Update: Things are really picking up with the Habitat For Humanity showhouse (ahh! the foundation is being laid and framing starts next week!) so there will be some Wednesdays without an afternoon post. Thanks for understanding!
Fall is the best. It’s my favorite (well, that and smiling). I love it because the weather rocks my socks and most years we’re treated to several weeks of beautiful fall colors. Yet somehow we always find ourselves rushing to accomplish something each autumn. One year it was trying to sell our first house before the leaves fell (along with our curb appeal). Last year it was cramming things in before setting off on our book tour. And this year it has been trying to grow grass in our sad excuse for a front yard.
I know, I know – landscaping posts aren’t always that exciting. I know I’m weird for browsing fasttreeremovalatlanta.com so much. But we’ve crammed about two months worth of progress into one post in the hopes of making it a bit more satisfying than “hey, we threw down some grass seed. Doesn’t it look… seedy?”
The shot above is actually from this summer, right before we asked a landscaper who was working a couple of doors down to level out some ground stump piles leftover from having a few trees removed (more on that in this post). That quick leveling job set us back a mere $60 and gave us a grass-seed-ready front yard. Or so we thought. The only issue with that one area of leveling is that it revealed that the rest of the yard wasn’t well graded at all (those freshly flattened spots were surrounded on almost every side by low points that collected water during every rain). So we had to accept that our yard wasn’t as ready for seeding as we had originally thought. Le sigh.
We contemplated just dumping a few bags of topsoil down and calling it good, but we (well, mostly I) kept having the nagging thought that it was going to annoy me for years to come if we didn’t just do it right the first time. I eventually got Sherry on board with the idea of having some dirt delivered and getting the whole area properly graded, something we acknowledged was a possibility in this post, but were still a little reluctant to dive into until we saw how bad the yard was after a heavy rain.
So we decided to just pull the trigger and do it right once instead of working to establish a lush yet bumpy grass yard that we’d later need to redo. Yay, right? Except we couldn’t find anyone who was available to do it. It was late September by this point and every landscaper and dirt delivery service seemed to be booked up already (we called at least ten people – even some folks from a few towns over). We had all but given up on the entire idea when, by some miracle, the original landscape guy (Steve) who did that quick little flattening session called to say that he could squeeze us in that weekend. Huzzah! And then a miscommunication got us pushed off to the following weekend. Urgh! And then a week of heavy rains bumped us back another weekend. Double urgh! So it wasn’t until the Bowers visited in mid-October that they finally arrived and we all gathered outside to watch the main dirt-centric event.
Steve assessed how much topsoil we’d need based on the size of of our yard and how much grading was necessary to leave us with something nice and flat (no more swampy low points). This was just one of two heaping truckloads that we got. Yes, there were about five car-sized dirt piles.
With that much dirt, there was no way Sherry and I would be able to get things done with a wheelbarrow and a rake, so we let Steve the landscaping guy go for it instead.
This is the part the kids enjoyed watching the most – although Clara played shy and hid behind the railing for a good portion of it.
Steve had suggested that we mark off what would become mulch beds so that we didn’t waste dirt (oh the precious dirt!) in areas that wouldn’t be getting grass. So a few days before, Sherry and I used a hose to plan out some curvy beds around some of the tree groupings. A hose is nice to use because you can bend it and move it around until you like the shape, and then when you like the look of things, you can trace its shape with some marking spray to outline those future beds. We won’t actually mulch them ’til spring, so this is the last we’ll speak of them until then most likely. Shhh, these are the mulch beds that shall not be named.
By early afternoon, the yard was looking gorgeous. Okay, I realize a bunch of dirt doesn’t really deserve the g-word, but it was really exciting to see the whole area smoothed out and no longer spotted with erratic splotches of moss, weeds, and mud (that dry looking area between the two trees is going to be a mulch bed, where we’ll add more plantings someday). Rain was in the forecast for that afternoon, so Steve recommended that we get the grass seed down ASAP so that it could sink into the fluffy topsoil before the precipitation matted it down into more solid dirt (that’s less ideal for growing grass since you want the dirt to be soft when the seed takes root instead of compressed and rock hard). You can see a single track mark from our broadcast spreader when I was just starting to put down some grass seed in this photo below:
One of the reasons that we got so much dirt delivered was because we wanted to take care of this area that we affectionately call The Wetlands in the backyard. I know it looks like seed-ready dirt from this angle, but it was suuuuuper unlevel. It basically turned into an 8″ swamp after every rain (there was about a 12″ drop from the walkway to the area in the middle of this dirt-hole).
