Thank you for ur answers. Back filling I will research just thought cosmetically I can pour cement down to cover ugly parts of the yard where weeds grow and also slant it aways from the foundation. I can leave the dirt and add sod toake it nice. I just want to finish bsmt and not worry if there is a real serious problem with water. I have been in the home for a year now and had been through some real rain showers no leaks have came into the bsmt so am I worry to much about this problem an the efflorencce could have been on the walls for some time it was a short sale so it wasn't taken cared of for about two years bfore I moved in. Should I get a bsmt waterproofer to come in and see if it's gonna be a problem?

Hi Beth, I'm getting ready (trying to!) to leave on a trip pretty soon, and also getting ready for the spring swap right now, so I don't have much time to post, but this real quick! When I moved into this house everything that wasn't "grass" was covered with landscape fabric and a "decorative" rock called butter rock! I don't think it had been in for more than a couple years, possibly three, but I'm sure no more than that. In the back yard--where I do 99% of my gardening, there were 3 or 4 struggling perennials in the mass of rock. I've gardened for about 70 years as of right now--gardened "for real" for about 65!--so before I even signed the contract to buy the place I knew the ROCK had to go! And I didn't know the half of it till I started to take it all out. Rock is obviously incredibly heavy--and absolutely impossible to "shovel" once it "settled in." (River rock might be slightly easier, being "rounded.") I dug it out little by little with a hand trowel, putting it in larger black pots, and then putting it, little by little each week, in the dumpster--to keep it from getting too heavy! And I started "piling it up" on one end of the bed 'cause "disposing of it" was taking WAY too long since I wanted to start planting things. But the REAL problem started when I got down to the landscape fabric! As I started to pull the stuff out--a FAR more difficult job than I expected it to be!--I found some of the worst horribly compacted and DEAD soil I have ever seen! Parts of it were badly "discolored" with what I assume was some sort of a fungus/mold, and there were NO earthworms in it--at all! Worms are a sign of healthy soil! The "soil" was mostly heavy clay and that didn't surprise me because they clearly had filled in the area with "whatever was available" when they put it in! And in addition to all of that--I DID find "life" under the stuff! There were HUGE cities of ants that had set up housekeeping under the landscape fabric! Over the last 10 years I've gotten rid of most of them, but there are still a few places where I fight with them every year. By now you can really tell how much I love landscape fabric and ROCK! Eventually I posted FREE rock on FreeCycle and got somebody to come and take the (large!) "pile" I wound up with in the one corner. It was about four years before I finally got the entire bed across the back of my lot free of rock and fabric! As I cleared it out I started planting the cleared areas, so I didn't wait that long to "have a garden!" No way I could afford to "replace" the soil so I started out using cheap bagged "compost." It didn't do much, but maybe helped a little bit. I was surprised to find that some of the perennials did better in the clay than I ever thought they could--but I still don't recommend planting in heavy clay--if you have a choice! The very first year I started a compost pile and now have really Good Stuff to mix in as I'm planting and replanting--and over the years the soil is finally starting to improve enough to be "usable"--and with the introduction of homemade compost the worms are moving back in and increase every year. Another problem with having all the rocks in there is that they eventually get mixed into the soil––even where there's landscape fabric, and it's extremely difficult to "dig" in soil that has rocks in it. Every time you "hit" a rock you have to "move the shovel around" to get "past" it before you can dig in any deeper--so rocks seem to cause all kinds of "problems!" So! If you decide to keep the rock, I guess my best recommendation would be to clear out--as in, remove the rock and fabric--a "fairly large" area in a few places where you want to put perennials or bushes and just plan to not have a "wall to wall" flower bed. For the sunny areas you could put some pretty basic perennials in like Shasta daisies, Black-eyed-Susans, German Iris, Daylilies, or a few other "easy to grow" things. After a few years they'd spread to fill in the entire area where you removed the rock/fabric, so you'd have "color" out there and it wouldn't all just look like "rock!" Think about what you want to do! You have plenty of time to plan it and work on it! You might want to try clearing out one fairly large spot somewhere and plant a few things to "see how it goes" with the dog. Possibly, depending on the dog, you could use some of the "short" garden edging type fence to keep her/him out. Just consider the different possibilities. I use "small bark mulch" but there's also a kind of "shredded" wood mulch you can buy, and I kind of doubt that a dog would want to chew on that stuff too much, so you might try different kinds of things to see if you can find something that works better than rock for you. [But! In the last several years "somebody" has decided that cubing up old tires and calling it MULCH is a good idea! Please, please-please-please don't put any "old tire mulch" in your yard! Decaying/deteriorating rubber would be an even worse thing to have in your soil than rocks--or you could just name your garden the Decaying Petroleum Garden! Ahh! What a fine scent! ;-D] Think about it and take your time in planning and maybe trying some different ideas in some areas. You'll eventually get to what you really want and like! I probably won't be back for a while with any "long" answers--just not gonna have enough time for the next month or so, but there are lots of other folks around here to give you ideas! Skybird EDITED TO ADD: When you start a thread I don't believe you can edit the "topic" at all once it's posted, and I'm pretty sure you can only edit the text of the first post for something like an hour and after that it's "set in stone"--so to speak!!! Replies to the original post can be edited for a month or something like that!

1) I don't understand why ARG did not provide you with the site plan. I gave him the best information I had at the time. We thought the drop was 9-10 feet which is much more workable than what it turned out to be. 2) What is the footer depth @ the address you are building? 46" 3) Yes, and for this structural wall to be 13' + <"frost depth"> it is possible that the wall have to be thickend, pray at the frost depth that you will get a good clay and not a topsoil It only needs to be 13' to get to grade since that portion of the wall will be 11 or more feet underground after fill. I'll step the footings down to match the grade. 4) Ok, I hope You are not planning to grade the road toward your house.. or you house sit in the fishbowl. The road is concrete. Just thought of grading the lot down to the house then up again. Like Save

If we all liked the same things, it would be a truly boring world. Do you mean you like the small smooth pebbles (rather than larger rocks or stones) -- because if so, you can use that look ... but perhaps not as a construction material. If you truly like the "river rock" or any other non-conventional look, then consider using that look to to decorate rather than to build. If you could find a decorative bowl you truly like, you could fill it with pebbles/rocks and place them in any room in your house -- even more than one room. Does your bath get sunlight? Does your yard get sunlight outside the bath window or elsewhere? The reason I ask about sunlight is that there is now a solar powered water pump that could be put in a bowl or birdbath in the yard ... with small smooth creek/river pebbles below and around it to help hold the solar water pump in place for a water feature for your sunlight room or patio or yard. Sometimes stores -- sometimes even the Dollar Tree-- will sell smooth pebbles for planters/pots and you may find some you like well enough to use for decorative purposes. https://www.google.com/search?q=Solar+water+pump+feature+for+fountain+bird+bath&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj4xtjBtqjqAhUej3IEHdRSChEQ_AUoAnoECA8QBA&biw=1366&bih=654 https://www.google.com/search?q=smooth+pebbles+for+planters+or+water+features&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjF17Xzt6jqAhXlhHIEHa03A0kQ_AUoAnoECAsQBA&biw=1366&bih=654 Let us know what you decide -- do post after pics.