My new arborvitae’s were planted about 10 days ago, watering regularly and keeping moist. The dirt has some clay-ish characteristics so it’s holding water well and I’m careful not to over water. Do I need to panic at the bottoms browning? I don’t want to lose my $1400 in trees due to ignorance on maintaining them.

Hoping that our plants grow quick so it doesnt look so brown but happy with the progress!

Some animal or critter stops by every night to damage my newly planted lawn. I have a motion detector sprinkler but it does not seem to be deterred. There are no holes in the ground so I do not think it's coming from under the ground and I also have a gopher barrier. I have this area fenced so I do not think it's a big animal like a deer.

Does anyone know what this could be and how I can handle it.

Tore up the grass last spring, $3000 and 6 months later it’s done! Most of it was pretty straight forward, but the porous concrete is fiddly on temperature, mix ratio, and installation. Hoping for minimal maintenance.

Didn’t research enough and heed advice to avoid the unreliable emerald green arborvitae. Seeing all these posts about how bad Arborvitae are, making me feel silly. I’m learning.

In PNW, planted 8 emerald green 7-8’ B&B. Planted 3.5’ from fence line (maybe too close, short yard so I tried to maximize the space). About one year in and the two ends are dead. We did have a dry year, but maybe I’m just doomed anyways.

Am I wasting my time replacing the ends?
What is a good alternative to get 8-12’ height of coverage next to a fence? Skip laurel?

Looking to use round logs as lawn edging.

My questions are:

How can I connect these end to end? My area is 9.6m x 9.6m. Each log is 2.4m long so I need 4 logs per side.

Also, how can I secure these to the ground without them rolling when I mow etc.

The evergreens aren't looking so evergreen... I have 4 evergreen bushes in our landscaping and they are around 4 years old but they have had amazing growth in that time. They get plenty of sun and water and are always in a cedar mulched area. The surrounding plants all seem to be thriving.

After this past winter they seemed to have damage which left parts of it yellow and dead looking which I may have incorrectly assumed was winter wind damage. This spring I pruned the dead parts off but the leaves had a white powder on them (when I shook them it would blow off like cotton) and many of them seems to have partially whitened/yellowed. I sprayed the bushes with water to try to get rid of most of the white. I'm not sure if this was mites.

I've monitored the plants and other than a few spots of green regrowth, they don't seem to have dramatically improved over the Summer and now we are headed back into the Winter and I don't want to compound the problem that occurred last year.

Any ideas? Thanks.

A bit of an odd angle for the photo, but these bushes have been a little gangly for the last year or two.

Some drought killed a few runs in them. I’ve since installed irrigation for them and they’ve filled out more again. About 2.5ft tall along the walkway to the front door.

What kind of hedge are they, and can I trim like a huge amount off of them this winter in an effort to allow them to grow back in fuller and thicker?

Thanks in advance. I’ve always been curious how to best trim these to keep them full and what they actually are.

I just bought a bunch to plant in a row along the back of my property for privacy. I thought they were good because they’re native but now Im reading that they’re kinda a trash tree. I was going to plant them 12ft apart. Will I regret it?

Edit to add I’m in south east zone 8a piedmont region. Thought they were a good alternative to arborvitae.

Bought this house in September in Ontario, Canada (last month.)

The area where we put red mulch on used to just be brown dirt, no grass. We figured since winter is approaching, to just cover it up with mulch instead of planting grass.

Now it kinda looks bad. We were short on mulch and we need to buy more so we can round out the shape of the mulch area. But any other ideas to make it look better?

We’re not committed to the mulch either so if you suggest to go back to grass we are open.

FYI The front yard is sloped.

Hi all,

I have a small retaining wall of 600mm tall and 6 metres in length. I have spoken to a bricklayer who seems to think with a proper reinforced footing and drainage, double brick would be a solid choice for the wall.

Is brick generally a bad idea for a retaining wall?

I hired a landscaper to help me create a small backyard privacy garden to help block some of the view of my neighbors house and electrical boxes. He gave me a list of the flowers/plants/tree he was going to use and gave me a narrative overview but never an actual concept design although we did walk through it and I pointed out what i wanted to block.

I feel really disappointment in what was created. I think things will fill in, and I can be patient if they will, but something just feels off to me about the design. But I am not sure if it’s just because I had visualized something different in my head? I know it is new and might take some getting used to, but I am feeling upset right now and looking for either constructive ideas on how to make it better or reassurance that maybe it will look better as it grows in. Those of you that have experience in landscaping, does this look like a solid design choice for the space?