Here it is with lots of dirt filling in that entire gulley (after I had spread the grass seed).
And now, through the magic of the Internet, let’s fast forward about three weeks when I snapped this photo of things starting to come in.
About a week later it’s even more filled in (this shot was taken a few days ago). We got a much later start on this whole seeding thing than we had hoped, so we feared we might’ve missed the boat entirely, but it has slowly been doing its thing. Phew.
In our past experience (our first house had an all mulch front yard that we seeded from scratch), we’d never gotten thick coverage after just one season of seeding. So while it should still get even more filled in than what we have now, we’re planning to overseed next spring (and maybe again in the fall) to finally get a lush lawn back there. As for our tips for seeding, now that we’ve done it a few times, we like to use a broadcast spreader to drop the seed and then we just water it everyday for around 15 minutes with a broadcast sprinkler to establish it (we like to do it in the early morning when we wake up, just so we remember).
You might also notice a few more evergreen shrubs appearing in that “Progress” shot above. They’re our first step in trying to reclaim a bit more privacy back there – especially in the winter once the trees are bare. When we bought this house we knew we’d have to add some more evergreen trees to block the view of some other houses through those woods, so we told ourselves that each fall we’re going to buy a few good screening trees and shrubs in the hopes that we’ll eventually have year-round privacy when they all fill in.
These are from a local nursery (Great Big Greenhouse, for any locals who are wondering) and we just met with one of their all-knowing garden guys who recommended them for us based on our criteria: evergreen, deer-resistant, partial shade, and size (they’re all eventually supposed to grow somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 ft x 10 ft to create fence-like privacy when it’s all said and done). You can’t tell in this photo, but they’re staggered by about 6′ (they’re not all in the same line, so they should overlap in front of or behind each other instead of smashing into each other as they grow.
They were having a fall perennial sale so we scored them for 40% off and delivery was only $25. They also come with a one year warranty, so we’re hopeful that we can keep them alive, but it’s nice to know that we can return anything that doesn’t make it and grab something else that might work better. So far, so good, though. Oh and the wax myrtle is a native plant (we love working those in whenever we can) and it smells really good, so we hope to add more of them around the rest of the backyard as we continue screening things over time.
As for our planting tips, we’ve had luck digging holes that are twice as wide as each plant’s root ball, but only as deep as the root ball itself (sinking a tree too low in a hole is one of the ways you can really mess things up for it down the line). Digging in those big Nellie Stevens was no joke (it’s hard to tell from these photos, but they’re each about 7′ tall) but once you get them in the ground, just remembering to water them seems to be all they need to do well.
But back to grass. And back to the front yard. Here’s what it looked like this summer…
…and here’s what it’s looking like now!
Like the backyard, it’s not fully grown in yet – but things are looking waaaay better out there. The pictures really don’t do justice to those mounds and valleys in the before shots, but it’s so much flatter and more mower-friendly now, which is a huge relief – especially since we don’t have any more little swampy spots after a big rain.
Those giant loads of topsoil were $750 and the grading was $250, which is certainly more than I ever pictured myself spending on dirt (and the main reason that Sherry had trouble getting on board with the plan). But having seen the difference it made (and will continue to make) in our efforts to liven up this home’s exterior, we’re both convinced it was money well spent. Now if only there weren’t a bazillion leaves falling on the lawn every two seconds. Don’t these trees know our baby grass blades need sunlight? C’mon!
Is anyone else doing any major front and back grading or seeding? How thrilling is it to see those little green sprouts poking out of the dirt? It never gets old.
