Backyard remodel

[Greg]

I'm tired of mowing all the grass we have, our backyard is due for a remodel. My wife puts up a big above ground pool in the Summertime and it kills the grass, is a PITA to mow around, etc. The yard has a stucco wall around it and is pretty private, which is nice but again, a pain to get a riding mower in and out of the gate. I want to get rid of the grass and do something else that I don't have to maintain and cut, looking for ideas. One of the bad things is that we have a big tree in the backyard that drops leaves every Fall and I need to be able to clean them up. Not too interested in astro turf, due to the cost. Concrete is $$$$ too. I'm thinking some kind of decorative gravel? Any other ideas?

The wife would like a deck, I'd love to have a fire pit, perhaps a palapa and some sand for a bit of a Baja/beach feel?

Here's the yard-

 

[Greg]

Kinda thinking some kind of crushed rock, lay down some weed block and some 1/2" chunky rock. I think I would use a leaf blower to manage leaves in the Fall?

 

[jeeper]

I do a lot of rock for my own home and rental properties. Mostly because I am a cheap skate.
I don’t think I would recommend it for a back yard. I run my leaf blower through it all every week when I mow, but I still can’t keep the leaves and debris from gathering in the rocks. It looks fine from a distance, but if it was part of an entertainment area or a spot I would like to relax and it would drive me crazy.

 

[Stephen]

Paving stones in various shades, maybe a small section of grass, possibly just a decorative grass that looks good unmowed, a few planter boxes for flowers or vegetables, and then a fire pit surrounded by sand that's sunken a bit so the sand is less likely to blow all over.

 

[Jinx]

Something to consider is your layout.

I am like you, I like a good looking yard but I don’t want to spend six days a week making it look nice.

At the last house I put in flower beds that were 3’ acrossed around the out side of the yard because the weed blocker stuff came in 3’ rolls.

Then we did the mower edged concrete curbing, because the only worse than mowing is trimming/weed whacking. All of the trees had a curbing ring around them too.

The idea was to minimize the amount of time it took to mow the lawn and make look good. I could quick run the mower over the yard and maybe get out the trimmer once a month if it really needed it.

The sprinklers were designed around this as well, only the things I wanted to be green received water. The lawn was double overlapped, but the flower bed were on a drip system so I didn’t have to pull many weeds.

So all this being said, put the pool is an area meant to be dead with a edge around it so it’s easy to take care of.

 

[Hickey]

I say pour concrete for more Jeep parking.

 

[YROC FAB.]

Just diesel the whole area and enjoy the all natural dirt look. Leaves fall, rake them up, and burn them where they are.

 

[Ashcat]

Once the vegetation mitigation is complete, I suggest the tasteful acquisition of fine classic automobiles thoughtfully positioned throughout the yard. You don’t have to water them and they age nicely in the sun.

 

[YROC FAB.]

Once the vegetation mitigation is complete, I suggest the tasteful acquisition of fine classic automobiles thoughtfully positioned throughout the yard. You don’t have to water them and they age nicely in the sun.

This^ Ive already started my collections of junk That "Im going to fix one day".

 

[pELYgroso]

make it a mini go-cart/dirtbike track and charge the new neighbor kids to ride it.

 

[ID Bronco]

I have used bark and rock and both are tough to keep leaves and spiders and other debris out of. My gas blower doesn't do the job. I love grass, I like laying on it, dogs like it, and kids like it. That's a small area, maybe get a walk behind mower to make the back yard mowing easier. If you put in a fire pit ring, maybe do what we did and put a circle of stamped concrete around it for chairs, that will take up a pretty large area without being really expensive.

 

[SAMI]

Greg I'm in a very similar boat... After years of letting my backyard slip and kick my ass I nuked the entire yard of anything green and even cut down all the trees.. just finished grinding out all the stumps this last weekend.

I still have to demo the outrageously massive chicken coop (16x16'), remove a few inches of garbage soil, sculpt the garden areas, and get the sprinkler system 100% with changed/added heads and drip lines in accordance with the new layout.

