Joe

Just wanted to say that it actually doesn't need to be real retaining wall, just the line of rocks. I would even use real rocks, not really the same blocks the wall is built of. They don't need to be really deep into the soil, just enough to anchor them. (I like more eclectic look...). But as I said, you need to make it to keep everyone happy.]

Looks like you live in very nice area, all the homes are large and I am sure you are being watched :) Good luck, I am sure it will look great and you'll be happy with all the work you did.

(Sorry, can't help with plants suggestions).

Rina

Well, so the wife begged me to start digging since I was going back and forth on how we should arrange the plants. Haven't had time to work on the retaining wall. Anyway, here is the product as of Thanksgiving weekend 2015. More things will be added over the next few weeks.

Pleased to report that no grass or weed has come out for the past 2-3 weeks. Very little individual grass bits came out here and there. And whenever that happened I got my shovel and dug under the area only to find a few inches long grass root that I either missed or was underneath the layer of grass/roots/dirt that I removed. Muy feliz :D

This looks amazing. Makes me wish I lived somewhere warm.

Not to worry, Kiki, I can't do that to my front lawn either.

So I do this instead...

There is something nice to take over one's landscape no matter where one lives.

tj

That's beautiful too!! I've always loved creeping plants on the side of buildings.

Sorry for not posting an update in a while but since Crenda asked for an update... I could not resist. So this is where things stand. Maybe this weekend I'll finally get to fix the secondary retaining wall. It's been a fun project. Cheers.

Lookin' good, Joe! Beautiful Aeoniums! And those Senecio 'chalk sticks' will fill in nicely, too. I admire your patience in planting. Although I do like to take my time, I am always tempted to plant too many specimens without leaving room for growth.

Joe

Very nice, looking like a garden already! Your plants look very healthy and they are so huge.

I bet your neighbours like it too...

Thank you ladies. It is getting warm out here quickly so I hope the blue chalk sticks survive. I think the blue and brown will look good together.

The main area looks empty because most plants are small but I still have ways to go. Here are pictures of the front, middle island, and other side of the house.

What a big job! But it's looking good and as always with gardening, it's never done! LOL

About to undertake a similar transformation. Will start a new thread once we begin...

Awesome. Looking forward to see what you can do. Good luck.

What a lovely project and beautiful choice of plants. :)

Palmbob - are you still around? I was lurking through this old thread and I live right near the house you posted! It was so weird seeing my neighborhood on the internet! The yard looks totally different now, maybe when it's light out I'll try and get a picture

Anyway we're going to go drought tolerant for our yard someday so I'll read through the rest of the thread now :)

still here... welcome to my old neighborhood... the place looks different mostly since I gave away most of the plants... and the current residents don't lift a finger to take care of what's left behind... despite that, some things have done pretty well, and this winter's rain is going to keep them going at least another year.

I walk by it all the time and honestly it looks like nobody lives there at all! We moved in a couple years ago and I always wondered what the deal is with the "scary" house on the corner with all the cacti. And now I know! I love the internet!

I'm glad to hear you gave most of the plants to new homes because the remaining ones are very neglected :/ I've even thought about rescuing some myself but I don't want to be caught messing with someone's yard haha.

Looks like there's still a happy euphorbia and an agave with babies :)

How very sad to see what has become of a man's wonderful plant work. It used to look great and I enjoyed reading this whole thread. Joe, do you have a new succulent yard somewhere??

FINALLY! Here it is folks. 22 months later. After many many back and forths. All done by yours truly :)

Wife and I love the final product. And the front side (first picture) should look even better when the surrounding senecio starts growing. Thanks to all those who helped with information and ideas. Greatly appreciated!

I was just thinking of you! I noticed that I have a bumper crop of A. lopantha quadricolor sprouting this year, and of course I thought of you. LOL

Things look great! You've done a terrific job.

Thank you for the update. It looks nice and must be wonderful not to have a lawn to maintain. And thank you from another Californian for helping conserve water.

I love the lava rock you used. Did you mix the red lava rocks with the black ones? Or is that how the red lava rocks look once spread?

I only bought the burgundy type because they go very well with the house color. I have a neighbor that got only black lava rocks. So ugly and Halloween-ish.

My biggest advice to anyone who will take on such a project is to use the best weed barrier possible. There are so many kinds out there being sold at Costco, Sams Club, HD, Lowe's, and even your local landscaping companies. My rule of thumb that if you can tear it with your fingers then it's a piece of garbage that won't last 3 months let alone 20 years.

