# Putting in my yard. (SLC, UT)



## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

I'm new here but hope this type of thread is cool.

Background:
We built a house through 2018 and moved into it right before Christmas 2018. We ended up on this path due to deterioration of my mother-in-laws health and wanting to be in a position to help her (them) out as they aged. We built a two story house with a walk out basement that was designed to their (in-laws) specs and needs. They live downstairs and my wife and I and our son (with another coming in a couple months) live on the main floor and upstairs. I share this info because it is relevant to the landscape work that I'll share in a moment. I spent all year 2019 working on the front yard first then starting on the back yard. I learned some new skills but it took longer than expected and I ran out of time. I'm hoping to catch up what we did last year then share where we are at and as we progress this year.

Design:
Our previous house had a large yard for our area (suburbs of Salt Lake City) at 1/3 of an acre. We had a rectangle yard with a small house footprint which made the back yard massive. I did all the work to put in the yard but continually struggled to come up with a cohesive layout that looked good and expressed what we hoped and dreamed it would be. It was a nice yard but felt disjointed and incomplete.

Due to this design confusion and making a good friend who does landscape design we knew we wanted to get some outside help. Just after the house was framed he came out and we talked about things we knew we wanted and shared some other information and he provided us with some great plans to work from.



With these in hand we just had to wait another 9 months through the standard new house construction delays and winter until we could start working. This is basically what the yard looked like when we moved in.







After a particularly wet spring I started in earnest to get the front yard done. I rented a trencher from HD and proceeded to beat the hell out of myself pulling up big rocks every couple feet as I tried to trench out lines for the irrigation. I ended up breaking the pull cord after a couple hours and didn't get everything I wanted done so I had to have a second round a couple weeks later.







With the sprinkler trenches dug I was able to get the distribution lines laid and funny pipe attached and brought above ground level. I pressure tested everthing before I back filled the trenches and prepped for the next phase. Top soil. My neighbor has some connections so I was able to get a good deal on topsoil but with the caveat that they don't make any special trips. This saved me money but made deliveries unpredictable. I ended up with about 40 yards dumped on the parkstrip which I moved all by hand.


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

The next step was to buy some boulders and try and get them in place. There were some huge rocks dug up during construction but we wanted rocks that were "prettier" so we bought them. I understand that whole notion is ridiculous. I loaded up my home built offroading trailer and picked the first couple that we liked and tried to figure out the whole way home how in the world I was going to get them off the trailer and in place without killing myself. We managed to get lucky I guess because after 3 total trips we aren't dead or maimed.



I'm the fat guy with red bandana in this picture.




After the boulders came concrete curbing. In my opinion this is one of the easiest and cheapest things you can add to a yard that will help keep things look crisp and clean for years to come. I paid $2.75 a linear foot to have the guy do my whole front yard. It would have been like $3.50 had I had grass down already but still would have been worth it. I took some measurements from the plans and painted a few guide marks and the guy nailed the curves and made things look really good.





With that curbing done I was able to then install most of my sprinkler heads (lawn) which I had tried to place on the flower bed side of the borders. This is where I hit my first major issue. After getting the heads on and flushing the lines I installed the nozzles and found that I didn't have the pressure I needed to have all the heads come up and spray normally. I had planned on 45 psi which I had tested and verified with the water district. I was seeing only about 30-35 psi at the heads. This was crazy frustrating and sent me into a flurry of troubleshooting to figure out where I messed up. After going through my systems and install then talking to some neighbors it turns out they were seeing the same thing and it was actually the water district supply lines were dropping pressure due to load. This pissed me off but I couldn't do anything on that end so I ended up re-configuring my valves and lines to lower the head count from 10-12 down to 6-8. I ended up going from two lawn valves to four and I also split my drip in half and added another valve there. As you can imagine this was super frustrating to have to deal with and meant I had to dig up my supply lines and re-trench areas to move and add lines. I did my best but have depressions from that work that I need to fix.

With that mess resolved enough I ordered 1000 sqft of sod and called in the family to come help install it. I seeded my last yard and had really good success going that route but decided with a 4 year old the convenience of instant grass was needed. The sod was laid June 29 2019. Naturally I didn't buy enough so they park strip didn't get any as well as a small section in the back corner of the yard. I had another neighbor that had his yard installed about this same time so when the installers were there I asked if they had any left overs if they could leave them for me which they did.



