And what did you have done? Grass? Plants? Retaining wall?
We really need to improve our yard! I don't want to spend more than $5k though since is a small yard.
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We built our own fence last year (neighbours each paid half for materials and we did ALL the labour - good deal for them) and this month we had loam delivered, levelled everything and got sod. For dirt and grass we spent less than $1000, but we did all the work ourselves. Our neighbours just got a quote for dirt and sod at $7000!!!
Good luck!
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@JennyD: $7000?!? Crazy!!!
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We just hire a crew to come out quarterly. We provide the materials and tools and they do all the work planting, weeding, raking leaves. It's $20/he per worker. We usually spend about $240 plus materials.
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We just got a quote for our backyard. (Currently it's a fully fenced pile of dirt and it's really depressing.) With grass, sprinklers, concrete curbing (DH wants this; I don't), landscaped beds, and a new layer of topsoil we were quoted $5,400.
When we redid our front landscaping at the old house it was about $1,200 to put in river rocks and do two very large beds with lots of trees and bushes.
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@coopsmama: oh! That's not too bad - how big is your backyard?
We got a quote for a sprinkler system last year and it was $5,000...so DH put one in by himself for $250!
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@HLK208: Our lot is just under a quarter acre -- but that includes the house obviously, so I'm really not too sure!
I wish DH had the time to work on the sprinkler system himself but basically he spends all his free time lately studying for a huge exam he has next month and after that it's going to be a little late in the year for grass unless we go with sod. I'm honestly just banking on the fact that we won't have grass in our backyard this year. I'm bummed about it but such is life. DH's truck broke down last month so 2k went to that then blinds for the entire house was 3-4k so money isn't growing on trees around here lately!
DH prefers having a huge buffer in savings so we're working on building that back up. I'm just glad there are a lot of good parks nearby so that it's easy to get the kids out! They'll also going to build a park two streets down from us next spring so I'm looking forward to that.
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@coopsmama: ah, okay, ours is about the same size!
Ack, blinds are so, so painful to pay for lol. Oh and from my experience, planting grass is the way to go rather than buying sod. Our sod died quickly (because the builder didn't put much $$ into landscaping so the soil is mostly sand) but the sod that was put down was from a sod farm and pretty much all diseased grass anyway! We have to replant all of the grass.
Our yard is landscaped, but it just doesn't look pretty and lush, like I want it to. I need something more to look at. Also, we have a hill behind our back fence and it's seriously over grown with weeds - our house looks like a foreclosure from the back. I can feel our neighbors judging us haha.
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I'm getting quotes for retaining walls, and they're anywhere from $6,000-$8,500
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We have been doing one project at a time. The biggest expense was having our trees trimmed. Most recently we paid someone to aerate the yard and get rid of moss/plant grass. We had some really muddy areas. We finally have grass and that will make such a difference when the dog & LO go out to play. So not a helpful answer to your question!
We have had to do these basic things before we can get to the more fun landscaping projects.
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Pure landscaping only, we do twice a year clean ups for about $400. This doesn't include planting, but if we needed to do it, it would run us about $400 for two hours of labor.
Masonry, on the other hand, is super expensive. We got a quote in the five figures for some work to our backyard.
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We got some dirt to try and level our front yard and sod laid, it was $4800. We are going to do some more work to the sides of the house this summer. Estimating the stone and new plants will be about $300.
The backyard needs 3 trees taken down so grass can grow, it gets like little to no sun. So it has patches of grass and weeds. It needs truck and trucks of dirt to level it. We got some quotes with what we want to do, retaining wall mostly, $20K plus $10K to get the trees down. So it isn't happening.
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We haven't had major stuff done. But we pay $40 a week to have lawn mowed. We had irrigation system put in for around $2k. We pay for seasonal plantings each season, which is about $200. Aeration is around $300. Expensive but DH doesn't have time to work on the yard.
