Dan Espen wrote:
t writes:

I'm slowly converting my tiny suburban back area into a garden.

Progress is slowed because of a chronic problem of landscapers
dumping unused overburden on it.

Are these landscapers you've asked to come and work on your
property?

The guy I'll call Dale was. He and his team did extensive hardscape
work. I supplied him with a requirements sheet that specified
that the grade at the finish of the project was to be no higher
than the grade at the start of the project. I reinforced this
verbally a couple times during the project.

Dale is not a real good listener.

Dale was assisted by a guy I will call Richie, who
stared at me and said "I know where to put extra dirt."
when I mentioned how disappointed I was that my
requirement for an 'existing grade' finish was being
ignored.

The third guy who I will call Martin did some work for a
neighbor over the back fence this week.

I had my yard all vacuumed up, with nothing but the cracked
adobe showing, ready for me to scoop it out and replace with
mulch, again.

A couple days after Martin started my neighbor's project, my
back yard was under half an inch of powdery gravel once more.
I sighed heavily and began shoveling and vacuuming, again.

I find it interesting that these donations coincide with
landscaper visits (to neighboring properties) to a high degree.

I understand why, because our local landfill charges $200 a yard
to dump the stuff. (Ask Me How I Know This.)

I shovel and vacuum the dirt up off the clay, but a month later,
I'm gifted with another half-a-yard of fill dirt, neatly
distributed over the surface and pushed into the crawlspace under
an outbuilding.

Every week for the last decade, I've filled my garbage can
full of this soil but the amount in the back yard is a constant,
not a variable. The next larger trash can would cost me an
additional $30 a month, which I don't have to spare.

I have a Freecycle ad offering this clean fill but I have
no takers.

How would you solve this problem?

The rest of your post makes no sense to me.
Are these your landscapers doing something you don't like or
some random landscapers illegally dumping soil on your land?

Both.

Or are you just having us on?

No.

I continue to hope that one of my new friends on rec.gardens
will be willing to talk about how they:

* Converted dusty gravel into a nutritious mulch
* Traded dusty gravel to a pal that needed road base for a paver
project
* Found that the county would visit and pull up clean fill dirt as a
donation on a monthly basis
* Or anything that would allow me to actually work on my garden
without having all my time wasted cleaning up someone else's mess


--Winston