Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with yard

How much should I charge for my fruit tree planting service?

Sentus — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 10:11:02 -0800

I am doing a lot of landscaping gigs lately, and want to start planting Edible Landscape for folks. How much should I charge for an edible tree package? Hello there fellow Mefi friends!

Fruit trees, Berries and Nut trees.

I will come to the customer, asses and test his soil for P.H and drainage, check the amount of sun the area is receiving, see that the area is large enough to provide space for future growth.

I am not going to push stuff that will not grow well in the area/problematic/high maintenance just to make a sell. Only trees that "want" to grow there, and will prosper without much maintenance, disease and pest problems.

Included:
* Healthy vigorous plants that have been checked for disease, been found free of "root bounding". Specific verities that adapted to the growing zone.
* Beautiful organic soil mixture tailored for new trees.
* Thick Layer (4"-6") of good mulch.
* An information pamphlet about the tree history, the specific variety, growing tips, watering schedules, pruning advice.

My questions will be:

1. What is the price range you would be willing to pay for something like that? How much for one tree? How much for a package of five shrubs/trees?
2. If the client have deer problem/huge dogs I can install a small durable fence. How much extra you think that worth to you?
3. What other services/extras I can offer that you think will make your decision more smooth?
4. Generally speaking, would you want a cheaper younger tree (2'-3' feet tall) or a more expensive and established tree (5'-8' feet tall)?
5. Any other suggestions and nuggets of wisdom?

Thank you and have a great day,

Paving and astroturfing is too expensive

codswallop — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:48:16 -0800

The greens at Casa de Codswallop are crap. Can someone give me some yard advice? I'm a noob with lawns and it shows. One problem is that I don't really care; I just want them to be utterly unremarkable. I want a cheap, low maintenance solution that'll keep our house from dragging down nearby property values.

Our yard is mostly thin-bladed grass with sporadic clumps of darker (and faster growing) thick-bladed grass. We have a lot of dandelions in summer but those, at least, I kept in check by decapitating them with a golf putter-style whacker once a week or so.

It's now mid-October. Daily highs are mid-50s, nighttime lows around 40 and it rains at least a little almost everyday.

Is it too late or wet to spread some sort of weed and feed so the lawn looks better this spring? Any other ideas? I'm not really interested in covering everything with gravel or bark chips. Too pricy.

I also want to edge the lawn by the driveway and sidewalks so it looks a lot tidier. Any tips on that?

How to remove ornamental grasses?

guptaxpn — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:55:35 -0800

I'm being offered $100 to remove "Ornamental Grasses", any experience with the removal of plants would be greatly appreciated. I need the money, badly, I just have never done this kind of work before. I'm being told that it will be a b**** of a job and that I should be able to do it with a shovel. Brief googling is telling me that people have needed hatchets and axes to get rid of the roots of these plants.

Have you ever had any experience removing this sort of plant?

I believe they just want it gone.

I'm just curious to know how I can prepare for tomorrow.

Thanks MeFi!?

Secrets of the String Trimmer

mecran01 — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:25:19 -0800

My Ryobi string trimmer doesn't feed well. Should I just buy a new head for it or try one of those alternative string trimmer heads? I've also seen heads that use pre-cut pieces of nylon string. Do those work?

It used to feed ok, not great. Now I have to manually refresh the nylon when it wears down, which has made me completely timid in my weed whackery. I think that self-feeding trimmers are a cruel marketing lie.

Can I put a pond in this space?

JFitzpatrick — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:05:58 -0800

What kind of backyard pond can I successfully put into this space? I'm giving serious consideration to putting in a small backyard pond. I grew up around them and now that I have a home of my own I can tinker with, I think it would be pretty great to have one.

Unlike my relatives who had them (and 10 acre country lots to put them on) I'm on a small city lot and the best/most logical place for my pond would be in a large (in city terms) area behind my garage that measures 12x22 feet.

