Is there a cheap way to un-xeriscape my yard?

November 4, 2012 9:18 AM

I want to un-xeriscape my back yard as cheaply as possible. How can I do it.

So, my honey and I bought a house, and one thing we liked about the house was the great back yard. It's xeriscaped! Low maintenance! Yay!

Then we got Brandy, and while xeriscaped yards are great for the environment, they're not so great for my dog. She has webbed feet, so she doesn't really have a problem running around on the rocks, especially the bigger rocks. However in extreme weather, those bad boys aren't that great on her paws. I'd prefer that she have something easier to walk on. Something that doesn't hold the heat or cold.

It's a big yard, so it'll cost thousands of dollars to have someone haul that rock out of there. That's thousands of dollars we can't spare right now. Several people have quoted us hundreds just to clear a path, and that wasn't even a quarter of the yard! I can't do it, I have a bad back. My honey can't do it, he doesn't have the time. We tried to give the rocks away on craigslist and freecycle, but no one wants to actually pick them up off the ground.

So, here's my question. Can I cover up these rocks with some kind of ground cover, or top soil, or sod, or something? Or do I really need to haul them out of there before I put something else down? I don't know what to do with them. I can't even give them away. I want to think of something fast too, because we're having a wedding back there in March of next year.

posted by patheral to Home & Garden (22 answers total)

Just in case this doesn't work out for before winter, I'd heard some really good things about Mushers' Secret for dog paws on hot and cold rough ground. And there's dog boots, of course.
posted by cromagnon at 9:35 AM on November 4, 2012

Mod note: Fixed the link in the question, should work now.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:45 AM on November 4, 2012

Best answer: I think one of your cheaper alternatives would be to cover as much area as you want to/can afford with mulch. Prices typically range from $20-40/cubic yard delivered depending on aesthetics, with 1 cubic yard covering approx. 100 sq feet. Then add in a few hundred more to hire a day laborer for a day to spread it (estimate 30-45 mins labor per yard of mulch). You could do that without pulling up the rocks first.
posted by drlith at 9:46 AM on November 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

If you do mulch put down geotextile over the gravel first.
posted by mareli at 9:52 AM on November 4, 2012

A lot depends on your climate and where you live. How much of the year do you have the extreme weather you mention? Is the yard xeriscaped because that suits your climate? If so, it may be very hard to make it look good for March under some totally new regime.

I'd be inclined to buy some big rolls of thick matting of coir or something similar, and just roll out pathways across the gravel which the dog should use quickly enough if the rocks are uncomfortable for her. Then, when it's getting close to the wedding, just roll up the matting and store it away while you can show off your xeriscaped garden the way it was when you bought the place. If you're aiming for a permanent new look, wait till after March because almost anything you do will take time to settle down.
posted by Azara at 10:20 AM on November 4, 2012

Response by poster: Azara, we live in Albuquerque, NM. It's xeriscaped, I would suppose, for drought conditions. And any kind of matting would blow away in the winds.
posted by patheral at 10:23 AM on November 4, 2012

You could use landscaping spikes/staples to hold down the matting.
posted by PorcineWithMe at 10:26 AM on November 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wikipedia tells me that Albuquerque averages 8 to 9 inches of precipitation a year. In those circumstances, looking after a big yard with anything other than xeriscaping sounds like a tough prospect to me. If the wind would be a problem with matting, then I think bone-dry mulch is likely to blow away also.

Since my gardening experience is with the cool, wet Irish climate, I'll leave any further advice to those more familiar with your climate conditions.
posted by Azara at 10:43 AM on November 4, 2012

Response by poster: Not to threadsit, but staples and spikes don't work well through rocks. That's what we tried with the indoor/outdoor carpet pieces we put down. In the end, I had to rake the rocks out from underneath the area we put them down and hold the edges down with... well, rocks.
posted by patheral at 10:45 AM on November 4, 2012

You could build a boardwalk and lay it on top of the rocks. You and your dog would then have a choice.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:34 AM on November 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Could you do some raised garden bed areas. They are pretty easy to make even if you are not super fit or DIY like. Just plonk the wooden frames them down on the stones and fill with compost, mulch and dirt if you want to grow some grass or just sand if you want smooth areas for the dog to run. You wouldn't have to make them too deep if you didn't want to grow anything and they would help stop the sand/dirt moving. You could do them slowly and build say a few 4 foot squares at a time and join them up until you have a larger flat area. Being able to do it in a modular format means you could do it slowly as time and money allow. If you built it in a large square shape, depending on drainage you could possibly even pave over the sand and dirt at a later stage for a slightly raised paved patio area.

