Landscaping Thread

[shafnutz05]

Late last week, I had two hybrid poplars (worst trees ever) cut down and the stumps ground down. This weekend, I went outside and raked the areas as flat as possible, while pulling out as much of the wood chips/plant parts that I could get. Eventually, I would like this area to just be a part of my lawn, as it is right in the middle of it at the moment.

1) Everything I read tells me the ground will likely settle a bit over the coming months. Is this correct? Because it's definitely a small mound now, and that would be a good thing.

2) In order to plant fescue there, do I just need to put down some nitrogen-rich top soil, amend it a little bit, and seed and water? Nitrogen-rich because I know the rotting wood will sap some of that nitrogen. That being said, will I have to wait longer than just until the spring?

Thanks in advance.

[Kraftster]

Cool thread, shaf.

Does anyone have experience with scrapping a lawn and starting anew? My yard has gotten worse each year and we had a bunch of trees removed this winter, including the grinding of a giant stump in the front which will require new grass to be planted on approx. 1/3 of my front lawn. Since I'll be doing that work, I've considered just scrapping the entire thing and replanting.

If I do, my options I've considered are: (1) spraying a weed killer on the portion of the yard that is weedy (most of it), giving it two weeks to die, throwing some top soil overtop and planting; (2) renting a tiller and tilling the entire yard, which I think needs to be done on consecutive weekends to allow at least two weeks for weeds to die, then planting.

Thoughts?

[blackjack68]

I'd go with the tilling to allow aeration of the soil in addition to killing the weeds.

I keep saying I'm going to do this, but it's a lot of work.

Early Spring and Fall are the best times to plant new seed.

[the errey i breathe]

Great thread as I've had a few landscaping questions myself. As for the grass, I just tore up my entire yard and planted fescue. It's come in quite nice although I have a patch or two of crabgrass I now need to take care of. My main issue was that the seed took longer than the 8-10 days it says on the bag to get growing and was more like 14-17 but it looks great now...aside from that %#@! crabgrass

[mac5155]

I reseeded my lawn. HOLY CRAP it grew quickly.

[Kraftster]

What did you guys do with your old lawns? Did you have weed problems?

[Kraftster]

I have a Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar in my landscaping. I love those trees. They are really not ideally suited for Pittsburgh winters, though. The past two winters have been very tough on them. This year, especially, hit them pretty hard. If you see one while driving around, there's a good chance that all the needles will be brown. It happened with only a portion of my tree last year, but this year my entire tree is brown. Thankfully, the tree is alive and some new green needles are showing up over the past week or so. If you happen to have one of these, don't think it is dead. The needles might take 12-24 months to come back, but chances are they will come back. Since mine is a 5 year old tree that was $350 when I bought it, I am going to give it some time.

[shafnutz05]

What did you guys do with your old lawns? Did you have weed problems?

We signed up for a lawn service and it did help. But the problem us, we have three more massive trees that need to come down and they will wreck the yard even more

[meow]

I used to use a Bic, but now I use a Gillette Fusion

[Hockeynut!]

I bought 20 trees online a week ago. 18 willow hybrids which are supposed to be very fast growing and most of which I'm going to use for a natural fence along one of my property lines. I also bought 2 maples which should look pretty amazing in the fall.

I'm curious to see how 20 trees are going to be delivered.

[columbia]

I was afraid this was Manscaping Thread.

[shafnutz05]

Be exceedingly cautious with any fast growing hybrid. We had Poplar hybrids on our property and while they grow fast, they are not hardy and not designed to last. Branches everywhere, etc. They are all dead or dying

[blackjack68]

I bought 20 trees online a week ago. 18 willow hybrids which are supposed to be very fast growing and most of which I'm going to use for a natural fence along one of my property lines. I also bought 2 maples which should look pretty amazing in the fall.

I'm curious to see how 20 trees are going to be delivered.

Tiny little saplings in moist paper/plastic bag.

[Hockeynut!]

These have pretty good reviews at multiple sites. Hopefully they're decent. If not, oh well.

blackjack68 - They're supposed to be 4-6 feet, but yeah, I'm not expecting 1 gallon pots. From everything I've read, I'm basically getting sticks.

[shafnutz05]

Yeah willow hybrids could be totally different for all I know

[Hockeynut!]

This probably sounds dumb, but I'm not too concerned if they don't last 20+ years. My neighbors put up a hideous pole light and its amber glow lights up my entire backyard (where I have my backyard theatre nonetheless), my two bedrooms, etc. I want something to block that sucker out since using a shotgun would be frowned upon.

