We build a lot of gates and fences and see a lot of poorly constructed garden gates. Gates that drag, don’t close, and don’t latch can be on of the most frustrating things in the garden. Below are a couple of videos showing how not to build a gate, and a properly constructed gate.

A few tips:
-Big posts, big piers: Larger 4×6 or 6×6 posts will provide more stability and decay resistance over time. Larger piers will make sure your gate has a good foundation. A really solid pier would be 18″ diameter and at least 1/3 the height of the post with gravel at the base of the pier for drainage.
-Frame it right: For a carpenters gate, the framing should always be installed vertically. Typically 2x4s are used. The 4 inch dimension should always be vertically (i.e. perpendicular to the ground). Box framing a gate with the 2 inch dimension vertical is easier, but holds up much worse over time. It also doesn’t look as good.
-Not too heavy or too wide: When framing a gate, make sure to not oversize the framing too much. A heavy gate will be more likely to sag. For that same reason don’t make you garden gate too wide. We typically limit our standard gates to 48 inches. Once you start get wider metal reinforcement or additional support is required.
-Pick the right lumber: Gates should be made out of high quality decay resistant lumber. In California that usually means Redwood or sometimes Cedar. Posts can be either pressure treated lumber or Redwood.
-Choose a good hardware: It doesn’t have to be fancy, but a quality latch will make all the difference on your gate. We like paddle style latches for the easiest operation. Lokk Latches or the swanky Rocky Mountain Hardware are good options for different needs. Same goes for hinges, standard hinges are fine, just make sure they are heavy duty and can bear the gate’s weight well.

Recently I was browsing the website of Petaluma based MAD architecture and noticed their nice redesign of the Petaluma Library. Then something else jumped out, the front of the library looked nothing like the photo in the portfolio. This is a rather stark example of the need for on-going maintenance and reinvestment, especially in public spaces. In this example 1 grass out of 100 survived between the completed photo and the current photo.

Incidentally, Daily Acts is in the process of a community based landscape project to help redevelop the landscape around the library coming up later in March.

Change orders have a bad reputation and sometimes for good reason. Many contractors don’t create comprehensive plans or agreements for their work scope, only to come back later with dreaded change orders. That being said change orders are often necessary to finalize details, allotments or other aspects of the initial agreement, or to add on to the project scope.

We have completed large projects with zero change orders, and conversely done small projects that clients ‘change ordered’ into large multi-phase installations. What was previously a challenge for us was collecting signed paperwork change orders. While online electronic signature platforms have been around for a long time, we were still doing things the old fashion way since we don’t process that many contract documents.

This past year we finally made the switch to Adobe Sign. We wanted a simple, inexpensive, and intuitive solution that would streamline the change order process. The Adobe platform fit the bill. It also allows clients to keep tabs and approve changes via smartphone or desktop. Now change orders are made easy.

There is a very short answer- yes. All concrete cracks, it is an intrinsic characteristic of the material. We design our concrete installations using scoring and other preventative measures so that the natural cracking follows the bottom of the cut scoring joints (which is why we score concrete). You can think of this the same way that a folded or perforated piece of paper tears in a predicable way along the fold’s path.

In about 1 out of 10 jobs we get some stress cracking through the middle of the slab. These are typically hairline cracks, which don’t effect the structural integrity of the slab, but don’t look great either. I like to give this due diligence warning because sometimes clients are surprised or upset with this cracking, which is not a defect. We do all we can to reduce these issues using good baserock prep, steel reinforcement, professional finishers, and good quality concrete material.

Here is a good short video for more on concrete cracking: httpv://youtu.be/oAHPoVW3tNU

Updated for 2021

Building an outdoor kitchen presents as many options and challenges as constructing a conventional kitchen. Unfortunately, this can also bring outdoor kitchens into the same budget range as a regular kitchen.

One potential solution is to use prefabricated modular island units and components to reduce costs, in place of expensive custom built islands and masonry.

