Spring Yard Work 2010

Brothers,

As spring is slowly creeping up on us, I was wondering what you are all doing, or going to do, as far as yard work is concerned. I purchased my new home in late July of last year and with the heavy drought we had in Texas it was really hard for my newly laid Bermuda grass to catch on. I did what i could to save it and looks like it did well but I am looking forward to this spring to have a nice looking carpet lawn. To that end, here is a list of my work so far and some things I have planned for the near future:

- Rains and weather patterns were a little crazy at least in my area so I missed the window for adding some pre-emergent weed treatment.

- I have followed some advice from local yard freaks and completely scalped my lawn in order to prep it for the growing season. This was not before applying some old fashioned elbow grease to remove the crazy amount of winter weeds that were present.

- I planted a couple of trees (shrubs) near my entry door on a small piece of land that has no use for Bermuda grass. I am thinking about removing the little Bermuda grass that I have there and planting some monkey grass since it grows well in the shade.

- In a month or so, after my second mowing, I will be applying Alfalfa Pellets to my lawn as fertilizer based on some recommendations from locals. I am going to try my best to keep my fertilization limited to organic materials only. (I consider cigar ashes organic material as well :smiley36:)

- At some point, budget allowing, I want to install a sprinkler system :smiley4:

This thread is nothing without pics so please feel free to show off your lawns / gardens. Also, please comment on any advice you would want to share with other members. I am by no means an expert on lawns or lawn care and consider myself a complete newbie to this as well, but I do have the commitment to having a nice and beautiful lawn throughout this year. (I am also jealous of one of my neighbor's lawn :smiley7:) hehehe.

Here is a picture of my recent additions to the yard. Planted them on Sunday. This is also where I want to remove the bermuda grass and plant some monkey grass.

http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...zMjItMTk1N.jpg

I get to rip out part of a retaining wall for our flower bed to tie in some railroad ties for a vegetable garden that I will be putting together (the veggie garden will be roughly 20' x 15' and stacked railroad ties about a foot or so high.) Then I get to fill all that with dirt and then a layer of our dairy farmer friends best stuff :smiley5:

I also get to reconfigure our sprinkler system by moving our two control boxes (which includes digging all the main lines up :smiley21:) so that I won't hit them and they won't interfere with the gardens roots. Thankfully one of the guys at the station is a guru with sprinklers so we just have to pay for supplies really :smiley20:

I will also be tearing out most of our old flowers and various shrubs and totally re doing the layout/color scheme of the flowers. Shouldn't be too bad but a little pricey.

And of course the normal mowing and fertilizing for the grass, which isn't bad at all.

This is why I was needing some info on yard gars, lots of smoking....I mean work, to do this year for my dad. He is a total landscaping nut and passed that mindset on to me, teaching me slowly since I was a young boy. This is my first time doing this kind of stuff solo so I am eager to see how it turns out, and to do him proud. I should hopefully be able to start this weekend (if it would stop snowing long enough) and maybe get some pics up for you boys.

Here's the list that has built up since I started going to school. School is ending for me in a few weeks, so it's time to start whittling it down.


Service lawn mower- New plug, new blade, change oil, change filter, clean carburator
Prep areas to plant tomatoes and cukes
Install closet system
Install laundry room shelf
Fix kitchen faucet
Replace sliding door footer (builders didn't use treated lumber, so it's already rotted)
Install truck running boards
Finish basement shelving and clean up junk
refinish kids dresser to match new bed
Build baseball theme side tables for kid's room
Build simple drill press base for my multi purpose workstation
Build table saw workstation
Build dog house
Run basement electric
Frame basement wall with door
Basement subflooring and carpet
Build shed
Landscaping the other half of the front yard


That has to be like a five year list. I'll never get it all done in one, that's for sure. Especially since my wife is generally a little hesitant in giving me the required cash and time to do it.

I've been pretty busy lately in the afternoons and weekends with a few buddies working on building a new deck. And here it is:



The specific location:

http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...0MTktMTc1M.jpg

Materials:

http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...I5OC5qcGVn.jpg

http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...0MTktMTc1N.jpg

A few pics of the job underway (took us a total of 14 days working on and off):

http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...A3OC5qcGVn.jpg

http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...0MjEtMTgxN.jpg

The end result:

http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...0MjMtMTg0N.jpg

http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...0MjMtMTg0N.jpg

http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...0MjMtMTg0N.jpg

http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...0MjMtMTg0N.jpg

http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...0MjItMjEwO.jpg

Perfect location for smoking a cigar at night. I guess now I can move from my garage...hehehe. It was an amazing feeling when we finally drove in the last screw and sat down, cracked open a beer and realized the job was done.

