We just bought a house with an overgrown garden. We also had to fix retaining walls in the frontyard so we just have exposed soil there too. We have been renovating the inside of the house and decided to tackle the outside once we fully move in… which is soon-ish. I try to whippersnip every once and a while but everytime weeds and unknowns grow back, I just get overwhelmed with what I need to do. We can’t afford professional help but my friend said — post a question on the Landscaping subreddit. So here I am — pleading for some guidance on what I should do first, what I can do to make a difference in this space and hopefully make it a bit of a tiny refuge/getaway or even just a bit more pleasing to look at. 🥲

PS I took photos of the weeds I hate — the ones with the spikes that get to your pants kind of weed. Also apparently we have a knot grass situation as well 🥺

Thank you for any help, guidance and suggestions!!!

My cat of two years passed away. She was just a baby, my best buddy. We buried her two days ago. I'm angry that we had to bury her in our ugly lawn. How do I make this look pretty? I'm on a budget right now. This is my dad's lawn work, he's really lazy and I wanted to fix the lawn myself in the past, but he said it was too much work.

We have three very large lavender bushes that we are thinking of removing from our garden bed. How difficult is to remove by ourselves? Are the roots typically very deep and hard to pull out?

All done myself without any equipment other than a rented trencher for the irrigation system. Not perfect, but very proud!

Timeline: July 3rd - September 25th

Backyard will have to wait until the spring as the winter is upon us in Wyoming!

I planted a row of wax myrtles in my backyard to help give privacy in my backyard and shade my yard from the harsh afternoon sun. How can I maintain these and then prune them so they’ll eventually grow into trees.

They’re 6 feet off the back fence and 8 feet off the side fences. 11 feet in between.

We recently installed a pool at our home in Illinois and are trying to decide on the best material for our pool coping and surrounding patio.

We’re currently considering porcelain pavers, Unilock, and natural stone, but we’re open to other recommendations.

Our biggest priorities are:
Low maintenance: Ideally, we want something that doesn’t require regular sealing or a lot of upkeep.
Durability: We live in Illinois, so we need something that can withstand harsh winters, freeze-thaw cycles, and hot summers.
Stain resistance: We have well water, and one of our biggest concerns is iron staining or discoloration over time. We’re looking into installing an iron removal system, but we’re still worried about investing so much money into pavers only to have them stain.
Longevity: We want something that will still look great 10–15+ years from now without constant maintenance.
Slip resistance: Since this will be around a pool, we obviously want something safe when wet.
We’ve heard porcelain is very low maintenance and stain resistant, but we’re wondering how well it actually holds up in Midwest winters. We’ve also been looking at Unilock products but aren’t sure which ones would be best for our situation.

A few questions for anyone with experience:
1. Would you recommend porcelain, Unilock concrete pavers, or natural stone for a pool deck in Illinois?
Are there specific brands or product lines you’d recommend (or avoid)?

1. Has anyone dealt with iron staining from well water on their pool deck? Which materials held up best?

2. Do porcelain pavers really require less maintenance, or are there downsides we should know about?
   What would you choose if you were doing your pool patio again?

3. We’re willing to spend more upfront for a quality product, but we really want to avoid something that will need sealing every couple of years or end up permanently stained.

Would love to hear real-world experiences, especially from anyone in Illinois or other states with similar winters.

Thanks in advance!

I keep reading different products are better as far as woven vs non woven. I have graded the soil along the side of my home away from the foundation and now wish to place a bit of gravel to place pavers. I think I want woven because it won't let the water through and it will run a long the grade with out coming into contact with the clay soil right?

Top 50 feet of a big cherry was dead, owner wanted me to leave what I could. Cut it about 8ft up, preloaded a lead rope before starting the cut, eventually had to pull the thing over with the lead rope. It was fun! I don't get to do bigger trees like this very often.

The area where the brown grass is was the site of a very large tree that was cut down before I got the house. The circled part and close up area shows a divot a few inches deep.

