My Depression (in the Back Yard)

I have a question for you creative types. First watch the video, a short tour of the wooded depression in my backyard. I ask the question in there. It's about...

an old goal.  



j

The endless concrete rubble debacle, I feel like every third or fourth shovel scoop I have in some parts of my yard exposes old concrete.

I'm not sure what that pole is made of. It looks heavy! I do see some corrosion so I'd recommend taking a big flathead and stab around where the concrete and the metal meet. It might just be all rot or close to rot.

If the concrete/pipe is in fact in halfway decent shape... do you need some kind of heavy semi-permanent trellis anywhere? I'm sure you can string up some wire and run string leaders for climbing plants.

If it was my property, I'd probably break the concrete off the pipe if the pipe was not useful

Pipe can be scrapped for metal and I have a concrete rubble wall/habitat I am making in a unseen corner of my property. A manmade rock wall of sorts.

Poles like that are useful and should not be sold as scrap, somebody will want it as a post .
As Tim suggests break the concrete off, it will be too heavy to move easily.
As for the concrete, urbanite can be useful.
i hope you are planning to keep the wildness of the area in place.

Trellis is a great idea. The steel is sound down through the concrete. That little depression has been a dumping ground for bricks, unwanted rocks and pieces of limestone, concrete chunks, tires, and various other objects through the years.

j

Timothy Norton wrote:The endless concrete rubble debacle, I feel like every third or fourth shovel scoop I have in some parts of my yard exposes old concrete.

I'm not sure what that pole is made of. It looks heavy! I do see some corrosion so I'd recommend taking a big flathead and stab around where the concrete and the metal meet. It might just be all rot or close to rot.

If the concrete/pipe is in fact in halfway decent shape... do you need some kind of heavy semi-permanent trellis anywhere? I'm sure you can string up some wire and run string leaders for climbing plants.

The idea did run through my mind to use as much of the concrete chunks as landscaping, etc. Maybe I can get a BB out of it for the dry stack retaining wall project.  As far as keeping the wildness, I will be harvesting much of the deadfall for wood chips and clearing out some of the younger trees, but very selectively. I want to establish as many edible perennials in there as I can, but I'll be doing it slowly, carefully, and watchfully.

j

John C Daley wrote:Poles like that are useful and should not be sold as scrap, somebody will want it as a post .
As Tim suggests break the concrete off, it will be too heavy to move easily.
As for the concrete, urbanite can be useful.
i hope you are planning to keep the wildness of the area in place.

i think it would make a fine platform bird feeder! birds, squirrels, owls if you have good mousetrap output....

Genius! Thank you. I was thinking last week about putting in a purple martin house. this would give me the base to do that. Now all I have to do is find a slightly narrower pole to insert in this one.
I think I'm gonna give it a try.

j

Tereza Okava wrote:i think it would make a fine platform bird feeder! birds, squirrels, owls if you have good mousetrap output....

it looks like a good wide pole, should be easy enough to find something to stick in there. If you loosen the dirt underneath to wedge in the bottom of the pipe that sticks out you can use it as is (I love a low-effort solution almost as much as I love purple martins!)

Purple martins suffered a severe population crash in the 20th century widely linked to the release and spread of European starlings in North America. European starlings and house sparrows compete with martins for nest cavities. Where purple martins once gathered in the thousands, by the 1980s they had all but disappeared.[25]

https://www.purdueexponent.org/city_state/article_cbea7df0-a46b-11ec-9d64-57a5eb621e3a.html

Scout Arrival Study

This means I have until April Fools Day to get my purple martin house built and hung.

j

John C Daley wrote:Purple martins suffered a severe population crash in the 20th century widely linked to the release and spread of European starlings in North America. European starlings and house sparrows compete with martins for nest cavities. Where purple martins once gathered in the thousands, by the 1980s they had all but disappeared.[25]