Psst- Sherry’s chatting about the bun and her pregnancy over on Young House Life.
Yesss love Elf! Is there sugar in syrup? Then yes!! Haha you guys have the best humor, it reminds me of my husband’s and mine :D
You make me want to re-level our entire front yard – what a difference that made!! We just recently landscaped a little around the workshop we built, scroll to the bottom of the post for a final pic. Landscaping is just never any fun – it’s always harder than it looks.
http://www.krusesworkshop.blogspot.com/2013/10/done-da-duh-dadone.html
All that work is so worth it! Looks so charming!
xo
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Hey, seeding and grading posts may not be the sexiest topic but it makes a difference and it’s part of the process. Therefore, I’m all ears…errr…eyes. Looks good!
Ha! Thanks Anele!
-John
Way to do it right the first time! It’s looking so much better! Did you pick a particular shade grass?
We graded and sodded our back yard this past spring and while it was a pain in the neck (literally, ow!) seeing a green, lush yard where a giant concrete hottub once sat was totally worth all the work involved!
We just asked a few neighbors with awesome grass what type of seed they used. A few of them didn’t have any idea or memory, but one of them still had the bag of seed so he wrote down the name for us and we went out and bought it! It’s a “tall fescue blend that thrives under Southern conditions” by Rebels.
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If you add some clover into the lawn when you overseed it, it will fertilize the grass for you automatically. Just make sure to pick a low-growing clover so the mower blades can zoom right over top of it.
How do you handle the leaves that fall? Do you blow them off or rake them? I would think that raking them may disturb the grass seeds.
We have an electric blower that we use (really often these days since the trees are just dumping so many leaves on our poor little seeded yard!).
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I was going to ask the exact same question. As a California girl, our seasons aren’t nearly as dramatic. I was so curious what they do with all this leaves.
Question, Won’t the snow kill the grass?
We don’t tend to get much snow, but grass planted in our climate just goes dormant over the winter, so it essentially stops growing (no need to mow it over the winter) but it doesn’t die. And then in the spring it greens up and grows like crazy, like it’s coming back to life!
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We talk about grading our yard every other day or so. There is the running discussion of “should we gut this place or tear it down. If we tear it down and build in the center of the lot, we’ll need to grade it and x, y, z.”
We’re slowly working on x, y, and z though we don’t know if we’ll just completely redo our place or (perhaps?) one day build a new spot.
This is a way-down-the-line plan, too. Yet, we hold true that anything is possible and that our actions now impact other future actions (saving money and time, too).
Good call on going ahead and adding the dirt! When we first bought our house, we made the mistake of trying to just seed for the first fall and spring but the ground was too hard (even with aerating it) and sloped for it to take well, and we eventually had to bite the bullet and let the landscapers come in and re-grade and add some topsoil so we could grow grass.
Oh no Katie! I’m so sorry about that. Sounds like a total pain. I’m so glad I listened to John (I was really against this for a while since it sounded so expensive) but in the end not having to redo things and pay that fee anyway was what convinced me, so your comment is really helpful!
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Wow it’s crazy how much better it looks when I didn’t even realize there was anythig wrong with it to begin with. I can’t wait to see how it looks in the spring!
Wow! It looks great. It is crazy expensive but I totally agree with you – it’s something that will be worth it since you’re wanting this to be your forever home. Can’t wait to see it in the spring!
I am really depressed now. My yard is nothing but weeds… but maybe one day i will get grass….
You will! Aim for fall! It’s the easiest time to start from seed (which can save you a lot of money over sod). Just slowly spend the next 12 months trying to get it ready and then rake and seed in the fall for a green grassy result. You should click the link in this post of our first house’s front yard! That was all mulch and we got a nice grassy lawn out of it! Definitely took some time (and multiple seasons of overseeding) but it was night and day from where we started! All of that is to say, there’s hope for weedy lawns :)
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Wow! What a difference! My husband and I have a backyard full of dirt and dead weeds that we were planning on grading and seeding this fall, but it seems that it might be too late. I guess I’ll just have to enjoy your yard instead!