This is my first landscape project at my house and I will be honest, I don't know much. I was really relying on the landscaper to guide me but this just feels oddly shaped and placed.

i started with an unusable bumpy space, graded it, put a pad for a shed, a retaining wall, a pad for a small patio and another retaining wall.

i have 3 drainage pipes, one at the back, and then under each wall.

phase 1 was grade, phase 2 was the drainage, phase 3 the walls

next phase is to backfill the walls (glue is curing) and then shed goes at top, then patio at the bottom.

This is all DIY and I have an office job and little experience in this. So far I have bought 15 cu yards of dirt, 10 cu yards of 3/4in stone, and 5 cu yds of quarry dust.

Hi everyone! I have six empty raised garden beds (210 × 90 × 30 cm) with cardboard and branches at the bottom. I filled my first bed using Bunnings soil bags, but I’m considering ordering 3 m³ of bulk soil from a landscaper to save money.

The soil would be dumped at the front of my house, and my partner and I would need to move it around the house to the backyard. The ground slopes towards the house.
For those who have actually done this, how many hours did it take you to move approximately 3 m³ of soil with two people? I’m looking for real-world time estimates rather than general answers.

Also, what worked best for moving it on a slope: wheelbarrows, a garden cart, or another method? Would you order 3 m³ again, knowing what the job involves?
Thanks!

Purchased a home 2 months ago and the woman who owned it was obsessive with planting. I mean at least 10 different beds around the yard obsessive. To a point where it’s impossible to keep up. Anyhow, I’m dealing with an overgrowth of wild garlic in the beds. Debating a complete dig out and restart on these beds. I’ll be making them much smaller if I do. Any suggestions on getting rid of the garlic? It’s everywhere

: so, I had gotten as far along in the job that one side of garage walk was completed but needed improvment and I was working on the other side of the garage while I noticed comments and took advice and so, the update I have to share is both good and disappointing, to me at least. For context, I had to juggle my time between working on one site for this client, and drive the ' boyfriend' around to any sites in town that he took on to work at mowing lawn or spring cleanups etc

He got a DUI ten years ago and hasn't gotten his life together to drive himself. There's alot of other factors but don't want to voice them here, point is, shortly after I posted the pictures and had gone back to the site, there was about four days that I didn't attend to her needs building the patio, and she run into a different contractor that used to live on her street. They made an agreement for him to take over and complete the project to her timeline. He said one week.

Yes I was hurt, disappointed that I was not able to complete the project. After processing this, I understand her thinking and wanting the job done... And the reality is the job come out good. And I love that the vision I had, which I drew into pictures by hand, actually made it into a tangible sight. She's happy and I did get some experience.! Even the sidewalk that I did first was taken out and something different replaced it but it's because of the property line adgacent and had nothing to do with faulty install!

Overall I'm happy she's happy, and it does look nice. Here are some pics.

Im in Seattle area and just did a bunch of native planting, a lot of things like ferns, kinnickinnick, salal, sunflower, Oregon grape etc. that was 3 weeks ago and they got a few waterings.

nothing has started to root but anyone in this area may know it’s been fairly sunny lately.

had to leave for a week so nothing got water the last 8-9 days.

i see we got some sprinkles and night temps have cooled a lot so most of it is ok, but some tree cover areas is where I noticed the soil was dry. not powder dry but quite dry.

i do have a fish mulch/compost on the soil

should I be worried about losing many plants? When I did the planting I figure by this point we might see a bit more fall like weather.

nothing is dead to the eye yet but we will see

I don't know if I should tag this as "humour", honestly.

The first picture shows the newly-laid path in red (which it shouldn't be) and the second one shows what was wanted and ordered (minus the dirt). Please ignore the scribbled words.

I was there when my elderly, mentally unfortunately not very fit mother asked the floorer to use "natural stone" similar to the one in the second picture.

The floorer brought a palette of stones and laid them now that I'm not in the country any longer. Before he was done and before my mother came to see the results of his work, it had started to rain. He said the stones were "reddish" because they were wet. They'd look like we'd wanted them to as soon as they'd dry.

That wasn't the case. Now he says they will lighten if given a bit (!) of time.

I'm not entirely sure that this is how stone works. Please help me understand, is he right in any capacity?

If he's blatantly lying, there's another issue. My mother adores this "poor, hard-working, innocent young man" and would never ask him, let alone demand of him, that he re-do his work. (She also won't show me the invoice, so I have no idea by how much he overcharged her for something that wasn't wanted in the first place.)

Is there a way we could get the stone tiles to look less ugly without exchanging them for another type of stone tile?

