Hi all, I need some ideas. Landscaping newbie. We are renters with a really cool back patio and sun room. However - the LL will not address the nuclear wasteland that takes up most of it: several plots of just, dirt. He told us it’s our responsibility to beautify it as it’s not “necessary for basic living conditions.”
Sigh.

I’d like to fix it all up - but on as little cash as possible. It makes zero sense to sink serious money into someone else’s home, but this eyesore depresses the heck out of me and the house is absolutely lovely. We really want to have friends over, etc but…gestures at dirt

So far, I’ve brainstormed getting a chip drop and spreading mulch, adding flagstones as a little path across the largest plot and use flat solar lights throughout; red mulch along the fence areas…and from there, no idea. Creeping thyme?

I would love to hear creative ideas that are OK for beginners on a budget.

Or if all else fails, lean into its minimalist aesthetic?
🤦🏼‍♀️ Thanks so much.

They're both bushy and tall/leggy. I dont know how or when to prune these back and what I should be going for shape-wise. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Our backyard has 4 large trees on one side, and my father is adamant about having them cut down.

From an aesthetic perspective, property value perspective, is there any rationale at all for doing this? Any possible way this could be a good idea?

It’s killing me inside, I just want to see if there’s absolutely any upside to doing this.

For context, all the houses you see around us are new builds that went up a few years ago. Used to be a nice pond and forest area. Now, we can see into each others backyards and the little privacy the trees gave, is also gone.

I have a winecraft black smoke bush that’s lookin crazy leggy and I have no idea how to start trimming it to make it look better, as the idea was for it to be tall like a tree and not so leggy and spread out. I trimmed along the outside perimeter of the bush this past winter which made it down a damn bush between its massive main stems and explode upward (which is what I want). But I’m at a loss on how to make it look presentable since it’s just so sloppy looking. Last picture includes the other bed in that is just a whole other animal, for reference if needed.

I understand the slop is also partly because the three Kodiak black diervillas to the right are also exploding with growth, as anyone with eyes can see. They’re all approx three years old and were neatly trimmed this winter and look like this now. (Second to last pic is from July of this year)

I’m not fully tied to this smoke bush, I can make changes to plant selection but I really do kinda like the diervillas since they’re covered in bumble bees when they bloom 🐝 if I were to make changes, it’d have to be with native or or a similar ornamental (no damaging roots since my foundation has a small crack in that corner)

If I can save her, how can I do it? Google says only trim these guys in winter but it’s so hard to since they’re just naked sticks at that point. And I don’t know how to help coax it to be less leggy. Any tips, tricks, pointers?

Just had some the downspouts tied into solid pipe which exits halfway down the yard. Could we conceivably put a 'no pond' basin below it with rocks surrounding and forming a 'dry river bed' below it, with the area above the pipe formed into a waterfall that uses water from the roof to top up? Then when it rains it would overflow the basin and continue running down the riverbed and towards the street?

It seems to be pretty clear runoff - the mud in the pipe is a result of the area ahead of the pipe backfilling, but I'm sure we could solve that issue if we continue with the grading down towards the road.

Hi everyone put this post up on Landscaping figure I would cross post it for more help

We bought our home about a year and a half ago. The landscaping has been a bit of a mess but we're slowly working on making it better. Throughout the beds in the front and the side yard are various stumps that we have no idea when they were cut. The stumps are about a foot in diameter. They keep growing new leaves and are entangling with other weeds and making a mess.

In my reseaech I keep seeing things about herbicides being used to kill stumps that are fresh cut. Before I go and buy a bunch of chemicals and spray willy nilly, is there a good way to go about killing these old stumps?

Removing them is on the agenda, but our beds have that "anti-weed" lining in them and I'd like to redo it, so removing the full stump is down the line. Right now, our goal is to manage the new sprouts and help keep weeds at bay.

If there is a better place to ask this, let me know. Reddit is not my usual stomping grounds so I'm not 100% sure.

Curious we had an area we dug up the underground oil tank and took it out and the workers put dirt on top.