The area is enclosed on three sides. The north side is the back wall of the garage which is white wooden siding. The west side is the back of my neighbors fence (he has a similar sized space behind his garage and recently put a cool little sitting area there, thus the new fence), with the posts exposed to my side. The south side is fairly generic stockade fencing (two inch slats, pointy top), and finally the east side is open to the remainder of the yard.

I would, of course, for safety reasons put a small 3-4 foot fence across east side with an ornamental gate.

So this leaves me with a 12x22 foot space, in a zone 5 gardening climate, that receives a solid 8+ hours of summer sun (enough sun for the previous owners to have used to space for gardening.)

My principle concern is: Will this space be adequate for a small ornamental pond? I don't want a huge pond nor do I want a basic pre-molded pond too small to winter fish in. I think, and those of you who have ponds can tell me if I'm wrong, that a roughly 8x10 foot pond with a depth of 36 inches should be sufficient to support some basic plants, a few ornamental fish, frogs, and so forth.

My secondary concern is: If I can successfully put a pond there, will it look like I stuck a hole in the ground behind my garage? I'm willing to go the extra mile to dress up the space and create a bigger sense of space in the process, but I'm not sure where to start. Tall ornamental grass to mask the fence? Ivy on the fence? Bamboo?

Even if you're not sure you have a specific answer for my problem, if you're into pond keping I'd love some links to share that would be awesome. It's tough finding pond keeping forums that have active communities!

Hedging my bets.

liquado — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:20:46 -0800

Can I plant a cedar hedge -- with the cedars lying down? I've just purchased a number of emerald cedars to start a privacy hedge across the front of our property. I was discussing the hedge with a friend who suggested planting them in this fashion:

1) Dig trench

2) cut the branches off one side of each cedar

3) bury the root ball horizontally, laying the flat side of the cedar down on the fresh dirt.

4) Water & repeat.

The idea is that the cedar will "root" along the cut side, and grow vertically along the other, resulting in a more full and uniform hedge in a few years (and, I'd need fewer cedars). I'd like to try it, but I need more than one person's advice on the matter -- and my Google-fu is weak today.

Any greenthumbs able to weigh in? Is this ridiculous, or ridiculously awesome?

Cordless Yard Trimmer Options

mccarty.tim — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:18:52 -0800

YardFilter: My mom wants a new weed whacker/trimmer, preferably electric cordless. Are there any good models out there? My mom is a woman in her early 50's, and she's in decent shape, but she doesn't like the noise, weight, smell, or environmental damage of a gas-powered weed whacker. She used a Black and Decker corded Grass Hog for a while, but when it died, she wanted to switch to a cordless option for convenience. We tried this Cordless Black and Decker, but we were pretty disappointed. It had a very short battery life, around 10 minutes, and weak power. It may have been the batteries it came with, though, so if anyone has found replacements to work better, that would be good to know. I think I remember reading there were lithium ion batteries available for it, and I wonder if those would have held a charge for a longer amount of time.

Are there any good cordless weed whackers that can handle the occasional big weed and generally handle grass in the corners? Are there any models that can also run from a cord when the battery runs out or you want more force? Specific model numbers would be appreciated. Easy loading of line is also a big plus. Our budget is probably somewhere between $80 and $350.

A lightweight, easy to use gas trimmer is also a possibility, if there is one that works well. It's entirely possible cordless isn't an option for our yard, which is fairly big (not sure of the acreage, maybe a half?).

Snakes in my yard

GrumpyMonkey — Fri, 08 May 2009 06:38:02 -0800

What kind of snake is living in my yard (pic 1, pic 2)? I found it in my crawlspace and got it to the yard a few weeks ago and then found it again by our patio and am worried that our toddler will come across it and try to play with it.

I like my bike, and I want to keep it, and keep it clean.

