A while ago I shared a photo of the garden sculpture my mother created in her backyard, using living cypress foliage as natural hair.

We recently dug up the original concept sketches and dimension studies from when the idea first took shape, so I wanted to share the process.

The core intent was to move beyond traditional topiary and physically integrate figurative sculpture directly into the root and crown volume of the bush. It started as a quick pen sequence exploring the morphological transition (from hedge → void → sculpted profile), followed by strict dimension sheets (roughly 1.8m total height with foliage canopy).

The face was hand-sculpted on-site using reinforced cement mortar directly aligned with the growth axes of the shrub, then finished in pure white to contrast against the deep green texture.

Always fascinated by how living architecture and landscape art evolve over seasons as the branches reclaim the silhouette. Happy to answer any questions about the structural armature or pruning process!

I rented an excavator to help clear out the back of my property so I could remove and replace a failing fence. Property is heavily sloped in the back and while digging I hit a concrete block. I knew it was there, but assumed the prior home owner just dumped extra concrete there but I didn’t realize how massive it was.

Block is roughly 6’ long x 4’ wide and at least 12” deep at its thickest point. Flat on one side and rough around the rest of the edges.

I have no clue why it’s there. My house is 20 years old, so no septic. No house prior to mine. Property backs up to train tracks in the back, so no neighboring properties behind mine. The left side is a junk yard. Well a tow yard, that just houses a bunch of junk. Right side is a house built in 2018, again no house on the property beforehand.

I plan to build a retaining wall to elevate the fence in the rear and to help reduce the slope in the back and this block is dead center of my project. I need to figure out how to get rid of it. Looking for best options and of course any ideas as to what it is.

TIA

A strimmer or a weed eater. Personally I won’t call it a whacker unless I’m using it at home.

I know it is hard to tell in pictures, but the retaining wall looks wavy, as in some blocks are slightly out more than others, and it is slightly higher in some spots. Just had this wall done.

Obviously wanted some opinions. But more concerned about functionality. You see Geogrid sticking out, has to be cut.

Early appologies for what seems to be a recurring post on this subreddit, but my fiance and I can't come to an agreement. She wants to leave some sort of natural feature here, I want to just lay down some concrete and call it a day.

We agree that it's sort of wasted space and it's a pain to mow. We also don't want to mess up the drainage away from the house. We live on a hill and the space is about 36 ft by 8 ft.

We have 2 dogs and no kids, but sometimes the neighbors come over and bring their children ages 8-14.

Getting some utility from the area would be nice, and we have disposable income to make it look nice.

Final appologies if this violates the last rule of the sub.

Update: I will post a before and after once we do the thing. I love all of the suggestions so far. The funnier the better! But, also thank you for all of the serious suggestions. We already have raised garden beds on the far side of the yard. We get about 45 in of rain here per year, most of it is in July-August.

Update: This is on the north side of the house, so it gets the least amount of sun throughout the day and year. This is also the downhill side of the property.

I'm a landscaper in my early 20s, and I've found that a lot of the people I work for are elderly and have very inflexible ideas on how to manage their gardens. A few of them demand I prune stuff improperly or at the wrong time of year, generally they see any kind of new growth as something that needs to be sheared off right away, even if the plant is about to flower. I figure my age is a big factor here, some of these people have been gardening for more than 50 years so they naturally think they know more than me. We bill at $70/hr but it's almost like they don't even expect any amount of expertise for that price. They would honestly be better off hiring someone from Facebook for $25/hr if they want to manage everything themselves.

I don't really mind the condescension but moreso how inefficient I'm forced to be. A lot of these people pay more for gardening than I did for rent last year, yet their gardens look shockingly basic, dead plants never get replaced because of budget, and some areas left in disrepair because they'd rather have me trim their cotoneasters 15 times over the summer than do something to actually make their garden look awesome. Every day I worry that they're going to notice how mid their gardens are and decide to cancel their service. They will visit a nature reserve and comment on how beautiful the meadows are but they insist on dedicating half of their property to a mowed lawn they're too decrepit to use. I feel most of them just want to dominate nature as much as possible and don't really care about beauty, only cleanliness, like the stereotypical single man's house with nothing but a mattress, recliner, and TV on the floor.

I find it hilarious that the same people who tell me how beautiful a scraggly, naturally shaped oak is can simultaneously not comprehend why letting a mugo pine or pieris japonica grow naturally instead of shearing them every week could look good. The basis for their thought process usually only goes as deep as "this is how it's done", because their parents said so or they read it in a book 70 years ago, meanwhile they could just listen to the guy who has actually studied landscape design and whose entire working life revolves around plants.