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We have a large front yard, and smaller back yard and 2 good sized side yards, and we really only have spent money improving the front yard (since that’s the only visible part lol)
We’ve done minimal work to the front, and have hired everything out. Our costs have been/are:
$35/twice a month for mowing (or weekly, if needed)
$300 for 4 hydrangea plants (large)
$200 each spring to clean up the front flower beds, do some planting
$1500 for lawn “repair” (get weeds out of grass, give grass nutrient treatment to get it to come back to life, etc.)
We want to get a low stone retaining wall, which will be approx $5k-6k.
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@HLK208: do you have a picture? My husband is a former landscaper and has made our house look amazing without any help from outside sources. What are you looking to do? You live in the PNW, right? I would wait until after June to do any grass work since that's typically your "driest" month, right? I'm talking from the perspective of someone who lives in the southeast where we have heat for 5 months straight in the summer. We only do grass in the spring and fall.
We have done grass (from seed), bushes, trees, mulch, plants, ground cover, flowers and more.
The key to landscaping is patience. It takes 3 years for plants to really take off. Plant them small and in 3 years, you will notice some serious growth. Planting small means you spend less but you must be patient.
Nevermind the child in the photo and the dirt, we hadn't mulched yet - those bushes along the fence came in 10qt pots, I think. Now they are over 7' tall. The yellow ones are Ligustrum "swift creek", they are about 5 years old.
Mulch can be pricey but it is so worth it. You have to mulch every other year, give or take. The best way to get mulch is to get it in bulk.
In the 7 years we have lived in this house, no doubt we have spent more than $4k on our yard. But it was not all at once and it wasn't "just" for grass or irrigation (we don't have irrigation. You can do grass w/o sod. Our backyard used to be a dirt pit. We tilled it, put down compost and top soil, added seed, fertilized and then had hay covering it up so keep in moisture. Once we started getting grass, we just keep up a regular maintenance routine of seed and fertilizer. Also, mow on the highest level, tall grass helps make it thicker and thicker grass keeps out weeds.
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@Smurfette: $20k?!?
crazy!!We're getting a quote for a retaining wall this morning.
Here's the hill that's behind our fence. We don't look at it so it stinks that we have to pay $$ to make it look better but oh well. It looks bad right now. -
@yoursilverlining: ah okay, that gives me an idea - we want to put in a few trees and plants
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@HLK208: yeah we were shocked. Between the front and back yard we have over an acre. For living in the city that is a lot, but still! I can't imagine spending that much.
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@mediagirl: thanks for your helpful tips!! Love your yard!
So most of our yard is taken up by concrete, our side yard (grass) and our play set. That leaves this small area that I can see from my kitchen and I'd love to make it...pretty. Lots of plants. We have another side yard that's not level at all so it's not an area we can really use.
Here's a picture - excuse the half stained fence, we've been working on finishing it. Ugh and our yucky neighbors blue tarp on their garage roof
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@HLK208: how is your fence - is it in good shape? Could you put planters on it with flowers in them? I would mulch around the fence and put flowering bushes in that area. Then put in a couple of planters on stands so you have some height. Put plants that have crawling flowers so they will hang down in those pots. Maybe add a fairy garden for the kids??? http://www.plowhearth.com/miniature-fairy-garden-fairy-lane-set.htm
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@Smurfette: wow! That is a lot for a city. We can't find anything over a half acre in our city!
My parents put $25k into their backyard but that was mostly concrete work, a retaining wall and tons of plants. It took them years to finish it.
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@mediagirl: love that idea! I don't think I've seen planters on a fence before - our fence is 2 years old so it should be fine.
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@HLK208: something like this or this
And for landscaping, the third photo gives a good idea of how to start. Taller evergreens help offset the lower flowering bushes and the planters on the fence help tie it all together to make it pleasing to the eye.
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@mediagirl: I really like the bottom two photos! Thanks!!
DH prefers having a huge buffer in savings so we're working on building that back up. I'm just glad there are a lot of good parks nearby so that it's easy to get the kids out! They'll also going to build a park two streets down from us next spring so I'm looking forward to that.
We have had to do these basic things before we can get to the more fun landscaping projects.
crazy!!
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