April 26, 2025
#511
Gentle reader,
Now, this article is not what I normally write about, not by far. In fact, this project which was largely Nancy's idea, has worked out SO well, I just had to spread the (mulch) word to you.
It is not so easy to discern from this image, but there are large and thick surface roots from the massive maple tree which Hylton Homes, creators of one of the earliest close-but-not-too-far suburbs of Washington, D.C. named Dale City, south of D.C. in Virginia, where someone decided in 1987 that planting it RIGHT next to the driveway was a good idea!
This image, from 2018, shows that the roots beneath our then, not-too-old, new driveway is being lifted by the underground roots. I don't have a photo of the largest root which leaves the trunk headed straight towards the house at an angle of approximately 15 degrees. The roots made it very difficult to mow the grass and were potential trip hazards, especially for playing grandchildren.
Below, our project only partly begun by a low plastic border wall plus fabric to stop plants from growing through the mulch. I had the two-inch high wall ("dead-on-balls)* straight so that the driveway would have an edge right up to it. *Quote from the epic comedy film, My Cousin Vinny.
These are some parts of the roots dug up and chopped off of the maple tree right after the new driveway was installed by a local Scot's-owned driveway company. I watched them attack the old asphalt with pick axes, big chunks of asphalt pried up and carried to the side so that they (then) attacked the roots with axes.
These images do not due justice to the height and width of the largest surface root.
Part of the difficulty of putting down mulch is KEEPING it in place on sloped areas of one's yard. At first, we tried MULCH GLUE. Look it up, it exists, and I don't know how much money Nancy spent for the glue and special hand-pumped sprayer. We followed directions and it was our money and time wasted. I said, tongue-in-cheek, "We might as well cover it with chicken wire." Nancy looked at me and said, "That's brilliant!"
Images above and below were shot from our living room windows.
I love the free-form shape and not having to struggle to mow that area anymore.
Between MS Claws and various squirrels, who love to dig holes in our yard, the mulch was always a mess. While squirrels have sharp and strong teeth, we hope their desire to dig a hole in the mulch will be mitigated by the more than 100 feet of pinned chicken wire we put down.
Chicken wire, professionally called "Poultry Wire Fencing" comes in rolls from two feet high to four feet high, and perhaps higher. In lengths from 25 feet long to 50 feet and longer. You are also going to need Landscape Pins.
To begin with, to create the shape we wanted for out root hiding plan, we used the type of plastic border shown above (all five of these images were found on the Internet) which comes in two-inch and higher wall height, and is secured by the large plastic nails. It is a wonderful invention.
We ended up using 700 of this type of pins between the large and shapely original root covering and replacing the decades old "Silver Dollar" pine bark mulch in front of our house. The latter had become MS Claws enormous cat litter box.
We did not know of these plastic accessories shown above and below.
I dub the pins above as: Google Pins.
She looks like she's thinking, "What are YOU looking at?"
This image was also shot from the living room window looking towards the opposite end of the house. The supposedly "Concrete Safe" ice melt we have used over the years was not so. Anyway, you can see above and below, the end/edge of the chicken wire to keep furry friends from digging holes.
Behind the Welcome Chickens! flag is the cleanout for the house's sewer pipe.
The derootification (sound's like a George W Bush's made-up word) campaign began when Nancy wanted to redo her little pass through from the walk directly to the street. The SAME thick and and large root also passed under this are and then turned left and then dived under the sidewalk where it must have stopped and possibly (hopefully) was turned by the house's foundation wall. I had to dig around and under the root then cut it with a chain saw to get it out of the way. I think this project was the beginning of the idea Nancy had of covering the unsightly roots.
The plan is to wait for the thousands of maple seeds (and stems) to finish their Spring falling campaign and then remove as many as we can from the surface of the chicken wire and (hopefully) find a spray adhesive which will NOT be bothered by rain and snow and spread a thin layer of matching mulch over the sticky surface to hide the chicken wire, but only from the shapely mulched area by the driveway.
Also, another Nancy plan was her beautification and illumination of the mailbox area.
Therefore, once we have found and applied the spray-on waterproof adhesive and layer of (hopefully) glued down mulch, I will update you with PART TWO.
This is a scanned FILM image of the house, which predates our owning digital cameras or smartphones. Note the barely visible root in the lower right corner. That landscape timber wall, I redid in 2016. See below:
Kind of a double-standard, what with the PRIVATE PROPERTY, we WILL shoot you and WELCOME signs! Nancy is in the Security field and thus has to be "gun friendly" as part of her career.
Thank you again, for taking the time to read my humble blog. I greatly appreciate it and since it is a labor of love and I do not make a dime from doing so, your kind comments (below or via Facebook) and the sheer number of you who do read it is more than enough for me.
Scott Robb
April 26, 2025
#511
