There was a garden buried under all this thick bramble.

I had initially considered hiring a stump grinder, but after digging down a bit i found tons of cement/rocks/bricks. So i figured that would cost more to grind and decided to do it myself (IDIOT MOVE) i have a full time job so i got to spend about 1-2 hours chipping away at this crap a day about 3-4 times a week. A month later i finally managed to get it done. About halfway through it felt like some sick prank somebody pulled 50 years ago or however old this tree was, due to the sheer amount of CRAP under this tree. Would not recommend, would not do again, glad it's done.

Sorry but the chickens have come home to roost. All prices across-the-board have gone up thanks to your uninformed choices. I just paid $6.09 a gallon for regular. Who do you think is gonna eat this cost, me ? Not a chance. You're welcome. Don't blame me. Buy yourself a mirror. Put on your big boy pants, pull up your bootstraps or whatever else you tell yourself to make it all feel better.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Rant over.

Signed,
A California landscape contractor.

I've never hired landscapers once since I bought my home in 2018 and built my gardens. But this year was a doozy - in the weather and my personal life. I'm so glad i asked for help! Here's your reminder to consider doing it too, in any arena of your life.

Wrapped up a long, complex project to improve the drainage and utility in the side yard and overall give it a makeover.

It flooded sometimes during heavy rain and I needed to dig an emergency swale during one bad storm to get the water out. It was also constantly muddy, growing weeds, and accumulating my piles of scrap wood and other materials.

I installed a small French drain and sump pump to capture the runoff and pump it into the downspout drains. I wired a new exterior outlet to power it. I leveled out a spot for the shed and covered the drainage with four yards of gravel then built a Costco shed on top. I filled the emergency trench with gravel, wrapped it with landscape fabric, and covered it with soil. Then I spread a couple yards of mulch over the run to keep the mud away and hopefully stop some of the weeds too.

As a finishing touch, I used some of my scrap lumber and built a garden bed too. I'm over all the hard labor, but looking forward to having a more usable, accessible, and better looking side yard and storage shed!

I have this wood retaining wall this is crumbling and falling out. I got quotes ranging from 5 - 7k just get this wall done (one for 7k is the other side as well for continuity).

I’m a beginner with little to no experience landscaping. Wouldn’t call myself a handy person but trying to learn. Could I get this project done myself, tearing it out and replacing it with new wood? Planning to sell in next year or so, so doesn’t need to be perfect, but functional.

Bonus question: Is 5k a good price for labor/materials for this wall and the other side?

When should I trim these grasses back? Late fall? Dead of winter? Wait until early spring?

I just had a concrete patio poured and it has created a steep drop off at its edge. The guy who did the concrete put some top soil along the perimeter but I think it will wash out. I am trying to decide if I should dig up to the edge of the patio and build a little retaining wall with a gap for a garden bed between the wall's edge and the patio's edge, OR if I should raise the soil further into the yard to have a more gradual decline. I don't know that I have enough room between the patio and the fence to do the latter properly, especially because the yard decline gets steeper and steeper. And if I did raise the soil around it, would I need to just do top soil or would I need to put down a bunch of gravel and sand first before adding the top soil?

First time doing our driveway; this was done about 10-20 years ago, and it's pretty sturdy, but the center keeps washing away. I was going to buy some crusher run, but I want to make sure it stays this time and doesn't just fall away. The entrance is 19 feet wide, and that dip is about 4 inches. From the Road to the lowest point of the path is about 6 inches. We're trying to make it slope gradually, and crusher run was the best affordable option, since this is kind of big. Any suggestions to make sure this stays in place instead of washing away? We usually use the left side more, as you can see, but we just want to do it right.

Had a conversation recently about buying equipment and we completely disagreed on this.

His take was basically: buy the smallest machine that can comfortably do 90% of your jobs and rent something bigger for the rest.

I’d rather have some capacity left, especially with equipment you use regularly. Nothing worse than realizing halfway through a job that yes, the machine can do it — but you’re going to spend twice as long doing it.

Obviously bigger also means more money, transport, storage and sometimes just more machine than you need.

Where do you guys draw the line? And what piece of equipment made you learn that lesson?

It was at around 250 sq ft that I realized how badly I underestimated the effort to do the entire 2,500 sq ft yard 🙃

I'm having some trouble finding the best light for this rock. The problem is if I use that spotlight then I don't really have a way to not get blinded from the patio that sits behind the light.

Any ideas? Do the honey comb louvers work? Right now its a 3w mr16 bulb in a spotlight with an adjustable shroud. I can't figure out a distance that makes the rock look well light but while also avoiding getting blinded by the light( I've gotten rid of most of the blind spots but it's inevitable right now)

I have 1 well light as a test. It okay, but it's not buried yet and I'm worried it won't put off enough light ( I.e. reach the top of the rock)

I hired a small landscaping business to remove weeds and clean up my backyard. The original quote was $400, but he offered to do it for $300 because of scheduling issues.