It’s looking much better!
I thought that you & Clara had named your trees Wax Myrtle and Nellie Stevens Holly before I read the paragraph underneath. I’m like, that tree gets 3 names? How fancy – like Sarah Jessica Parker!
Don’t trust me with your plants. I know nothing. Haha.
Haha! I think if Clara named them they’d all rhyme. She’s on a rhyming kick right now, so it would be like “that’s Sarah and that’s Mara and that’s Bara and that’s Lara”
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Janelle…this made my day. hahaha
You guys are making your home look so gorgeous! Beautiful!!
Thanks Courtney!
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It looks wonderful! We just bought a house with a sloped backyard so we are in the process of getting bids to flatten and terrace it with a stone wall and steps. I can’t wait until we have lovely green grass like you guys!
That sounds so pretty! The stone wall and steps thing always looks amazing!
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Looks great guys!!
~your very far away landscaping professional :)
Thanks Heidi!
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I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I AM IN LOVE WITH YOUR LAWN! The baby grass blades really make a big difference in the overall curb appeal of your home. Awesome job!
Thanks Laura! It’s so nice to hear that! Since this has been a long time coming (taking a few months to accomplish) sometimes I’m less excited about it (you know how you paint a room and then a second later you walk in and you’re like “WOW! That’s a huge difference!” – I think landscaping lacks that instant gratification sometimes, so it’s so nice to hear that you love it. In all caps, even! Haha!
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Looks beautiful! Just a heads up that privet is an invasive species. We’ve been trying to remove it from our yard for years, and it’s the top problem we tackle when volunteering for park clean ups.
Thanks Kate! We’ll definitely keep an eye on this! The tag for this type said it got 10 x 10 as a max size, so we hope that happens. Will keep you posted!
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So glad someone mentioned this, we have a volunteer privet in our backyard that is about 40 feet tall now. It drops black berries that stain and the birds carry them everywhere so I have to be vigilant about weeding or I would have an entire volunteer forest in about 2 years. So I have to concur with Kate and say keep an eye on it!
Thanks so much for the tip Anne! I’m giving it the evil eye now. Ha! Will definitely keep checking on it!
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Another voice against the privet. It looks similar to buckthorn, which is an invasive hedge here in Minnesota. I volunteer at our local nature center and spend a lot of time pulling the invasive hedge out of the woods. As soon as you get berries, you should pull out the plant, or else you’ll be dealing with a major invasive in 10 years or so. Birds eat the berries, poop out the seeds, and spread the plants everywhere.
Honestly, I’m sad your landscaping people sold you that plant. Please stick with more natives or plants that won’t spread, and perhaps even consider pulling out the privet.
I’m sorry to rain on your parade — I wish we would just stop selling these plants in the US so people don’t accidentally buy something dangerously invasive.
Thanks Leah! I’m going to call Great Big Greenhouse because they’re so smart about that stuff, but we were specifically asking for plants that grow and screen, so maybe it’s our fault that they recommended something that spreads that way! We’d much rather pop it out of the ground and exchange it for something better for our yard (love their warranty) than live to regret planting it, so thanks for the tips guys!
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As well as being invasive, privet is highly allergenic.
Just thought I’d mention it with your allergies Sherry :)
Ack, thanks Kate!
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Probably beating a dead horse because I think you got the message, but I just wanted to respectfully add that its not so much your own yard that’s the worry with privet…its nearby natural landscapes that the birds fly to after dining on your shrub. It is sad, but it still is really common for nurseries to sell known invasives, and its one of the biggest threats to our local ecosystems.
Thanks Becca!
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My husband and I built our house about a year ago and acted as the GC on the project (never EVER again!). We budgeted some money for blasting rock since our plot of land is well, rocky. Of course the very spot we built our house has no rock and terrible soil to put a foundation on. Long story short, our soil costs far exceeded our blasting budget. Who would have thought soil would cost so much! At least you can see your soil! Haha :)
Oh my gosh, isn’t it crazy how dirt can add up?! The showhouse is starting to be built and just the cost of dirt is something like 40K! It’s crazy!!!!
