lucky to have customers who have stuck with me for decades. I've been fortunate to watch their children grow up along with the plants I've installed for them. One such family lives south of Birmingham, AL. I'm not sure how long I've tinkered in their yard, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn it has been 25 years. These folks are yard people. They're plant people and outdoorsy people. Above all, they're family people. I knew enough about them to know that their back yard needed to reflect their personality. So it has a campfire area and a couple of ponds and pathways and patios. Lots of plants, as well. You'll see oak leaf hydrangea, hypericum (densiflorum),ferns, Japanese maples, ornamental grasses and much more as you wind your way around their fun and inviting backyard. This year I installed LED lighting for the back yard. Up-lighting was used on the beautiful maple trees, some puck lights were installed on the fencing and deck. Down-lighting spotlit some darker areas in the yard. And a few path lights were strategically placed to round out the job. I wouldn't have known where to start to take an adequate picture. Lucky for me, my client happens to be an accomplished, published photographer. His specialty is nature photography and he graciously spent time capturing a couple of scenes from his backyard for me to have, which I am now sharing with you. Please check out Len Holland and his awesome artistry displayed in his two books, Serendipity and Serendipity II Waiting for the Light.

Ms. Nancy's Emerald Green Arborvitae

I generally shy away from linear plantings and tight pruning. It's just not my preference. The need for both was warranted in this instance. It was about 7 years ago when I met the couple who own this home in Birmingham, AL. They were looking for a planting that would screen their view of the side of the neighbor's house. Emerald Green arborvitae was the plant they wanted to use and as I looked at the site, it was obvious to me that their choice of plant was a good one. I also knew that there were cultural requirements that would have to be met in order for those plants to do well....good sunlight, drainage, proper spacing, watering, correct pruning, etc. One of the first things I checked for on this job was the condition of the soil. It was, as I suspected, poor. Really poor! Thick, gummy clay. Over half of the labor for this job was used in removing the clay for each individual hole to a depth of close to two feet and replacing it with sifted, loamy top soil. That alone was not going to correct the drainage issues. Simply removing an amount of clay and replacing it with soil would be akin to creating a bowl of water for the roots to sit in. Not only did we replace the clay, but we also went to the trouble of incorporating the good soil into the clay sitting deeper than 2'.

It was also going to be important to plant the arborvitaes shallow. It is important to plant most plants slightly shallow, but in this instance, I planted so the top of the root ball was sitting about 4" or 5" above the existing soil line. There are some nuances to consider when planting this shallow that I won't go into, but we were very careful and conscientious while doing the install. Once the planting was complete, its success was now going to be totally dependent on the maintenance. The homeowners have been great in this regard. They keep the plants properly watered, and Ms. Nancy, my plant buddy, keeps a watchful eye on all of her plants. Two or three years back, she emailed me telling me that she noticed one of the arborvitaes losing its vivid green color. I identified the problem to be spider mites and we took care of the problem in short order. The most important maintenance measure performed, especially in the last 3 or 4 years, is the pruning. I've been the exclusive pruner on these plants for their lifetime. When I prune most conifers (Emerald Green arborvitae being a conifer), I realize that they are not like other plants (broad leaf plants) in that they do not respond to heavy pruning. You have to be alert when pruning a conifer and not cut too deeply or the plant may not respond with new growth. This is somewhat of a challenge for this particular planting as we went with a fairly tight spacing (just under 3' from center to center). You can't let this planting go unpruned for too long if you are wanting each plant separated from the other or else you'd potentially be pruning on wood that wouldn't produce new growth. Prune too deeply and you might be looking at bare patches that would never fill in. Another important aspect of pruning these arborvitae is to prune so your plants (I'm really talking all woody shrubs, here) are leafy to the ground. It is common to see plants that look like lollipops or maybe they are bare at the bottom. This is because the plants are being pruned improperly. Anyway, probably way to much time spent on a type of planting I generally don't "get into", but this one is nice, largely due to the plant savy of Ms. Nancy. Hey, this planting looks so good that a lawn company used it on the front of their brochure to highlight what great work "they" do...no kidding!

Stack medium moss rock entrance planters w/ Ruby Slippers hydrangea

Just South of Birmingham in a quiet neighborhood just off hwy. 280, I met a very nice couple that was interested in updating the entrance to their property by incorporating stone and some new plantings. The area in question was not draining very well so it was deemed important to create a raised environment for the Ruby Slippers hydrangea and Georgia Blue Veronica we'd be installing for the project. Here are some before and afters. I'm hoping to get some additional pictures when the hydrangeas leaf out and bloom.

Flagstone Patio Install Using Polymer Sand

Here's a little 10' patio I'm currently working on. The job is nearly complete except that the very last thing to do, applying the actual sand, needs to be done when temps are above 60 degrees for a few hours. I hope to finish the job, tomorrow.

Short days, long nights, security and accentuation...

....all good reasons to consider lighting for your home. The improving LED systems are really taking over the market. LED uses much, much less energy and the bulbs last much, much longer. It's a win, win! OK, I'll stop, stop. This is a small install I did last week, in Chelsea, AL.

Flagstone Patio, Sitting Wall, and yes, a Fire Pit....in July!!!

I completed this project, last month, for my animal loving client. It was a large (350+ sq. ft.) flagstone patio using Alabama quarried brown stone. There was also a 12' long sitting wall using brown stack stone with a flagstone coping. I inserted three large stones into the sitting wall that my client's son brought in which gave the project some extra character. Finally, a "largish" fire pit was installed for those cool Alabama Summer nights!

Front stoop transformation...

I took an ol' front porch stoop made of pine decking and rails and converted into a stone stoop with a flagstone surface and some nice wrought iron railing. Job number one was to demolish the existing wood deck and steps.

Job number two was to build the new stoop! The Wrought Iron work was done by Howell Steel in Maylene, AL. The remainder of the work was done by yours truly. After much measurin', and levelin', and eye ballin'; here's the finished project:

Small walls have their place.

This project found me in downtown Birmingham, AL. The landscaping was essentially in place aside from moving a Japanese maple from one side of the building to the other. Some plastic edging was removed and fresh mulch applied. The biggest part of the job was installing the brown stone borders. It was a way to tidy things up a bit and improve curb appeal.

After:

(click on images for closer inspection!)