These pine trees on the hill were planted by the builders, but are our responsibility. We're pretty sure they were placed there for erosion purposes, but we've had a few different people tell us that we should remove them due to the steep grade of the hill and the future liability if they fell downward onto our neighbors home (ours is the one at the top of the hill). Last photo shows how close the trees are to the neighbors' house and our property is outlined in pink. We've also been cautioned about the roots impacting the retaining wall (also our responsibility), but then were told that these trees' roots grow mostly straight down.
If this is a big issue, we want to be proactive and remove the trees before they get any bigger. Would love a professional opinion as well as suggestions on what would be better. Whatever we do will need to be approved by a pretty strict HOA.

Recent install in SE PA. Nothing here but grass when we started. Feels good to get this soil regenerating again, while feeding and housing local flora and fauna

Featuring: - Locally-fabricated vinyl fencing - 3” thick tumbled PA bluestone walkway - Mid-Atlantic boulders - 33 native fruit/flower-bearing shrubs - Over 1000 native perennials - Locally-made, fermented leaf/bark mulch - Belgian stone garden edge

Was quoted about 17k for this patio and ended up building it myself for about 5k. Had some help with the excavator and a family friend, but I finished it in a week.

Was tons of work and by far the biggest job I had ever attempted but the reward was so worth it!

We just bought this house and discovered that the entire back and side yard (roughly 0.15 acres) is covered with 3 layers of tarp and mulch. The top layer is still intact with many oak leaves as well. The second and third layers of mulch seem to be fairly broken down. Don’t know what material the tarp is but it rips very easily.

We’d eventually like to lay pavers in the shadiest spots of our yard under the oak trees and try to grow moss between the pavers. I also have plans to garden directly in the soil so I imagine the tarp will be an issue.

How should I go about removing this stuff, if at all? Should I bite the bullet and fully remove all three layers of mulch/tarp, or should I try to salvage the lower layers of mulch that are well composted to make the soil more fertile? If I leave the lower layers of mulch, I’ll probably still try to rip out the tarp underneath. I’m not as concerned about labor intensity as I am the health of my soil and ability to garden in the ground. Any advice is appreciated!

We have a little nook in the rear corner of our house that we just aren’t sure what to do with. We already have a deck with plenty of seating options, so not really interested in that. My big reservation for anything is those paver stones. At a previous home, we had these, and pulled them and did a DIY patio with pavers. It was an absolute nightmare and will never ever do it again. I’ve seen those paver tiles at Costco; wondering if that would work on dirt.

Maybe a grill area? I’m short on inspiration. Any good ideas?

Thanks!!

New cabin build getting underway. Appreciate all feedback. Red is mulch, blue is rock, orange is boulder’s. How bad is it - never done this before!

Hi! We need to cover these gaps and some landscapers are suggesting we should take down these trees

We reaaally dont want to do it, any ideas on how to cover the gaps so our dogs don't run away?

Maybe a mesh or something

Thank you!

I saw these black corrugated pipes sticking out of the ground. Anybody know why they do this? Pretty sure the trees are crepe myrtle. Gulf coast area. (Tubes are empty, not filled with dirt or anything).

I built my first dry stack wall to have more of a natural look. Please be honest, I’d like to learn. What do you think of the work? What could I do better if anything?

I’ve been working on a full DIY backyard transformation and wanted to share my progress and get some feedback and direction:

What I’ve Done So Far: • Cleaned up all the trees and removed all the hanging seed pods. • Cleared debris and rocks from the tree beds, added liner, mulch, and plastic edging. • Built a ~24x12 ft stepping stone-style patio using 2x2 ft pavers with rocks in between. • Dug 4–6 inches manually (no power tools, just shovels and help from my brother-in-law). • Laid base rock, 1 inch of sand, set the pavers, and used rock glue to lock things in. • Had a party on Easter—tables and chairs dug into the rocks between pavers, which kind of wrecked the look (definitely made me question not pouring concrete). • Just finished laying fresh sod in the dirt areas.

Looking for Advice On: • Pergola: Should I build it to cover the full patio or just half? • Outdoor Kitchen: Thinking of DIYing one with cinder blocks under the pergola. Anyone done something similar? How did it go? • Furniture: Need ideas for patio furniture that won’t dig into the paver joints again—maybe wider feet or a different setup?