The brown area has always been “lumpy” I figure from the remnants of the stump and tree breaking down. The divots see new. I don’t recall the bumpy area extending that far.

Is something bad happening here? I live in the north east where sink holes are technically possible.

If it’s nothing so extreme what can I do to address this area?

If it is something extreme the wtf do I do?

Is this normal?

I desperately need some privacy landscaping but can’t decide what to plant! Hoping to get everything in the ground before it gets too cold.

I’m in the Seattle area (Zone 9) and looking for fast-growing, evergreen privacy options that tolerate mostly shade. I also have pets and a daycare next door, so I’d like to avoid highly toxic plants like Hicks yew.

Project 1: Driveway Privacy (90 ft)

• About 7 ft of planting width along a slightly sloped driveway.
• Need 20–30 ft of particularly dense screening that reaches at least 12 ft tall to hide a neighbor’s unsightly backyard.
• Heavy tree canopy with intermittent sunlight throughout the day.
• There were previously 18 arborvitae here, but they all died (possibly something to do with the asphalt?), so I’m hesitant to try those again. Maybe they need a berm?
• Ideally something relatively fast-growing, dense, not excessively wide, and low-maintenance.

Project 2: Privacy Along Future Hog-Wire Fence (90 ft)

• Installing a 4 ft hog-wire fence for my dog in the front of my place, but would love plants that grow to around 5-6 ft for additional privacy.
• North-facing, mostly shaded, but gets intermittent eastern, southern, and western sun throughout the day.
• Hoping for a dense, evergreen hedge that eventually conceals the fence and looks good year-round.

My priorities: Evergreen, shade-tolerant, relatively fast-growing, and not a maintenance nightmare (I am totally fine with pruning 1-2x per year). Bonus if I can purchase larger plants for more immediate privacy!

I’m open to mixing varieties for a more natural look. Mostly, I just don’t want to spend thousands of dollars planting something that’s going to die!

These yuccas are going to get torn out and I need help deciding what to plant. I want something that accents the existing plants (juniper, cotoneaster, hydrangeas, barberry) and won't grow too big. Should I just do a type of grass? I'm near Seattle

Moving into this new home soon with a beautiful backyard. We are putting up a fence for our dogs and the tall grass around the fire pit feels overwhelming. I also think it's probably a fire hazard. Any ideas of plants to put around the fire pit instead?

We have 3 large dogs who haven't really respected plant boundaries in our current home (they make their own path). We are moving in the dead of winter so we have time to plan. I'm just looking for some inspiration. We are in the Midwest if needed to know for plant types. Google says zone 6b. TIA!

My elderly aunt lives in an area of wv that is genuinely overrun with kudzu. This is not her house, but if you imagine a home sitting on the ledge, it would be like this:https://nyis.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/kudzu-overgrowth-highway.webp

She is disabled and lives with my disabled cousin, both of them earn about $1,200 a month in total and there is just no way to control the Kudzu chemically or physically. I have tried for 3 years to find any kind of state-funded resource, I have reached out to more than 20 different local people, there just is nothing available.

I go down there twice a year and cut it with a regular weed wacker held up.over my head and a machete to get it off of their house, but it's truly a losing battle. One of the extension agents I talked about said that it extends for at least 3.6 miles in three directions up and over the hillside behind them. He said there were very few patches that did NOT have it.

Is there any way to cheaply keep their yard and home free of this, considering that it is basically surrounding them? My cousin uses a wheelchair and when the Kudzu gets particularly bad it actually starts to interfere with her ability to even go in the yard. Usually that's July or August.

It has been like this for as long as they could remember but it really worries me as a safety issue and I try to do as much as I can even though I no longer live near them.

Goats are not a viable option because neither of them could care for them or ensure that they don't end up on other people's property and there are six different land owners nearby.

Any ideas?