A few days before this we graded this client’s yard, put down grass seed, planted 5 arbs & q couple bb trees. Then the storm came & we had a tornado warning. It took the fire department two hours to put it out!

I recently had some plumbing work done that involved excavating my back yard. New plumbing is great but this is what I was left with. As a first time home owner and someone with little landscaping experience what is the best way to tackle this?

I’m in central Florida. I have about 10 lawns I cut with a push mower. I got a call from a guy wanting a landscape job and this place is an actual mansion. Huge property. He wants these dead royal palms removed and replaced, rock in some spots, pine bark in other spots, giant planters to be cleaned out and add different plants. Weeds pulled out of a cluster of birds of paradise, lots of new plants added. Quarterly maintenance and weekly lawn maintenance. I have no idea what a standard price chart would be. I’ll be paying a buddy to help me because I’m solo lol! If you could offer me any advice, please do. I don’t want to quote so high they say no but obviously I don’t want to quote too low either. If I could land this job it would be a big step up for my business. Any help is appreciated! I’m anxious as can be about this.

So far what I’ve found is people are charging $100 per yard of mulch.
$300 to remove the trees and stumps.
Install is the same price as the new tree (%100 markup) and then add delivery on top

So I have no green thumbs and havnt done anything with the landscaping since I’ve moved into this attached duplex.

Also relevant is my neighbors have complained about a foster dog whose been barking in the backyard which I didn’t realize was going on-which made me realize they can probably hear every conversation if I’m sitting outside on my patio.

Which leads me to want to add some plants that would create an additional a sound barrier around the back patio , as well as some visual privacy in the side yard and front yard.

I’m going to place a hottub on the patio; I’m wondering if evergreen potted plants/bushes would work well in about a foot of space I would have back there.

Also wondering if anyone has any suggestions for the front yard. I own the flowerbeds in the front yard that are outside the fence; does anyone have suggestions of bushes that could go there for a privacy screen and maybe a hedge around the fence that would look bad?

Thank you!

There is a circular patch about 1 feet in diameter. I am unsure what is it. What is this and what options do I have to correct it? I am thinking I can just dig it up? I am worried it might kill a tree whose root is somewhat close to it.

I am in sunny California. During the summer my grass is dead despite the efforts/water I use to water it. During fall and winter it turns back into nice green lush grass.

I’m looking to turn this roughly 8’ x 8’ North facing side yard into a simple year-round outdoor relaxation space, mainly for cooling down/relaxing between sauna sessions in my garage. First photo is current (not yet weeded), second is a mockup of what I’m going for- ‘Mediterranean spa’ vibe :)

I’m considering doing the entire area in pea gravel, but it’s a fairly substantial DIY project for me to tackle solo, so I want to make sure I’m thinking through all options before committing. I’m also trying to keep this as low cost as possible, and I don’t plan to extend the existing pavers.
The area gets a lot of rain, so I’d love feedback from anyone who has used pea gravel in a very rainy climate. My current plan would be to properly prepare the area, lay down a weed barrier, and then add the pea gravel.

A few questions:
Is pea gravel a good choice for a rainy climate, or is there another inexpensive option I should consider?
Do I need to do anything specific for drainage or slope?
Should I leave any of the vegetation, or pull it all up and have planters? This area gets little sun and I’ve had failed attempts of growing plants in containers so am considering artificial plants
How close can I bring the gravel to the side of the house/foundation? Anything I should be concerned about with water, siding, or the foundation?
Is there anything else I should do for the base/prep before adding the gravel?
For those who have done pea gravel, would you do it again?

Basically, I’m hoping for any thoughts, feedback, reviews, or “don’t make this mistake” advice before I take on this project myself. Since it’s a decent amount of work, I want to be sure I’m choosing the right approach before I start! TY for any feedback!

Was gonna just overseed this fall and call it a day, but the more I look at the yard the less sure I am that I even want all that grass back lol. Kinda tempted to keep a cleaner patch in the middle and just do something else with the rougher edges instead.

If this was yours, what would you actually keep?

Welp, I think we made a mistake. We decided on a paver location in the middle of my front lawn. Is there a way to integrate it into a nice, simple, landscape design that doesnt make the back unsaved space next to our front window stick out like a sore thumb or us we should just call it and move the pavers closer to the house so there is more continuous planting space? My husband had an idea that we needed the space for our kid to ride in (too small and shes growing out of that kind of use) and we both had the idea that we would build a raised porch behind it so we could sit on my chairs and watch the sun set but that's years away, if ever. Help please!