It used to be that there weren’t a lot a good options of modular units. Choices were  simple low cost stucco boxes with limited choice and customization options. However as outdoor kitchens have grown in popularity so have the choices. There are scores of options, but here are a few different manufacturers of higher end modular islands.

Danver Outdoor Kitchens: Danver (also sold as Jordan Brown Kitchens) offers the most choice and cabinet options of any modular system. With customizable cabinets and a full range of appliances there is a solution for almost any desired configuration.

Challenger Designs: Offers several different modular island designs with a clean modern look.

Gensun: In addition to a full line of outdoor furniture, Gensun also has some interesting islands, with a full range of colors and detailing options.

DCS: Appliance maker DCS offers different cart system components as a modular outdoor kitchen solution. Their system does not offer much customization, but you can get a full kitchen island at a competitive price including appliances.

Firemagic: Offers a line of cart based solutions

Stoll Industries: Offers both off the shelf and custom modular unit options.

BBQ Guys: The online retailer offers a variety of island options at varying qualities and price points.

Below are a couple of our recent custom island installations featuring bluestone countertops and stone veneered masonry islands.

In this political climate we thought it was important to add two new holidays to our work calendar in 2017. We will be giving our employees the day off to celebrate the life and legacies of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez. In that spirit, here is an excerpt from Dr. King’s final speech:

2016 was another successful year of landscape installations with lots of interesting and varied projects. We were fortunate to have great clients to work with last year. Enjoy the gallery of project highlights below. Cheers to 2017!

As a company we have always believed in providing stable, long term employment with good benefits. This year we have employees who have been with us for over 10, 20, and 30 year time-frames, including since our start in 1987.

To that end we have made a commitment to a base wage for our workers of $15 per hour. Unfortunately, given the high cost of living in the Bay Area, even this amount is less than ideal.

We thought it was important as a company to affirm this commitment to our workers and express support for the Fight for $15 movement. This is especially true in light of the current political environment and pronouncements by organizations such as the CLCA (California Landscape Contractor’s Assocation) and Farmer’s and Ag Associations that are anti-employee. We don’t buy the anti-minimum wage arguments that these wage floors are a bad thing. Substandard wages only force an increased burden on social services.

I was talking with a colleague today who works for another landscape construction firm in Sonoma County.  Our conversation lit on the topic of reviews and unreasonable clients.

“How’s that jerk of a client you guys had recently, the one who wrote multiple bad Yelp reviews under different user names?” I asked.

“Oh I think they have finally given up and gone on to bug someone else,” he said. “Funny thing is, we didn’t have a lot of reviews when this guy started his campaign against us, it helped us make sure our happy clients shared their experiences online.”

We had a similar experience with a bad reviewer, who vowed to ruin our reputation with the power of his online scorn.  The current online review score card for O’Connell Landscape?
Happy Clients 18, Jerk Clients 1

Creating a good estimate is a time consuming process. We consult on scores of projects every year, issue a lot of free estimates, and try to create a proposal that is complete and also responsive to client and project.

Our estimates are line item based, we think of them as similar to a menu at a restaurant. We outline the scope in terms of a wide array of options and detailing, and then refine the estimate depending on budget and client needs. We find line item estimates work better than lump sum estimates, especially at an initial phase.  They take into account elements like a patio that may have a range of potential sizes depending on design, say 400-750 sq.ft., and a range of potential materials- like concrete, pavers, or flagstone. Line item estimates also allow for prioritization and the division of work into phases as needed.

Here is an example of an a recent estimate in San Anselmo that shows the type of granular detail involved:

An estimate like this one takes a lot of time to put together with such fine level detail. There are 5 work divisons and 26 individual elements.  However, when we are starting out without any design documents, it serves as a great project roadmap to further develop the project.

When I started this blog in 2005 little did I think I would still be writing it 10 years later. But here we are. The rate of posts may have slowed down since the beginning, but we just logged our 500th post to the blog. I find blogging is a great way to share our work in a more informal forum with more frequent updates than our main website. That and you can read my occasionally coherent thoughts and musings. If you want to read every post since 2005 you can visit the live archive listing page. Enjoy and thanks for reading.