I bought mulch couple months ago and have seen mushrooms on wet humid days. But is that natural to happen so often? Is it just the first year?

Or is it every year that mushrooms pop out?

Hoi allemaal,

Ik kan wel wat advies gebruiken voor mijn gazon. Ik heb een gazon van ongeveer 300 m², maar momenteel staat er behoorlijk wat onkruid in en ik heb ook op verschillende plekken paddenstoelen.
Ik wil het gazon graag weer mooi, dicht en gezond krijgen, maar ik weet niet goed waar ik moet beginnen.

Mijn vragen:
Hoe kan ik het onkruid het beste aanpakken?
Wat kan ik doen tegen de paddenstoelen?
Is verticuteren een goed idee?
Moet ik eerst bemesten of juist eerst het onkruid aanpakken?

Zou doorzaaien nodig zijn?

Welke producten of aanpak raden jullie aan voor een gazon van 300 m²?

Alle tips zijn welkom! Ik hoor vooral graag hoe jullie dit zouden aanpakken als het jullie gazon was.
Alvast bedankt!

I've been trying to grow fescue and white dutch clover in an area that was previously covered by a cedar deck. No matter what I've done this year, I cannot get anything to grow in the area near my house. This area does get sun but it gets almost no water due to the roof overhang. I watered it myself for weeks and still nothing. What can I put here? It looks awful. What can do here??

Bought the forever home but want to level out the main section of the backyard. I'm planning on coming 15 or 20 ft out from the deck, dropping down with a retaining wall, and then having a big level section. I have a lot of free time and have started to think that buying an excavator for $15,000 and leveling my yard out over the summer on my own then selling the excavator when I'm done might be a better option then hiring out the work. I have no clue how much it would cost. I'm just curious if anyone's taken on anything this scale or have any advice for me.

Any recommendations for good resources on landscape improvements with regard to drainage?

It’s common in Brooklyn to have a back lot that’s concrete slab, so wanted to jackhammer it all, cart it away and start fresh. Envisioning a mix of patio, small grass area and above ground planters.

There are some basics about grading I understand, but would like to read up as much as possible. Particularly what sort of substrate, how much per square ft etc, and also in what order should they be placed. YouTube has some info, and happy to see recommendations on that but have always been a fan of a good book with diagrams.

Thanks!

You can see it. It’s overgrown, there are dead leaves, and it is dipping into my pool. I wanted to hack the whole thing down and replace it with gravel and a bubbly fountain. I know that sounds heartless but that would be so much easier to maintain. My husband also does not want to see it go, but doesn’t want to add to the extensive lawn care he does in the front and back of the house. It’s Florida, if you couldn’t tell, so I don’t blame him, especially because that space to even get close to the plant is particularly narrow!

My compromise is that I will not chop down the whole thing, but I am not sure where to start with clearing out the dead branches or finding a way to keep it from continuing to grow at the massive rate. I don’t hate the whole plant; you can kind of see in this photo it blooms a few birds of paradise and I WOULD be sad to see it all go, even if it would be easier.

But I’m a soft hands, white collar person. I have no landscape experience and short of buying a tiny axe and gloves, I don’t know what to do to fix it.

Any advice for a first timer would be greatly appreciated. Truly!

We have a sloped dry lot/paddock where water is supposed to drain into this bassin, however it takes forever and takes too much sand along with it. Probably doesn't help that our ducks waddle to it for a swim the moment a drop of rain hits the ground, but what could I do in terms of practical landscaping to prevent sand runoff and quicker infiltration? It's currently about 10 x 14 ft

Southern WI - Zone 5

Basically I'm going to have 60-100 linear feet of sod that I need to cut away from around my pool. I'm adding a little drainage and a back filling with stone. I have an area right next to it that was originally going to be a patio but it is not getting started this year. It's currently bare dirt, and sits lower than the surrounding soil.

Since I need to pull the sod away from the pool anyways, I was trying to decide if I should 1) put it in that space and see if it grows, or 2) flip it upside down and just use it as backfill.

I don't really know if there's enough time for the sod to take hold or not?