Sidewalk - Project Summary

The New Entrance. I like to think of it as a well-done face lift, and in a few months, nobody will ever remember a time when it looked differently.

 The new entrance (just one!)

A three-picture summary of two major projects, the White Pine 'Deconstruction' and the Sidewalk Reconstruction.

May 10, 2010

May 10, 2010

October 11, 2010

The Berm. Oh dear, I made a berm. It makes me think of suburbia, er, subermia? Not in this case. The arc and slope created by this berm is part of the new site engineering. The berm will collect and direct stormwater from the roof and send it to the rain garden. This will protect the house from water seepage and will irrigate the plants that arrive in Spring.

The berm.

Seed and Straw. A cover crop has been planted to protect the exposed soil. I used a mix of agricultural plants - Wheat, Rye, Buckwheat, and Oats - because they all can be turned into the soil as 'green manure'. Over the seeds is laid a fine layer of straw to protect the seeds from dehydration and hungry birds.

 Straw mulch, watered daily.

Finally, I'd like to point out our subterranean friends, the Cicada Nymphs. I exposed several while digging the soil the grade the site.

 Cicada nymph, posing next to the hole he was in.

More info on Cicadas:

• Cicadas are among the most benign of insects. Neither the root-sucking nymphs nor the adults do any significant damage to trees or other plants.
• Though some species are called annual cicadas because they are present every year, all species take at least four years to mature in the ground.
• Nymphs grow gradually through eight stages before maturity.

[This Cicada information came from Mass Audobon.] 

The Chicago Botanic Garden mentions:

Cicadas are edible....but recent research has determined that cicadas may contain high levels of mercury...and diners are cautioned to limit their ingestion of these "delicacies" to just a few.

I guess my small urban farm kitchen can add another item to it's menu. Cicada Tempura anyone?

[By the way, during a locust invasion of biblical proportions while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia, locals refused to eat the large, juicy locusts even when it meant literally saving their livelihood. I'll take a cue from them.]

"It's looking beautiful!"

As I was documenting the site this morning, I received my first comment from a total stranger. A woman was running with her dog and as she passed, she removed her ear-buds and shouted to me "It's looking beautiful!"

THANKS!

Also, comments and analysis on the sidewalk project forthcoming.

Sidewalk Deconstruction & Reconstruction – Day 2

The Front Yard, looking East, During & After

 10/4, 12:08pm

10/5, 1:40pm

 

10/8, 2:18pm

What the neighbor's see, Before & After

10/4, 10:40am

10/5, 11:40am

Porch view, Before & After

10/4, 2:40pm

10/5, 3:03pm

Finally, an added joy to a project is the discovery of artifacts. Here's what we found:

Our sidewalk on the left (cut and moved), pre-existing sidewalk on the right (discovered below ours).

Note the relative 'thin-ness' of the horizontal piece in the middle, the pre-existing sidewalk, thought to be 50+ years old.

These two images show leaf prints found on the underside of one excavated piece of sidewalk. In contrast to every other piece, which was covered with chunks of old concrete, this one caught my attention! It appears we have imprints of leaves from two tree types, an American Elm and some kind of Maple.

Sidewalk Deconstruction & Reconstruction – Day 1

At the crack of 7:30am this morning, the sidewalk project got underway. For many moons, I wondered whether this was going to come together. With the impending Chicago Winter and more free time of my own, the project jumped to a start once we had a new contractor for our curious project.

 Deconstructing Sidewalk

The job basically entails swapping materials from one place to another. As much as possible, materials will be reused to create a better sidewalk where there was grass, and better growing space where there was a troublesome sidewalk.

The pre-cut with a dry saw and final cut with a wet-saw

My concrete guy, who we will call Chris, said to me "Oh, this is not a concrete job, this is a landscaping job." We'll see about that. Every project comes with some surprise, good or bad. So far, we've discovered a pre-existing sidewalk used as the underlayment below the existing sidewalk. Whatever kind of job they want to call it, I'm just glad to be paying someone else to do all of the cutting, lifting, and hauling.

 Placing the new sidewalk pieces (stepping-stones)

The job:
Saw-cut the existing concrete sidewalk at the expansion joints and half-way in between.

Use 3'x5' slabs (now made of two half pieces) as Dr. Seuss-ish oversized stepping-stones.

Stepping-stones will outline the newly expanded growing area, allowing the growing area to extend all the way to the wall of the house.

Growing Area will include a native plant rain garden and food-production garden.

 End of Day 1

Here are two bonus images, showing the dust cloud created by the saw-cutting. Dust cloud = Bad, Cool pictures = Good!

Facing East in the morning

 Facing West in the afternoon

See you again tomorrow!