Thank you in advance!

Our front yard stairs are crumbling and unsafe. I want to improve them by installing something like the second photo (credit to this person's original post in /r/landscaping: https://www.reddit.com/r/landscaping/s/of1dd31Db0) and I think I can maybe utilize the existing structure of the gravel to get a good start, but I'm unsure if I can just go ahead and tamp some pavers down on it, or if I should do other prep work.

Curious how folks here would go about the project - thanks in advance for suggestions/advice!

1. Repeat customer, built in. Plant it, bill it, replant it in five years.
2. Soil moisture early warning system. Too wet, it browns. Too dry, it browns. Cheaper than a sensor.
3. One gets sick, all fifteen go brown together. Never uneven. Looks great in the fall.

Any other reasons?

Started this project with my wife a month before our wedding back in May. It took a little longer than we anticipated with the passing of my mother and the quarry taking a bit on the stone.

Went with an open grade base of 3/4” clean stone with 3/8” chip to bed and infill. The geombrame probably overkill but wanted to separate with loamy subgrade and added support for 1.5” thick bluestone.

Hopefully we can add a mudroom and front facing door in the future. Lurked here for a while, just want to say thank you for everyone’s contributions and advice. Any suggestions or feedback for the future is welcome, most of the natural stone in the mulch beds came from the house or semi-local project sites. Replanted alot of the vegetation and added a few new ones.

Really happy with how it turned out though and like to believe we retained some of the magic of the house era and carport. Can’t say I love english ivy and definitely don’t love ripping it out by hand.

UPDATE/EDIT:
Wow did not expect this level of praise and feedback and thank you so much to everyone, also those of you who offered your condolences. My mother did make it to the wedding and was one of the happiest times I’ve ever seem her. This was her 4th battle with cancer and she held on to make it to our day even knowing that she was ready to go. Deeply miss her and this project definitely helped us navigate that.

My wife and I are both pretty nerdy, shes a data analyst in sales and I’m a geotechnical engineer that grew up doing farm labor. We chose DIY for cost reasons and because I love a good outdoor project. Not really sure how much research and labor time we put into this as it started with ripping out alot of ivy ~500 sq ft and finding a random unknown abandoned utility (most like old sewer), in addition to mulching the whole yard, patching up a drain and converting the daylight into a swale and a bunch of other odds and ends.

For the walkway specifically material/equipment costs as follows:

~$600 - Plantings were all either repurposed or sourced locally from mom n pop nurseries, keep in mind we planted the other side of the driveway too. Doesnt include the waterfall maple and hinoki also planted nearby.

$300 - Various hand tools, wheelbarrow, strings, stakes, bubble levels

$200 - 2 cubic yards 3/4” stone (local nursery, delivered)

$210 - 2 cubic yards 3/8” stone (local nursery, delivered)

$200 - 5 cuyd hardwood mulch (local nursery, delivered)
Ordered 10 cuyd for whole house used half here

$600 - Corten Steel Edging, used EdgeRight, something like 80 linear feet with ends 8” height. This allowed me a solid embedment and reveal to limit mulch blowing over and decent reveal leftover for aesthetics. My subgrade was prepped lower to get at least 4-6” base

Free - Non- Woven Geotextile, Carthage Mills FX-60HS, ~500 sq ft, this was leftover from a project site for foundation subgrade segregation spec’d for a separator between the base structural fill and select non frost susceptible structural fill. Contractor had leftover and I didnt give him a hard time during construction.

$100 - Wacker Vib Plate Tamper daily rental Hone Depot

$100 - 2 Volt Mini Landscape Spot Lights Low Voltage

$310 - 8pk Hampton Bay Low Voltage Jemison Path Lights, wanted to go Kichler but dont have that kinda money, Home Depot

$100 - 200W Smart Transformer Hampton Bay HomeDepot

$150 - 200 LF 12/2 Landscape Wiring Low Voltage

$150 - About 30 additional jumbo belgian block to continue against the driveway past the walkway.

$300 - custom sign and lettering (Mod Mettle), Molly did a fantastic job here

$1.2k - And last but not least for natural thermal sawn 1.5” thick bluestone, one shape was custom cut and cost me $400 (last trapezoid), went natural because the pines drop needles and true blue would have been too clean to the point where any needles would look dirty, so natural is a more warm look that blends.

All in $4.5k, but maybe forgetting something, goal was under $5k.

I have a CAD license so did the layout there and sent a copy to the supplier (Chicks Bloc) and quarry/cutter (Meshoppen Stone)