I owe my two buddies HUGE for their help on this. BBQ, Beer, and cigars are in order this weekend for them.

Nice work Nelson, that looks great!

-Buzz

Really great job you & your buds did, congrats. That octagan shaped part of the deck looks suspiciously like maybe for a hot tub. :smiley2:

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Originally Posted by MemphisFred

Really great job you & your buds did, congrats. That octagan shaped part of the deck looks suspiciously like maybe for a hot tub. :smiley2:

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Actually, I'm somewhat of a pyro so the octagon was built with the sole purpose of having a firepit and a few comfy chairs to sit back and enjoy a cigar over a nice fire. That way I wont have to refill my lighter :smiley36:.

We wanted to get the most enjoyment possible out of our deck so thats why we want to have a firepit for those "cool" texas nights. I'll post new pics once we get the outdoor furniture in place (that may happen in a couple of months).

Thanks for the comments guys.:smiley20:

Finally finished with the sprinkler installation. Took about 20 hours of digging spread out over two days. My back is so damn burnt. I look like a lobster so damn bad, my back is red and my front is white. Its horrible, but with that done I can move forward on my other projects.

I broke my leg last June when our "New" deck collapsed out from under me. I fell 13', lucky to keep my leg. If not for the best doctor in the area on call that night, it would be different I feel.

That being said, it has been a long recovery and I am excited more and more every day to get out and do some work. I really enjoy the landscaping, and my wife likes what it comes out like. That is what counts, so yes, I am doing a ton this spring. I am collecting rock from local areas that will allow me to do so, and finishing some work that was started and never finished.

We live on a .28 acre lot and so therefore, the jobs are usually very large and take several weeks to complete. I like to do it right the first time, not like the previous owner.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dr. Cox

finally finished with the sprinkler installation. Took about 20 hours of digging spread out over two days. My back is so damn burnt. I look like a lobster so damn bad, my back is red and my front is white. Its horrible, but with that done i can move forward on my other projects.

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i hate sprinklers!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ndv21

...snip..... I'll post new pics once we get the outdoor furniture in place (that may happen in a couple of months).

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Well, I got a great deal on some patio furniture so I decided to pull the trigger. Set it up this past weekend while mowing/fertilizing the yard. I had already stained the deck the previous weekend so we were ready to go. Got to enjoy it for the first time last night while smoking a cigar and on chat.

http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a...1MzEtMTk1M.jpg

Very nice Nelson!! When's the herf? :smiley4:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ashauler

Very nice Nelson!! When's the herf? :smiley4:

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Anytime you guys come my way, you are welcome in our house! :smiley20:

Nice work on the deck - looks awesome man.

My wife and I have been in our house for about a year now, time to start working on the back yard. We broke it out into3 phases (1) tiles for the outdoor living area (2) shrubs along the backside for wind block and privacy and (3) the lawn.

Phase 2 will be completed later this week. We just finished digging a 60-foot long ditch to prepare it for shrubs. Man, that was A LOT of work, a lot of digging into desert soil that is so dry it might as well be granite! My gardener is putting Xylosma along the back and that will provide great privacy for us.

Here's a picture of the ditch we dug. We have 60' along the backside, so its hard to capture it in a single shot.

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/a5055c188e.jpg

Phase 1 is also underway. We know what tile we want, we just have to do the damn thing now. We're going to lay it ourselves, but it's about 500 sq feet. So, we want to make sure we have all the tools in place and what-not. I'm motivated to do that phase because it will be my new smoking area :smiley37:

Nice job on the deck ndv21. It looks great!

My wife likes a colorful and attractive yard so I've been slowly plugging away at doing stuff for her. I'm even starting to get into it myself more now than ever before.

We bought this house 3 years ago and since have put in a new deck, replaced the rotting wooden fence in the front yard, replaced the section of rotting wood fence in the back with chain link (it had the two sides in the back done with chain link, not sure why the back section was wood), and put in privacy slats in all the chain link fencing.

The following two pic's show the deck from the back of the house looking toward the front. The house is a "modular" home. Which is a fancy way of saying it was built somewhere else and shipped here in two pieces. The main floor is about 4 feet above ground level so the deck is that high and runs the entire length of the house.

