THE Road Widening - A Continuing Saga

[Yvonne G]

I‘m not an expert, but cypress trees have “knees.” Not sure if they would be an issue for you…

I'll have to Google that. Never heard of it.

 

[NorCal tortoise guy]

I'll have to Google that. Never heard of it.

You were talking about Italian cypress I believe no knees on those.

 

[Yvonne G]

Different tree, I think. I'm talking about Italian cypress

 

[Yvonne G]

SNAP!!

 

[jeff kushner]

Wow, I'm sorry that there is stress in your life not caused by yourself. You have a really nice, plant filled comfortable yard and it's going to need to change. I do not doubt that "you got this" for a sec, just that it still, as someone else said, sucks.

experience means nothing if we don't share..... you are giving them a VERY cheap "out" with regards to the sound barrier. My Kerry would do the same but here in the VA-DC-Annap area, they install vertical stone-faced pre-cast panels(pick your own height), effective and won't present a root issue, won't rot or need painting...lots of reasons. Zillions of 'net pics to view.(https://www.google.com/search?q=pre...WltTEKHbd3DB0Q_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1280&bih=856) The vertical ones all cost roughly the same, the horz ones, a bit more for labor to install.
That you befriend instead of confront is the right thing to do of course.....but don't forget your leverage. That whole "State against the little old lady" is a really bad look for them and they might find that nicer retaining wall doable because of that. Not that you would actually run to the News and do it, but it never hurts to remind them of those things during discussions. LOL

Good luck and sorry to hear you lost one of your special guys.....you never know, sometimes they just show up again!

jeff

 

[TisMary]

Yes, crepe myrtle grow here, but what about their roots? I need something that won't harm the retaining wall they'll be planted next to.

I don't know much about trees, but I did find this list of "Shallow-rooted Trees" in this article: Planting Beneath Shade Trees.

Shallow-rooted trees:​

• Beech Fagus spp.
• Birch Betula spp.
• Cottonwood Populus deltoides
• Hackberry Celtis occidentalis
• Norway maple Acer platanoides
• Silver maple Acer saccharinum
• Spruce Picea spp.
• Sugar maple Acer saccharum

I was doing a little light reading about root systems (because, well of course I did! ?). There are essentially 2 types of root systems: fibrous (or diffuse), and tap. Some plants have both. Shallow-rooted trees have fibrous roots which grow relatively close to the surface and help control soil erosion (which is what you @Yvonne G are looking for, so I'm not telling you anything you don't know!)

What I didn't know is that many plants in the wild (like the ones we feed our beloved torts) have tap roots of 30-45 feet; some desert shrubs can go down as far as 90 feet! Both types of roots store food for the plant, tap roots storing the most. This is why carrots, for example, are so sweet - they store a lot of sugar. My dog loves carrots, but he doesn't get them often (at least, not often enough as far as he's concerned!)


courtesy PNG Egg

 

[Blackdog1714]

I spied one more turtle this a.m. in the mud flats. But he slithered away into the mud before I could reach for the net. Tomorrow I'll be prepared, net in hand!

Yes, crepe myrtle grow here, but what about their roots? I need something that won't harm the retaining wall they'll be planted next to.

Mine grow between the sidewalk and the street. They do not top root much but sometimes send out babies. When mine was pulled up a few years ago to redo the sewer line the roots were a dense ball that stayed in its area. We had a maple tree in the same area years ago and it branded under sidewalk into my Darn yard!

 

[Yvonne G]

Thank you both for the tree research. I'm sorta' thinking about reclaiming the redwood pickets from the fence across the front of the property and using them somehow as an above ground tree planter box across the whole front with a drip system. I worry about the roots because the trees will be above the retaining wall .

 

[Maro2Bear]

You were talking about Italian cypress I believe no knees on those.

Exactly. I almost typed that up, then saw your comment. The ones with knees are Bald Cypress.

 

[Yvonne G]

I spied one more turtle this a.m. in the mud flats. But he slithered away into the mud before I could reach for the net. Tomorrow I'll be prepared, net in hand! I still haven't seen the foot long gold fish. There's not enough water left to support fish that big, so I'm thinking the heron probably caught them already.

I've been trying every morning, to catch the last remaining live bodies in the pond. This a.m. I went out there before I did anything else, and was able to catch the last pond turtle and three large goldfish. My mind's eye exaggerated the fish's size, and they're only about 8" including their tails. But it's a relief to have caught everything. It's a shame about the hundreds of mosquito fish that will die, but when I try to net them all I get is mud and sludge.