After extensive research I found out that the best weed barrier out there is the Dewitt Pro 5. No one even comes close. It is available on amazon but I found it cheaper on jet.com. Extra discounts if buy multiple rolls or pay with debit card.

It comes in different widths. So measure twice and cut once!

This video shows you how to put down the weed barrier. It's the best one out there IMO. Enjoy.

Thanks for the advice. If I ever do a front yard landscape I'll remember that about the weed barrier. I stopped using weed barrier awhile ago in my gardens. The weed roots tend to make a home in the weed barrier where I am ( we have lots of invasive nasty stuff) and I don't use rocks,I use mulch, so I'm sure the rocks help make a difference. When you pull up roots that have established their roots in the weed barrier you end up pulling up the barrier too. I use a "sheet mulch" method where I lay overlapping cardboard down with a 6" barrier of mulch that gets replenished once or twice a year. The layer of cardboard eventually degrades. Any weed that pops up is easily pulled out of the layer of mulch. It works really well for veggie garden areas. I know a lot of community gardens that do it too. With all the mulch you have to use it doesn't leave the cleanest look, so I probably wouldn't use it in a front yard. I have daveys trees unload piles of mulch when they are doing tree work in the area. I have a couple companies call me to unload when they are in the area too.

the burgundy lava rock is really nice I can see how the black can be too much. I think the red gets pretty crazy too. That's why I asked if you mixed yours. I don't typically favor lava rock, but your color choice turned out really good. Kudos

Wow Joe great job! I'm in Oceanside/SD too, and we also removed similar looking old lawn with shovel like you did (after turning off the sprinklers for a year). Your posts give me hope! We planted some Dymondia plugs after we dug out the old lawn. And weeds have been sprouting (clover). Removing superficial weeds is time involved but fairly easy as they pull out very easily. BUT now grass is growing back. :( Some of it looks just like the one you were trying to identify. Did you lay something under the area you cleared (red arrow) ? Or did grass ever try to come back and how did you get rid of it? The weeds are controllable but this grass is sprouting so much.

Ryan - I agree with you 100%.

Sandra Le - Thank you! When I started removing the pseudo dead grass, I removed about 4 inches from the top. I guess the reason grass never really came back because I removed the grass/roots/seeds all together. A flat sharp shovel is all you need. Some very little grass came up a week later or so but when I dug in there I saw that I missed a little root here and there, so I just pulled those out and since then I've been problem free. I don't know if it's luck or skill ;) It was hard work, not back breaking though because I was only able to throw away so much a week due to its heavy weight, but I so enjoyed doing it.

I was in Oceanside two weekends ago to buy some agave plants. Even though you guys are in a coastal area, the number of homes that had drought friendly yards was astonishing!

Thank you for the info! Gee, wondering if we should start all over again and remove a couple of inches. Yes, many of my neighbors and homes around here are going drought friendly. The look has grown on me. I'm in love with Dymondia and Agaves. I have an older neighbor who's front lawn is just Dymondia. I asked him how he did it. He just said he took a handfull of Dymondia from his friend, planted it and four years later his entire front is covered in it (he routinely takes a piece where it has grown thick and plug it in the left bare spots to go). He only goes out once a week with his water hose to water (has sprinkles but doesn't use them). This man literally put little work into it. I was hoping to have his luck but...not sure I will. :)

Oh so one more question, if you removed about 4"...that top soil I'm pointing at with red arrow...was that new soil? It seems flush to the old grass you still hadn't removed at that point.

No. The top of the red line is where the top 4 inches were removed. The bottom of the red line is the part which still needed to get done.

I started in the corner where the green arrow is and worked my way all the way down.

I did not replace any soil because I needed that depth to place weed barrier and rocks. You would want your concrete to be flush with your rocks. Does that make sense?

If you are going to pour in rocks, you want a depth of about 2 to 4 inches. The weed barrier manufacturer wants the weed barrier to be buried under 4 inches of rocks so UV light doesn't reduce the life span of the weed barrier. Rock suppliers want you to use about 2 inches of rocks because rocks are so expensive.

I should mention however that wherever I planted plants, I dug a whole and mixed/replaced the dirt there with some top soil.

My total for 10 cubic yards of rocks was $1000.

Everything else was another $1000 dollars (plants, wheelbarrow, shovels, rake, weed barrier, etc)

My brother in law now wants to do the same thing for his home. So he got a quote from one of those junk removers to remove 4 inches of dirt all around his 1700 sq ft home for $4k LOL

I really like the Nov.16/15 yard. The Synadenium rubra to the right is in perfect condition. Anybody know what they gray leafed weepy tree's might be behind the stucco wall?