-Michael O’Connell

While we previously highlighted work in progress construction photos on our last best of 2014 post, here are some finished project photos from our landscapes completed in 2014.

With all this wonderful rain in the month of December, MMWD’s reservoirs are spilling. While the media is quick to point out that the drought is not over, one thing is clear, for this year at least there will be no water restrictions or drought in Marin, which gets 75% of its water from reservoir storage at Mt. Tam and Nicasio. In Sonoma County things are also looking good with Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma at about 80%.

Links:
MMWD Water Watch
Sonoma County Water Agency Reservoir Levels

For those not familiar with Houzz, it’s a home design website with lots of good images of high end projects both inside and out. We have loaded our full portfolio on Houzz, and use its Ideabook feature to show clients precedent images and examples of our work. It’s a great collaborative tool and free to join.

O’Connell Landscape Featured on Houzz

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We just purchased a new Nikon digital camera for our office to shoot our projects (and of course as a fun toy).

The quality is amazing, and the wait is over. A professional quality camera (one that would have been the finest available at many thousands of dollars just a few years ago) is available with a couple of lenses for around $800. We picked up a Nikon D3200 DSLR.

Resist the temptation to upgrade to something more expensive. Unless you are going to shoot weddings on the weekends on the side, or paper your office in 24″x36″ photos, you don’t need fancier features or more pixels. The camera will just be outdated in a year or two anyway.

For more of my shots, see my new photo blog- done as a lark to get me to take more and better photos.

The hardscape for this project in Petaluma needed to be completely redeveloped. This plan helps establish a new more modern design aesthetic for the residence. Large floating concrete slabs are utilized for the front entry; while a new back concrete patio and connected small barbeque area integrate the same layout and theme.

We are in the conceptual design development phase for this project in Mill Valley. The project is a master plan to integrate a new entrance and driveway, improved access and usability of the front and side yards, and retaining walls and plantings for a lower slope area.

We have started the planting phase of this large project in Kentfield. Pictured are planting layouts of some of the shade garden areas featuring Rhodys, Hydrangeas, Liriope, and Geranium groundcover.

After a recent ongoing customer service headache with AT&T, the website Dial a Human, featured on Channel 7 on Your Side,  jumped out as a good resource. It gives the numbers to press to shortcut the interminable phone trees that are the hallmarks of most customer support.

Your call is very important to us, that is why we have optimized our system to delay you getting to speak to a real person. That real person will be in India and won’t have the training or ability to help you anyway, please continue to hold, while holding please enter your account number, so that when the agent comes to the line, we will ask you to restate your account number…

We are doing work for a larger client for some landscape work that was installed by another contractor. The other contractor was cheaper than we are, but as we put in this benderboard along a crooked lawn edge, you can see what the installed product of the cheapest bid looks like.

We are working on this large and flat back yard project in Corte Madera. The project will incorporate a new patio seat wall and large deck to transform the formerly unused yard.

Our blog and Facebook pages have now been linked. Making it even easier to follow the latest on our blog Turned Earth.

We have uploaded and reorganized our design portfolio examples. Take a look at construction drawings, installation details, elevations and conceptual and master layout plans at our design portfolio.
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The Droid has a spiffy app for posting straight to a WordPress blog. You can even directly upload photos.

This is the time of year for aphids and other pests to be causing problems with roses, annuals and perennial plants. Rather than spray a chemical pesticide we have been using Fish Oil based Organocide. It carries no restrictions on the label (caution, warning, danger, indications) and is suitable for organic production of fruits and vegetables. You may have to apply it a bit more frequently, and it may smell a bit fishy, but it works quite well. It has it’s limitations, but works quite well if properly applied (always read and follow application instructions). Safer Soap is another good option for a less toxic option for pest control.

For More: See Harmony Farm Supply’s Website of Pest Control Options