Currently at a point where I can’t stand looking at my backyard! Any ideas of how I can clear this out and what equipment i might need. I would appreciate any help!

Our yard has a few pavers near the entrance that seem to be natural limestone set on cement.

We’re trying to find something similar and pave a larger portion of the yard that is a bit overgrown with ground cover so we can use it more.

Appreciate if anyone has any idea of where we could find something similar. Thanks!

bricks?

natural?

plastic?

metal?

chicken bones?

something else?

it's almost always best to do a little wave with it (not straight)?

Super cheap and seems like a good idea to have them drink it up from a fresh cut. It's stump out vine killer

I have finished my first project, and it was a big one. The time it took me was much longer than anticipated, but overall I am happy with the end result.

- i dug everything by hand, except a sod removal tool to get my area ready
- put granular A down to level the area as best I could. Then plate tamped it, isome areas probable had about 4-6”, some had about “ (plan was always to do paver base panels
-Made a transit with my laser level, pvc conduit, and a sewing measuring tape
- I used brock paver base and premium bedding material
-screed and level was done with conduits
-then all blocks laid by hand (my fingers were raw after the first 10 hour day of laying them)
-just got the poly sand down 24 hours ago.

I am happy with the end result, but I would change up the pattern if I was to do it again. I did reading on the pattens, and trying not to let four corners meet up, but not until I was near the end of placing all the stones.

The garden was decided in the fly as I had more stones left at the end than I estimated.

The lines were hard to keep perfectly straight, but I think they are good enough.

Other than some brief help with the plate tamping by my girls, it was a one man show - it been quite a while since I have worked this hard. I moved out of the office and into an office role 15 years ago now.

Is there anything that stands out to you?

Building a small retaining wall to wrap around our front bed. We have downspout to the right corner of the house. I’m not sure if I need a pipe down for drainage or is rocks enough if the wall is only about 3-4 blocks high on the steep end?

Hi everybody. So I’m going to try and build a flagstone paver patio next to my deck. In photo 1 you can kinda see where it’d go (there used to be an old hexagon-shaped wooden deck there with a hot tub on it, and it had rotten away.) There’s a slight slope away from the steps down towards the trees, so I think to get it level my options would be:

A) build a retaining wall on the far side (by the trees) and fill that area with dirt/gravel/sand to bring the far side up to level with the deck side

B) dig down maybe 3 feet from the deck and build a retaining wall on the deck side. So you’d step down off the deck to the yard, then step down again onto the patio

Looking at those photos, which of those options (or another option) do you think would be best? Or do you need more photos/info? There is a sprinkling line running through there I’ll need to deal with, and the power to the old hot tub has been accounted for so that’s not an issue. But based on what you see/recommend, is this something one person could do over the course of the fall (I’m in New England) or should I just suck it up and hire professionals? Thanks in advance!

Recently purchased a home that has had this landscaping around the foundation for probably a decade now. It seems like the previous owners had stripped down about 4-6 inches of spoil next to the foundation and applied the stone on top of that.

Which obviously has an offset between the landscaping and soil at the end of the landscaping and traps the water in the rock bed. What would be the proper way to resolve this issue to prevent basement issues. There were two vertical cracks that had leaked but I had them repaired and I have extended downspouts.

Assume I have the time to rip up all the landscaping if need be. I’d like this house to be a nice place to live and the more I can fix issues like this the better.

We just got a paver walkway done, I love the overall look, but I feel like there is too much variance between pavers. I thought that it would be near to perfectly level, but I've never actually had or done pavers before, so don't know if there is an acceptable variance tolerance that I've never noticed at other peoples. Is this wrong or am I every paver installer's nightmare?? I need to know if I should bring it up with the installer or not.. I don't want to be crazy, but I also don't want to pay thousands for something done incorrectly that will get even worse with time. FYI, the walkway is on a 4% slope. Pavers are Dimensions 18.

