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April 29, 2008
Creating Front Yard Garden
We are interested in digging up some of the cement in our front yard to plant a little flower garden. Anyone done this on their own? Do you need a permit? We have extremely hostile, anti-green neighbors (they flipped out when we had a tree planted in front of our house), so we'd like to have our ducks in a row when we start.
thanks for any tips.
Comments
Just hire someone to jack hammer it out. I did it at my house 6 years ago. The law will soon prohibit paving over front yards, not the opposite.
Posted by: Putnamdenizen at April 29, 2008 6:58 PM
I took mine out with a sledgehammer. It took about 2 hours to break it up, luckily it wasn't very thick. THe hard part is disposal of the concrete. You can rent a small dumpster for about $350. Depending on the condition of the soil underneath, you may want to dig that out as well. I dug out about 18 inches and had it filled with high quality topsoil. Two yards, delivered, was about $175. So with a few days of sweat equity put in, you can have a garden for about $500 or so. The plot I made was about 6x8 feet.
Posted by: guest at April 29, 2008 8:26 PM
Are you looking for work??
When can you start?
Posted by: guest at April 29, 2008 9:18 PM
Why would your neighbors NOT want you to beautify the block? Brooklyn is fucked up. Move to Queens.
Posted by: guest at April 29, 2008 9:46 PM
We just moved to the south slope too- people love to pave their full yards there. and they seem to hate trees.
South Slope Mom- I'm looking to do something similar- if you find a good source- please post.
What did the neighbors do when you planted the tree, by the way?
Posted by: Park Place at April 29, 2008 11:35 PM
How did you plant a tree if the yard is cemented over? I'm confused.
Posted by: guest at April 30, 2008 12:48 AM
I had the City plant a cherry tree in front of a house I used to own in Jersey City. The ground floor tenant I inherited and the neighbor (who seemed to fill her life with buying lottery tickets and sweeping the sidewalk) whined at me and said "Why would you want to plant a tree. It will have leaves that will blow all over." I countered with remarks about the beautiful blossoms and the shade that it would provide. They backed off.
After we put in the tree, we put up some nice iron fencing and refurbished the facade. Within months several other neighbors had trees planted and redid their facades and iron work. There is something to "keeping up with the Joneses.
As far as breaking up concrete, I did that in one corner of the back yard with a pick and sledge hammer. Not the prettiest results but it didn't take too long.
Posted by: guest at April 30, 2008 10:10 AM
no, don't need permit.
Posted by: guest at April 30, 2008 3:31 PM
I have the same issue with my neighbors in Carroll Gardens. Every spring they complain about sweeping up cherry blosoms!
Posted by: cggirl at April 30, 2008 4:07 PM
i thought i was the only one who had problems with my neighbors and tree planting!!
i thought i had moved into the twilight zone of hostility.
i had the same thing happen when they came to plant a tree in front of my house. After waiting a year i had to tell the guy planting it to stop...that's how much my neighbors flipped out. The leaves! The bugs! ugh. the idiots!
Posted by: CGmodern at April 30, 2008 5:13 PM
You'all need to do a little stop'n'thinking.
YES, if you are in a landmark district, you need a permit. If you change paving, if you create a garden, at least do your research with Landmarks first. Don't get caught out not having a permit in a landmarked area. You can get burned.
Listen, any facade (and yes, rear of the house as well), front area and sidewalk work in an LD are supposed to be reviewed. For example, if you have slate (bluestone) sidewalks, you're supposed to do your best to fix them with the same materials.
If you want to repave, reconfigure, even create a permanent garbage can housing in an LD, you have to file.
Sorry for the news.
Now, look around in landmark districts and I'm sure you'll find lots of people who do not file and then rip out or restore ironwork, change front area paving, make sidewalk changes, change house colors (the painted wood ones), door colors, entry lights, etc., etc. without filing of caring.
Anyway, if you go with it, get a contractor with experience to do it.
Posted by: guest at April 30, 2008 5:49 PM
When did south slope get landmarked?
Posted by: guest at April 30, 2008 6:26 PM
If you are south of 15th Street you are not in the PS district. Read the attached article for insights into certain anti-greens.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/nyregion/21bigcity.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=tree+planting&st=nyt&oref=slogin
Posted by: guest at April 30, 2008 8:47 PM
When we planted our small flower garden we did not dig up the cement but just built a wall to enclose it making it into a raised bed. There are drainage holes in the wall We built a 3” cement wall against our neighbor’s stoop to avoid any potential problem with dampness. However, our current neighbors complain about it as the evergreen attacts birds; they want us to remove it.
Posted by: guest at May 1, 2008 10:58 AM
When we planted our small flower garden we did not dig up the cement but just built a wall to enclose it making it into a raised bed. There are drainage holes in the wall We built a 3” cement wall against our neighbor’s stoop to avoid any potential problem with dampness. However, our current neighbors complain about it as the evergreen attacts birds; they want us to remove it.
Posted by: guest at May 1, 2008 11:05 AM
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