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We just did this too! We had our front yard and side yard graded (close to 10,000 square feet total, and (cries) substantially more expensive than your grading project) since we had 3 varieties of grass and a LOT of weeds. We also paid for them to do the seeding. I still overseeded to fill in the bare spots as the original grass seed came in, but I am so happy to hear you say it took a season or two for yours to get lush and full. I think we’re offically past the window where seed will germinate now and there’s still some spotty areas. Luckily I’m okay with this being a multi-season project!
Anyway, how good does it feel to get this taken care of? Such a money suck, but I’m so glad it’s done!
Yes! The money part makes me cringe, but hearing from all of our neighbors that it’s looking so good makes me beam! I bet your yard will look spectacular in the spring if you overseed a little then too!
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I actually LOVE your gardening/landscaping posts. Keep ’em coming!!!
Thanks Julia!
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Ahh, the art of growing grass in central Virginia… we haven’t quite mastered it for our yard, but keep on trying! I definitely agree that overseeding will help to get to a barefoot-happy lawn! :)
What type of grass seed did you use – I’m never sure in our shady yard (with lots of clay) what to try! Thanks!
We just asked a few neighbors with awesome grass what type of seed they used. A few of them didn’t have any idea or memory, but one of them still had the bag of seed so he wrote down the name for us and we went out and bought it! It’s a “tall fescue blend that thrives under Southern conditions” by Rebels.
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Looks great! I have experts spreading expensive dirt in my garden right now… Hope I get to see some green soon too – so thanks for the general idea on what to expect.
Fun times ;)
Greetings from Germany
Thanks Jennifer! Good luck in Germany! When is your planting season out there?
xo
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Well, it should have been done a bit earlier, but the landscapers really want to get jobs in November so they will come and reseed in Spring for free ;)
No way! That’s awesome!
xo
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It is expensive but makes a world of difference when this is the yard your kiddos will be rolling around in for years to come!
We had to tear up this brick herb garden and regrade when we bought our house. We did it all DIY and on the cheap… very intensive labor that took about a month of spare time. We own a big truck though. Top soil and reseeding made a big difference. It is now 1 year later and I am so glad we did it!
Wow that sounds like a huge project! Amazing you got it done yourself, and that it looks awesome a year later! I can’t wait to see our yard in the spring when everything’s greening up again!
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All I think of when I see the new trees is that the bigger ones would be gorgeous decorated for Christmas!!
Love that!
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The yard looks great! I was just wondering if you treated the yard first to deal with the weeds? What is your plan for keeping weeds out?
You can sort of see in the picture of Katie Bower and Clara on the porch that the grass that we were going over with dirt was dead (see how yellow it is). We killed it (along with any weeds in those areas) just so that when the dirt went down and was graded it was a fresh start. You can kill grass by laying cardboard or newspapers on top of it for a while or even old blankets/sheets with rocks on the ends of them. Or with sprays and stuff like that too.
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Looks great! One question- will the new dirt wash away at some point, or will the grass roots and level-ness make it all stay and settle in for the long haul?
I worried about that too! He compacted it when he spread it with that machine and drove over all the areas multiple times and then he went over things by hand and raked the top layer (to get that fluffy and ready for seed). Now that there’s grass rooting everywhere it should hold everything in place! We’ll share photos in the spring along with an update about if we have any more low points, but the landscaping guy seemed really confident it would be great from here on out. Other than having to keep weeds at bay and all that stuff!
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This is a project on my agenda next spring…I thought I would have to dig up all the spots that have grass and then lay top soil but it looks like it was just dumped over any existing grass-is that correct?
You can sort of see in the picture of Katie Bower and Clara on the porch that the grass that we were going over with dirt was dead (see how yellow it is). We killed it (along with any weeds in those areas) just so that when the dirt went down and was graded it was a fresh start. You can kill grass by laying cardboard or newspapers on top of it for a while or even old blankets/sheets with rocks on the ends of them. Or with sprays and stuff like that too.
xo
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I bet your neighbors are totally loving you guys! Just pulling up to the house is like it’s a completely different place now!
