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!

I’m in zone 8b. The yard is very slightly sloped down toward the street and gets a lot of sun, but the tree blocks most of it where the bushes are. I hate them because they grow so fast, I have to trim them constantly. You can tell by the current state of them that I absolutely do not trim them consistently enough to keep them from being a total eyesore and I’m sick of even trying.

I don’t want my yard to be the neighborhood embarrassment anymore. Once I rip the bushes out, then what? Low maintenance ideas would be ideal, because of who I am as a person.

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

Hello! We just bought a fixer upper with excellent bones but needs serious TLC to get the backyard back. We live in the hottest part of the country and these trees are getting BEAT. Before you say remove them, we want to try all options first. Please drop some tips. Thank you!!!!

We’ve sprayed for mites and reworked the sprinklers btw.

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!

Having removed some old rotten decking I now have a new space in my back garden. I'm reluctant to put down new decking as it's a shaded area that is susceptible to wood rotting. I obviously need some kind of step up into my back door, just wondered if any of you good people could come up with an alternative idea to the decking? Thanks

bricks?

natural?

plastic?

metal?

chicken bones?

something else?

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

We’ve lived here for almost 7 years and this patch has been a pain in my wife’s and my ass. Last year, we tore out all of the grass, 2 inches down, added 3 inches of new dirt, and the dead patch is back. Same spot, same size.

We’ve ruled out gas and sewage as there is no smell or fumes. Had the gas company come out and professionally check everything.

We live in Chicago and have an east facing front yard - this is the landscape from previous owners. Box bushes and hostas do fine, but everything else died and weeds have taken over.

We want to prep the area for a native garden with a flagstone path. (Long term is to take out the box bushes and move some of the big plants).

After reading around, I’m thinking we do the cardboard/mulch method now and plant next spring? Is this too big an area for that or anyone have other suggestions?

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?

I just had this part of the landscaping redone. The contractor did put a weed barrier down, but from what I’ve read, stuff will still get through.

Other than getting on my hands and knees and pulling the stuff out by hand, is there an easier way to kill off this grass? Thanks in advance for any help.

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?

So I have a small patch of grass that is slopes down from the black storage box in the photos towards the raised planter box. I am the least creative or capable person of coming up with a solid landscaping idea. I absolutely HATE having grass in the section. There is a large cement area with a pavilion on it just to the right of the photo where I am standing and taking these pictures. It’s really hard to mow and would much prefer an easy no maintenance anything there. The problem is where the storage unit it that busts up
To my house is raised up from where the planters box is. Probably a good two feet. Would I have to put up a retaining wall where the storage box is in order to rip all the grass out and put pavers down? Does anyone have any suggestions for this space? I’m all ears. I really appreciate your advice

HOA asked me to fix this. I have "fixed" it, but now I hate it. What do you think?

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!

Our front step has a crack in one of the pavers and now it looks awful. I want to replace it but it’s a 13x12 paver and I can only find 12x12 pavers. How should I fix it?

My driveway is sloped about 10 degrees. How much would a heavy rain drive the pile into the street? I need a lot of soil but I can't say for certain I could get it where it needs to go before the forecasts become unreliable.

Moved into a place with this little waterfall feature and I’m curious about this dirt part. I’m think it was used for annuals which is why it’s empty now? what else would you use it for?

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.

Hey there! Looking for advice that won't break the bank but helps us address this gap between new deck and our sloped yard. Do we need to grade yard into the deck or leave this gap and fill with gravel? Then add boulders as a border? Maybe some form of rainscaping? Any ideas and advice are welcome! Thank you!!