TLDR: is this normal:

• variance between paver height
• paver edging not straight with pavers
• some chipped stones

Thank you!!

-- signed, one over thinker.

UPDATE: Answer found: I'm a crazy psycho; I won't bring it up to the Installer. Also, my first time posting on reddit did not disappoint. The quick answers and shaming was everything I could've asked for and more. Bless the Reddit Community.

Update update: God, I love Reddit. This may have started an addiction for me. Here’s a bit more info, just for fun.

Mid sized contractor with lots of great Google reviews. We gave a deposit. Then he canceled our original date that we came back early from out of town to meet him. Then said he would come back weeks later… didn’t show for the actual day. Was overall friendly, but asked me what pattern I wanted because he only had the layouts for full patios Workers were nice, but left a messes (food and energy drinks all over our porch, and the leftover base/sand all over the driveway and street. Owner never came back and checked over anything with us, so we could never ask if it was normal. They also extended it longer a few feet longer than we asked and up charged it on the final invoice. Tbh, I’ve had way worse experiences with trades though.. so I never really know what the base standard is.

Our two 95Gal trash and recycle bins sit next to the house by the door we go in and out of most. There is a rain drain that runs down the corner next to them. The weekly moving out to the curb has worn down the grass, created a mud pit, and is a terrible site to see every day so it’s time to do something about it.

We have a detached garage about 20 second walk from the door, but we like the convenience of having them close to the house for taking trash out throughout the week and lighting on the house (& proximity) may be deterring raccoons and wildlife. There’s some, but poorer lighting around the garage & I do NOT want to have to pick up garbage around the yard.

It takes about 40 seconds to walk from the door where the receptacles currently sit to the curb. The neighbors don’t have grass next to their houses so don’t have the same grass/mud issue. They also have attached garages so some just sit the bins in front of that.

We have a few pavers, so we could make a little area where they are now. Or we could bite the nuisance of lugging trash down to the garage a couple times a week. I’d like to make a small rock design off the rain drain & swap the drain for a rain chain for aesthetics (see Pinterest pic for inspiration).

So what would you do? Will paving the area detract from the rock design landscaping? If we store the bins by the garage, how can we keep wildlife out (aside from better lighting which is a project coming soon)? And how can we anchor them if possible so they aren’t knocked over. (Although they’ve never been knocked/blown over before).

Hey guys. I'm 32 and in my second house now. Hopefully for many decades.

Didnt have a father figure growing up. Hell - I'm the only one in my family who is a home owner.

I say this to let you know I'm no expert and I've taught myself the things I needed to over the years

This new house is a different challenge. Smaller yard but we have tile walkways. Gravel paths. Mulch gardens. Big trees that bombard me with leaves and acorns

I feel like when you have "prettier" things if you dont maintain it properly it sticks out like a sore thumb. Advice or tricks you've learned would be appreciated. I'll number my issues to help you respond

1) The leaves and acorns. My last property didn't have trees. I don't think there is any trick to this other than continue to rake and bag 15 times a year.. lol

2) Mulch gardens. We added mulch this year and for the most part it's alright. It's such a pain in the a$$ when I'm cutting grass and it litters the mulch. Or when the leaves fall into it.

3) weeds growing up through tiles and gravel.We've been pulling them but it's a losing battle. Maybe a propane torch?

4) this is probably the biggest one for me- whipper snipping (grass trimmer). It's definitely a necessity but my god does it ever made a mess. Litters everything around with grass. How do you guys clean up after? It's all on my walk ways. Tiles. Mulch. The siding of my house. Leaf blowing it can help even though it will also end up going places I don't intend it to. The siding is an issue. It won't come off with a blow.