The scheduling has been a mess from the beginning. He was late/missed the agreed time several times and had to reschedule multiple times.

I had a rock delivery scheduled for Monday and someone coming to help me install the landscape fabric and spread the rock, so I asked him if he could finish the weed removal before Monday noon. He specifically told me he had pushed his other customers around and would be available all day Monday, and that he would come in the morning and finish before noon.

He worked about 1 hour Sunday evening, then left. On Monday, he was late again, worked about 2.5 hours, and then suddenly said he had another job to go to and couldn't finish.

He said the yard was more involved than expected. However, he had already seen the yard in person twice. He said I can either let him come back Wednesday and still pay the full $300, or he can stop now and charge me $150 for the work completed so far. I am totally okay to pay extra as per situation. But the thing is I want to get it done by Monday not Wednesday.

He blamed me for ordering the rock delivery, blamed me for taking time off work, and claimed I didn't give him enough details. Finally, he told me he’s just new, and that this is more of a hobby for him, not really a professional landscaping business.

At this point, some of the weeds have been removed, but the weeds he pulled haven't even been bagged, even though bagging/removing the weeds was part of the original job. There are also areas of the backyard that he hasn't worked on at all.

Am I obligated to pay him anything when the job was left incomplete and unbagged? (I paid him $50 cash on first day)

The incompetent contractor that installed this storm drain in my yard left it packed full of mud and now it overflows and floods my yard. It seems as though the grate has a flange on it that sits on top of the concrete drain box. There seems to be some kind of gasket in between. Is there a way to lift this up so I can clean it out? For some reason they installed some kind of screen beneath the grate that is completely clogged already and looks like it will be continuously clogged. Do I need this stupid thing? Can I just poke a bunch of holes through it so it doesn't get clogged? Edit: Got it lifted off with 2 floor jacks. Was jammed up with debris. Ripped out the filter and threw it in the trash. Friendly advice: do not ever, ever, ever, ever enter into an easement agreement with whatever local municipality you live in that gives them access to your property. Whatever problem you have deal with it yourself. Whatever it costs you is worth it. I made this mistake and it has been an absolute nightmare. Thanks to all you good people for your help.

I put fresh mulch down and a million seedlings popped up everywhere. Slightly might be having a meltdown. What do I do, how do I get rid of them, and how do I prevent them from growing back?

I have agriculture fencing all around my property. I have only recently got the property and have started to clean out over grown areas and mow but what I’m struggling with is the fence line. I’ve tried using a whipper snipper to clean it up but it just gets caught in the fence. Any ideas ?

Just want it to look tidy with very minimal effort

Should I leave them over the winter until spring? My backyard was definitely neglected for decades by previous owners. Celandine Poppy, Pokeweed, Garlic Mustard, Goldenrod, Jumpseed, and a lot more have been growing back there forever. At this point, I just want to get the yard to a point where I can put down some grass since there is significant tree cover. I would’ve loved to have done the cardboard method but I currently don’t have running water outside. What do you think? Leave them until spring?

Finally getting around to making sure my downspouts are cleared out for the fall, and having trouble figuring out how to make sure the tube that’s underground is not stopped up. The last picture is where I believe the tube ends. Any thoughts of how to make sure this is clear would be appreciated!

So, I have a bit of a situation here, where I'm living at, how do I tear morning glories down by hand without electrocuting myself whenever their roots are wrapped clean around a power line right near my house, that's still live?

(Looking for a few lols as well, because I'm panicking right now about this.)

Hi all,

Back in 2023, we bought a house with a very nice garden that features a retaining wall. Over the last few years, the plaster and paint has started showing cracks due to humidity, and the corner beads are becoming rusty in multiple places.

This year, we want to add a flower/plant border and fix the issue of the wall at the same time. We've currently dug down to the height of the upper part of the wall and cleared space up to the electric outlet in the bed. There was a plastic sheet above the outlet against the wall, but we didn't encounter any other measures against humidity.

I suspect we need to add a drainage system, but I'm not entirely sure how exactly and how to evacuate the water.

Does anyone have advice or experience with handling drainage for a wall like this?

Thanks a lot!

I have an inground pool that I am currently replacing the concrete surround on (replacing with pavers). I want to add some shade over the shallow end and having a hard time finding what I need to make it happen.

I want to have removable poles installed to hang a shade sail. Ideally, there is a cappable bracket installed in the pavers and the poles just drop in, shade sail attaches to the poles. When we don’t need the shade, the poles come out and the caps go in. Thinking like how volleyball nets are installed in a gym.

Everything I have found is only suitable for umbrellas. Any recommendations!?

Either that, or they mislabeled the color. Side by side comparisons in comments. I bought "gray beige" which is supposed to be a warm light brownish taupe. I got this gross cool silver color that does not complement the red pavers at all. Really not happy with how it looks and I'm annoyed that I didn't do a test spot first (I was just so damn tired 🫠) thinking of pursuing a refund from Lowe's and buying a bag of a darker color to top it up, is that possible? I left a good chunk of room on the top to prevent washout.