While doing all of the heavy-lifting to hit reset, I'm constantly thinking about what I want & don't want out of the space; trying to balance defined usable spaces while balancing zero maintenance & grass for the kids.

I agree with the above note that rocks end up with a lot of leaves, sticks, and spiders unless you are ok busting out the shopvac each week to keep it clear. I did a large mound of rocks in the front last summer and keeping the area leaf-free has been harder than I would've thought going into it (assumed the leaf blower would make short work of it like you have)... That said, it's still far less work than weeding what was a disgusting flowerbed.

In our backyard I'm going to extend the flower beds out from the perimeter several additional feet to cut maintaining lawn we don't necessarily need. I've got a pallet of flagstone to finish out a large fire-pit/gathering area in the back corner; no mowing required.. Adjacent to the that space will be a large area for 6-8 raised garden boxes and an ax throwing area; no mowing required.. I'm debating using astro turf for the area immediately under/surrounding the swing-set, then have grass surrounding that and following down along the garage to meet into the fire pit area...

Maybe I should start my own thread on my backyard reset adventure. lol

In short.... rocks may not be the answer you are hoping for... I support pavers/similar and a fire pit area. It's a relatively cheap space to build out that adds function instead of deleting usable space like a garden or large rock area would.

 

[Unimog]

I'll just throw out there that in my experience, pavers last about 10-15 years before falling apart. I likely wouldn't do that again. Concrete lasts much longer if it is placed properly and can be stamped and colored to look like anything.

 

[johngottfredson]

Best thing to do in larger planter areas is fill them with spreading hardy shrubs than can be allowed to grow together to form a plant massing. They shade out the area beneath and keep weeds down, give some foliage which looks nice, changes color through the seasons, and actually cools the yard through transpiration.

My favorite these days is Rhus trilobata 'gro low', Gro Low Fragrant Sumac.



Keep planting schemes simple; the more complicated the plantings, things will look untidy as they fill in, creating maintenance as you have to get in there and prune.

 

[MOODY]

I’ve a bunch of that sumac in my yard. It loves The climate and grows quick. I have nothing really to offer here. My yard is far from low maintenance.

 

[BCGPER]

I’m convinced there is no such thing as a no maintenance yard. I tried to go as low maintenance as possible, but I’m still out there a couple hours a week.

If you’re thinking gravel is the answer, it’s not a bad option. Yes there is still maintenance to be done though. No matter how much weed blocker you use, there will still be weeds. I spray about once a week. If you have a weed blower that converts to a vacuum, leaves are not an issue either.

This is 120 tons of various rock, 50 plants, and $20K later. But, it’s pretty easy to take care of..

 

[Greg]

Little update... the tree in the backyard is on it's last leg, has a bunch of dead, broken branches and didn't grow many leaves this Spring. I think it's time for it to come down, which sucks because I loved having the shade... but the leaves made a mess.

So I found a really neat option, looks great and be decently affordable. You can apply an epoxy to gravel and create a hardened, smooth surface that still allows for runoff to permeate thru. If you use a plate compactor and spend some time leveling it all out, the final product looks amazing. You need to use clean, washed gravel and obviously the expense of the gravel and epoxy will be pretty decent, but probably 1/4 the cost of concrete.

Here's what I'm looking at, there are plenty of similar products. It would be a lot of prep work and effort to do it right.

Once the tree comes down, I'd like to put the fire pit on top of the stump (help burn it down) and lay down fresh sod. I'd also add some more concrete, next to the current concrete patio to make even more usable space.

Talking to the wife, I think we want to build some kind of deck, with built in seating along the North stucco wall and add vertical posts that tie into some kind of cover/shade. Either lumber across the top or a mix of lumber and some kind of material. Basically, a hangout area when people are out of the pool, if we're grilling, hanging out around the fire pit, etc.

 

[UNSTUCK]

Carl is the right idea. He just ads a little more concrete each year. I want to do that in my backyard. The end game would be far more useful to us than grass. We enjoy playing roller hockey so that would make a great rink.

 

[I Lean]

Carl is the right idea.

Always.