Thanks so much Erin! It was a lot of fun to trick or treat in our neighborhood because when people realized we were “the house on the end with the blue door” they were so sweet about the changes we’ve been making. Totally made me beam almost as brightly as my little light-up jellyfish! Haha!
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Any other Richmonders out there singing the Great Big Greenhouse jingle to themselves now? It can’t be just me…
Wait, what’s the jingle? How do I not know this? I like singing The Dump song…
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I don’t know if they still play it on the radio (haven’t lived in RVA six years) but growing up the jingle was “Come find a friend at the Great Big Greenhouse, have we got a friend for YOU!!!”
Haha, that’s amazing! I wish they still played it. Love me a jingle.
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It’s really coming along! I appreciate you sharing landscaping updates, because we’ve spent so much time completely redoing our yard, and unlike our kitchen remodel where we hired a contractor, we did all of the work ourselves. Keep these posts coming. :)
Thanks Kierstin!
-John
Thanks for the tips on tree planting. We planted two evergreens two falls ago and only one made it because we planted the other too deep. We were never sure if that was the reason, but I think this post confirms it.
For those whose yards take a little more work than simply seeding with a spray seeder (like those whose yards get more shade,) here are some tips:
Have your soiled tested. Ours needed lots of lime so now we “lime” 2-3 times a year. You can add lime any time.
Twice a year (fall and spring) we seed our yard using a rented slit seeder. Unlike a spray seeder, this guy actually cuts little slits into the ground so the seeds really get into the soil. For us it made a world of difference.
In the late winter/early spring we treat the yard with a “pre-emergence” chemical. This helps keep the broad leaf and garlic weed at bay. If any comes up in early spring, we try and pull it out before it flowers.
Out front yard is completely shaded by a large oak, so we also spray it with a shade-specific fertilizer that really helps.
I know the last two tips aren’t all that “green” and some people may balk at using chemicals, but the first two should help those with more stubborn yards and if you’re really desperate (like we were) the last two REALLY helped. It has taken two years, but our yard is finally starting to have some nice grass.
Love the tips Kate! Thanks so much for sharing them!
xo
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Looks great. Cannot wait to see it in the Spring!
Can’t really seed much here in WI when the temps have been 20-40 degrees, but the big equipment arrived today and the crews are jack hammering our too-small front step and wonky old aggregate concrete front path to lay the base for a BIG front landing (with 4ft deep concrete base in case we eventually want to build a porch roof over it) and a new paver walkway & patio. The crew moves around back later in the week to pull up the old paver patio in back for a new, larger (and “larger” still only means 12×18) composite deck. The house is a-shakin’ tody for sure!!! Love your baby lawn, guys!
Ahhh, that’s so exciting!!
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Are hollies deer resistant where you are? They definitely are not here and need to be wrapped/protected against the marauders. Your landscaping is coming along nicely!
Oh yes, they won’t touch those spikey leaves here! There’s a giant holly next to our garage that you can see on our House Tour page, so that was a nice sign to us that the deer hate them here.
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Your yard looks lovely!! I’m a wee bit jealous though… Last spring we finished a complete overhaul of the outside of our house (roof, insulation, windows, siding, stone), which completely ruined our front yard. We had topsoil trucked in and hired a friend to level it. We added some compost/fertilizer and my husband tilled it in, raked it smooth, and spread the seed. Then it rained. For days. After, our yard was a bunch of hills and valleys. The seed washed away, it was a mud bog for weeks, and weeds took over. It took us until the end of this summer to get it looking decent.
Oh no, I’m so sorry about that Lisa! What a pain!
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Lisa, don’t you hate it when Mother Nature plays dirty (pun intended)? Even best laid plans can be foiled by something as capricious as the weather! That’s why I love these landscaping posts…the challenges; there’s no quick fix; mileage…I mean germination rates…may vary, right?
We just finished up the EXACT SAME project! We had a small flat yard, with 4 huge pine trees. We hired a company to take 2 of the trees down, then rented a stump grinder to finish up. We also got dirt and graded it out, then planted seed. It looks amazing and tripled our yard space. We couldn’t be happier!