ChrisR — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 09:11:24 -0800

How can I secure my bicycle from weather and thieves with the least amount of work and hardware? My new home has only one solid anchored object in the back yard: a wash line post. No garage, no shed (although the latter is coming soon). I want to be able to park my bike in the yard with a minimum of concern for both the condition of the bicycle -- weather, etc... -- and its continued presence in my yard.

Although we're getting a shed soon, I'm not confident that the shed will provide enough security for the bikes, since from what I've seen sheds of that kind are very flimsy, at least at the price point we can justify. Still, parking the bike in there is one option.

Another problem is that I'm frankly incompetent as a handyman. I can assemble furniture, but that's nearly the limit of my skills with tools.

In short, how can I go about making a clean and secure space to park my bike? I'm open to specific recommendations for sheds (it has to fit yard work gear, too, so nothing too small) or even recommendations that are bike specific, as long as they're not too expensive.

Yard party in the City in the Garden without a garden?

@homer — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:21:50 -0800

Where to have a yard style party in Chicago? My friend wants to have her birthday party in a yard with a barbecue and all the alcoholic fun that goes with it. The problem is that nobody we know has a yard big enough for it. I've checked out the Chicago Park District and the Cook County Forest Preserve. There are either limits on alcohol or the areas close too early. I'm trying to spiral out to the suburbs but after a point it gets too expensive to take cabs from and to the city.

The budget for any kind of rental is probably a couple hundred. Maybe a little more. If the party could start later in the day that would be cool and the later it could run the better.

So you'd like to build a garden wall...

rileyray3000 — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:00:52 -0800

Is there an 'ask metafilter' on the internet for home/yard projects? Not that I'm disputing the collective mind here, but I'm looking to build something in my backyard and it seems to me there must be some group of contractors who all get together somewhere on the internet to tell amateurs that they're doing it wrong. Of course if you KNOW how to install a yard retaining wall, then, by all means, speak up. So here's the thing: I'm renting a house with a backyard. A very sloping, bumpy, uneven back yard. And I'd like to put some gravel and picnic table down. But to keep said picnic table from sliding down the hill to the neighbor's chain link fence, I thought I'd try to even it all out.

So here's my plan.

Put in some deep posts - like five feet tall - along the bottom part of the hill slope. Sink them halfway down into the the hill. Then, put some boards from one post to the next. nail em in. Fill area with dirt.

Then, after, I figured I'd get some fruit trees from that orchard that's always giving them away and put them BELOW the posts and aim them so they grow towards the fence and eventually support it.

All in all? I'd say it's a fool proof plan. Except when it comes to this sort of thing, I'm kind of a new fool to the arena. Some have told me I need a specific kind of lumber. Others said I have to put the posts in concrete. Which I'm guessing I have to make. Others said the opposite, pointing to the non concrete much MUCH smaller version of said wall that stood for a long time previous.

So do you know the answers here? And if not, do you know where I can GET the answers?

Need play area for child but too windy!!! What items can we put in back yard!!

lynnie-the-pooh — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:14:51 -0800

Need ideas for outside play area that is super windy! Hi, my daughter will be five soon and our back yard has nothing in it because it is super windy. We bought a trampoline last year and had it for two weeks, then it became a pancake due to the wind. My husband is reluctant to get a swing set, sand box or another trampoline. What ideas do you have that will secure these items to the ground? The swing set could be cemented into the ground. But if the swing is bent or broken over during the storm, we will have pieces of swing stuck to the ground by cement. And with the sand box, we are afraid the top will fly off and we will have sand all over our back yard. If my husband puts a cement block on the top of the cover, I will not be able to get it off every day, as I have a bad back. The trampoline we had was secured to the ground with anchors, but the netting around the trampoline acted like a sail in the wind and it just went up and then down like a pancake. Surely there is some way my child can have items in her back yard to play with?? We live in Iowa in a neighborhood, but behind us is a farm, so the wind is hard and very open by us. I'm looking for ideas, my daughter would be so happy if we could figure it out.
Thanks,
LYNN

Glass needed for yard of beer

VillageLion — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:41:35 -0800

Where can I find a "yard of beer" glass in or around Boston on short notice? For reasons that need not be explained, I need to purchase a glass such as this one. I live in Boston/Cambridge and must purchase it tomorrow.

