Dealing with present from our village


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Old 06-04-11, 06:54 PM
J
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Post Dealing with present from our village

When our town redid our roads, they refilled our small lawns between street and sidewalks with horible soil. For the last three years, I have had the most difficult time getting anything to grow consistantly except weeds(and even thats patchy at best). I am considering removing the top 10 inches of soil and building planters with railroad ties and fresh soil and filling in the rest of the area with gravel and pavers. The downside to this is it will be a little on the costly side. The rest of my property looks excellant and I really need to weigh out my options. What would you guys do?
 
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Old 06-05-11, 04:11 AM
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Wouldn't it be cheaper to remove 6" or so of their 'soil' replace it with good top soil and reseed? You should check with city hall before putting in a raised planter, it would be a shame to do all that work and find out it's not allowed.
 
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Old 06-05-11, 04:50 AM
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I agree with Mark that you need to check with the town before doing anything. The first 10' of "my" property that borders the town road is deeded to the town. While I am free to use it, I can't do anything with it without first getting permission from the town.
 
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Old 06-05-11, 05:28 AM
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The best part about that 10' is that you are required to maintain it.

I would do what marksr says as well. I would mix the soil 50% with compost and then put a layer of 1/2" compost on to plant the seed in. Do this in the fall and you will good strong grass by the time the summer heat comes around.
 
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Old 06-06-11, 09:35 AM
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im starting to love these forums....i called city hall and low and behold, not allowed! i checked out supplies at local GS and i would have spent a few hundred bucks easily just to have to remove it....good heads up thx

so you think just remove 10 6" and reseed? any suggestions on seed? and its quite a bit of top soil, is there a cheaper way than by the bag?
 
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Old 06-06-11, 09:39 AM
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By all means have someone come out and deliver a load of top soil, you don't want to buy this much by the bag

10' wide and 6" deep would mean one yard of top soil for every 5 1/2 feet of area involved
 
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Old 06-06-11, 10:02 AM
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I had a similar problem years ago. I opted to plant dwarf pampas grass approx 4 feet apart, rehabbing the soil in the immediate vicinity of the plants only and then placed a layer of decomposed granite in between, in the non-planted areas. The DG kept everything looking neat and tidy. It was virtually zero maintenance from then on.
 
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Old 06-06-11, 11:58 AM
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Can you call the City and ask them to fix it? They messed it up so they may fix it...?

Around here, at least for the utility companies, they are supposed to put it back to its former condition when they are done (not that they ever do)... but they are supposed to.
 
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Old 06-06-11, 02:09 PM
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The strip of land between the sidewalk may not be yours. It may be a part of the raod/street right of way and actually be owned by the city. It varies around the country and between municipalities.

The best way to find out is to call the town office and explain the problem you see. You may get some cooperation when there is free time for the town to fix it up in order to just keep busy.

If you find out is yours, you can do what you want wintin reason.

Did the redone road improve your property and access?

Dick
 
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Old 06-07-11, 05:30 PM
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Unless you're going to lay in a crop of corn or soybean, 6 inches is overkill. Nowadays, when they build a subdivision, they scrape off all the topsoil, grade the area, sell most of the topsoil, and top dress the area with about two inches of topsoil. Thats why its so difficult to start a garden at a new house. While I'm not a big fan of this practice, it does illustrate the fact that simple lawns will do OK even in relatively horrible soil. As long as they didn't backfill with mostly gravel, amending the soil you have will do the job. What I would do is kill everything with round up, till the area about 4 inches deep, remove the equivalent of 1-2 inches of soil, replace what you've taken out with a mixture of course sand, mushroom compost, and peatmoss, till that in really well, then seed. BUT, first, I would raise holy heck with the City and try to get them to fix it.
 
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Old 06-08-11, 08:46 AM
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I agree that removing 6" is probably overkill. I would kill the weeds, rototill and amend the soil as needed. Since it's not a garden that should be nothing more than checking and adjusting PH and adding a starter fertilizer when you seed.

The seed will depend on your area. Call your local county extension and they'll provide the info on what grass seed will do best for your situation.
 
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Old 06-16-11, 08:59 PM
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They claim they are not at fault for the poor soil. Arguing with them has brought none of us any success, but by reading these pieces of advice we should be able to take care of this affordably. We meaning a few of my neighbors are sharing the same s^&t soil I have. One of which has been raising kain about this since day one. A little background for this, this happened after our town widened our street by 6 feet or so on each side. After they did all the work, they brought in new soil and reseeded it and from there its history. So even though it did give us better streets, we had really nice lawns before.
 
 

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