Anybody doing any big landscaping projects this year?

My back yard of my new house is small and very plain. There's only sod the builder put down and a thin trim around the perimeter of bark. And a 6' wooded fence. Very boring.

I just got a bid on some professional landscaping. Well, only an approximate bid. He's doing some more figuring and will get back to me. It's going to be expensive. But I really can't do this myself...it's too much work. I am debating whether or not to put in a water feature. I'm going to enlarge the patio and have a fire pit. Then there will be some more space for gardens, one area with a short, rock wall and I'll have a few trees and lots of perennials. I love the English cottage garden look. But there will still be grass too for the dogs.

The front will have a little sprucing up, but not a lot done there. I'm getting rid of the beauty bark and putting that nifty, dark mulch that looks like rich dirt, but it's going over the top soil. It looks so much better and plants that don't like acid do fine in that. It's hard to grow a lot of annuals or vegetables with beauty bark. I didn't even know about this cool looking mulch until the guy showed me. He has a nice portfolio and good reviews. So, I'm really excited. I may not get everything the way I want it right away because it's so costly, but at least get a start. I'll get another bid or two and go from there.

So, anyone else have any plans for some big changes in your yards?opcorn:

Just a terraced retaining wall with some planting areas. We have a sloped side yard and it's a pain to keep the area up against the house mowed and it's honestly unusable. A nice raised garden bed there will do the trick, we think. We'll cut in a retaining wall at the bottom and do two more as we go up the hill with one along the edge to tie it all together. Each "flat" area will be a flower bed, then.

It's designed in my head, now just to really put it all down and figure out the logistics.

That sounds nice Eddie. Yes, my yard slopes a little too, but not that much. Even the little bit that it does makes it harder to mow. So, your project should turn out really nicely and it will be nice to be able to use that space. Is it sunny there? You could stick in some veggies in and among the flowers. That's what I'm going to try at this house rather than a whole, designated vegetable garden and I'll use some pots too. I have to use mostly the front yard for that because the back is too shady...faces north. There are some amazing things one can do with areas that seem hopeless. You should take some before and after photos, as I will do and we can post them later. Your work sounds quite physical but it will be so nice when it's all finished.

It's not 'big' but I'm trying to learn to garden. I'm terrible at keeping plants alive, but we've started peas and tomatoes from seed, and we're going to try squash and watermelon, too. So far my peas look super happy.

We've been working redoing our pool tiles seen here:

675U9923 by AdrianneIsabel, on Flickr

When we bought the house they were already weak and our dogs playing in the pool have made it worse. The house was built in the 80s and the pool gets the most sun at this part, like all day, so it was just a matter of time.

We'd also like to re-paint the entire pool deck:

_MG_9980 by AdrianneIsabel, on Flickr

From this ugly red to a nice tan that *does not* show all the dirt so badly.

Last, I'd like to re-do all the rock from this crappy, disappearing with every poop pick up, red lava rock and put in a nice river rock or something. I'm open to suggestions here.

It appears I need some non-dog photos of my yard. LOL

ETA: found one

We're also doing a lot of plants. I put in several in the front yard (and would like a dry river bed there but thats low on the list) and I put a few in the back in pots, finding a way to protect them from the dogs has been challenging at best.

Adrianne! I'm so jealous!!! That pool. The sun. The stone wall. It's wonderful. I'm surprised the dogs can ruin tile. Wow! They sure look like they're having the best time! Well, that sounds like quite the project, but you'll be so glad when it's all spruced up.

Red, It's easy to garden once you get use to it. I've gardened since I was 9 years old. My Dad put me up to it. LOL. It's fun, but a bit of work. Those veggies though, home grown can't be beat. Those peas will have a short time to do well because they don't like too much heat. So, enjoy them while you can. The tomatoes will be soooooo delicious...peppers, all kinds of stuff. Southern Cali...you couldn't pick a better place.

It would be nice to have updates on everyone's projects and post pictures later. I'd be interested in how things go for everyone.

We've already torn out 5 trees (4 dead, one close). Will be tearing out at least 4 more plus several scraggly nasty old shrubs. Also planting a small orchard and some new shrubs to be shaped and cared for unlike the ones that came with the house. Tearing out 30' above ground pool and associated deck. Fencing the primary backyard. Possibly tearing out and replacing the front walk but that really may have to wait til next year.