Any thoughts on what type of store I might find this in? Any specific suggestions are also appreciated.

Can I easily create a small level place or terrace in my yard?

Morrigan — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:14:50 -0800

How do I easily grade / level / terrace a small portion of my yard? We keep our trash and recycling bins on the side of the house, which is on a steep-ish slope. What is the best way to level a small portion of the yard to house these? Bonus points for beginner solutions; I am no landscape engineer and unfortunately we can not afford to hire in. I don't want to risk life and limb on icy trash nights.

Help Me Get Hope

Secret Life of Gravy — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:07:29 -0800

Election 08: Best way to mount my campaign signs? I just got back to NC and this state is in the game! I bought 5 different Obama rally signs this morning (love the variety) and I want to mount them in the yard. Anybody done this? Suggestions? Bear in mind we get a lot of rain here.

Vote For The Candidate On This Sign

davidmsc — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:46:41 -0800

Have campaign yard signs ever convinced you to vote for - or against - any particular candidate? Prompted by this question, I'm curious about why people put the signs out. Do such signs serve only as "vanity plates," proud political statements -- or do people place them in their yards sincerely believing that they might/will convince someone to vote for said candidate?

Should I get a Robomower?

geoff. — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:32:35 -0800

Does anyone have experience with RoboMower or other robotic mowers on the market? Is my dream a reality or do these things not really work as advertised? I'm looking for anecdotes, stories or reviews of whether this actually works or is an expensive toy. I don't anyone who has one, they're not crazy expensive, so this is sort of throwing up warning flags. Is the future here or not? I'm not tied to Robomower, just using it as an example.

Killed Me Some Ants!

cjorgensen — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:16:52 -0800

I set fire to a colony of tiny red ants. Now they have gone away. Why/how did this work? So I had a dead spot in my yard, went to check it out, and there a colony of the smallest red ants you could imagine.

I threw some little wood chips and some yard waste in-and-amongst them, and set this on fire.

Now, this was no bonfire we're talking about. You couldn't have even roasted a hotdog over this fire (well, maybe one). Now I have a bare spot in my yard (was pretty much already there), two holes you could put a pencil down, and no ants.

I really wasn't expecting this to do anything. I remember as a kid a neighbor did this to a beehive, of ground living yellow jackets, using a gallon of gasoline. This caused a huge explosion! A deep hole in his yard, and the bees buzzed around the fire and died, but the next day they were rebuilding.

Mine wasn't nearly as intense.

I've had problems with ants before, tried using poison (to limited success), but this is like they packed up and moved on!

Any ideas why? I really doubt it did more than scorch the surface and kill the ones currently outside. So why did they pack up? Is this a solution for other kinds of ants?

Yeah, I know, I am evil. PETA is outside my door right now asking if my cat is ok. I can live with killing them. Just amazed this worked.

How do I fix my yard?

Echidna882003 — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:15:08 -0800

How to remove and prepare our yard/lawn. Is a "sod cutter" overkill, what about a mattock? Once the crabgrass is gone, what next? I have a lot of questions ;) Our backyard is roughly 30' x 30' and in fairly bad shape. It's entirely crabgrass and the ground is very uneven, twisted ankle uneven. There are lots of rocks and debris just under the surface in some places.
I'd like to start over but I don't know how. I've seen gas powered "sod cutters", but they seem to be used for a more tame (i.e. flat) situation? How about hand tools? Is a "mattock" (it sounds so D&D to me) the right tool?
After the crabgrass is gone, do I "rototill" the ground, rake out the ugly stuff and then re-sod? I want the ground cover to be fairly durable, is there something other than grass I could use as a ground cover? Are there more durable kinds of grass? We're in Northern California and want to do this ASAP, is it the wrong time of year?
Am I in over my head? Have I asked to many questions? Help?

