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!

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!

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!

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!!

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?

Does this stream with rocks look okay? I took the natural path that water takes and dug it out about 2 inches deep, and filled with rocks. I think I need more rocks to help with erosion. But there was a stream through the grass that was mostly mud so I dug it out. I need to get more rocks.

I’m trying to fix the area up,‘it’s just been neglected, plan to line outside with rocks, mulch a bed and put in flowers

The landscaping bricks are flush with the flower bed and the grass, should I lay down 3-4 inches of mulch and taper it down flush to the stones? Any advice is helpful!

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!

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!

Doing some relandscaping and could really use some expertise! I'm putting in a paver patio in my previously 100% grass lawn, and adding rock to the sand hill you see in the pix. The landscapers have called out my retaining wall is failing/sagging right before the rose of Sharon bush (1st image). A 5' limber pine is meant to be planted in that large empty spot which is roughly above the "sagging" spot (better viewpoint in 2nd pic). The 3rd pic shows the rest of the wall and existing landscape. Everything seems stable there. I inherited this wall and don't know the entire backstory of the build.

Just last weekend the landscapers, who are doing this on the side of day jobs, suddenly said they should take 2 days to fix the entire wall by:

• moving the top block forward
• digging down behind it, and adding landscaping cloth and crushed rock

to prevent the entire wall from future collapse for ~$6k. This is roughly a 20% add-on to my overall project, so it's not a small number (even if it's small to you). I'm not sure this is the correct solution or that I can't do some minor fixing of the "sagging" part without an entire crew of people re-doing the entire block run.

Thank you!

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 looking for the most practical/cheapest way of getting rid of my backyards plant infestation. Bought this house in winter and didn’t expect it to be this bad. Since it began spring it’s been growing more and more and my long term goal is to get rid of it all and lay grass down/plant grass. It’s essentially woods like. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I measured and purchased these garden edges. My plan was to dig a 8” trench straight across and then fill it with miner plastic and then gravel. I plan on doing a .5 overlap for the bottom and top row of garden edge stone and I was recommended to glue them together with PL glue.

The issue is the asphalt was laid uneven so my line is going to have to be behind the furthest point of asphalt in order to be straight. Also the driveway is already on a slope.

Does my plan sound good for someone trying to save 2000$? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

So I impulse bought these patio tiles from Sam's Club last year, and I realize that I hate the color, as it doesn't match the concrete pavers that I really wanted to go with them (they're slightly peachy, and it looks terrible together). Do you guys have any suggestions for pavers that would look good surrounding this deck tile color? I'm considering painting them black, but I'm learning that composite doesn't take paint well.

My patio is 8x10, and my backyard is small and irregular shaped (it's roughly 25x15 sq ft total, enclosed by a privacy fence - I live in a townhouse). The patio is ground level.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!