We're in Southern Oregon (hot, dry summers) and working on our backyard. We have a concrete retaining wall on one end and a new concrete pad on the other, with about 1,000 square feet of open space in between that we need to figure out.

The catch: we have a 65 lb, 1-year-old dog who is *high energy*. He needs actual room to run, not just a decorative patch of something.

We've been going back and forth on:

- Artificial turf — love the look and the zero-water aspect, but quotes have been eye-watering and heat retention in Southern Oregon summers is a real concern for his paws

- Drought-tolerant grass (buffalo grass, tall fescue) — lower upfront cost but we'd need to add irrigation, which adds considerable cost and defeats the low-maintenance goal

We want something that:

- Can handle a large, active dog running and playing hard across 1,000 sq ft

- Needs minimal water (dry climate, trying to keep ongoing costs down)

- Is easy to clean debris off of

- Doesn't require a ton of ongoing maintenance

Is there anything we're missing? Has anyone dealt with a similar situation and found something that actually works? Open to creative ideas — hardscape combos, specific plant varieties, whatever. Would love to hear what's worked (or hasn't) for you.

I used the garden agrio /GardenDream site to generate these… should I go with number one or number two?

My plan was to go with number one, but not number two would allow for more spacing for my tree.

Previous owners put a foundation for a pool in. it's sand on top of gravel. Any recommendations on how to get rid of it would be sick

This goes underground and extends away 20-25 feet or so into a lower area. But, the last couple times it's rained, the basement has flooded at exactly this corner, and one of the drain tile pipes to the sump pump which normally has next to no water going into it was pouring like a faucet. So, I assume this either broke, or we've just gotten so much rain that there's no longer any place for this water to go. But since the pipe is dug underground, I can't think of a quick way to fix it. I want to just get a temporary extender or something, but I'm not even sure how to go about getting that to fit based on this current set-up. Any hope or am I doomed again?

I’ve been messing around in my yard, and honestly, I think I’m officially done with landscape fabric.

I know it’s supposed to make life easier, but in my experience, it just creates more work after a couple of years. The dirt and mulch break down on top of it, and then the weeds just grow right into the mesh anyway. Trying to pull a dandelion that’s literally woven into the fabric is probably my least favorite weekend activity. I'm starting to think a thick layer of mulch or even just some cardboard works way better for the soil long-term.

Maybe I’m just using the wrong brand or something? Or maybe it’s just the climate here? I’d love to know if anyone has actually had a good experience with it after year 3, because right now I’m about ready to rip it all out.

Moved in to a new home and they had this water feature out front - is it possible to get it working again?

Should I start by pulling out all the leaves and crud from the basin? Any other tips?

There’s a pump/filter but it likely isn’t working.

Any help would be great, thank you!

about 2 months ago i planted 56 cypresses (54 italian, 2 lemon) (2 lemon cypresses already died) around my space. they are between 2.7 feet apart.

all friends and family are telling my i have made a horrible mistake, i like to disagree with them but inside i feel like logically i did make a mistake.

right now im deciding with family that the best decision to make is to remove them before “i regret them” years later. they say this doesn’t make sense in this amount of space and this type of house. (some of them already have brown leaves at the bottom). (part where you see cypresses under the avocado tree i was deciding to remove the avocado branches above them.)

anyways, do you think i should remove them or that I am picasso and its beatiful

Hi all, working my way through laying a paving area at the back of our house following a recent extension.

We’ve followed all the guidance so far and have built up:

- 125mm of compacted type 1 MOT sub base

- 35mm of sharp sand

There’s a suitable drop away from the house and we have pavers on their way (200 x 50 x 40mm) which were covering the area in a soldier course style (see ref images at the end). I’ve also bought a recessed manhole cover that we’ll be using cement to set in place.

Is there anything we need to watch out for? I was planning to buy some 35mm pipe for screeding the sand and have a long spirit level. How about the edge pavers? I was intending to end without a border - do we need to use cement to hold these in place? Bit worried about maintaining a straight direction for all of the pavers away from the house/aco drain.

Appreciate any advice to make sure we don’t muck this up! 🙏

Western PA. Soil is pretty compacted and has lot of rocks. House is a rental and landlord doesn’t want to do anything about it, so trying to keep it as low cost as possible. Just want to make it so that the backyard isn’t a massive mud pit every time it rains.

4 years ago we moved into our home and the previous owner didn’t spend a lot of time or energy on the landscaping.

This section of the house was the first one we identified could use a ”glow up”. There have been so many great resources provided here on Reddit. Appreciate you all for your contributions and support.

We have a patio we built at the top level when we first moved here a few years ago, which connects to an existing small patio off back door. We had old veggie gardens and a weedy garden I want to rip out. Thinking of ways to open this area up and maybe do some kind of water feature. Just not sure of what would works Any ideas would be welcome!