Essentially the title.

I want to pull up some pavers and plant a nice ever green canopy tree to block my neighbor’s line of sight. I was using ChatGPT, and after a lot of back and forth it landed on Kay Paris magnolia.

Pros: ever green, max growth 20ft, flowers, fragrant.
Cons: not as true as a canopy

Other options were
* service berry, but not as dense, berries will draw animals, and deciduous
* Japanese maple - nice color contrast against the house, deciduous

Looking for advice on what to get

I’m in zone 8a and looking for some ideas for a privacy screen between our neighbors and us. I would like to keep the tree line natural so I don’t want to just put a single file line of arborvitae or something like that. I was thinking about some ligustrum and osmanthus fragrans.

Got a house and there is a mulched area next to the pool that is overgrown with weeds. There is a tarp under the mulch but the roots have grown right through it.

I was pulling up everything by hand but it was way too time consuming so now I'm just rolling up the tarp.

Trying to figure out what's the best way to go from here and what to use future prevention. Was going to continuing to roll up the all tarp, digging out a couple inches down to get the roots, leveling the dirt then put down rocks/mulch with something under it?

I have a problem removing a fence post. The post rotted and collapsed and I have been digging around as much as I could. I broke a lot of concrete around it already. I tried the jack method, but it did not work as on two sides the cement sidewalk held it down. On the second picture I indicated that the length between the housewall/foundation is 7 inches, the blue indicates a concrete "wall" that I cannot remove because there is no space to get the chisel and hammer inside. The red indicates the post itself. It is around 3.25 in x 3.25 in. The depth is 7 inches so underground so far. From looking at Lowes, I see these posts are sold being 7 feet long. The post was 5 feet above ground, so I am assuming that it went 2 feet underground. Please let me know what else I can do. I have tried everything I know so far.

About five years ago when I was having some grading done, I had the guy also cut a 12x12 or so chunk out of our back yard slope so I could make a little patio. Nothing fancy....just a simple pavers and a short rounded-corner retaining wall to stop erosion. In the 5 years since, I have lost some dirt at the drop off, but not as much as I was expecting. So, I would not consider the retaining wall "structural" because even without it, barely anything has moved in 5 years. I have read about how to set the initial layer and about drainage, etc. But when it comes down to it....what's really the worst thing that could happen, right? The wall will not be supporting much weight, and if it fails, it's no worse off than if I had not done anything at all? It makes sense to try it...but I guess I need a sounding board other than chatgpt.

Hey everyone I have an idea and would like opinions on if it's realistic. I would like to make a 15x15 flagstone patio for a standalone firepit, chairs and a picnic table. I want 2-4in gaps between the stones for groundcover plants. The quotes I've been getting are too high and I'd like to try DIY or hybrid DIY. I want to use stones that are 2-3 in thick and a mix of some large stones where the heavy stuff is and smaller stones to fill the gaps.

For the full diy I would buy the stones and lay them out in the pattern I want, mark the borders of the stone, move the stones, dig 6 in underneath the stone, lay 2 inches of crusher run, 1 inch of bedding then lay the stone back and level/grade it.

For the hybrid, I would get someone else to excavate and grade the entire area 3 inches deep, then follow the same process but it means I'll only need to dig 3 inches below the stone instead of 6 and fill the gaps with the native soil or something more appropriate for the groundcover I select.

Is this a reasonable approach? Has anyone tried this before? The picture is similar to what I'm going for. Thanks.

I’m standing in my driveway which is uphill from my garage. When it rains, I get water in my garage. We can see some standing water here during this rain. This dirt slopes into the garage. Should I put one of those perforated tubes under the level of the slab, and fill above with gravel? Just to get the water under the slab? Maybe a retaining wall to eliminate most of the slope towards the garage?

Looking to install 4 inch pipe under my pavers and run the gutter water away from the house in Florida. Is this my best option I might even hold off on the clean out T since I don’t have big trees by my house to clog the 4 inch pipe.

Recently had a landscaper raise the lawn and plant new Walter Buffalo grass.
Over 5-months it died off, uneven, had moss growing on it and had visible water appear when stood on. Even after no rain for days/weeks.

After being told it was normal for winter, eventually did some exploratory work and found this soil beneath the grass? What is this? Looks and feels like clay. Am being told it needs to completely replaced.