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stephanie_pichner

Big yard with lots of issues

8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago

We moved into this house a couple of years ago and are just now getting around to tackling the yard. The home was built in 1966 and the original owners didn't do anything to care for the yard. It is a mess! I have a Landscape Designer friend with lots of great ideas, but after spending a ton of money fixing up the inside of the house, we just can't afford to hire anyone for the yard. So it is DIY for a few years. I took a panoramic photo of the backyard.

Right now our city has a watering ban, so I can't do much that would require water usage. One area of the back yard is very hard, gets full hot sun all day long and the only thing surviving is the weeds. But there is also a huge section that never seems to dry out and is spongy, mossy and sometimes almost like a bog. People that have lived here since the homes were built believe that there is a natural spring running through that area, but we won't know unless we have professionals dig and find out. All four houses that butt up against our yard had swimming pools. Three have been removed, but all of the yards now slant down to our yard, so all the rain and sump pumped water flows down to us. That also happens to be the area that I think is best suited for a garden.

The front yard is shorter and narrower - we live on a culdesac, so the yard is probably 200 ft wide at the back and 50 ft at the front - lumpy, bumpy and more shaded but a big tree. There are a few hostas and "old lady" type shrubs around the house, but the only thing they did for landscaping was to have truck loads of rock dumped around the house. We have tried digging it out but it is so deep that we haven't struck dirt. We are going to arrange for a dumpster and borrowing a Bobcat so we can try to remove all of the rock. Beyond that, I have no idea how to fix this yard. We would like to have less lawn to mow, I would like to one day have lots of gardens, a big shed and maybe even a small coop for a few chickens. But I have no idea how to fix the drainage issue that runs along the back or what to do with the scorched weedy area that I can't water and tends to just turn to dandelions and dust. I am hand pulling as many weeds as I can because I don't want to use chemicals. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

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