I was super anxious to get other plants in the front and to have it "done-ish" so it didn't take long before I bought a whole mess of shrubs and a couple more trees to fill it in. The main plantings up front are boxwoods which are flanked by "avalanche" feather reed grass. The side beds got some mugo pines, coppertina ninebark, and kelseyi dogwoods.





With that portion of work done I took a nap. lol. We had summer camp and some other stuff going on so I ended up procrastinating the next major undertaking, partly because I was exhausted but also because I had no idea what I was doing and that made me anxious.


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

We picked this lot for a couple reasons, one of them was due it its slope with allowed the basement to be day-lit, or a walkout. When walking the lot with my landscape design buddy he suggested that we make the back patio area "sunken" which would help mitigate some of the slope on the sides and the necessary wall would provide some seating. We thought this sounded good and set out trying to decide what kind of wall we wanted. The sitting wall would be only 24" tall so we weren't looking for anything too crazy or engineered but we also had an area on the garage side of the house that we wanted to build up a bit which would then be used for additional parking. This area needed a taller wall but still would be under the 4' height which would necessitate permitting and inspections from the city. Regardless of that I wanted to do things right and am lucky enough to have a whole mess of civil engineers in my family that I could talk to about the issue.

After looking at options and pricing things out (as well as getting a couple bids for the wall work) I decided it would be a good idea to try and build it myself, out of cinderblock. The thought process was that I'd lay the blocks and it wouldn't matter what they looked like as long as they were sturdy because we'd then face them with dry stack stone to match the house. Cinder block is pretty cheap and I was also happy to find that the dry stack is also not very expensive. The only problem is that I've never done masonry work so it was all new to me. I started with youtube which helped me understand the process but still didn't give me the confidence I needed to start.

Regardless, in the end of July I started to dig some trenches on the driveway side to pour footings for the bigger wall. I had read and seen enough to know that I wanted the footings to be tiered so I did my best to level out sections and place breaks to help with the tier steps. About this time my neighbor told me he was going to be extending his back patio so I decided to see if I could have him order extra concrete that I could use for my footings. There was plenty of space so we planned for that and I went into overdrive trying to get my stuff ready. I really struggled with all the big rocks I kept hitting so we had another neighbor step in with some machinery to help finish digging the trenches around my sunken patio. I then bought rebar and cut them down and pounded them into the ground every two feet or so to give the cinderblock some additional strength.





Naturally the day the concrete came was super hot so when it was finally my turn for the truck not only did I not know what I was doing (I had never worked concrete) but I also had a shorter window to work it because of the heat. We started on the driveway side and filled (overfilled) the trenches before moving to the patio side. Because of a fence that had already partially been put up I had to wheel barrow all of this side and I didn't have any help. It was a train wreck. I was exhausted and I ended up tipping a load over which made a huge mess but we got concrete everywhere it needed to go. The next step would have been to work it and level things out to make setting the first course of block easy. By the time I got back to the driveway side though it was too hard to do anything with. I was able to work the patio side a little but not a ton.







I finally got going on the wall Aug 24th and found it not as hard as I had expected. I started on the patio side where I had been able to level the footing a bit. I set up a line and tried hard to keep to it while leveling between each block.





I set all the first tier blocks in concrete I mixed in a wheelbarrow. It had more body to it which allowed me to get the height I needed. If the footing was high in a particular spot I'd cut the block down a bit to make that up. It was tedious but was what I had to do. I kind of got into a rhythm an was able to make decent progress without taking tons of time. The patio got three tiers of block and will get capped. I'm still working on what that cap will be. Generally my rebar was spaced well enough but I did have to bend over a few that were set too far from the patio. In these cases I drilled new holes and placed new rebar in them so they'd fall into the block cavities.





I had focused on the patio initially because the footings were better but also because it was retaining less earth. I wanted to figure out the process so when I got to the driveway side which would be taller I'd hopefully be better and so it would be stronger. Whether that was the case I don't know but it took a ton of time cutting down blocks to get the first tier level and workable. I started at the 90* and worked out from there. After three tiers I stopped and added geo-grid and a drain pipe.









