I bought this house last year, and the front side yard ebreeen me and my neighbor had a dying birch tree. Finally got around to having it removed and replacing it with a beautiful Oshio Beni Japanese Maple, and put it some other plants and mulch as well.

All in cost was about $5k.

There's a lot to do here still, like over the course of a few months work. They had a building in the back that was previously taken down, and all the construction debris was left to nature, plus a gazebo that those poles went to. There's another building to remove that I'll probably start in December, plus a French drain install on the side.

Also, I have no idea if the walkway was put in like that, or if it's missing chunks of it (I suspect it's just missing pieces). It's directly between a concrete pad, and the patio. Could barely see it was there in the before. Next step is getting the debris in the corner out, grading, and prepping for sod/astroturf (still working on options with the customer on that part).

A few weeks ago I posted half of this garden, I am not posting the other half with furniture, Lily Pillies and some lights! 😊 so happy with how it is coming along!

You have a contractor come out for a quote. You talk to an owner with 20 years of experience. He is obviously competent. You hire him!

When the job starts, the owner introduces you to two 19-23 year olds and leaves. They have almost zero knowledge, training, or experience. They are unskilled laborers without a boss to tell them what to do. They know none of the specifics of the project. Then you’ve got to hover and watch them like hawks and get all stressed out that you’re paying big money for a project that can go sideways at any moment.

UGH

I was quoted 4K to removed this massive pine tree and 3 dead elm trees on the property line, tight squeeze. Power lines extremely close. Price also includes stump removals. First time homeowner im not too sure what the prices should be around

I work for a campus with a crew of 6 others, have been there 5 years. My background is nursery work and agriculture. I now do design, planting and upkeep of plants. We have a crew lead who does a mix of everything, an irrigation tech who mostly just turns on irrigation in spring and winterizes in fall (at least from what I’ve noticed), a couple mowers (although we all take turns), and a chemical guy. 95% of things that we plant seems to die within a month. We are constantly replacing plants from drought death. It’s a waste of money and makes me angry because the time/ labor spent planting. I am wondering if this is normal for every landscape company? Even drought tolerant plants will die quickly. The supervisor says that drip irrigation is useless because squirrels chew through it yet every single bed we plant in has older drip irrigation, it’s just not turned on, or possibly not on for long enough. The only thing the supervisor cares about is the grass, every single blade of grass has a sprinkler hitting it, yet we spend thousands replacing plants and they cannot seem to understand that shrubs also need irrigation. I’ve never seen such incompetence. When a sprinkler head breaks, if it’s for a bed, they will cap it, thus the entire bed of plants dies. I feel irrigation aspect needs to be contracted out although I’m not the boss. Is this an issue for all landscaping companies? The large costly projects sometimes I have started to wrap with soaker hose and buying a timer, my supervisor called me stupid behind my back because it looked bad. Yet I’m not paid to do irrigation, I just hate to see everything die.

Can anyone help me figure out what’s going on with my Mugo Pine tree? I just planted several of them this spring and they’ve been doing well. They all had new growth over the summer. They are pretty close together so have the same type of soil and were watered the same but one of them has turned mostly golden/light brown in color. The others have a little brown but mostly green yet. They are in Minnesota and temps have recently started dropping into the 40’s as we gear up for winter. Any thoughts on what might be going on with this guy?

Been researching diy pavers for the better part of 4 months now and it seems like something new pops up every week as I get closer to starting.

My situation/question: I have 4" pvc sewage pipes running roughly 1" to ~3" in depth below the excavation depth I need for my pavers. So I'm digging down 7 3/8" and the drain pipes are like RIGHT there just an inch below at the highest point. A quick google search surfaced some standards or practices that stated drainage pvc should be roughly 6" below dirt before compacting to avoid damage.

Seems unreasonable to have to drop those pipes 6" deeper into the ground because I'd have to then continue to drop it all the way down the side of my house to maintain adequate slope. I can't relocate 2 sections because it connects to the gutter downspout and I don't want to just outlet that on top of the paver patio.

So I guess the actual question is that if I'm planning on dropping 4" of road base on top of the dirt then compacting, should I be concerned about those pipes? I also need to compact the dirt before I lay out the road base so again, would it be an issue? I could also consider using a hand tamp to compact on the pvc pipe areas to be more cautious I guess.

Looking for some experience if anyone has any.

Bonus question. I see lots of neighbors contractors relocated the other drain inlets to the sides of the yard rather than leaving them in place and building a drain spot into the middle of the concrete section. So long as adequate slope is had I'm considering the same for my paver patio or should I just leave the drain inlet locations as is and cut pavers around them and add a drain grate?

We’re looking to put a seating area in our large back yard and debating between a fireplace (like Cambridge Pavingstones fireplace kit) or a fire pit

Of course, a pit would be cheaper. But I really like the look of the standing fireplace.

But my primary question - do those fireplaces actually throw a lot of heat? With a fire pit, everybody can get her around. With a fireplace, not as much. Does it make for it by throwing more heat?