4K! Ack okay, good to know the rate. I see, but you did put a weed barrier (and rocks). That might be my issue then. I did not put a weed barrier because we want the Dymondia to spread across the entire surface. Hmm. Back to the drawing board. Thanks Joe for all your tips!

That was one crazy rate. This was some fool who wanted to bring in a bobcat to remove a few inches of dirt and dead grass. It should be a lot cheaper though. It's probably cheapest if you order one of those dumpsters from your local trash. You'll save yourself so much money.

Whatever shovels you'll buy, they won't be sharp, so you'll have to sharpen them yourself. Sharp shovels will make the job so so so much easier.

Hi there, I just found this discussion because I am trying to remove grass in a very small area of my backyard and create a succulent garden. I am curious if you completed your project and if you have any tips on removing the grass?

P.S. I had my front yard done for $7000 last year, and then a $2000 rebate from the Water District. I am doing this small area in back on my own and saving the money!!!

Any intput would be helpful and appreciated.

We did it 2 maybe 3 years ago.The drought here in s.cali drove us to it.We hired the gs of our next door neighbor to help us with it.He and dh dug out all the sod,once they got it out,they sprayed the soil a couple of times,and waited several days inbetween.Once they thought everything was dead they laid down that black plastic stuff,a couple layers of it.

Then our ds got us a dump truck load of rock that i went and picked out,and the kid put it all down for us,i then with the help of dh,placed the plants all around.Of course it's a continuing work in process as i keep moving things around.

We're totally happy with it,it sure beats dead grass!!

Enjoy the view.

Enjoy the view.

Sorry for the double post of the last bunch,my puter said it didn't post and to try again,so i did.LOL

This is how my front yard looks like at the moment....So glad I got rid of the grass :)

Looks fabulous. I had my front lawn done a year ago and am really happy too. Now I am trying to do very, very small patch in backyard on my own.

So jealous of you rich Americans with your acres of land !!!!!

My cactus garden met with death by 2 years of floods , fire ants and Bluebonnets while I was on a vacation and it has now become a natives and cactus garden. I have been a bad mom. I am now getting a hang of how to make the children behave. It has become more of a combined garden. Here is Spring 2016

I have been encouraging grasses and going more towards opuntias that are cold hardy and water tolerant.

This spring, I keep the blue bonnets contained away from cactus... I have learned my lesson. The bluebonnets love that decomposed granite. I have had to start over on some of my cactus because of rot and some other mysterious condition of the pads withering after growing.

More because I am not good at reductive choosing.

3" hail damaged agave.

Wantonamara, absolutely beautiful!! What I would do to take a stroll in your area. Great work!

Spanishfly can add me to the list of jealous people that don' have lots of land((

Thank you. I have been shy posting here because I kill more than I buy these days. Bad winter , bad wet years. I guess I might have posted in the wrong thread since I did not get rid of a lawn, but started out with raw hill country marl. I guess I was supposed to put a lawn in but I never got the memo. I wondered why I was supposed to make my beautiful hill country look like some place in North Carolina or Pennsylvania when I moved out here, because I thought it was beautiful the way it was. Things have to live in my conditions.. I had no choice with the water use and me living on Rainwater. Texas is a hard place to garden . It is either TOO hot TOO cold, TOO dry, TOO wet and it can go from too dry (right now my cistern is 1/4 full) to TOO wet (please I need the water ). Don't get me started on the soil.

I have no soil so I have been bringing yards of Decomposed granite sand , gravel and compost in . The limey marl is about 1" under the soil in the area of this garden. Nothing really grew here very tall. It is ongoing. We are too hot for northern opuntias , too cold for southern cactus. I have learned to collect from southern New mexico and the northern Big bend area. I like their Eastern grasslands over the dryer points to the west, but mountainous Arizona has plants I can use. I also look for limestone soiled lands and not sandstone based lands. It isn't totally hill country. I guess I am not a purist about anything.

You know I once tried to dig a hole out where you are and boy did I appreciate my home soil after that! I could hardly stick a shovel in it if at all. Then you are right, the temps can be to hot or cold for just about most plants. So my hats off to you for making good use of your area and being so creative, figuring out what you have to do to make the best of what you have. People like me you I admire..

Mike

Shovels! What are they. I never use them . It all about the pick axe. The heavier, the better. I would really like to acquire a jack hammer, a lady like jack hammer For planting some things.. .I have 14 agave striatas to plant this year. I need to hook up the trailer to bring in a couple of yards. they do well outdoors here. I always thought lawns overrated and hated mowing. So Have kept my native grassland I do not improve the soil where they are to keep them kind of short.