[tifosi77]

We have a decent sized backyard with a swimming pool that's dang near the same footprint of the house. The actual yard space is only about 400 sq ft and much of that is given over to three raised planter beds. The rest of the back yard is a concrete deck with a pergola.

These are the listing photos from when we bought the house a year and a bit ago:

Spoiler:

Today, there are two grills in an L-arrangement at the near end of the pergola, and we have wicker/rattan patio furniture.

This is what the grassy bit looks like today:

Spoiler:

The whole situation doesn't look bad now, but it's very..... meh. That's a good problem to have - the yard around my obnoxiously big swimming pool is bland, waaaah..... - but suggestions for landscaping and hardscaping would be most welcome.

[blackjack68]

We have a decent sized backyard with a swimming pool that's dang near the same footprint of the house. The actual yard space is only about 400 sq ft and much of that is given over to three raised planter beds. The rest of the back yard is a concrete deck with a pergola.

These are the listing photos from when we bought the house a year and a bit ago:

Spoiler:

Today, there are two grills in an L-arrangement at the near end of the pergola, and we have wicker/rattan patio furniture.

This is what the grassy bit looks like today:

Spoiler:

The whole situation doesn't look bad now, but it's very..... meh. That's a good problem to have - the yard around my obnoxiously big swimming pool is bland, waaaah..... - but suggestions for landscaping and hardscaping would be most welcome.

I would suggest some oversized decorative planters with a mix of ornamental grasses and flowers. Planters can be a little ornate since the rest is a little bland. And maybe a sitting area under an arbor on the pool deck.

Little hard to tell the full size from the angles, but you definitely need some sort of focal point. Things look ok, but it's a lot of meh (no offense). No Wow factor. What about some climbing vines along the fence or wall? A water feature/waterfall?

[blackjack68]

Everything is very light colored. Maybe paint the pergola a darker color instead of white?

[manicmonday18]

Does anyone have a landscaper they could recommend in the city? Ideally someone who will do brick/paver/concrete work as well. I have the smallest of projects I want done and have no ability to do it myself. I just want someone reasonably priced that I can trust. Help.

[tifosi77]

The whole situation doesn't look bad now, but it's very..... meh. That's a good problem to have - the yard around my obnoxiously big swimming pool is bland, waaaah..... - but suggestions for landscaping and hardscaping would be most welcome.

I would suggest some oversized decorative planters with a mix of ornamental grasses and flowers. Planters can be a little ornate since the rest is a little bland. And maybe a sitting area under an arbor on the pool deck.

Little hard to tell the full size from the angles, but you definitely need some sort of focal point. Things look ok, but it's a lot of meh (no offense). No Wow factor. What about some climbing vines along the fence or wall? A water feature/waterfall?[/quote]
No offense taken at all.... I agree with you, that's why I posted the pictures.

We have a 6-seat table and chair set under the pergola now, and a rattan couch in the gap between the middle posts with a table. Two chaises and two seat with ottomans and a side table. We also added an art piece (about 3' sq) on the wall right outside the patio door, and two sheer curtains framing the couch thing. (I feel like I should post a current photo)

Last summer we did a pallet garden with the leftover shipping materials from the patio furniture set, but it's just a single 4'x4' square. I was thinking of doing 2-3 more pallet gardens for the white fence/wall in the middle pic. Maybe a few bamboo trees?

I like the climbing vines idea, but I have to be careful of placement; I don't want them on the left side, cos that's where the open-fire grills live. I also am digging the oversize planter idea, as that's something we've wanted for a while.

We have a small waterfall thing that I can't stand, and we've talked about replacing it for this summer. But I'm not sure what size we should be looking at. Not a fan of fire features, but water features can be sweet. Placement is also an issue, because we only have power under the pergola.

Everything is very light colored. Maybe paint the pergola a darker color instead of white?

We actually talked about that this past weekend. I suggested maybe a rusty dark orange, but Mrs Tif is not a fan.

[blackjack68]

We actually talked about that this past weekend. I suggested maybe a rusty dark orange, but Mrs Tif is not a fan.

It would set off the pergola and would make it a focal point.

I was thinking that wall was ripe for a large piece of art, but wasn't sure how you would take to that. I'm sure that helps.

[Hockeynut!]

I planted 20 trees today. I think my property was formerly a rock quarry. I didn't dig a single hole in which I didn't hit at least one good sized rock. I found one rock that kept getting bigger the further I dug. I gave up when it reached about 1 1/2 feet across. I think it might have actually been the spaceship from Tommyknockers. And since that didn't end very well I covered it back up and dug a new hole a few feet away.

[mac5155]

That's PA soil for ya.

[eddysnake]

get a little mushroom compost in there