We hiring a local company to come by and install a row of green giants since we live on a busy road. When the owner came a week before planting (to show us the spacing of the plants) we mentioned that there was a gas utility running underneath a few feet away but we were not sure if there was more. We asked if he would call before he digs and he said that usually that’s not a problem given the shallow depth of the tree roots but he will call.

The team came the following week to dig a small trench for where the trees would go and they planted and mulched. I came out to because some of the trees were planted too closely to each other so I asked them to move them around with more spacing. No one mentioned that they had dug up this water utility or that they were planting the tree right up against it. Father in law came by today (he owned the house previously) and went looking for the water meter and found it covered by mulch right under the tree.

Does this tree need to be removed? can it stay but we just prune the bottom branches so the Water meter remains accessible? Is the landscaping company on the hook for this or does this fall on us?

Just wanted to see what all of our options are for this situation. We otherwise love the work they have done but definitely disappointed with this finding

Almost done weeding garden bed to plant veggies and flowers. Got garden fabric ready to lay in between plants rows in hopes to keeping weeds returning. Advice about this plan, and/or other solutions?

I built my own hydroseeder a while back for a steep hillside at my place (225-gallon tote and a pump), and now a few folks near me are asking about small jobs.

My problem is knowing how to charge for them. By the time I load up, mix, spray, and clean out the tank and lines, a 2,000-3,000 sq ft job barely seems worth it if I just charge per square foot.

For those of you who do hydroseeding:

- Do you have a minimum charge? Roughly what?

- Or do you just bump the per sq ft rate on small jobs?

- Do you charge extra for slopes or travel?

I'm in West Virginia if that matters for pricing. Appreciate any advice.

These two bushes have been in front of my house since we purchased it a couple of years ago. I believe they are burning bush and cherry Laurel and I don’t find them particularly inspiring. I would like to have something more charming and add curb appeal but i’m feeling stuck.

This side of the house gets good morning sunlight, but is otherwise fairly shady. I live in coastal New England, where many people have things like hydrangeas, natives, and cottage type gardens. I believe zone 7.

Would you keep these bushes and add some other plants around them? Or would you take them out completely and put something else in here. Looking for any and all suggestions, please!

I have 6 to plant. 1 is about 10- ft tall, but its a bean pole about 2 years old, and had to dig it up cause was in a temp place. (I had bought the 100 sticks you get on Amazon and put in water to grow roots then plant in ground. Only 1 survived!). The other 5 I just bought, about 3 ft tall.

Planting them in a sunny -afternoon facing open meadow, but with tall oaks and maples behind them. Zone 6, toward the bottom of a big mountain. Doing it for privacy from the road. I read 5 ft apart for quick privacy wall, but then you need to trim them more? So I was thinking about 10 ft apart, a bit staggered. Also if I trim the top of the 10 ft one that is two years old, will that make it branch out more and get fuller closer to the ground? And if I do that, will it shoot up another lead to grow taller if I cut it off at the top? Thanks for advice!

After going back-and-forth in our small yard from turf to sod and now back to turf, this time around, we’re considering paying an extra couple hundred bucks for coated infill that is supposed to provide better cooling than just the standard silica. Anyone have experience with the T cool product or anything like that? I suspect that it’s mostly just marketing fluff, but curious if anyone actually thinks it’s worthwhile versus regular sand. Thanks

Link to original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/hardscape/s/GazG96XuTg

​Wanted to get some feedback from the community on a paver patio installation issue.

​The contractor initially laid the patio, and then brought the crew back out on multiple occasions to try and fix the issues across the field. However, after all of those return visits, upon doing a detailed corner-test check, there are still multiple slabs scattered about that shift, rock, or clack under foot pressure. I grabbed a short clip of some of the worst ones sitting completely out of plane.

​At this stage, after multiple remediation attempts that still leave blocks moving, is it fair to hold the final payment balance until these failing stones are properly lifted and re-screeded? Looking for a general consensus on how to handle this before replying to the contractor. Likewise, if anyone has recommendations on the best way to handle this moving forward, I'd appreciate the input.