The biggest RES is about a foot long. And none of my female pond turtles made it. I guess they either escaped or died.

 

[Emmawilly]

Yvonne, you're taking this remarkably well. You must be a very calm, pragmatic lady. The bottom of our garden there are thick trees and a hill that separates us from a dual carriageway. The trees do a great job of helping to muffle the road noise and offset the pollution. I notice the difference in winter when the leaves drop. We had some council people cutting back the trees in summer and I was very hot headed about the whole thing, of course I couldn't stop them. I hope you have minimum disruption and that they do right by you, to reinstate your driveway, pond and wall. Good luck

 

[Yvonne G]

Yvonne, you're taking this remarkably well. You must be a very calm, pragmatic lady. The bottom of our garden there are thick trees and a hill that separates us from a dual carriageway. The trees do a great job of helping to muffle the road noise and offset the pollution. I notice the difference in winter when the leaves drop. We had some council people cutting back the trees in summer and I was very hot headed about the whole thing, of course I couldn't stop them. I hope you have minimum disruption and that they do right by you, to reinstate your driveway, pond and wall. Good luck

Thank you, but in reality I'm a nervous wreck. I'm having trouble sleeping and all the time worrying about what's going to happen.

 

[Jacqui]

I hate it's you, but sure glad it's not me. Glad everybody is caught.

 

[Yvonne G]

It's really been bothering me that so very many mosquito fish have to die because the pond is drying up. They're hard to net in the shallow water because you get more sludge and silt than fish. But this a.m. I had a brainstorm. I put a piece of plywood on the sludge for me to stand on. Then I scraped a deeper area right in front of me with the garden rake. Then I raked real slow and built up the sides around the 'hole.' So now I had a sludgy hole full of fish. I netted them, sludge and all and emptied the net into a bucket of water. . . time and again! I ended up with eleven goldfish and a hundred or so mosquito fish! An awful lot of the little fish are still going to die, but I gave it my best shot! There will probably be no water at all by tomorrow.

The power company has been working for about a week on the buried gas line at the edge of the street, burying a vault or something, then they'll send out the crew to move the poles, and as the new location of the pole in front of my house is in my driveway, my spidey sense tells me maybe my new driveway will be happening soon. I've got a nice area all set up in the backyard for Dudley to be moved to. I just need one of the driveway contractors to put him into the wheelbarrow for me.

 

[ZenHerper]

Reptile keepers are all engineers.

*hands Yvonne the ThD diploma*

 

[Cathie G]

It's really been bothering me that so very many mosquito fish have to die because the pond is drying up. They're hard to net in the shallow water because you get more sludge and silt than fish. But this a.m. I had a brainstorm. I put a piece of plywood on the sludge for me to stand on. Then I scraped a deeper area right in front of me with the garden rake. Then I raked real slow and built up the sides around the 'hole.' So now I had a sludgy hole full of fish. I netted them, sludge and all and emptied the net into a bucket of water. . . time and again! I ended up with eleven goldfish and a hundred or so mosquito fish! An awful lot of the little fish are still going to die, but I gave it my best shot! There will probably be no water at all by tomorrow.

The power company has been working for about a week on the buried gas line at the edge of the street, burying a vault or something, then they'll send out the crew to move the poles, and as the new location of the pole in front of my house is in my driveway, my spidey sense tells me maybe my new driveway will be happening soon. I've got a nice area all set up in the backyard for Dudley to be moved to. I just need one of the driveway contractors to put him into the wheelbarrow for me.

I bet if you get one to help you you'll get ten more. Let them know what's happening to you. ?

 

[Chubbs the tegu]

Yvonne.. Maggie said to tie her to one of ur trees to halt construction

 

[Yvonne G]

Yvonne.. Maggie said to tie her to one of ur trees to halt construction

Lol!!

 

[Jan A]

Yvonne.. Maggie said to tie her to one of ur trees to halt construction

You're back!

 

[Yvonne G]

I wish I had taken pictures of the drying sludge before I messed it up.

The other evening as I was walking around making sure all is well with the animals I spotted little teeny, tiny baby foot prints in the pond sludge. So this a.m. I grabbed a couple planks (to support me in the sludge), a bucket with a bit of water and my net, and went out baby turtle hunting. I took the end of the net and dragged it through the last vestiges of puddle and felt a thump. Upon further inspection, it was an alive 'thump.' I fished him out of the sludge, rinsed him off in the bucket, and it's the cutest little baby Florida softshell you ever saw! He still had a tiny bump where the yolk was, so he's a brand new baby. If you look closely in the second picture you can see the tiny tracks in the sludge: