Help with my yardscaping plans?

[johngottfredson]

One of my favorite trees is my European beech (foreground). Very elegant branching habit, decent fall colors. That’s a London planetree in the back I planted 12 years ago.

 

[nnnnnate]

I planted a Kentucky Coffee Tree at my last house but moved a few years later and never really got a chance to see what it'd become. I read about it on this article from the USU extension. Consider the bur oak too. It'll get real big with time and provide a lot of shade. I just bought a couple last week at a nursery in Murray then promptly found a couple at the lowes on 13th south that were bigger/fuller and cheaper. ( I seem to always do that....)



Have I mentioned that you have a good looking blue house?

 

[OldGeezer]

I hate Catalpa's. And I don't even have one. But the neighbor across the street does. When the south winds blow they end up in my yard. I've filled my trash can with those damned pods many times. And does he come over and help...noooo. My advice is no trees that drop nuts, fruit or pods. I have an apple and walnut tree left in my yard and the apple is next on the chopping block. The cherry, peach and apricot were the first to go.

 

[mbryson]

Grass is really starting to come in in the #1 sprinkler zone.



Zone #2 is just starting to sprout today. Need to remove a bunch of weeds/native grass from zone #3 and put some more seed down.

 

[Hickey]

I remember being worried about all of the rocks showing through the grass in the beginning. Fear not, it will be covered up soon.

 

[mbryson]

I remember being worried about all of the rocks showing through the grass in the beginning. Fear not, it will be covered up soon.

It's AMAZING how many rocks have come out of those sprinkler heads and grown to the sizes in the pictures. Maybe AntiFa or ISIS has been throwing rocks on my grass areas in the night?

 

[Hickey]

Maybe AntiFa or ISIS has been throwing rocks on my grass areas in the night?

I'm OK with blaming them for everything.

 

[Spork]

It's AMAZING how many rocks have come out of those sprinkler heads and grown to the sizes in the pictures. Maybe AntiFa or ISIS has been throwing rocks on my grass areas in the night?

Antifa = Vanila ISIS

 

[zmotorsports]

The place is coming along great Marc.

 

[mbryson]

Here's a couple quick updates from the weekend. Front is still coming in pretty good. I should probably start thinking about mowing the front but I hope it comes in a little thicker this week before doing so?

Just got the bulk of the backyard done on Sat morning. Still need to work on a few things where the firepit goes and I've got some wood and stuff I need to move. I tried to take advantage of the rain on Sat and kind of lost my gamble due to how heavy the rains were. I'll need to reseed/repeatmoss the back section.

I need to straighten up the dog's "poop palace" fencing (as it's driving me nuts---my wife figured out that it wasn't plumb the other day.... I talked to her about that as I was helping her put it in.... debate I was going to lose so I just did a "yes dear" on it)

Then I can spend more than a few hours getting the garage put together?

I cleaned up just enough on Sat to get my pickup able to park in there. I think I've got a "final" place for the compressor. All kinds of junk to do in the garage but that's another thread. The junk in the right foreground is stuff that was in our storage shed that came here and now needs a new home

 

[Hickey]

I'd wait as long as possible to mow it, to give the roots as much time as possible to stabilize the mud.

 

[mbryson]

Just mowed for the 2nd time. Have some incredibly thick and lush spots and some other places....
Was sitting on the deck after mowing and am glad we left the two Juniper and the Charlie Brown fir tree

e

we’ve had some awesome sunsets of late

 

[zmotorsports]

Beautiful sunset and view of it from your deck.

Your sparse spots in the lawn will fill in. I even had several when I did sod on year #2. It's like they had a bit harder time grabbing root than other spots but this year all seems to be a bit more uniform in lushness.

You should be proud of the what you've accomplished and can now enjoy it.

Mike

 

[Bart]

Wow, that's really coming along nicely Marc. Congrats, looks awesome.

 

[mbryson]

Beautiful sunset and view of it from your deck.

Your sparse spots in the lawn will fill in. I even had several when I did sod on year #2. It's like they had a bit harder time grabbing root than other spots but this year all seems to be a bit more uniform in lushness.

You should be proud of the what you've accomplished and can now enjoy it.

Mike

On to the permanent mailbox, trailer parking area-RV pad access and weird little corner on the southeast (where the circle ends).

For the sparse spots, I've noticed I've had decent (mostly) growth where the peat was able to stay. Areas where rain gutters, slope or other environmental issues make it difficult for peat/seed to stick for a week or so I have sparse spots. The worst area I got mad and dumped some grass clippings from the dog poop palace (mulch?) on a couple weeks ago. It's now one of stronger areas of new growth. This mowing, I started throwing shallow depths of grass clippings over sparse areas with a little leftover seed underneath. We'll see how that works out. I'll keep monitoring that process and adjust if it works well.