That sounds awesome Megan!
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Landscaping is not boring! For some of us it is the bane our existence. I’ve been in my house since January 2010. Mowing the grass is more of a “vacuuming the debris” type of activity. Seriously. Neighbors know not to wash their cars if they see my mower because the dust is going to start to fly. I’ve been so scared of trying to tackle it (as the single chick homeowner)but your post gives me hope for the Spring.
Haha! Vacuuming the debris has us laughing out loud over here. There’s totally hope for spring Laurie! And then seed again in the fall and by the following spring it should no longer be a dust fest for you and your mower. Haha!
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Think this is the best $1,000 you’ve ever spent! The dollar value added to the curb appeal of your home is most likely in the tens of thousands!!
Coming along beautifully.
Aw thanks Denise! John’s doing a victory dance over here and mouthing the words “I told you so” (he really had to convince me that this expense was worth it). It does look so much better out there, so it’s a huge relief!
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I love landscaping posts, so have no fear! My hobby is gardening (I am far more talented at it than DIY!). I always do a fall planting, partly because I can catch a good sale, and partly because if I am planting the right plants, it will resist the freeze here and grow like crazy in the spring. We live in what is known as a high desert; extreme heat and cold. Makes it fun and interesting to find plants that thrive! Your selections always help me, because I know you experience freezes and snow! Thank you guys and congrats on the baby on the way!
I envy your green thumb, Andi! I have a friend who’s like that (can bring old plants on the brink back from the dead, and only spends like a dollar for them) and I’m so jealous!
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Goodness gracious green! Looks fantastic. Do you plan to change out the round green shrubs that sit under the front windows (since you mention mulch beds and knowing your landscaping style is usually sans-shrubbery I think I know the answer to that one)? Is the future plan mulch and low plants for the most part like previous houses or something else? We have the same kind of scrubs at our front windows and I’m wondering what to do because it feels like switching to a low landscaping profile will look off-balance.
I think we’re going to un-layer those big round boxwoods under the window (for example, just have three instead of two rows of three on each side and then transplant the extras around the back). Then we’ll let the remaining ones grow in so they’re less ball-like and layer other plantings in for a less manicured look.
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Such an amazing transformation just a little (or a lot) of dirt can make! It’s going to be beautiful once it’s all set and grown in!
We just bought a house with a huge stone driveway, like big enough for a small parking lot, and we are trying to figure out how we can turn most of that back into a grassy yard and leave a smaller driveway. That’s a project that will have to wait though, until we get a working heating system and insulation! :)
I love that challenge! Tell me what you figure out!
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I think I found this post way more entertaining than I should have! First because whenever I saw the word “much” I started reading it instead as “mulch,” which caused me to crack up in front of my computer.
Second, because it reminded me of this SNL Bedelia sketch where Bedelia compliments her dad on putting in the work on the lawn: http://bobbymoynihan.blogspot.com/2010/05/bobby-moynihan-in-bedelias-birthday.html
So apparently I’m getting a kick out of lawn jokes today! :)
Haha! We love that old Bedelia sketch! Hilarious! And I like the much/mulch thing. That would be a funny auto-correct to program into John’s phone so he wonders why it’s saying mulch all the time when he’s typing much…
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I did basically the same thing. I have attempted to seed twice before and the grass didn’t last past a season very well. This time I did it right. I cut the grass really low and pulled all the moss. Then I used lime all over the yard. The man I paid to help me with my yard gave my yard two applications and killed all the exsisting growth. Then I had them completly cover my yard with compost to get a nice healthy lawn dirt. Then he came back to aerate and seed. I watered religiously too and my lawn is nice lush now. Like you I have to keep those darn leaves off my lawn. One thing I noticed with your lawn is that it looks neon green. I had that same issue the first couple of times; at the time I didnt think it was an issue. Your grass should be dark green. Apparently if it’s neon and light green it needs lime. Might want to check on that so your grass survives. Also, all the other times I never got on a ferterlizer and weed control program but it’s crucial. You have to fertilize in the fall and winter so your grass comes back in the spring. Just passing what I have learned, you might already know.
