Quarterly Maintenance-Big Canoe & Little 5 Points

With all the recent weather delays, I find myself pretty much working whenever it isn't raining-including this weekend. On Saturday my son and I went up to Big Canoe for a quarterly maintenance account, today I went down to Little 5 Points to do part of the quarterly maintenance and prepare for changing out the annual flower beds. Should finish there later this week-as the first part of the week is devoted to finishing a drainage job in Brookhaven before the weather turns again...never a dull moment;-)

More Drainage Work-in Brookhaven

This is another job made necessary by the recent heavy rains. I will be exposing the foundation along one side of the house to inspect for cracks/leaks (basement flooded). A waterproofing contractor may be called in if cracks are identified, then I will be installing a new foundation drain on that side of the house. Today I was out inspecting the existing drainage system-which involved flushing the downspout pipes and locating the end of the pipe in a fairly dense ivy bed by looking for the water.

Ansley Park Grassing & Drainage-Complete

Very happy to beat the predicted rain on this one-now the rain on the way should just do the beneficial job of watering in the new hybrid fescue seed in the back. Finished yesterday with all the backfilling of the driveway and grading, got all the removed edging stones stacked (homeowner plans to use the to create some raised beds in the future), finished the fine grading for the grass and put down Rebel Elite fescue blend seed, fertilizer and wheat straw. Also added mulch to the front in the areas where I installed a french drain and added soil--pretty busy day!

Ansley Park-Grading

Finally dried out enough to get some reak work done at the Ansley Park job. Got the back rough graded today and it's ready for the addition of a layer of fill/topsoil mix in preparation for fescue seeding. In the front, the driveway was re-poured not too long ago and it was never backfilled against the edges-I took care of one side when I sodded it during the summer, today I addressed the opposite side and graded it out for proper drainage-especially on the side where the french drain was just installed.

On the Drawing Board - Collier Rd.

I will be drawing a plan for this house in the next two weeks. Plan will include tree removal, new landscaping, sod and drainage..a new driveway/turnaround and some fencing.

Finishing up the Drainage Work-Ansley Park

This final step on the drain system was completed on Friday. I use a specially made fabric - "Soil Separator Fabric"-that is designed so that it allows all the water to pass through into the gravel-but keeps soil from getting into the gravel that surrounds the drain pipe-then into the pipe itself.

Ansley Park Fescue Renovation Update-

I was happy to see the results of my herbicide application here a couple of weeks ago. As soon as we get a decent break in the rain I will be adding soil, removing some edging stones, and installing a new fescue lawn with seed.

Ansley Park-Drainage

This project was spurred on by the recent very heavy rain in Atlanta. The basement of the house was getting water inside and the owner requested I add a French Drain and regrade the area where water has become a problem. The photos below walk you thru the process-starting with the area being heavily planed with Azaleas and Ferns which had to be removed. A 12" x 12" trench is then dug and compacted, crushed granite laid down and compacted then followed by installation of the pipe and #57 gravel. I ran out of gravel today and will be adding some more-but I think I have it in good shape to withstand the rain predicted for tonight and tomorrow. After the gravel is completed it will be covered with soil separation fabric then graded.

Briarcliff Woods-Completed

A sample of the shots I took of the completed work this afternoon-

Briarcliff Woods-Front Yard Improvements

Catching up on the blog this morning while being delayed by the rain again...Monday saw the delivery of some screened topsoil mix and I worked on getting it dispersed until it just got too wet (see below photo). Yesterday was much better as I got all the soil moved and plants relocated and raised. This project has two goals...the first is to add soil to some beds and bed areas in order to raise the plants which have been suffering from the original landscaper planting too low-combined with some heavy clay soil that really retains the water and doesn't drain well. The larger bed also had a huge White Oak removed recently and needed some replacement/addition of plants (Variegated Pittosporum are new-the azaleas were dug and stored while the tree work was going on-then replanted).

Fescue Renovation in Ansley Park

Looks like a pretty decent lawn in the photos-recently mowed-but 98% weeds. I have done a couple of other projects at this house, and today I went out to spray and kill the lawn in the photos. I will be regrading, adding topsoil and seeding the same area with hybrid fescue around in about 10 days-2 weeks.