From what I can tell, you just need to get some areas established well and things will continue to fill in as the lawn matures. I'm glad I did this by sprinkler zone for a few reasons. There's about 2.5 weeks between the front yard maturity to the last sprinkler zone's maturity. I was getting pretty discouraged about the growth in the front about 10-14 days ago. Now I can see it will continue to fill in as you mention. The other zones are just at different levels. I may have mowed to quickly on the last zone but we'll see how it goes. Nothing a little seed and some extra water can't take care of if I screwed it up.

I do have some soil issues. It's just a crapshoot on what soil is at the surface from all the churn of construction. I can't imagine that's not common but might be a little more challenging in this case as some of my dirt is just "fill" rather than actual soil? Some the "fill" is pretty clay based and some is just full of odd items that pop up here and there (marbles, bolts, plastic filler necks and similar). Some is decent soil but not like the native. I've spread as much native soil as I could steal from the firepit area and that's helped a lot in the worst areas. I think I'll do some top dressing as the summer goes on with decent soil and expect that we'll have something worthwhile by the end of the summer?

 

[mbryson]

I guess we decided on a lighthouse type theme for a permanent mailbox with a house matching lamp at the top. OK. We'll see how that works out.

Looks pretty decent from the street. Watering while it's raining. Yeah, I'm that guy (at least when my grass has some burn spots in it due to sparseness/lack of water). Still has a few areas that will need filling in but I'm pretty happy with things for the most part.

some of the sparseness up close. It's going to take a while to get this all "right" but for 6 weeks, I'm pretty happy with what's there. In some places the mulch is helping a lot to keep the seed moist and sprout, other places, not so much? It's been successful enough, I'll keep doing it.

I've had mulch here for about 6-7 days? Grass is doing great under there.

Here's the backyard in zone 2. I've got another dry spot here for some reason? I think this is a soil issue I'll have to work through? I'll hit this area hard with the mulch/seed this week and see how it goes?

Weeds are REALLY coming well back here. Mixed with grass. It's about 3-4 weeks old now? Probably about 50% weed/grass ratio? Hopefully that changes as the grass starts filling in.

You can kind of see the weeds here. I'm not sure if I've detailed the "poop palace" for the dog but it keeps the dog waste contained.

I need to figure out a less laborous way to keep the weeds out of the rock walls but I don't know that that will be a real option. Trying to make the yard about as low maint as I can.

Need to get some work going over here in the near future. Haven't really got a better plan than throwing down some gravel and trying to keep the weeds out of there.

 

[nnnnnate]

Killzall in a sprayer that's close and accessible for the weeds by the fence. The weeds in your rock wall? A weed burner from HF. The weeds in your grass? Weed and feed in another month, don't try to pull those by hand, you'll get too much new grass with them.

It looks great.

 

[Hickey]

Killzall in a sprayer that's close and accessible for the weeds by the fence. The weeds in your rock wall? A weed burner from HF. The weeds in your grass? Weed and feed in another month, don't try to pull those by hand, you'll get too much new grass with them.

It looks great.

What he said.

You can throw "starter fertilizer" on the seeded areas and it won't burn the new grass. It's the hottest part of the season now so keep that in mind when your putting more seed out. You might wait to spread more seed until September when the temps come down. That way you can weed and feed to keep the weeds down.

 

[SAMI]

Need to get some work going over here in the near future. Haven't really got a better plan than throwing down some gravel and trying to keep the weeds out of there.

Find used billboard tarps. This is #1 thing that I wish I had done prior to laying all of the gravel in our backyard. It can be found for very cheap, and is thicker/stronger material than 'weed block' rolls that you'll find in stores.

*Edit... I bought a billboard tarp from this guy when I did my flagstone patio... I'd buy from him again. https://classifieds.ksl.com/listing/37128154

 

[mbryson]

Find used billboard tarps. This is #1 thing that I wish I had done prior to laying all of the gravel in our backyard. It can be found for very cheap, and is thicker/stronger material than 'weed block' rolls that you'll find in stores.

*Edit... I bought a billboard tarp from this guy when I did my flagstone patio... I'd buy from him again. https://classifieds.ksl.com/listing/37128154

I have some SUPER thick black plastic that my contractor left me. I was going to lay that down before the gravel. I'll check out the billboard thing though. That's likely thicker than what I have.

Funds are focused on a "driver" for the soon to be 16 year old though. I think we've found a Cherokee but I'm waiting to hear back on my offer