ETA: Also reducing our ridiculous 40' wide flowerbeds to something more manageable (naturally they are framed with infinite rocks that need moved too...), moving the firepit, etc... Not to mention the whole veggie garden thing which is far enough from the house that I'm not counting it as landscaping...

Tilling the veggie garden, getting it ready for planting.

Expanding one of the front flower beds to cut out an awkward grass cutting angle.

Getting a truck bed full of bulk mulch home in the truck. That will be used for all of the projects.

Filling holes our lovely dogs dig in the backyard.

Graveling over some paths along the East side of the back fence. Not enough sun to grow grass.

Now, all I need is some nice Saturdays! LOL

Building a larger Koi Pond, adding some tree screening along the fence line by my awful neighbors.

It has ends now. That is where the labrador pond was. Drained it, pulled the plastic and all the muck that accumulated with the bad pump, and filled it in.



The waterfall hill went from the edge of the hoop house to the apple tree on the right. Didn't use an erosion barrier so I might rework the pile of rocks.

I have also been told to grow grass. You can see what the yard leveling, the dogs, and the giant Ponderosa did to the grass.

Thanks! We have a long list of what we want to achieve in the yard and now we just have to funnel in the money.

Yeah, the dogs can damage already weakened grout by playing with these in the pool. Hopefully the freshly done rock/grout will hold up for at least a few years. LOL

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/374733_750175460438_23703282_35537861_2052305893_n.jpg

I want a koi pond! Photos?

We're doing a good bit, especially to our back yard.

We've been debating between a pool and a new patio for a while, and I think we're going to go with the patio- I LOVE our grass and the pool would take away from that. So hopefully once the inside renovations are done, we'll add the patio (I'm hoping to have it UP by July). So, I want a screened in patio AND an open patio. I'd like to incorporate a fire pit and a little pond. We'll see how ambitious I am come summer time. LOL.

That's what people keep telling me. :rofl1: I've killed bamboo before. It's like the more I try with plants, the faster I kill them. One of my two houseplants is outside in the veggie garden thing in a last ditch effort to save it's life. I'm hoping more sun will help.

My boyfriend's helping me, though, and he's pretty good at gardening.

We had a lot of peppers last year, which was really great. Our basil from last year is still alive--both plants. They're bigger than ever, which, according to the tag, isn't supposed to happen. We have tons of it in the freezer. <3 One of our pepper plants came back this year, and produced already, which was neat. We just planted the baby tomato plants today, and started the watermelons and squash.

Eventually, I'll get it. If I can keep fish alive, I should be able to grow tomatoes.

There is a secret to veggie gardening.

Watering timer!

Preferably drip irrigation for water conservation and keeping the leaves dry. Wet leaves seem to promote disease, so I try not to get the leaves wet more than it rains.

We're adding goats and chickens to the back yard. I'm sure they'll do some landscaping of their own!

Apart from that we're adding some flower beds along the front of the house, not sure if they're going to take off though because the dogs keep trampling through them.

and I just want to wish everyone luck with all this lol...

psyfalcon I have greenhouse envy..

and a koipond would be lovely. Too bad a certain retriever in my house would attempt to live in one...and the herder would try to nab all the fish...

Well this summer we will hopfully get the rest of the fence up. At least thats our #1 plan for our place now that we are keeping Mitsu.

We will probably just continue with the fence design already up if we can find it:


I also want to put some trees up along the fence line. I have not really decided what type yet.

I also want to put some shrubs or somthing in that dead spot underneath the deck. I don't know if that will get done this summer, but its in the plans:


We also want to extend the back patio somehow. No idea how or what yet:

We were going to...and then I got quotes on it that STARTED at $10k to rip out trees and put in grass. That's not any structural changes at all.

I think we'll be waiting a while!

I've never had a water timer in my life and always had vegetable gardens. Dusty, dirty leaves also promote disease...same with roses big time. I use to have a wonderful rose garden with about 50 bushes that I fussed with all the time. They were prize winning roses. A lot of people don't like to water them over head either. But again, it's between wet and dirt. Take your choice. lol. The trick is, I think, to water in the early morning so they dry out quickly. I think a timer would be nifty though and a device to measure how deep it's getting in the ground. Drip irrigation is good as it keeps so much water from evaporating and wasting. I used that but also over head watering.