In the words of The Smiths, "I started something and now I'm not too sure".

I share a driveway with my neighbor (left). Her gutters empty to the driveway and watet pool ls in front of the middle flower bed. During heavy rains it's a lake but eventually dissipates. Our driveways are kind of sinking toward that area - nothing I'm losing sleep over - but I thought, "okay, I'll put in a french drain thingy and more easily direct the flow of water through the bed and along the garages".

It slopes a little toward the rear of the property but where I really messed up was thinking it sloped more than it does AND that the elevation was a lot higher at the front of the bed versus the back. I didn't think I'd have to dig this deep and I thought that the pipe would come out the back almost at ground level.

However, I'm down to a depth of 15 inches and only at the halfway point. That's problem #1. If I keep going I might hit Australia before I reach the garage.

Problem #2 - clearly I'm not going to come out to ground level for several miles. So what do I do now, abandon project? The water can't just hit a dead-end and I'm not digging a cistern.

I tried pouring some water through and it works with what pipe is shown so far.

But I feel like this project is un-saveable unless you see a way out or there's something I can do to push through somehow.

Hi landscaping people. :) I didn't get any feedback when posting to my local community, so I thought I'd try my luck here. I'd be grateful for any advice. Thank you.

Hi everyone. I’m in growing zone 8a (NC) and am looking for any tips for some ground coverage/erosion control in a heavily shaded area in my back yard.

This is in my backyard where they’re is a water drainage area where run off occurs after rain. There is around a 50-60sq ft area that is fully shaded from all the trees. Some things I’ve thought of is dwarf mondo grass or some ferns.

Anybody else have ideas or suggestions on what to put there?

In CT. Need a good hedge to block neighbors. Minimum maintenance and fast growing. Native would be nice. Dense and year round blockage probably means an evergreen of some kind. Maybe boxwood?

What could be wrong eith my lime plant. It is about 10 ft high. I live in west of Phoenix.

My hibiscus plant also shows same pattern. Adding the photo of hibiscus ...

We have a dead tree in our yard we would like to remove so we had a company come out to give us a quote and for fun I asked about removing some yew bushes. They gave us a quote of $900 for the tree and $600 for the bushes.

A little info. We bought 3 months ago in Boston. Our long term plans include removing these bushes with a lot of sweat equity but was going to wait until we had more of a landscaping vision.

Thoughts on the quote? Has anyone dug these up themselves? How much work was it? Should we wait until we have more of a vision before taking them out?

I run a small landscaping design/build business in Turkey, and I currently maintain three residential properties.
My clients have been with me for around two years. Until now, I’ve only charged them for 10 months of the year, excluding December and January because there’s very little physical maintenance required during winter.
I’m considering switching to annual maintenance agreements with 12 equal monthly payments. The properties would still receive winter inspections, irrigation checks, and seasonal attention.
I’m also planning to hire a dedicated maintenance employee so I can focus more on design/build projects while personally supervising the properties.

A few questions for those who have scaled their maintenance operations:
How did you introduce 12-month billing to existing clients without damaging the relationship?
Do you charge the same monthly amount even when winter maintenance is minimal?
Do you prefer annual contracts with fixed prices or mid-year price adjustments?
At what point did hiring a dedicated maintenance employee become worthwhile?
I’m particularly interested in how premium residential landscaping companies structure their maintenance services.
Thanks!

Im starting my first landscaping job in a week as a golf course groundskeeper. Its very rainy where I live. I generally prefer a poncho over a typical rain jacket (more comfortable, better circulation so I don't get sweaty underneath, etc) but I'm worried about the billowiness being a liability when doing tasks like using a blower, string trimmer, picking up balls, etc. Should I pick up a traditional rain jacket or is a poncho okay?

We paid some landscapers to dethatch, top soil, and seed our front lawn a couple weeks ago. After a closer look at their work a couple days later, I’m seeing a bunch of trash in it like pieces of plastic bag, hard plastic shards, glass shards, and metal pieces in it. The picture attached is just a small amount of what I was able to pick out but the soil is an inch thick on a small yard and there’s a bunch more in it. This just doesn’t seem right. What should I do at this point?

This culvert is from the 70s. There’s a lot of stone available in various sizes that could be used.

What has worked for you? What’s easiest to get a riding mower around? What will last?

Hoping not to have to use the weedeater too much.

Any and all suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance.

Hi, I want to add mulch along the side of the here to get grass off the wall and also to raise the earth (there's a dip where it slopes into the foundation). Does mulching make sense here? I got a chipdrop as I wanted it for other things but there's so much I think I want to add a mulch layer around the house. Does edging and adding a strip of mulch here make sense?

I swear, you can spend money on good soil, fertilizer, and the best grass seed, and your lawn will still find a way to look terrible. Meanwhile, the weeds grow like they pay the mortgage. 😂 What’s the most ridiculous lawn or landscaping problem you’ve ever spent money trying to fix?