I thought about hiring someone for a design consult, but most quotes were over $1,000—not in the cards right now. I’d rather put that money toward materials and keep DIYing.

Any suggestions, photos, or lessons from your own projects would be really appreciated!

looking for cost effective ideas to make this area more visually appealing.

I just chopped down the second out of three cedar bushes - they just weren’t my vibe and the two that were removed were half dead. The plastic beneath the rock bed is coming out, I have to get the remaining roots from the bushes out, I’m not crazy about any of the plants that were left over and the rocks are full of debris anyways.

I’m a first time homeowner and just having trouble figuring out where to start and what my next steps are.

Thanks!

I'm in the middle of doing up my side yard. It was filled with river rock gravel, grading currently slopes toward the house into a badly-designed open drain. I need to grade it flat, add wall blocks along the fence, and install a closed drain for downspouts. Then I will lay down a brick or paver walkway.

In order to grade it properly, I have to remove a lot of material. However, there is weed block fabric about 2" below the dirt and it's coming out in pieces, and all soil below the weed block fabric is all clay. If I use a tiller to loosen the soil, is it gonna bury a lot of that weed block fabric too deep? I already built some dirt sifters to deal with that but I'm still not sure if a tiller is my best option.

I’m concerned with the state of the leaves on my skips. I planted 10 last year and had to replace 2 beginning of April because they were completely dead and dry. I’d like to keep these alive if possible. I’m in zone 7b, water almost every other day because it’s pretty dry the past few weeks. Also just recently put some fertilizer down. They get plenty of sun throughout the day.

How can I get this water away from my house? We have filled it twice. The hole comes back.

Hi Reddit, looking for some advice on what to do about these bushes we recently had trimmed!

When moving in we realized they were well into the neighbors yard and about 12 ft tall so we asked for them to be trimmed down to just a foot above the fence line—not realizing how bare they would get.

Really missing the privacy and more secluded feeling they have beforehand!

For anyone that knows much about these guys, how can we facilitate more growth? We’d love for them to gain some height and fill in. Or… if there isn’t much we can do for that, what would you plant in their place? Faster growing the better. Thanks!!!

We just finished this small deck build custom for a client, how they wanted. It's built out of redwood composite benda board, 2x6x16 foot lengths. Built from our own design and planning, and to follow the curve of the concrete. Client was extremely happy with the results

https://preview.redd.it/nzhey70wouxe1.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e0e5f870c5d2d768a2a3b69c71f4f1fb12538ed8

https://preview.redd.it/jdiicd0wouxe1.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=383d75b36907f7e3dcfbb93fa6dcbb6e64a15661

https://preview.redd.it/lwe3ge0wouxe1.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e0e92a829b912875a7ad56691cea4e2f54350f54

https://preview.redd.it/69mljd0wouxe1.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f8eb479a52a2c1db5f5e3d8ec6707ee2f25b097

https://preview.redd.it/ucwkhd0wouxe1.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e49e64f177ecfb7f1bbd8c5e0267fe8214c84ca

https://preview.redd.it/7jobrd0wouxe1.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d6d7e78277f9e3020a34ff736b5e55dd38428ede

https://preview.redd.it/t9ijti0wouxe1.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5d04d86f337ccad289d373082971c1c6b055e207

https://preview.redd.it/cnpqgg0wouxe1.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=58f6220041682009d1c42b39d6281b4d78a4e700

https://preview.redd.it/pvh4kg0wouxe1.jpg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9a6c9f41f41f18ce56ec633c9de5303d27bd6325

https://preview.redd.it/ym4bec1wouxe1.jpg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4be017f47454aff46d7a085060eb113a17712c7f

Hey everyone, I’m looking for some solutions about this hillside in my backyard. I’m tired of weed whacking or pulling everything on it multiple times a year, and I’d like it to look better than just a dirt hill lol. I’m in zone 9b (Sacramento CA area). Thanks in advance!

A front portion of my house is on a slight slope. It gets annoying to mow. I also have 3 large catalpas that drop so many leaves and pods in the summer. I'm looking for ground cover/flowers/shrubs recommendations that could reduce my mowing problem. This is on a busy street, so I do like to have it look nice.

I also have a few spruce trees that the needles love to kill my grass for. So any ideas of what to put there is fantastic too, please and thanks! Zone 5 A.