Turning Chicken Shit into Chicken Salad
Having recently redone our own yard, we can appreciate what went into turning around this yard in Clinton Hill. “My contractor basically took chicken shit and turned it into chicken salad!” The result is above. To see what the yard looked like before, click on the jump.
Having recently redone our own yard, we can appreciate what went into turning around this yard in Clinton Hill. “My contractor basically took chicken shit and turned it into chicken salad!” The result is above. To see what the yard looked like before, click on the jump.
Altruwood, based out of Oregon and Illinois has FSC and Reclaimed wood available for your next project. We are currenly importing containers of FSC Ipe, but also pushing lesser know species with similar qualities in order to try and alleviate some of the pressure on the Ipe supply
Please contact for more info.
Colin Wilson
FSC Manager
Altruwood
877.FSC.WOOD
http://www.altruwood.com
Is your wife a landscape architect? Is she available to design other gardens. If so, please give her contact information. Thank you,
Correction: The final price included some extra things done around the house but a similar job, excluding plantings, should run around $16-18k.
Wow! Thanks for all of the great feedback! I’m happy that everyone loves the backyard! We certainly do! Sorry for not responding sooner but my wife and I were on vacation last week. My wife designed the entire backyard. Our contractor is Fernando Serna, owner and operator of Stones ‘R Us. He can be reached at (646) 541-9701. The reason that we didn’t do more plantings is because the duplex apartment is going to serve as a rental and we didn’t want the upkeep. We’re moving to Stuyvesant Heights early next year once our renovation at our new home is complete. The drain is a dry drain, e.g., three drain pipes leading into a 7 foot center well. Despite hating to rake leaves we decided to keep the tree because it provides a nice shade during the summer months and more importantly we absolutely love trees and think that they are great for the environment. We included the bench along the rear lattice fence because we wanted to encourage people to utilize the full backyard and deck space. In addition, though you can’t really tell from the picture there’s alot of space behind the tree. The blue stone was set in cement instead of loose gravel because we wanted a more finished look. We got our plantings from Hick’s Nursery in Long Island and Gowanus Nursery in Brooklyn. Total cost? Around $20k.
FSC certified ipe is better, but it is still not sustainably harvested and it is far from ideal. As you point out, FSC decribes themselves as an organization devoted to encouraging the responsible management of the world’s forests. The reason that they do not encourage sustainable harvesting of the worlds forests is because there is no such thing and this is particularly true with ipe. The only thing that will will alow the rainforests of Brazil to begin to recover is if the demand for ipe is decreased.
How did you do the drainage? Dry well or is it hooked up to the house main? Are the stones set with open cracks between them?
Plants and flowers also contribute positively to our health. They compete with trees for sun and soil nutrients. Trees always win. As a gardener I prefer a balance of sun and shade. Right now I have deep shade, no flowers and struggling plants because of 1 huge tree. Removing it wouldn’t make a difference because of all the other ones on my block. It really is up to to the homeowner.
You guys know trees clean the air of toxins, right? You also need a certain amount of plants to create a balanced ionic charge, and without it you get irritability and sleeplessness. This isn’t new-agey crap, it’s accepted science. I’d never buy a house that didn’t have a nice size tree near it. It makes me sick when people cut down a tree that is decades or even a hundred years old, simply because they don’t like to use a rake once in a while to clean up leaves. Wait, correction, it makes THEM and their children sick because their health is affected NOT having the tree anymore. If every house and building in Brooklyn had a tree in its yard, all our health would be positively affected. So in a way it’s nobody beeswax, but in another way it’s all our business.
Read http://brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2006/10/dollar_construc.html#comments
and you will get the joke