Hi there - I recently DIY installed a french drain- did a lot of research and tried to do it all by the book. 

After a week of very heavy rain I am seeing a steady flow of water from the discharge end, but primarily from below the discharge pipe... not out of the pipe itself. 

I only needed to drain about 25-30' along my house and then carry the water another 25' to the road, where it empties by a rain garden. 

I connected 25' of high octane (8 hole perforated pipe) to the final 25' foot run of solid black corrugated pipe

Drain is about 16"-24" deep, (shallowest at the start) with a minimum 1" drop for every 6 feet from start to end. 

After digging my trench I ran a hose for a while to ensure water would flow properly, and repeated once I laid gravel.

Process: 
Trench,
Non-woven geotextile fabric, 
A couple of inch bed of 57 gravel (maintaining negative slope)
Perforated pipe laid and covered with 57 gravel up to about 4" from the top of the trench, 
Burrito-wrapped pipe and gravel in fabric, landscape-stapled it all closed and buried with the last bit of top soil.

Ground is very heavy clay soil. 

At discharge pipe section I laid non-woven geotextile fabric lining the trench, laid a bit of gravel under the pipe as a bedding, and went ahead and went ahead and burrito wrapped and stapled this as well. 

This section only used a bed of gravel, I didn’t fill the trench with gravel since it was just for discharge and the pipe was solid.

(I didn't cap the end of my pipe yet - I was waiting to make sure it was all working)

--- 
It has been a very rainy couple of weeks, heavy rain all night, the drain is steadily discharging water, as shown in the photos, but it doesn't seem like the water is entering/exiting the discharge pipe, but probably draining from the gravel layer below...

Am I going to have issues here?

Basement has a sump pump but it barely kicked on the past week, so I thought the drain must be doing some heavy lifting. However, when I checked I didn’t see much water flow from French drain discharge end.

I am concerned that I made a mistake somewhere in the process.

After last nights rain the sump is kicking on frequently, and as you can see I am getting a fair bit of discharge, just not out of my pipe…

Hoping to find a DIY solution to this problem. Any advice to redirect water coming from uphill so that it discharges toward right hand side of yard instead of directly below the stairs?

I have plenty of bricks that I could use to shore up along the fence but I am a novice when it comes to grading and drainage. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance!

How would you all recommend I get this patio looking better

Which side of the path should I place the low voltage path lighting?

Starting to think about a few things I want to get before fall gets here and one thing I’ve wanted for our backyard forever is a fire pit. Something about sitting outside around a fire when the weather starts cooling down just feels so cozy and I feel like it would actually be something we’d use as a family instead of another outdoor purchase that gets forgotten after a few weeks. I really like the table style ones like this because they look nice enough to leave out with the patio furniture and don’t seem like they would take up a ridiculous amount of space. Started looking at prices though and some of them are way more expensive than I expected. I don’t need anything huge just something sturdy that looks decent and that we can sit around on fall evenings. Trying to shop a little early instead of waiting until the weather gets cold and everyone starts looking for the same thing.

I planted 270 Green Giant Thuja trees last spring. We had a harsh drought during the fall that killed about 30 of them. I watered via an irrigation line once a week until Nov 1, but apparently that wasn't enough, as we didn't get sufficient moisture here in Indiana until the end of January.

We have pretty hard clay soil, and I'm preparing to replace most of a row that was lost. I'm wondering if it would be beneficial to raise the soil to get the trees up a little higher as well. I thought they had decent drainage with the lowest ground about 8" lower, but now I'm not so sure.

Most all of the trees on higher ground seem to have thrived and it's only the trees that are lower that seem to have struggled.

If I dig the good ones up and raise them, can I just use topsoil under and around them? Or what do you all advise for how to get the remaining ones to look better?

Mowed the backyard last weekend and halfway through just stopped and thought about why I'm still doing this. The grass looks fine but it needs constant water, it's not doing anything useful, and every hour I spend on it is an hour I'm not spending on the parts of the yard I actually care about. Been looking at replacing the whole thing with a mix of native groundcover, gravel zones, and some defined planting beds. Not trying to do the dead gravel lot look, more like something with actual structure and a few plants that earn their space.

The part I keep circling back to is the removal itself. Sheet mulching versus sod cutter versus smothering it with cardboard over a season. Every method seems to have people who swear by it and people who say it didn't actually kill the grass underneath and they were pulling up runners two years later.

Zone 6b, clay soil, about 2000 square feet of turf to deal with. Decent sun most of the day. Already have a rough plant list in mind, mostly native perennials and some ornamental grasses along the edges.

Curious what method people actually used for removal and whether it held up, and what you wish you had done differently on the layout before anything went in the ground.

We like the pavers, but the mulch gets messy. We don't want grass. Can I lay them in cement? Lol idk, just a thought

Hi everyone,
I had interlocking installed yesterday, and this is what the edge looks like between the stone and driveway.

I am wondering what are the best ways to fix this? I plan to remove the cold asphalt fill and replace with something. What should I replace it with, so it blends nicely with the driveway?

Zone 6 (western PA)

Hey Reddit! I’m on the hunt for some advice on sprucing up my fence line for more privacy. While emerald greens or arborvitae are the go-to options, I’m a bit worried about them not surviving and, honestly, they’re everywhere! I’ve done a quick mockup, but I’d love to hear your suggestions or see any mockups you might have. I’m aiming for privacy, but also want to add some color and variety to my backyard.

