A few projects we've been working on

[Chritaka]

My wife and I have finally started getting done all of our outside projects, now that the inside is remodeled like we want.

Before the patio, after I redid the enclosed patio this last summer. I also had the gutters redone and a new French drain put in over the summer. Note the dirt and foundation.

[Chritaka]

New patio finished:


I moved all the sprinkler valves and had them put in a small wall to help keep the dirt at bay:

[Chritaka]

[Chritaka]

3 cubic yards of topsoil brought in to raise the flower beds where they needed to be:


I just finished laying the new stone edging (just over a ton). I used some 8" drystack since I needed some heavy-duty stone there to hold all the dirt back. I also left the small red edging behind the stone, at the suggestion of my patio builder, to help reinforce the bed wall. The rest of the beds I'll be tearing out that edging though.





We still need to redo/add a few plants in a few spots and patch up the grass, but it's done for the most part.

[Chritaka]

I also ripped out the timbers around the front trees and laid a ton of stone:

[Chritaka]

We still have a lot to do before it's where we want it, but we've knocked a lot out the last few months. We still have the main front bed and another small bed in the backyard to redo, which I still have over a 1.5 tons of stone for... We are also going to add a new shed on the side, where the old metal one was that we tore down.

I tell you one thing, I've got a whole new respect for landscapers... Carrying all that stone around, chipping it away to make it fit right, etc will kick your ass!

[KBScobravert]

It all looks great. I love the boxes in the front around the trees with the lights. The stone edgers look great and yes, that stuff is a lot of damn work.

The only issue I see is the close proximity of the trunk to the patio edge. It does not look like a lot of room was left and in 10 years, based on the picture, I could see the tree getting into the deck.

[Chas_svo]

Looks good, and I was thinking the same thing Keith spotted. I'm not sure what the right answer is, but it will get into that rock, I'm pretty sure.

[Chritaka]

Thanks guys. It's hard to tell, but there' s a good 6 inches or so between the tree and wall. That's a fairly mature oak, so at most it should grow is 1/4" per year from what I checked (could be wrong). So it may possibly be an issue in 25 yrs or so, but even then it wouldn't be too difficult to notch the stone.

I'm sure we'll be long gone by then anyway, hopefully we'll out grow it in 4-5 yrs if all goes right!

[Chas_svo]

I figured something like that might be the case. Sometimes photos are deceiving.

[UserX]

Looks nice. I would have done a couple steps down to the patio, so it's not so high off the ground. No worries about someone falling and more private.