WWYD regarding back yard

I posted this on the giant thread then thought I'd ask for what y'all would do.

Do you have any pictures to show what you're up against?

No, not yet. I should have taken a photo of the back yard. The listing has already been removed so I can't even pull that up.

I can maybe drop by this week during inspection. Basically both corners of the yard have huge trees. One is one of the biggest oak trees I've ever seen. It would need 3 people holding hands to reach around it. The other tree is a sweet gum tree and there is also a shed for the mower, etc. There is one tiny patch of grass and the rest is the veranda and rock flower beds and pathways. It's only around 7000 sq ft so not too big either.

I am just hesitant to remove the landscaping but on the other hand having more agility room would be nice. Or I could just practice at parks....

Personally, I prefer an open grassy yard. I love big oak trees, but the sweet gum tree would have to go. Heck, those seed pods.....OUCH! :yikes:

So if it were my yard, I'd leave the one big tree and remove all the landscaping stuff and get some grass growing to have a nice open area. Less maintenance, more play area. And no impaling gum balls into your feet.

Personally, I would pass on such a property.

I want a large enough yard for my own enjoyment and disc and agility. GRASS.

Wouldn't even look at anything else. If I found myself in the position where I already had it, I would go train elsewhere, not mess up the yard. The grass would never grow back without a ton of help. (believe me... )

I think it's really hard to tell until we get pictures but I'm looking forward to seeing it!

Well the nice thing is you don't have to decide this second, and you can change landscaping to be whatever you want at really any time.

Personally, I would probably wait and experiment with what I could set up out there, see how it worked out, and then decide what I wanted to do based on how well it worked and how much it annoyed me if it wasn't.

Grass will grow. It will be okay. I tore out parts of 6" deep asphalt pad and dug up tons of gravel and road pack that was underneath it. The grass is growing quite happily.


Asphalt pad.


Pad cut and removed, most of the road pack and gravel removed.


Happy grass.


Another angle.


Clearing out just rock beds will be MUCH easier, but will take plenty of physical labor and preferably a sifter to make it go faster.

You have a few options; if there's somewhere on the driveway or the front to put down a plastic sheet, you can clear it up and wheelbarrow it up there and dump it. Then post on craigslist that you have free rock for anybody who wants to come scoop it and load it.
The other option is to post about it and have people come clear it out of your yard themselves, but that's a bit skeevy and I wouldn't do it. There's a guy on our local craigslist who is getting rid of river rock from flower beds around his house and he is inviting people to come dig it up away from the house, and I wouldn't even go dig it up... just a little creepy to show up and start digging up rock away from somebody's house. =P
Another option would be to relocate the beds and landscape your front yard instead - that way you don't really lose the "so pretty!!" of having all the plants and stuff, but you move it to the front of the house where it boosts curb appeal up there. And then you can leave the backyard itself to being a yard. Honestly it will all depend on who buys the house after you, but anybody with dogs or kids will probably appreciate a nice backyard more than pretty landscaping with very little grass.


With the road pack, we dumped it on the driveway in front of the garage and I posted on craigslist that it was free if anybody wanted to come haul it off. One guy came and took a truckload, then came back the next day with a buddy and they loaded up the rest and away they went. He was expanding his driveway in the country and needed it. The large chunks of asphalt we actually were able to just wheelbarrow over to my neighbor's, because they were pouring a new concrete driveway and actually needed large fill to help level it out. Any rocks or chunky stuff we dug up after the one guy took all the road pack I'd dug up also went over there. So I got rid of the whole thing for free, which would have cost me several hundred bucks to haul off, and two people also got stuff for free when it would have cost them a few hundred apiece to get the stuff too. Pretty sweet for everybody involved.


In some places the city will actually help you take down sweet gum trees - I don't know if they're still doing it, but my city was doing it here not that long ago. The pods were getting into the sewer system and causing trouble and damage, so they were paying for people to cut them down. =P

We cut down a lot of limbs off my trees to let more light come through - there were also a lot of dead limbs that needed to come down, and while we were at it I cut them away from where my dog walk sits. The city came by last week and cut the limbs away from the powerlines, so that has brightened it up some too. My front yard has a bigger issue with shade under the big tree but I haven't really addressed it much since that's only an aesthetic annoyance rather than THIS MUD. THE DOGS. ARGH. I cut some stuff down after a big storm knocked some things down to start but I really want to remove more. A lot of it we were able to get just with a pole saw but you can also hire a tree guy to come out. I'll probably have one come out next spring to take down the remainder of what I want down. See what winter kills off first.


Anyway, no doubt it can be done, it just depends on how much work you want to put into it. And, of course, you don't need to do it all at once. You can remove just one bed at a time.

I thought about passing on it because of the yard but in the end there were just too many factors in addition to 'good for agility training'. The area is fantastic and it cuts my commute by almost half. It is in a very nice neighborhood. Everythign in the house is brand new from 2013. The house itself is older but they replaced the roof, the AC, the heater, the hot water tank, the carpets, redid the bathrooms, retextured walls, etc. I didn't look at any others near that nice and that wouldn't need a lot of work. So in the end it was the only thing I didn't like (other than old lady wallpaper lol), and my list of dislikes on everything else was way longer. My second choice had a better yard for agility but it backed up to a major road and was noisy plus the house work and the kitchen was set up strangely. Plus the driveway needed re pouring.

I have thought about removing the two sweet gum trees- one in the front and one in the back. They are a PITA and we had them down in Houston. I remember those suckers- they HURT. I haven't decided though because they are pretty trees and give a lot of shade.

I think for sure though I am going to remove the beds around the sweet gum tree. I will probably leave the ones around the oak tree. There are a bunch of limbs that need removed from the oak tree. They're touching the roof so those will have to go ASAP. That may help grass grow a bit better.

The front yard is also landscaped already so probably won't move the beds to the front.
I'll have to get pics as soon as possible. I'm really excited!

I am not sure how big an area you are talking about but you could also lay a smaller size mulch down instead of planting grass, pack it down, and train on that? With how dry your area is (at least it always seems dry to me but I am from the wetlands, ha), I would think that mulch would last a while and not get gross as long as you clean up after your dogs frequently?

Also: Giant oak tree jealousy. I love those things, and hurray for shade in the heat of summer!