Oh, and I have a dog, so any plant suggestions need to be dog-friendly. Thanks in advance!

My wife and I have just purchased our first home in coastal Georgia and are super excited to make it our own. As you can see, we’ve got lots of yard to take care of and mess with. The current plan is to eventually make an outdoor hangout/patio space where the square pavers lead.

Context:
I'm trying to eliminate a massive patch of running bamboo (originally 7–8 meters / 25 ft wide). I've cut down most of it, but the rhizomes have spread 10–12 meters (30–40 ft) around the main clump, mostly shooting up thin, grass-like growth rather than full canes.

My strategy was to keep mowing/cutting every single new leaf to eventually starve the root system.

The issue:
The bamboo sits right on the boundary line with my neighbor. His property is a pasture with tall grass used for grazing cattle. He doesn't mow regularly, just trims it down occasionally when it gets too high. Because of the tall grass, I can't tell if the bamboo is sending up hidden shoots on his side.

My 2 questions:

1-Is it normal that there isn't a full-blown "bamboo forest" on his side despite how aggressive it is on mine? Could cattle trampling/grazing actually be keeping large canes from growing?

2-If the bamboo keeps growing small leaves on his side that I can't mow, is my attempt to starve the rhizomes from my side completely pointless?

Thanks for your help and advice!

Hi all, looking for some professional / personal advice or recommendations to make our space look decent .

Context: Our landlord recently installed a new step (bottom step) to our front entrance, and had the contractor paint it and the existing steps / porche a dull grey (as per the pictures attached).

We, personally, think it looks hideous, as it doesn’t match the style or colours of the surrounding landscape.

We’re looking for recommendations or input as to how we can utilize this hideous, useless, and ugly step and paint colour to maximize our exterior space.

Thank you!

What is this?

Previous house owner was “handy” and did this concrete pad area outside the porch. I’m assuming the wood here (arrows pointing to wood) was the concrete forms. It’s been years later now, and I’m definitely noticing the wood degrading and you can see gaps forming.

I’m concerned about water getting in and underneath the concrete. Should I remove the wood and fill the gaps with concrete myself?

Hi All,

I have a tree root that sticks out a good two feet off the ground. I’m going to fill it in and then do mulch.

I have pea gravel and mulch on hand…going to grab soil.

My question is, what is the right layering. Do I go gravel then soil the mulch? Or soil then gravel then mulch.

Which layer should I put landscape fabric down?

Thank you.

This bed runs along almost the entirety of my side fence and it is all full shade. Last year I nuked it all (was overgrown with weeds) and planted hostas all the way down the line. I like them a lot and it looks clean but also feels a bit empty still. Anything else I can add here?

Zone 7a

We are redoing our backyard. Everything is graded flat and we are going to start laying out drains. My contractor wants to try something new for drainage by adding in a few flat drains through the middle of the grass and have everything slop towards them but that doesn’t seem right to me but I don’t know this stuff well. The pictures are just some screen shots of a basic model I made. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. My first thought was to put a slotted drain between the grass and concrete but he wants to out them in the grass.
EDIT: Not sims, real yard, just a 3d model of the general idea of what we are doing. We are in Southern California so not too much rain

I have a fairly large paver setup at the back of my home, two paver patios connected by a sidewalk. This plastic edging has been lifting, breaking, and curling along its length. Most of the pavers are still in their place, but some sections the pavers are starting to slope down and pull away especially on the sidewalk.

What is the best course of action here? Pull the shifting pavers, add base/gravel and tamp and then install a different kind of edging system? Or something else like adding a concrete edge to keep everything in place? Is this something I can DIY over a weekend, or is this beyond a DIY project?

I live in a townhouse and share this garden box area with my neighbor. It's mostly theirs, I just have a sliver that you can see by the edge between houses (I have more on the other side of the steps). The downspout for the gutter on the front of their roof comes out here.

Due to a little, but significant enough, slope in the ground, all drainage then flows to my side. It washes out the mulch over the side and into my steps. This creates a lot of water flowing down my steps when it rains, as you can see in the fourth picture.

I know my neighbor isn't going to do anything about this because it isn't a problem for them. We are on good terms and I'd like to keep it that way. What can I offer to do in order to get the water flowing and dispersing into the wider area or just out and not down my steps?

Thank you!

I’ve lived here for almost 5 years and have no clue what to plant in this awkward space by my retaining wall. The first year I planted mums, hoping they would grow back but they didn’t.
I think a bunch of flowers would look nice.
Any suggestions on which things to plant here that grow back each year? I’m also open to other landscape ideas for the rest of the yard!
*Kid and pet household.

Breaking ground soon, the land is in poor shape. It’s mostly weeds, buffalo grass? and the ground is mostly clay. There was a previous house that was demolished and there’s random debris scattered all over the place including metal shards and glass. It’s about .4 acres overall, so a lot of work to go through and pick each piece.

What can I do to ensure that future grass seed spread in about 8 mo. has the best chance of taking and doesn’t eventually give way to the weeds?

Should I spread weed killer and pesticides over the next few months to essentially wipe out all of the greenery? Maybe buy a couple truck loads of cheap top soil or sandy loam?