I got TP'ed. It's time to return the favor.

niles — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:09:07 -0800

After having my yard toilet papered and forked (not my yard in the link), it's time to get back. Unfortunately, the soon-to-be-victim's yard has almost no trees, so returning the TP favor is out. One idea we're throwing around is attaching a giant cardboard movie cutout to to roof. We'll probably go with that, but in the spirit of going big or ~~going~~staying home, I'd like to hear about other pranks in the same spirit. This is a pretty good sized yard, if it matters.
Apologies if this falls under ChatFilter, but this will be put to practical use, so as I understand it this should be good.

right name for a type of plumbing thing?

epersonae — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:39:42 -0800

what's-it-called-filter: I want to add a water spigot for gardening away from the house, rather than having it come directly out of the wall. What should I be searching/asking for?! What I want is something like this, but with modern plumbing. I've seen them in our neighborhood, but don't know what it's called. Would like to be able to search, or at least talk to a plumber without going all hand-wavey.

mr. epersonae uses "standpipe" just as a matter of course, but he wasn't sure if that was the right name, and I'm not turning up anything in searching. (Except for crazy stuff like this guy in a Hooverville!) Thanks.

What kind of wire is this?

Addlepated — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:17:14 -0800

What kind of wire is this? It was buried in our back yard. It could be alarm, phone, or something else, I guess, but Mr. Pated looked at all the junction boxes attached to the house and garage and saw nothing like this. Did we cut one of our neighbor's services?

Grass or weed?

walla — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:57:29 -0800

Why can't I have a weed lawn? I like walking on my lawn and playing with my dogs on it. I like the anti-erosion benefits of grass, and that it keeps us from tracking dirt into the house. But I like most green things, and I see little reason to invest the resources and energy a grass lawn requires if there are other options. I've read a bit - some of it on AskMe - about alternative lawns. I've considered mint, creeping thyme, chamomile, etc., but none of them has seemed quite right.

While tending my lawn this week, someone suggested I pull the clover and plaintain weeds that had taken over some parts of it. I thought, why should I pull them? They're green, they're hardy, they do what my lawn does on their own without the hassle. As long as I contain it, are there any reasons I shouldn't have a weed lawn? Has anyone tried this, on purpose or by accident?

Looking for Yard Junk

crawfishpopsicle — Sat, 10 May 2008 08:38:40 -0800

I am looking for a good non-auto junk/ salvage yard in Portland, OR area that allows you to dig though and buy scrap metal. I am trying to find some funky old metal to use to build a metal gate and some trellises for my yard. That and I just sort of feel like wandering around a junk yard, but I can't seem to find any (other than auto yards) that allow people to dig around. In addition to junk yards, any place that might have rusty old gates, crazy old headboards, or random wrought iron would be helpful. Something like Scrap but more dangerous and dirtier.

Any ideas?!

rats in my roses?

LizardOfDoom — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:00:03 -0800

Is there anything I can do to prevent rats from nesting under my rose bush? We've recently purchased a rowhouse in Baltimore. The backyard, like everyone's on the street, consists of a cement slap surrounded by a 4' cement block wall. Unlike everyone else's "yard" mine has built up planting boxes. These are about 2 1/2 feet deep and made of more cement block. At one end is a rosebush. Everyone I talk to says that rats will come and nest under it, especially if there is a foodsource nearby. I was also planning on growing some vegetables. I keep the yard very clean and securely stow my garbage. The neighbors aren't as careful as I would like, and don't have trash can lids. I fully expect a rat or two to climb over the wall every once in a while, but I REALLY don't want them to nest here. Also, I would not like to put out poison that could leech into my vegetables or get eaten by my dog. Thanks in advance!