From what I understand the biggest reason block walls fail is because they get water stuck behind them for whatever reason then the earth and water pushes the wall over. The drain pipe will hopefully help evacuate any water that gets stuck there and run it to a dry well I've installed a bit from the wall. The geo-grid gives the earth some structure so if the earth does try to move against the wall the weight on top of the grid kind of holds the wall in place. I watched a practical engineering youtube video on that which explained it really well. Anyway, you mesh the geo grid between the blocks so it holds the wall as you continue building it taller. Had I talked to the city about this wall this is something they likely would have required or suggested. Most wall builders for residential build in tiers with setbacks. Up 3' then back up 3' then up another 3' and so on. I wanted to maximize the useable space and I really didn't need that tall of a wall so this worked. I really just don't ever want to have to deal with this wall pushing over. Like ever. After this point I kind of sat on things for a while and worked on other stuff but finally finished the block work in October.





One of the other things I was working on was the stairs to get from the patio to the upper yard. I ended up deciding to box it in with block then set a tier with the right heights and setbacks then backfill with gravel and repeat. These next few pictures show what that looks like. I got the granite pavers from an uncle who was moving and never ended up using them. They are about 3" thick and 18"x30" if I remember right. In the last pic here those treads are loosely set in place but not bonded to anything yet.







To be continued....


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

After getting most of the wall done in September and realizing that I was running out of warm weather I started to try and get moving on my backyard irrigation. In round two of the trencher rental for the front yard I had done a few trenches for the back but after measuring and looking at my plans I knew that I would need more of them and some in different places. Rather than try and get another rental I talked to my neighbor that help with my footing trenches and he got what I needed dug in an hour or two. (I didn't mention it earlier but I also had him dig a hole for an in ground trampoline about the same time he did the footing trenches.)







With the cold on its way I had to change my goals from getting the back yard done to getting it pretty close to being sod ready. I was able to get all the sprinkler supply lines down and all the heads located. Again, taking into account my poor street water pressure I had redesigned the valves and ended up need to add another sprinkler box to accommodate those changes. I'm up to three boxes with six valves for the lawn, three valves for flower bed drip and one valve dedicated to drop for planter pots and whatnot for the patio and deck. I got lucky that I ended up buying the 16 zone rainmachine controller when it was on sale rather than the smaller one despite not thinking I'd ever use all 16 zones. With the lines all down I pressure tested them and found just one elbow that had some pin hole leaks.

With that done I finished getting the back yard enclosed so the inlaws dog could run around without being tied down and then settled in for winter. My mother inlaw ended up unexpectedly passing away on December 3rd and I had a major knee surgery a week after that. While my MIL wasn't doing great her issues were related to mobility and being able to walk and control her limbs. My knee surgery was to try and extend how soon I'd need a knee replacement since all the doctors seemed to think that 36 is too young despite having issues with it since I was 12.

With that out of the way these last couple pictures bring us up to where we stand today. It seems like all the trees and shrubs lived through the winter and are coming back nicely. The lawn looks pretty good despite some holes and dips that need to be mitigated. I've planted some ground cover up front in a few places as specified in the yard plans that I couldn't get last year so I'm excited to those perk up and fill in.





I'm hoping to continue to update this with the progress I make in the coming days, weeks, and months. I still have a lot of work left but am a lot slower and tired a lot quicker after the knee surgery and being on crutches for 6 weeks. Let me know if any of you have questions about what I've done or why I've done any of it the way I have. I'm certainly no pro but I've tried to do things the "right" way and have spent many hours trying to figure out how that was. If you've made it this far then thanks for reading.


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

My neighbor with a mini-ex was able to come over for a few hours and help grade and dig out a few areas that will have flower beds. He knocked down all the weeds and did a killer job getting everything set for topsoil. It got dark before he was able to finish up so he left the machine with the promise to come back the next day to wrap things up. I had the grand idea to grab some boulders before he came back and was able to borrow a "dump" trailer from my house builder (I was house #5 of like 70 so construction is still going hard in our neighborhood) to pick them up. 


While I waited for my neighbor to get off work I continued to dig out an area that wasn't accessible to the mini ex due to a fence and deck stairs. I broke my third pick-axe working on this yard but got it replaced after a quick trip to home depot. Thank goodness for lifetime warranty. 


It blew my mind how easy it was for the mini ex to place them. I had the insight to have the fence installers (builders paid for back parameter fence) to not concrete one post in so I could remove it during this phase when I knew I'd want toil soil delivered. It worked out perfect and I was able to get 3 loads of topsoil delivered pretty close to where I wanted them in the yard. I'm sure I'm going to need at least one more but I figured I'd spread this and see where I ought to have the next one dumped.