That sounds awesome Ana! And I love the neon green tip about lime! Will look into that!
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Maybe because I love plants and gardening but I love landscaping posts! I can’t wait to show my husband, he’s going to be so jealous! The difference is AMAZING! We have an acre of land with a gazillion and a half tress (if you need any tips for gardening in the shade with deer let me know!) so we know all about the relentless leaf-fest and the endless yard challenges. We have a creek running through our front yard (we even have a bridge right on the driveway!) so we have the same grading and swampiness issues. Luckily the house was built on a rise in the land, so in 60 years the water level has never risen high enough to hit the house (and we hope it never does!) but the day before Sandy our neighbor cheerily told us: “if you wake up tomorrow morning and there’s a lake outside the house, don’t worry, it’s normal”. Luckily that didn’t happen but if it rains hard enough we do get swampiness. Our yard was neglected for many, many years so the hubs has spent countless hours just clearing the debris but he dreams of the day the dirt trucks pulls up and the whole front yard is level and 100% green. We found that once we started getting rid of all that debris, the grass just grew in leaps and bounds, so I think your new grass is just going to spread and look nicer and healthier next spring! Can’t wait for the posts about your mulched beds :)
Aw thanks Isabel! Good luck with your yard! It’s going to be such a big day when you have green grass after all the work you guys are putting in.
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Oh, I’m a little worried about the privet. My cousin has all out war with the stuff. It’s super invasive.
On a more fun note, I long to have a yard with grass instead of weeds. So beautiful!
Thanks Ruth! We’ll definitely keep an eye on this! The tag for this variety said it got 10 x 10 as a max size, so we hope that happens. Will keep you posted!
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I have to confess, I am worried too! I just wanted to echo the idea of keeping an eye on the yard. We had several privets (the tree form though) removed that were near our pool to get rid of the pollen and berries, and we still have “volunteers” popping up in random places around our yard. They are way easier to pull out if you catch them when they’re small, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on things.
The grass seed looks amazing!
Thanks Erin! We had no idea, so this info is great!
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I welcome landscape posts. I love gardening and outside areas, so posts on outdoor living, gardening, curb appeal are good additions. Even leveling the front yard!
Thanks Denise!
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Looking good! I love the look of a lush lawn and gardens but I do not have the desire to do it myself. I think it is all the years of raking my parents yard. I was in charge of shoveling (yes – we would get so many you had to shovel!) the acorns. As an adult, this is a task I will glaldy outsource!
We’re re-seeding now, too! We started a while ago and have been working slowly, so we have some spots that are nicely filled-in (but we’ll still overseed them in the spring), and some spots that look like your yard right now :) Unfortunately, ours seem to have decided that this is all we’re going to get, so we have some kind of hilarious-looking bald spots in our front yard right now. But we’re hoping that the overseed in the spring will do wonders! Good to see we’re not the only ones pulling this out at the last minute :)
High fives for last minute seeding! Next week is supposed to be back up in the 70s so we hope we get a little more growth before the real cold temps set in.
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Men and their lawns. My husband is always out there showing it some lovin. I do have to admit that a nice lawn makes a house look amazing.
Ah yes, my yard is my pride and joy now. It’s funny because we waited so long to do outdoor stuff at our last house, but I think that made me realize how nice it is to make those changes sooner (they’re what everyone around you sees the most of anyway). It was quite the challenge to convince Sherry to get on board with this, but I’m glad I finally did.
-John
It looks great! I actually had a dream last night that our chicken-poo covered backyard was a field of beautiful grass, so it’s ironic that I visited your site to see this. A sign, perhaps?!
Thankfully our chickens are now secured in a coop so we’re planning on laying down sod soon! I’d love to use seed but Florida lawns do best with sod since those poor little seeds don’t stand a chance against our heat.
Such a funny dream! I bet the heat in Florida makes yards so hard! Hope yours ends up awesome!
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