Ugh! I hate when someone brings you cr*ppy soil and does a stinky job. Always seems like you end up doing it yourself and get better results. Yours looks much, much better.

That stinks, I’m sorry you had to deal with him. Your work is looking great!

At first I thought you spelled out a message to him in that last photo. :D

@Jilly great idea!!!! 🤬

What was his excuse for the no show of grass?

Put the hoe up and get a Garden Claw. Mine is 15 years old and the one in the link is similar. For flowerbeds it takes just minutes. At my age it's so easy to use.

Claw, rake for rocks, smooth and plant. It's easier if you water the hard soil first.

Short video but he begins at minute 1:00.

So did i, like SOS. It looks a little like "710"

Bummer trail, but at least you know how to DIY!

@mtnrdredux_gw ha I watched a youtube video! maybe I need to send him the link 😂

@Oakley that is more than I need for this but will definitely look into it for other projects

My husband always does ours, although i think he does it when it cools down a bit. We do all our own yardwork, although we had an excavator guy come in an do some work Monday Monday. sorry your guy didnt work out. Thats always frustrating!! But you did a good job!

nicely done, but infuriating when you have to fix a job you paid someone else to do. I see you have those awful wild violets. I do too. I used to be totally overrun by them. I tried digging and digging but it was hopeless. I finally went the chemical route and sprayed them with Chickweed and Oxalis killer and that did the trick. Nasty stuff and I don’t think I would do it again.

@dedtired

he used oxalis killer plus the weed and feed we put on has really done away with almost all the violets… except where he put this awful filler☹️.

@Tina Marie DH helps with some things… he cuts grass and string trims. I am very picky… best I work alone😬

Is there a forum like Nextdoor where you can leave a detailed, accurate account (nothing ugly, just honext) of your experience? If this guy is reputable, people who got poor servcie like you need to share your feedback. Sorry this happened to you

How frustrating. I had some extensive landscaping done a few weeks ago, and I'm glad I was home to keep an eye out. They needed several reminders of what we had originally agreed to have done.

Nuts, in this day and age I'd be afraid to give a bad review because of possible ramifications. Maybe a few months from now. :)

C, the claw is for large and small, and it gets deeper in the soil with one twist so grass/plants will have good room to grow roots. With all those patches, you'd be finished so much faster than a hoe, plus you wouldn't be exhausted.

Claws are great for planting seeds, that's what I use for rows of flower seeds I plant.

Pretty much done . two more garbage cans of rocks and weed debris and rock hard dirt lumps. Smoothed and 10 more one cu ft bags of top soil. so 20 bags so far . need about two more then calling it good. used 5# of tall fescue mix that our local farmers coop mixes up.

Looks good. No straw on top to keep it from washing away w/ rain and help keep the birds form eating the seed? Maybe that's not needed in VA?

@straitlover its not a good idea see the link. I used good bagged top soil from Canada.

https://www.google.com/search?q=should+you+put+straw+over+grass+seed&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS676US676&oq=should+you+put+straw&aqs=chrome.1.0i512l2j69i57j0i512l3.8273j0j7&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

The problem with the weeds in the straw are they arent common to your yard so getting any herbicide to get rid of them could be very problematic. You definitely don’t want farm chemicals on your yard.