After seeing the piles of dirt and feeling my aches I decided to ask my builder for another favor, to use his bobcat to turn these big piles into little piles spread throughout the yard. I've driven one a few times but not enough to spread it all my machine. The plan is to borrow it around lunch time today and knock it down then finesse it with rakes. We'll see how that goes. Thanks for reading.


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## weed_wizard (Apr 18, 2019)

Wow! Great journal and project! I enjoyed reading this and look forward to your progress.


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

Thanks. I have some updates and pics to add which I hope to do later today or tomorrow morning. I did just order sod for next Tuesday the 12th so that gives me a light to work towards. I've also been staring at my plans and the plant list and REALLY am jonesing to go buy some trees and shrubs. I can't wait to get some greenery in the backyard.


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## Are-Jay (Sep 9, 2018)

looking great!


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

I was able to get the builders skid and move around the big piles of dirt. I've driven one a little but not enough to be proficient so the goal was to just knock down the big piles and make smaller piles around the yard so we wouldn't have to use wheelbarrows to move it all. That seemed to work okay but I made a mess of the grading work we had done.



My dad came over and we raked it out and got things pretty smooth and level with just rakes. We ran out of dirt and had to wait a few days before the last load could be delivered so I spent that time to rent a sod roller to compact the dirt a bit and check for the high and low spots and continue to refine those spots.





With things leveled out as much as I was going to get I started to try and lay out the border lines with marking paint. As I stated earlier we have detailed plans so I just needed to transfer what was on paper to the yard which turned out to be tricky. I tried to take reference measurements from paper to get key widths and locations but as is always the case I needed to also match adjustments based on what was in the yard. We scratched out paint and squinted and pointed all around and in the end got close enough.

With the borders marked we then started to install the sprinkler heads for the lawn. At my previous house we used rotors and I wasn't super happy with them (the whole irrigations system to be honest) so for this yard I decided to use all pop up sprayers. I seemed to have lost a few pipes while spreading the topsoil but after locating them I set about taking measurements between the funny pipes trying to figure out what needed to be adjusted. I felt pretty happy about where most of them were but still decided to move a few and add a couple more heads by the trampoline. I ended up breaking another pick axe while trenching a 15 feet run to move a head (which was the 4th broken pick axe in this yard) but carried on to get the work finished. With the heads on and the nozzles attached I continued the quest to flatten out the dirt and keep the slope nice and gentle. I ran the water to make sure everything was working correctly, which they mostly were.

I had ordered 2500 sqft of KBG but really didn't know whether I'd have enough or be really short. I borrowed a trailer again and picked up three pallets knowing I'd need to make another trip. I was able to use the builders skid with forks on it to try and unload the sod but that turned out to be a mess. The first pallet came off easy enough but with the uneven ground in the empty lot behind my house and my poor driving half of the rolls dumped off the pallet before I could get very far. Undeterred I placed that pallet up in the yard and went about working on the second pallet. I strung up a tow strap around the pallet and pulled it towards the back of the trailer enough that I could lift it with the forks but as I backed out and started to turn I, again, dumped the whole damn thing. I had enough space I dropped the pallet where it dumped and went for the third one. As I was trying to pull it out with the strap the whole pallet came apart and rotated so even if I had gotten it to the back of the trailer I wouldn't have been able to get the forks in place. I ended up piling up the rolls on the ground to the side by hand just to get it unloaded so I could make that second trip. I got that done and zipped back to the yard only to find they were out and the next semi wouldn't be there for another hour and a half, exactly the same time I had planned to get help laying it down.

I called up my dad and we switched vehicles and he agreed to pick up what was left while I headed home to start laying the mess that I already unloaded. I wasn't really impressed with the sod, it didn't seem to be cut uniformly and there were some holes and other crap in the pieces but once laid it seems okay and I can fix the undulations with a roller and sand. The frustrating thing is I helped a neighbor lay his sod from the same place a week prior and his seemed to be a lot better.

Anyway, it'll be fine.



So this is where we stand today. The sod was laid Tuesday the 12th. Cooler weather came and should stick around for a week or so which will really help as I water a ton and keep the boy off of the grass. I've been talking to a concrete curbing guy and am still waiting to hear back on when he'll be able to come and put that in place between the lawn and flower beds. I had the curbing in before grass up front and had hoped we could do that for the back but the guy said hes working a construction job this year and is only doing the curbing on weekends so he was booked out a while. With warmer temps coming I decided I'd rather get the grass in now then wait and deal with heat while it works to establish.

