Bachman’s Spring Open House

A while back Jason, John and I took a short trip up to Bachman’s Cedar Acres site to attend their Spring open house for landscape contractors and gardeners. There were some interesting products and seminars. Of special interest in the new products was a pre-assembled bubbling rock. It would make a nice water feature if you don’t want to go to the expense of installing a larger water feature or pond and waterfall system. You get the benefit of the sound of running water but fish and plants are optional. I could see it being integrated into a paver patio with ground cover plants and maybe a water lily or two.

We also saw a low profile vinyl landscape edging ( that doesn’t show that “black bead” that some clients don’t like.) that can take the place of steel or aluminum edging. It is quite a bit thicker than regular vinyl edging, so it will hold its shape better, which will do a better job of keeping the integrity of the bed lines.

We also attended some good plant and hardscape seminars. Of particular interest to me was a seminar on rain gardens presented by Rusty Schmidt (photo at left) of the Washington County Conservation District. He talked about a project they did in the cities where they installed several rain gardens in a block of a residential area, and reduced the runoff in to the storm system by approximately 80%!. I am going to learn more about this process and share it with you.

John Daniels (right) of Bachman’s also gave a presentation iinforming us “what’s new” in the plant world. There are some new varieties of spruce and some interesting, ornamental barberries.

All in all it was a really nice open house, very well attended and with standing room only for the seminars.They also gave tour of their greenhouse range. Great food, too!

National Arbor Day is coming soon! Arbor Day is a day set aside to celebrate and observe the importance of trees in our environment and to encourage tree planting. National Arbor Day is the last Friday in April, but many states observe Arbor Day on different dates, according to their best tree-planting times. Arbor Day in Maine, for example, isn’t until the 3rd full week of May. In Minnesota, we observe Arbor Day on the last Friday of April.

This is an excellent time to increase the awareness of our environment and the irreversible role that trees play in literally creating the air we breath. I would encourage you to go on-line to their website (see below) and order some inexpensive trees or shrubs. They will make an excellent project for the family on a nice Spring day. Or you could volunteer to take a class of young kids out and plant them at their school, or even send them home to plant them at home. A few years back I took a class of 2nd graders out and we toured a tree nursery and then gave them a green ash tree to plant at home. They still remember planting their tree and have enjoyed watching it grow over the years!

If you go to their website (http://www.arborday.org/arborday/index.cfm), you can find tons of useful information. For example you can use their on-line guide to tree identification, get ideas for children’s programs, or find information on upcoming conferences and seminars. They also have an on-line tree store and merchandise store. Check it out!

In Minnesota flagstone (or limestone) can be used to make beautiful, naturalistic retaining walls. The only thing is, the wall can break apart if the limestone is not the right kind for building walls. Different quarries have different grades of limestone, and they can vary greatly greatly in quality. This limestone wall was built by a previous homeowner out of a “local” limestone from a quarry nearby. He probably got the stone for the right price (free)! After a few years, it began to crumble and fall apart and it had lost its structural integrity and was starting to collapse. The reason is that it is a soft limestone, which absorbs moisture. Because of that, the freezing (expansion) and thawing (contraction) action of the ice crystals in the limestone due to our our Minnesota winters caused it to break apart, crumble, and eventually start to collapse.The best material for flagstone walls is found in Wisconsin. Because of shipping costs and the extra labor it takes it to make a good limestone wall, the cost of replacing a wall of this size can be a stretch on the budget.

After we explored different alternatives, the client decided on a block wall with a weathered look, and colored to match the brick on the house. Because of the location, we had to bring in a backhoe to remove the old wall and excavate for the new wall and step system. Because the wall was located next to a well head, the excavator had to be extra careful not to hit the main water line going in to the house.

I added a few curves in the wall to soften the look, and added a planter at the top of the steps.The steps were also made out of the same material.

There is more to building this wall than just stacking the blocks. We had to install an anchoring system behind each wall to prevent the wall from getting pushed out by water pressure (officially called hydrostatic pressure), along with gravel and tile for drainage.
We added steps along the house, along with some planters. A small landing gives an opportunity to change the direction of the steps to lead up to the back yard, and also gives it a more restful look.