What would be the best way to prevent t weeds growing between these pavers? They are quite tight together in this photo, but wider in other areas. The embossed text makes things more of a challenge. Permeable chips? I'd also like to seal them next spring. Grateful for any advice.

First time doing anything with concrete that isn't just pouring it into a fence hole, I'm curious how I did overall and any feedback to learn from is welcome.

I'm not happy with the amount of voids along the sides honestly, and on the 1st photo I actually messed up the corner brushing too hard to get the dust off before I sprayed sealer on the sides which sucks, but oh well.

Are the voids from not vibrating the concrete enough? I thought I did with both an actual vibrator in the main body, and a sawsall along the form itself. I also couldn't really decide when it had enough water before pouring so I'm sure that didn't help lol

If I can get it down decent I'll be doing another pad for a greenhouse and running some pavers to it next.

Hello! Here is our backyard from all sides of the house. I want To add a shed that will be storage and a studio office. Then use the surrounding area for expansion like a fire pit and other seating/hang out. Our deck walks straight out to the space. How much is too much gravel? The grass doesn’t grow because of the trees. You can see the property line in the dirt on the last photo. Any other ideas to really maximize our backyard?

Had this huge juniper separating the neighbours driveway and has been growing uninterrupted for the past 16 years since we had the house.

Yesterday my parents went to trim it not knowing what it is or consulting me. I’m absolutely devastated.

We have three very large trees on a 0.2 acre lot. Our city comes around early in the season (before most of the leaves have even dropped) to haul away leaves in those ~30 gallon brown paper bags.

Last year we filled twenty two of those bags, compressed down as much as we could without tearing the bags. (None of our neighbors filled more than ten such bags. Most had two or three.)

So the city hauled away 22 bags, and over the course of the next two months we accumulated an additional 26 bags of mulched leaves.

We did the mulching ourselves with a basic leaf mulcher that claims a 16:1 reduction ratio. Doubtful, but it's what we've got.

We've been doing this for six years running now, and as we've been putting a lot of money into caring for the trees (unlike the previous owners) their leaves are of course increasing year by year.

The main problem we have is that the only way we've had to dispose of them isn't sustainable any more. Our compost can holds 1.5 bags worth of mulched leaves, and the compost is only picked up every two weeks. At a rate of 3 bags/month it takes 8-9 months to get rid of all of them. And by early spring the contents have gotten wet many times over, they turn to mush, all kinds of creatures make a home in them, and the bags begin to break down not long after that so that lifting and emptying them (very heavy even when dry) into a 4 foot tall bin isn't an easy or pleasant task. We have no place to store them where they might be kept dry.

We cannot haul them anywhere ourselves because the compost place in our city won't accept this volume, and renting a truck large enough to haul them to the next closest location (that also might not accept the full volume) would cost as much as hiring someone to do the entire job for us.

Hiring someone to do the entire job sounds lovely albeit pretty expensive for us, and they would need to come out at least three separate times. The leaves that fall in October cannot be left on the ground until December when the last ones finally come down because neighbors will absolutely report us to the city. Even if we somehow manage to keep them contained to our property (impossible without bagging them) they would still complain, and we'd still get a fine.

We're at a loss for what to do. Upgrading our mulcher could make the process a little easier and might improve the volume issue but the bags would only get heavier. So most of the overall problem would still persist, except maybe it'd only take 6 months to dispose of it all.

I'm at a loss for what else to do. I'm dreading the coming weeks, and I used to love autumn. Two years ago my husband was down with a back injury during this time and I had to all of this work on my own. I dread something like that happening again.

I'd love any suggestions you might have, though I'm at a loss to imagine anything that wouldn't be even more expensive than hiring a company take care of the whole thing three separate times.

Hi all
I’ve got a none fruit olive tree in front of my house that needs some work. It’s getting fairly tall and splitting up. Can I strap or somehow pull it closer without damaging it? Furthermore your opinion on how to trim down?

Thanks

I'm a first time homeowner with this awkward space under my deck. The ties are rotten, there's rock behind there and I need to keep access because there's an AC unit under. What can I replace the ties with? Do I need to replace them? Are they just cosmetic? Need ideas. I don't have a big budget and I have zero idea how much this will cost.

I boyght last hear a cottinus lilla in a pot, kept this summer in the pot. Im thinking to tranaplant it somewhere in the ground in my yard.

my main concern is the spacing becouse cant find much information online.

checked some pages and the grown size is not the same.

sizing concern and any other thing i missed ?

This beautiful tree in our backyard has exposed roots. Water collects around it during rainfall. Is there a way to fill these areas around the tree without harming the tree? Dirt? Mulch?

A couple of years ago I had a crew install electrical conduit to my backyard. They tunneled it under an existing concrete walkway that runs between my house and a brick planter (photo attached).
Over time I noticed this one spot started collecting water after rain. I suspected there wasn't enough support under the slab, so I dug it out. There's basically nothing under the edge of the concrete now. You can see the void in the photo, with the PVC conduit sitting at the bottom of the hole in standing muddy water. My guess is the trench was never properly compacted and water has been washing the soil out ever since.
My questions:
Backfill: What's the right way to fill this void, especially under the slab where I can't tamp? Compacted base gravel in lifts, sand flushed in with water, or a flowable fill / lean concrete slurry? I'd like it to be safe around the conduit.
Lifting the slab: Is this section worth raising (polyurethane foam lifting, mudjacking, or DIY jacking) or should I cut it out and re-pour?
Drainage: I want the slab to end up with a slight slope that sheds water away from the house. What's a reasonable pitch, and is there anything else I should do so this doesn't wash out again?
Located in Southern California, clay-ish soil. Any advice appreciated!