I've been wanting to go buy trees and shrubs really bad but was able to resist until the grass was down. I am planning to go do some shopping this afternoon though. I'm not ready for all of the plants for the back yard but I've got some areas that are ready. We'll see what I can find and for a reasonable price.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I'll have more pictures and another update soon.


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

I ended up buying a bunch of stuff on Friday and then was able to install most of it Saturday. Its certainly still a big work in progress but its crazy how big of a difference some trees and sod can make on the overall feel of the house.

Here are some pics.

There are three columnar oaks and then two doublefile viburnams in this first pic. Its a little hard to see the viburnams but they are sitting between the oaks. At the end of the yard by the trampoline there is a prairiefire crabapple and three more doublefile viburnams.




Here we have a bloodgood japanese mapel and two paperbark maples. I have 5 lupines that go between the japanese maple and the first paperbark and then there are 5 kelseyi dogwoods that go between the paperbarks and the grass. Across the way I have 5 burning bushes by the back fence.


The biggest things I'm missing are two bur oaks that will go near the burning bushes and the other corner. The couple nurseries I went to didn't have any made me want to buy them. There are a few bushes and things that will also fill in the other areas too.

I need more topsoil and I need a whole mess of compost. While I'm trying to source those items I'm waiting for my concrete curbing guy to come out. Thats kind of why I held off planting some of the shrubs by the paperbarks. I figured that they would be in the way of his installing machines.


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

I couple updates and some pictures.

I've bought and planted a few more trees and spent the long memorial weekend wrangling 12 yards of compost into the flower beds. I get compost from the local dump which I think is a pretty great product and has a certification from the USCC. Its also pretty economical compared to the offerings from the nurseries and plant shops. I was able to buy 6 yards for $60 in two trips. In the past I've turned the compost from the previous year into the soil then top dressed it with fresh stuff but with my drip system at this house I decided to try not disturbing the soil and just top dress again. We'll see how it goes and assess how to proceed for next year. As you'll see I'm still waiting on the concrete curbing. Its frustrating because I've done so much work in the yard but it still looks disjointed and incomplete and it will until the curbing is in place.

These are the front yard that is coming in and filling in nicely.









Here are pics from the backyard.


The two trees on the right side are bur oaks and a Hoopsii blue spruce which I planted last Friday.








That pile of topsoil is for a few other areas like this one that still needs more work. I'm going to run some electrical from the garage to the corner of the deck stairs so I can run lights under the deck and down the road a water pump for a water feature.


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## beardizzle1 (Jun 13, 2019)

@nnnnnate

I just read this entire thread and my body now aches. Unbelievable job and I can't imagine the physical and mental work this took. Impressive. I started reading this thread because I'm a golfer and I thought "Putting in my yard" was putting like on a green, not installing. :lol:


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## duncangweller (Jun 3, 2020)

beardizzle1 said:


> @nnnnnate
> 
> I just read this entire thread and my body now aches. Unbelievable job and I can't imagine the physical and mental work this took. Impressive. I started reading this thread because I'm a golfer and I thought "Putting in my yard" was putting like on a green, not installing. :lol:


The golfing thing was why I started reading it too. Was glad I did though - nicely done.


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## hsvtoolfool (Jul 23, 2018)

Ooo, what are these? Me likey...


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## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

Thanks for the thoughts guys, unfortunately I'm not a golfer and I guess there is a little bait and switch in that title if you do. Yeah, its been a lot of work but I've been lucky to have some good neighbors with equipment that will do work for a reasonable amount of money as well as family that has the time and ability to move dirt with me. Also, the corona shutdown gave me a lot more time at home this spring which was crazy helpful to get the back yard going.

@hsvtoolfool those are dwarf blue lupine (lupinus x 'gallery blue'). They are pretty cool, last year I didn't see any of those cones but all of them have blasted them out this year. I probably should trim back the spent flower cones but I haven't yet. There are a few different color cones as well and the bees LOVE them.

I've bought another batch of shrubs but we got a mess of rain all weekend which was lovely so I wasn't able to plant. Its supposed to dry out this week though so I'll give things a couple days then get back at it. I did start to trench for an electrical run but the trench turned into a river with the rain. Hopefully I'll have another update later this week/weekend.


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## hsvtoolfool (Jul 23, 2018)

Thanks! Beautiful work. You make me feel lazy.


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