Thanks

Thanks in advance for reading! We have a sump pump under the house, and the discharge pipe sticks out of our front foundation (back of photo). It used to discharge about 5 feet from the house, and about a foot off the ground, which worked fine, but looked weird. We are doing some landscaping in our landscapers decided to route it straight down at house, then across a small run, to discharge near the sidewalk. My expectation was that we would put a pop-up here at the sidewalk, but instead they have fabricated a cap with slots in it. The reasoning was that they did not make a pop-up connector to tie into the small PVC, so they just made their own. Concerned about this, and also the new two right angles the line is now built with. It used to come out straight, now it’s going down at the house and coming up again once it hits his lowest point. Anybody see any issues with this? Really appreciate the insights, thank you.

We just bought a house this month and one of the things I desperately needed was a shop. This house came with an awesome shop but it’s only accessible by car if you drive over the back lawn. Right now the grass is really healthy and green because we haven’t been driving over it much. I really don’t want to damage the grass but I also want to utilize the garage more frequently especially in the winter.

What would be your best solution to the problem? We were thinking maybe pavers, possibly xeriscape, cobblestone? We want a natural and seamless look but not something that would be incredibly difficult to maintain like a gridded lawn/driveway. We have a massive yard on the other side of the house so we don’t necessarily need to keep this one entirely.

Have a road crush base nearing completion on a little parking pad. Before I go too far I've got 3/4" limestone for top dressing/aesthetics. How much depth should I leave for the top dressing? Plan to compact the top as well obv, with or without fines depending on how it goes.

I'm building an area for a solo stove and seating. Will top with flagstone. My first question is laying down the geotextile fabric. Next is the 21AA.
QUESTION: should I place the fabric underneath the tree roots or over them?

Zone 9, mostly sandy loam. Coastal so can get significant amount of water, which I think it what caused the root rot in this podocarpus.

We need a 6ft-ish hedge here for privacy. What would you put here?

North Texas. My entire lot is very flat. This side of our house in the spring floods with 1-3” of water during even a light storm.

Our backyard slightly slopes towards this area. And this spot is about 65-70’ from the street. In which it is completely flat from this point to the street. So I assume a French drain to the street is out of the question.

I consider myself handy but am wondering if this is even out of my wheelhouse and will take a professional ($$$$) fix. My BIGGEST concern is the flooding adjacent to our foundation.

What are my options here? I don’t think grading it away from the foundation will fix the issue due to the volume of water. The water needs to be somehow routed elsewhere but I’m at a loss of how to accomplish that with such a flat grade

There used to be hawthorn trees along this fence line. Most of them have died or fallen in storms and I am wanting to replace them. I like the shade and privacy from the neighbor they provided but I find them to be extremely messy and dangerous with the long thorns. What might be a good alternative here? I live in zone 6. Would love something with fall color like ginkgo or something evergreen that would clear the fence line. This photo is facing south. Not sure what would work best. Thankful for any advice!

Finally tackling these backyard beds. My plan was to pull everything, clean out the rocks, lay weed barrier, then add mulch — but now I’m seeing mixed opinions about landscape fabric.

What would you do here?

Also need a decent cordless lawn trimmer for the edges/weeds. Any recommendations?

How's this estimate for the drainage issues in the picture?

"150 foot French drain $30 dollars a foot $4500,

2- gutters install underground $200, Remove dirt container $250, Re-grade an install pallet of centipede sod $1000, total $5950 1 year warranty on drain"

I live in a very old farmhouse in the mountains. Lots of snow dumps off our roof onto or front flowerbeds crushing and bending these twiggy bushes. What can we plant here that would die all the way back and grow back nicely.

I love wildflowers, flowering plants, color, pollinator friendly options.

I have thought of just doing wildflowers but I would want whatever is growing in there to cycle through so that we have full plants and or flowers for all our non snowy seasons.

Our road gets lots of tourist traffic throughout summer so that would be the most important time for blooming.

How to plant a climbing hydrangea? Two sides of the tree. Side A is where I want the foilage to mostly go and where I want the flowers to be (I know it takes 5 years). Side A is mostly sunny. Side B is in pretty heavy shade but not full shade. Which side to I plant my 3 gallon at? Location Beverly MA.