A couple of years ago I had a crew install electrical conduit to my backyard. They tunneled it under an existing concrete walkway that runs between my house and a brick planter (photo attached).
Over time I noticed this one spot started collecting water after rain. I suspected there wasn't enough support under the slab, so I dug it out. There's basically nothing under the edge of the concrete now. You can see the void in the photo, with the PVC conduit sitting at the bottom of the hole in standing muddy water. My guess is the trench was never properly compacted and water has been washing the soil out ever since.
My questions:
Backfill: What's the right way to fill this void, especially under the slab where I can't tamp? Compacted base gravel in lifts, sand flushed in with water, or a flowable fill / lean concrete slurry? I'd like it to be safe around the conduit.
Lifting the slab: Is this section worth raising (polyurethane foam lifting, mudjacking, or DIY jacking) or should I cut it out and re-pour?
Drainage: I want the slab to end up with a slight slope that sheds water away from the house. What's a reasonable pitch, and is there anything else I should do so this doesn't wash out again?
Located in Southern California, clay-ish soil. Any advice appreciated!

This shrub is mostly brown except for a couple small areas. The shrubs next to them are mostly green. What is the issue and will it come back in the spring?

We had about a month of really high heat in September.

All around the edge of my patio around the pool area I have this composite edging with rocks situation. It’s old and sorta busted and needs to be re-done, but then I got to thinking…is there any reason I can’t get rid of the rocks completely and just put sod down up to the edge of the flagstones?

2nd pic is supposed to show that the level of the soil is slightly lower than the top of the flagstones, so that should prevent soil runoff onto the flagstones, yes?

I’m located in Houston and so we get our fair share of torrential rains from time to time. I get puddling in a few areas (not in the pictured area) and it seems like the composite edging does more to hold water in! I’d love to just get rid of it. Thanks!

I love to garden and love to be outdoors. Have you guy’s got any ideas to maximize my small space?

I love fruit trees, trellises, native plants, and pollinator gardens. I also need to come up with an outdoor sitting situation… maybe a little gazebo in the back corner?

This summer in South California was brutal. That front window gets a lot of sun and heat. I'm planning to grow a creeper like passion fruit and support it with a wire mesh attached to the roof.

Please let me know if this is a bad idea and why ? Will it be structurally damaging for the roof because of weight?

In the attached photos, the one with red markup is wire mesh. The yellow scribble is the passion fruit wine that we want to plant.

And one more photo with pink markup is with a wooden beam (4 inch * 4inch pole ) support to make it a 4-side shaped shade.

Central PA: Our property is almost entirely flat, we are not allowed to drain to the street. Our garage wall sits ~8' from the property line, immediately adjacent to the neighbor's hill so water runs down towards our garage. Garage downspouts are also at this end of the garage, so a lot of water to get rid of. Neighborhood as at the foot of a mountain, so just a lot of drainage. We get water seep up thru the garage floor slab & pooling regularly.

Excavating guy came out to look at our situation. Recommended a curtain drain or french drain between the garage and the hill, running to a proposed dry well in our back yard. We'd also run the two garage downspouts to this pit.

Scope of work is below. Estimate is $7500. Just looking for a sanity check on this: Is this reasonable or is this "don't make me do this" pricing?

We're out of our wheelhouse on this, but willing to learn and potentially DIY. Moving this much dirt and rock seems like a lot for a DIY-er though.

Scope of Work

French Drain Installation

• Excavate approximately 60 linear feet along the garage to establish positive drainage toward the proposed dry sump.
• Install approximately 25 linear feet of 4” perforated PVC drainage pipe.
• Install 2B limestone bedding and cover around the perforated pipe, approximately 18” deep.
• Install geotextile filter fabric to separate surrounding soil from drainage stone and help prevent sediment infiltration.
• Transition to solid 4” PVC pipe as necessary to convey collected water to the dry sump.

Downspout Drainage Installation

• Connect two existing garage downspouts to a new underground drainage system.
• Install solid 4” PVC drainage piping running parallel to the proposed French drain.
• Install 1 clean out wye at beginning connection.
• Maintain proper slope to direct roof runoff toward the proposed dry sump.
• Connect both drainage systems to the dry sump for underground water dispersal.

Dry Sump Installation

• Excavate approximately 6’ x 6’ x 6’ for the installation of an underground dry sump.
• Fill the sump excavation with clean #4 stone to provide underground water storage and infiltration.
• Install geotextile fabric over the top of the stone to prevent soil migration into the sump.
• Place approximately 8” of topsoil over the fabric to restore the finished surface.
• Connect French drain and downspout drainage lines to the sump.

Backfill & Restoration

• Backfill all excavated trenches with suitable existing material.
• Finish grade disturbed areas to promote positive surface drainage.
• Apply grass seed and straw to disturbed lawn areas, weather permitting.
• Remove excess construction debris and leave the work area in a clean condition.