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Old 12-30-2007, 01:26 PM
 
Location: 5 miles from the center of the universe-The Superstition Mountains
1,084 posts, read 5,777,194 times
Reputation: 606

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Quote:
Originally Posted by nitram View Post
I read it and interpreted differently than you. Either way that's a lot of water.
Agreed...
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Old 01-20-2008, 02:00 PM
 
Location: Aurora,Colorado
18 posts, read 63,220 times
Reputation: 14
Exclamation Saving Rain Water

Billy Baroo said he wanted a way to save rain water for his trees.
Next to the last flagstone patio we built was a down spout that would have sent a flow of water over the patio every time it rained. Since the flagstone patio was laid on sand the water would have washed away the sand over time. There was a sidewalk between where the patio would be and the house so we cut out a chunk of the sidewalk and ran a black flex hose from the down spout under the sidewalk and under where the patio was to be constructed and had it end up in a French Drain( This is a hole in the ground approx 4'X4' and 4 feet deep filled with river rock or chucks of cement.) You could also run a perferated hose from the patio area out into the lawn area where the water would leach out in the surrounding areas.
Watering a tree with rain water you have to be careful not to drown the tree roots. Remember that a tree gets its water out past the drip line or the are past the tree limbs. I have seen lots of home owners as well as landscapers putting drip bags around the base of a tree to water it during a drought period. This is a waste of time and money.
When choosing a tree for your yard pick one that is adapted to the area. Here in Colorado we have to contend with elevation as well as beetles and so called droughts. When you plant a tree that is adapted to a foreign climate and elevation you can run into problems.
Years ago the Russian Olive was a big favorite in the Denver area and now you are not allowed to sell these trees because they are classified as a weed because they spread like wild fire and are very thirsty. A good small tree would be any of the Hawthorns and a tall tree a Maple Acer.
The cost of materials for a flagstone patio including: landscape fabric, sand and the flagstone itself depends on where the flagstone comes from. A sheet 4 feet long, 3 feet wide and 1 inch thick will weigh in excess of 150 pounds and the further the flagstone has to be trucked in the higher the costs. I like what we call Arizona Colors because it is a light tan with highlights of a darker brown but you can get flagstone in all sorts of colors like green from Texas and Red from Colorado.
Our retail prices in the Denver area for a patio of Arizona buff or Colors would be $5.00 a square foot, if you were to use the precut square pieces (12X12 ) it would run about $12.00 a square foot.
Pavestone make some pretty good paver and using the same sand and landscape frabric the cost would be $3.50 per square foot. Tumbled blocks or large bricks would run about $4.00 per square foot.
The time involved in laying out a flagstone patio depends on if it is one person or two people. Remembering that each piece weighs in excess of 150 pounds, trying to raise one end of the flagstone piece and compacting sand under the piece to level is not an easy project to undertake. The nice thing about using flagstone over brick or pavers is that you don't have to be careful of the north south and east west lines also a piece that is 4 feet by 3 feet takes less time to level compared to having to level pavers to cover the same area.
We use colored concrete for edging, colored the same as the flagstone, this keeps the sand in place and looks really nice. You could also place large rocks in the concrete for a raised edging and place small outdoor lights in between the stones to light up the patio at night.
What ever material you use it is important to kill off all weeds and grass in the area under the patio and compact the area before placing the landscape fabric down.
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Old 01-20-2008, 11:30 PM
 
Location: Red Rock, Arizona
683 posts, read 2,644,923 times
Reputation: 513
Quote:
Originally Posted by warren main View Post
Billy Baroo said he wanted a way to save rain water for his trees.
Next to the last flagstone patio we built was a down spout that would have sent a flow of water over the patio every time it rained. Since the flagstone patio was laid on sand the water would have washed away the sand over time. There was a sidewalk between where the patio would be and the house so we cut out a chunk of the sidewalk and ran a black flex hose from the down spout under the sidewalk and under where the patio was to be constructed and had it end up in a French Drain( This is a hole in the ground approx 4'X4' and 4 feet deep filled with river rock or chucks of cement.) You could also run a perferated hose from the patio area out into the lawn area where the water would leach out in the surrounding areas.
Watering a tree with rain water you have to be careful not to drown the tree roots. Remember that a tree gets its water out past the drip line or the are past the tree limbs. I have seen lots of home owners as well as landscapers putting drip bags around the base of a tree to water it during a drought period. This is a waste of time and money.
Thanks Warren, that gave me some good ideas. When I was a kid in Illinois, my dad ran a pipe from the downspout about 15 feet into the yard so he could keep the rainwater from seeping into the basement. I think I'm going to try and design a system like that that sends the excess rainwater out into my zones where the plants can use the supplemental water. Another downspout I think will be able to get water that way on my Chinese Pistaches. I've never used an irrigation system and I'm hoping that with my low water use plants and trees, I'll still be able to just hand water when needed and drop a hose near the trees until I get them established. May and June are the months I have to work at it the hardest, but when the rains come they take care of themselves just fine. I think I want to have the option of hooking more flexible pipe onto the end and redirect the rainwater where it's needed in case my trees start getting too much.
Thanks for the info on the flagstone. I'm coming up with some good ideas on that and might try using some old brick I have as a base for the sand and flagstone. I have a good friend that I'll recruit to help me move around the big pieces.
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Old 01-21-2008, 07:00 AM
 
