The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Small Home Landscaping

Bricks in cement, stone, tile, poured concrete are often used. Wood risers and gravel treads make inexpensive steps. Rough stones of various thicknesses make picturesque steps in a garden. They give a feeling of strength and solidity. They fit well into a rock garden environment, too. Old railroad ties are useful for steps or ramps. They are held in place with stakes driven into the ground and nailed to the
ties, or secured by a similar method.

Grading around Trees

Where new grades are established, tree protection is the most neglected of all operations. Soil is piled over the roots of valuable trees. These die a lingering death by slow starvation and suffocation. A tree breathes through its leaves, branches, trunk and roots. Extra soil, added when grades are changed, cuts off the air from the roots.

Some trees are more critical than others,for instance oaks, beech, birch, ginko and several more. Evergreens are the most critical of all. Less than one foot of extra soil, especially if it is clay, will affect them.

When a grade is revised, the extent of protection depends upon the depth of the soil needed in grading, the age of the tree and whether it is in good condition. A tree that is deteriorating should be removed. If the extra fill over the roots will not exceed twelve inches, sufficient protection may be given by a layer of stones of good size over the whole root area extending to the outer tips of the branches. Smaller stones, gravel and ashes are added, then soil for a lawn or ground cover. Leave a clearance around the trunk of eighteen to thirty-six inches, the latter for a young tree, the former space for an old one. If the fill exceeds eighteen inches and the tree is valuable, you must go all the way to insure its preservation.