I probably explained my idea badly but I hope you can work out what I mean.
posted by wwax at 11:38 AM on November 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm wondering if some sort of succulent ground cover might be the answer. Something that is drought tolerant, stands up to foot traffic, can be planted into the existing pea gravel with some soil supplementation. I'm not familiar with Xeriscaping for for NM, I'm more familiar with coastal CA, but I've found that the Sunset gardening books are great for all and any gardening questions. At the front of the Sunset Western Garden Book there are sections for different landscaping requirements. They also have an on-line app for selecting the right plants for your zone.
posted by echolalia67 at 11:57 AM on November 4, 2012

The mulch option is just kicking the can. Rent a bobcat and use that to scrape up as much as you can. Using a long handled grading rake to finish up should not be too tough on a back.

I mean it'll suck, but if you own the place you'll be happier long term.
posted by JPD at 1:37 PM on November 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: JPD, we actually thought about that, but there is no way to get a bobcat in there - the side yard on the east is too long and narrow. There's a half wall (concrete block like all the others) with an opening about the size of door that I think they built after they xeriscaped the place. And the gate to west is too narrow as well, plus it's boarded up and blocked by the juniper bush. When the landscapers came in to trim the junipers back (they were way overgrown), they had to haul the debris out on a tarp.
posted by patheral at 3:04 PM on November 4, 2012

If this were my problem, I would be inclined to offer the rock free to anyone who would pick it up. You might be surprised how many people would take some, though not all. It might at least bring the amount down to something manageable that you could shape into dry stream beds with groundcover planted between.

Also just an fyi but rocks tend to work their way up through soil and mulch so think twice about just trying to bury them. Good luck with the project.
posted by stubborn at 6:17 PM on November 4, 2012

Response by poster: As I mentioned in the OP, we listed the rocks on both Craigslist and Freecycle and we got lots of people willing to come get free rocks - but no one wanted to actually pick them up off the ground.
posted by patheral at 7:07 PM on November 4, 2012

How about dog boots? It seems like the easiest answer. REI carries good quality boots at decent prices, and a slow introduction usually works best. Let your pooch smell them and leave them in her kennel/relaxing area for a few days so they smell like her, then wear for 3-5 minutes while eating a yummy snack. Do that a few times, then add wearing on a potty break, then a short walk etc, until its the new normal. Much cheaper than landscaping!
posted by julie_of_the_jungle at 7:53 PM on November 4, 2012

Best answer: That sure is a gravelly back yard. I can see why you want to clear some of that out. Hm. If it were my back yard and I couldn't move the rocks, I would probably go with the idea of low raised beds. I probably would use large rocks (yes, more rocks, but choose pretty ones) and garden edging to define some organic-shaped planting areas, then cover the gravel inside those areas with several inches of dirt/compost. Then I'd dig out my High Country Gardens catalog and order some low-water ground covers that are walk-on-able. To give the whole thing some height, I'd also order a couple of those fantastic agaves (that sadly will not grow well or at all in St. Louis MO) and maybe a shrub or some flowers and plant them in bright ceramic pots to arrange tastefully out there.
posted by miss patrish at 8:42 PM on November 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If you were to build a low deck--10x15, scrape the rocks from an adjoining 10x10 area and plant it with a drought-resistant grass, and then haul in a couple yards of sand to cover a 10x10 area raked free of the gravel, you could have several places of varied softer footing approx 30x35 sq feet for the dog. She may still choose to go into the gravel, but wouldn't have to be in it constantly. I'm sure you could find someone who would shovel off the rocks for that small of a space and wheelbarrow in the sand for a reasonable price. No doubt there's a competent enough handyman out there that you could hire to build a deck.
posted by BlueHorse at 10:34 PM on November 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Have you thought about landscape fabric (weighed down by rocks or bricks on the edges, some raised beds, and some paths through the raised beds stabilized with crusher fine (decomposed granite/limestone)? It's dog-foot friendly. I had a landscape rock company haul it and pile it up for me. It worked for me, keeps weeds from poking up, wasn't too expensive, and allowed me to build up the garden with plants/rock features as I had time to do it.

Re-store in ABQ has lots of big landscape-appropriate timbers, btw. I scrounge around there for timbers and bricks for news raised beds as I need them.
posted by answergrape at 8:04 AM on November 5, 2012

er.... "new raised beds." Though I do use shredded newsprint sometimes...so maybe they are news raised beds too.
posted by answergrape at 8:26 AM on November 5, 2012

Response by poster: In case anyone's keeping up with this we decided to go the mulch route, but instead of buying a ton of mulch, I went on freecycle and asked people for their bags of leaves, and so far we've covered most of our yard with about twelve bags of leaves. I have a few more bags available next week. We'll mix in a bunch of cedar mulch to weigh it down and we'll just play it by ear as we go along.

What I'm hoping is that all of this will eventually turn into top soil and I can plant stuff in a couple of years. As for the wedding, we plan on renting canopies/tents and we'll just rent ones with floors and call it a day.

Thanks for all of the suggestions!
posted by patheral at 7:36 PM on November 17, 2012