16 posts, read 105,645 times
Reputation: 16
I would say, probably an extra 30ish a month. We have a small patch of grass about 500sq ft. when we watered it our bill was about 20 more than it is now. We stopped watering it because we don't like mowing it. Hubby is really busy w/college courses and two full time jobs. Plus when we did maintain it, we couldn't walk barefoot on it anyway because it was "thorney" feeling. Perenel Rye (spelled wrong) was very soft, we liked that a lot but couldn't get it to "take over" the Bermuda (which hubby is allergic to). If we had the money we would get the fake stuff. We know several people that have it (and have had it for several years) and they really like it. No it doesn't look real when you get really close and touch it. Walking by you could never tell though. It does get warm, but people we know don't go outside to enjoy the grass when it's that hot anyway.
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Old 01-21-2008, 12:09 PM
 
Location: Red Rock, Arizona
683 posts, read 2,644,923 times
Reputation: 513
Quote:
Originally Posted by Just.Believe View Post
Perenel Rye (spelled wrong) was very soft, we liked that a lot but couldn't get it to "take over" the Bermuda (which hubby is allergic to).
The rye is a winter grass and can't handle the summer heat. Most of the green grass you see around town now is a rye grass that was planted sometime in the fall. The bermuda grass goes dormant and turns brown during the winter, many people overseed their bermuda grass with rye every year and then it will die when it gets hot and the bermuda comes out of dormancy and turns green again. If you want rye again the next winter you have to repeat the seeding process over again.

Here's a good article I shared earlier about allergies and grass. If you stop watering bermuda grass it will start stressing and actually create more pollen.

Allergy and grass pollen

I hope this helps you.
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Old 01-24-2008, 09:15 AM
 
Location: Aurora,Colorado
18 posts, read 63,220 times
Reputation: 14
Default RTF Grass

Quote:
Originally Posted by Just.Believe View Post
I would say, probably an extra 30ish a month. We have a small patch of grass about 500sq ft. when we watered it our bill was about 20 more than it is now. We stopped watering it because we don't like mowing it. Hubby is really busy w/college courses and two full time jobs. Plus when we did maintain it, we couldn't walk barefoot on it anyway because it was "thorney" feeling. Perenel Rye (spelled wrong) was very soft, we liked that a lot but couldn't get it to "take over" the Bermuda (which hubby is allergic to). If we had the money we would get the fake stuff. We know several people that have it (and have had it for several years) and they really like it. No it doesn't look real when you get really close and touch it. Walking by you could never tell though. It does get warm, but people we know don't go outside to enjoy the grass when it's that hot anyway.
We have a low water type grass up here in Colorado called Resin Tall Fescue. It uses 1/2 the water as Blue grass and has the feel and color of blue grass. Seed can be gotten at Home Depot.
Another thought for you is to take a section of your yard out of the lawn loop and plant wild grasses with large rocks spread around. If you do place large rocks in your yard, dig a hole and place the rock in the hole. This gives it a real natural look. You don't have to water rocks and wild grasses and it gives a really cool kinetic look when the wind blows.
As far as irrigation goes, Home Depot sells some automatic timers that you hook onto your facet. You can hook up a 1/2 inch drip line from this automatic timer and run it around where your plants are located. Some people use what we call Misters or above ground emitters that send out a mist over a large area. The problem with using Misters is that they not only water the plants you want but also the weed that you do not want. When I set up a drip system I run 1/2" drip around the area and from the drip line I attach a button or emitter (comes in 1/2 gph or 2 gph ) to the 1/2 drip line and connect a 1/4", "Spegetti" hose to the individual plant. This is for the new plants I put into yards. In my yard I go out and wave the water around the yard once a month. After the plants I have installed are mature the need for irrigation is not required because I only use plants that have a high drought tolerance.
Be sure that if you plant any trees in your yard not to plant them where you will be using lots of water, like new sod. Too much water can actually kill a new tree by cutting off all the air to the roots. Trees that are over 2 years old may not even be getting their water from your yard as the roots will travel great distances in search of new water sources.
In closing one last word, Don't over water.
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Old 01-24-2008, 09:37 AM
 
Location: Aurora,Colorado
18 posts, read 63,220 times
Reputation: 14
Default Fake Grass or Asto Turf

Quote:
Originally Posted by Just.Believe View Post
I would say, probably an extra 30ish a month. We have a small patch of grass about 500sq ft. when we watered it our bill was about 20 more than it is now. We stopped watering it because we don't like mowing it. Hubby is really busy w/college courses and two full time jobs. Plus when we did maintain it, we couldn't walk barefoot on it anyway because it was "thorney" feeling. Perenel Rye (spelled wrong) was very soft, we liked that a lot but couldn't get it to "take over" the Bermuda (which hubby is allergic to). If we had the money we would get the fake stuff. We know several people that have it (and have had it for several years) and they really like it. No it doesn't look real when you get really close and touch it. Walking by you could never tell though. It does get warm, but people we know don't go outside to enjoy the grass when it's that hot anyway.
One
The City of Aurora, Colorado, is doing a test of Astro Turf on several of it's mediums. They have actually put down this fake plastic basically outdoor carpeting and spread sand down on it to hold it down in the wind. It looks pretty good but it is strange to see dark green grass in January. It has been down for 2 years & so far no weeds are coming up, but it looks weird being that all the grass around town is brown and this patch is dark green. If God had intended us to plant fake grass, he would have made grass out of plastic.
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