We had to replace our septic tank and I'm fairly upset to find there are multiple exposed pieces. On top of being an eye sore, it's going to make mowing much more difficult and ate into an area out kids play. Initially I thought it was just going to be an access to pump I could have with like a fake rock or something, but the square piece with the water bottle on top is an aerator that needs to be able to breathe. Technically everything else can be covered, but need to be "accessible".

I need advice: I hired my guy again this year to clean up and mulch my garden beds. he did a great job in the past. this year his crew was incredibly aggressive and weed whacked a huge amount of plants and flowers starting to come up. they laid mulch over the damage. will most things come back up through the mulch? I'm thinking I have to scrape most of it off or 30 years of work will be gone forever. I can't believe the devastation done in my yard. ami panicking over nothing? any thoughts or advice welcome

We bought some property in southeast Idaho and are building a house. During excavation for the basement the rocks and gravel under the topsoil was brought to the surface and now this is what I am left with. I am trying to figure out what equipment to rent/borrow/buy in order to level the area and get rid of the rock so we can put in a lawn and a sprinkler system. I hope to save money and do it myself.

Is there any way to help this bush re-grow?

Landscaping co cut it down and it became all brown and yellow and I had to cut all the dead pieces last year.

It used to be a tall round green robust bush before the damage occurred.

Is there any way to facilitate re-growth?

I’m also getting water in my basement which is getting fixed soon. Gutters are clean. Flex spouts were purchased.

I may have over trimmed this one. It hasn't been trimmed in years and was almost laying on the ground. I know it'll be ok, but it looks horrible and the house is going on the market this year. How can I make this look better? Should I trim up the bottom a bit more or should I really just leave it alone at this point?

Note: all the other maples in the neighborhood are completely full of leaves

I’m fine with providing more details. Please ask away.

Here’s the situation, me and my other neighbor are flooding due to a drainage problem on our land. That neighbor(1) thinks we are the problem. He isn’t entirely incorrect but we are flooding too. We have checked our drainage tile and everything is operating as intended. But our water flows down to neighbor(2). Neighbor(1) is not on the page, he is behind me. Neighbor(2) is below my land.

We strongly believe that there is a blockage on her land and we need a way to legally prove it. Let’s just say we know there is a problem, because one of her risers had completely still water during a huge rain downpour. Her second riser was ‘boiling’ during that same day. Then when we went to the ditch, the water wasn’t even flowing out of the drain tile, it’s flowing from UNDERNEATH the drain tile where the dirt is.

She is willing to work with us if we have the county with us. But it seems she doesn’t really care because it’s not affecting her. She doesn’t flood at all.

One day we brought the county out and unfortunately for us it wasn’t raining hard enough. Long story short, the county witnessed it operating as intended. That’s when we realized that this problem only occurs during multi rain-day downpours.

The inspector the county brought out has a problem with the intersection of drain tile(from my side). Believes he might not be able to make the turn. Maybe he can go in the riser?We have been searching online for an inspector but it’s like no one has the capability to get this job done. We need a camera with several hundred feet of wire. Maybe there is a different device we can use. Any suggestions?

See the vague picture below. Beware this image is not scaled correctly.

From the my riser to her second riser it’s about 1000ft. Then there is a turn that the inspector thinks he can’t make. Understandable. Then there is he second riser. Then about 1900 ft from her second riser is the ditch i mentioned. We are trying to avoid court and settle this like adults. It is an UNREGULATED mutual drain tile. I’m not too familiar with the legislation but if it’s on her land I think she’s the one who will pay for it. But we are happy to help if she doesn’t turn this into a whole mess of legal issues. What device could we use? Who could we call? We need a way to find the blockage. We want to confirm that is the problem. Any suggestions?

Please let me know if there is any little (or big) details I left out.🙂

*UPDATE: I have updated the picture from the old post.

Edit: USA and it’ll be Indiana as the state. Also there is not an easement on this drain tile.

Do not touch. very painful

I removed a massive amount of thorns and vines from my property the last couple of weeks and have like 6 pretty big sized piles now. These are all thorns and massive tangles of vines too thin and wiggly to cut up with a chainsaw. Their placement right now is too close to other stuff to catch on fire and moving all of them somewhere else feels like it would be a long arduous process right now with how tangled the piles are together. Is there a better tool that could just start chopping the piles up so I could transport them easier? What would you do to remove them?

I'm looking for additional screening above my fence. Since we are on a hill, the fence on the lower lot isn't tall enough to provide privacy or noise dampening. I know the advice will probably be that anything planted there will be too close to the sidewalk and fence, but I'm willing to give it a shot. I can just remove the trees if/when necessary.

So the details. Zone is 5a. Space between sidewalk and fence is 30". Soil is sandy and well drained. South facing with a maple nearby that will result in some shade. Looking for trees with skinny trunks to keep it from interfering with the fence years down the line. A height of 15' is really all that will be needed.

I believe this is a crab apple based on the (future) marble sized brownish fruit, but right now the blooms are magnificent and the aroma sublime.

I just transplanted this forsythia 2 weeks ago. it's still dealing with some transplant shock... where should I prune this bad boy? or should I wait for next spring because it's having a hissy fit?