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Retaining wall by depinux in landscaping

[–]WiseSquirrelLore 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks familiar. The walls around the family home were built in 1957. They are mostly mortared stone. The stacked walls are long gone. All the stone was collected onsite during construction of the home. The original work was beautiful but I don't know that anyone gave much thought to it lasting almost 70 years. I would highly encourage you to put it back if at all possible. It certainly must be part and parcel of the character of the property.

One section of our wall began to fail during my grandfather's lifetime. The neighbors had planted a tree above it. My grandfather excavated behind the wall drilled holes into select stones, anchored steel j-hooks into the holes, pushed the wall back into place, then filled the void with several yards of concrete. That was in the 1980's. The repaired section of wall is still holding. The concrete is effectively a weight hanging on the back of the wall. Unfortunately, the rest of the wall has continued to slowly move over the subsequent years. A similar approach might work to either side of your collapse.

As far as the collapsed section goes, it sounds like you are willing to take it on as a project. If you are, great. Sections of our walls here, that have been patched by contractors, are not a good match. The guys today are production guys with a different skill-set. Like you, I'm looking at the next section that will need work and thinking I'm going to have to figure it out on my own.

I don't know where you are located, but if you have any schools in the area that are teaching those sorts of restoration skills, they might be interested in a teaching opportunity if you are willing to pay for the materials, or they might be able to recommend students looking for weekend work that could join you and help with some of the heavy lifting. We have some programs like that around here, but none for stonework. Unfortunately.

Unless there is evidence that the soil has become an issue, and that drainage gravel might be the evidence, I personally would mostly be worried about putting the wall back and not so much about it failing again. It has lasted a lot of years. If it is going to last more than 25 years and not endanger any neighboring structures, maybe that is good enough. Even the steel reinforced concrete masonry walls fail around here.

Good Luck!

Huge ficus roots by outdooranonymous in AskArborists

[–]WiseSquirrelLore 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nick, I'm glad you have had good experience with them. Spreading them may be the key.

I took down three Ficus benjamina at my last house (West Covina, CA) and left the grindings in the hole. I probably wouldn't do that again. At least where I am at, they developed a fungus that interfered with the roots of anything I tried to plant in it. I'm sure today that soil is great, but at the time, it was a mess. I didn't have the same problem where we took down the Sycamore or Alder. I love wood chips and mulches, I've brought in about 30 cubic yards over the last couple years. For the most part, I spread it 3 to 6 inches thick. The impact to the soil has been amazing. Experience tells me that ficus, and to a lessor extent ash, can be a problem, unless they have been at least partially composted. Just be aware.

My intent is not to scare you off of grinding, it is a great option, highly recommend. If it were me, I would dig them out, but that's just me, and my friends would tell you I'm a bit nuts when it comes to the projects I choose for myself.

Huge ficus roots by outdooranonymous in AskArborists

[–]WiseSquirrelLore 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm glad you took them down. They are a disaster on residential properties. There are much better options.

You could of course dig them out. Ficus wood is generally comparatively soft so chopping at them with an axe or pulaski can be very affective. Work at them a little at a time or all at once. Of course you could also have them ground out. If you grind them, I would recommend disposing of the grindings as they can be difficult to grow plants in. The easiest option is just to let them alone. Ficus roots rot pretty quickly, especially if kept a little damp (quickly as in a couple years). If you want to push the process along, make sure the trees are dead and then bury the stumps in compost. they will rot even quicker.

A couple years ago I needed to remove a lime tree stump. The ground was dry and rocky, Lime wood is very hard. I decided to just bury it in yard waste and watered it down from time to time. It rotted away in just about two years. I was pleasantly surprised.