The first pic shows our youngest (1.5 yr old) Yorkie, "Brutal" standing at the top of the back deck stairs.
Attachment 1793

This second picture shows our 6 yr old 'Bugg' (Boston Terrier/Pug cross) "Keyser Soze" standing in the same place. I included it cause he's kind of cute.....lol......yeah I know, I know! The wife didn't get a pic of our old guy (he's 14+) so you don't get to see him.......lol
Attachment 1791

This next one is the front yard. The fence in the front is 1 m (3 feet) high. That's the limit I can make it in front. It turns out my little monster dog, Brutal, can jump that high straight up. So to prevent him jumping the fence my wife decided we needed a two foot wide flower bed. On the inside of the flower bed is wire premade fencing bought at the hardware store. Of course, I had to buy double what I needed cause the little sh*t weighs only 11 lbs and could walk through the open spaces in the wire fencing......LOL. So I offset the second set and that slows him down. We filled the bed with hollyhocks. In a month or two they'll be 4 to 5 feet high and colorful. That'll keep the little monster in! Instead of removing the dead birch (it was dead when we bought the place) we decided to keep it and use it for hanging bird feeders and suets. We like birds and it works great for attracting them The flower bed around the dead birch is also new this year (oh my aching back!). The inner ring of that is sunflowers (giant ones) and the outer ring is gladiola's which are starting to pop up now.
Attachment 1792

This last is a view of the back from the deck stairs. I put in the flagstone style patio for the wife last summer. Instead of rock, I used patio blocks (the 2'x2' and 2" thick kind) I broke up. It's a design she saw on the web and liked. I think it looks not too bad now that the grass I planted in and around it is growing. I also added the little garden plot you see at the very back this year. We used 2"X"12" to make an 8' square and I filled it with 2 yards of topsoil. Unfortunately, where we live, I have about 6" of topsoil and then nasty hard clay that's like concrete. We've tried a garden before but it never grew well because of the lack of topsoil. I'm hoping this year it'll grow better.
Attachment 1794

This year I'm also going to be building a Pergola over the patio for my wife. Google that if you're interested, it's too hard to explain and in this case, a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Just an FYI, I'm a computer geek by trade so building things is not my forte. I paid someone else to do the deck. My good friend and hunting partner is a Civil Engineer and he's going to help me get the Pergola started. I managed to do the patio without any help and actually had fun running the packer to tamp the sand down under the blocks.....LOL. Slowly but surely I learn things as I go and I do love learning, and working with my hands, so it's all good in the end.

I was never a big fan of yard work......I'd much rather sit in the sun and smoke a cigar than work....but I like everything my wife's done so far and love the flowers and plants she's adding. I've even gotten so I'm starting to enjoy the work. But, I still prefer sitting on the deck smoking a cigar.......LOL

yeah that is nice.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nhcigarfan

yeah that is nice.

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Ok, I can't take it anymore - curiosity is absolutely destroying my ability to function properly at work... I can't sleep, my appetite is gone, and this morning I accidentally put on one blue sock and one black one...

What does "Vote K7" mean? Is it the guitar? The processor? The camera? A highway in Kansas? Is kevin7 running for office?

Seriously... I look ridiculous wearing these mis-matched socks... I need this resolved.

-Buzz

Quote:

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Originally Posted by buzz

What does "Vote K7" mean?

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Oooooooooohhhhhhhh, he doesn't know.

Well, it simply means........wait, are you far ENOUGH inside the circle?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrtr33

Oooooooooohhhhhhhh, he doesn't know.

Well, it simply means........wait, are you far ENOUGH inside the circle?

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LMAO :smiley20::smiley20: Oh man...I just woke up my wife....now I'm in trouble!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrtr33

wait, are you far ENOUGH inside the circle?

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Dangit, I did not realize that there was a circle inside the circle...

All I know is that when I go into the ballot booth in November I will be writing in kevin7 for the AZ senate seat... I'd like to see how Kevin would handle LA's boycott of our state. I am picturing the double-bird red-faced smiley.

-Buzz

Quote:

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Originally Posted by buzz

Ok, I can't take it anymore - curiosity is absolutely destroying my ability to function properly at work... I can't sleep, my appetite is gone, and this morning I accidentally put on one blue sock and one black one...

What does "Vote K7" mean? Is it the guitar? The processor? The camera? A highway in Kansas? Is kevin7 running for office?

Seriously... I look ridiculous wearing these mis-matched socks... I need this resolved.

-Buzz

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I think he should change it back to "fucktard influx IP"