I need ideas!

[caruser4]

Hey, guys. First off, this is a LONG post so go use the bathroom first and go grab a bag of popcorn.

I'm soon to be the proud owner of a beautiful home (my first) and I need ideas for my front-, side-, and backyard. I'll be uploading pictures soon but for now, I'll try my best to explain. First off, I live in Mesquite, NV and it gets HOT out here. The temps go up to around 120 degrees and it's that nasty dry heat so that definately needs to be considered. I don't think I'd want grass in the back because it would be too much maintenance and I don't know if the grass would hold up. Right now, it looks like the previous owner started building a fountain in the back. There are big rocks in a pile that trail down to a rock pit where I imagine the water would collect. There's no piping or anything so I really want to just remove all the big rocks and put something else. We have no pets so we don't need anything special. I was thinking about turning up the hard-packed dirt and just leaving it like that but we get a lot of wind so that would be messy and I'm sure we'd get a lot of weeds. I had somebody recommend turf. Has anybody ever used turf in their yards?

The front yard has some interesting landscaping. It has three different kinds of rocks: gravel, pebbles, and small rocks all sectioned off. It's not really my cup of tea so I might get rid of that. About 1/3 of the yard is dead grass that I might just reseed and there are random bushes and a few trees on top of rock mounds. There's an irrigation system already installed so I don't think I want to get rid of all the vegetation in the front. The one thing that bothers me is the walkway that goes through the yard. It's made out of small boulders shoved into the ground and I really don't like it. Is it hard to make a cement stairway? It's only about four steps. Please post your landscaping ideas and I'll be putting up pictures within the next few days.

[Pete]

Hi there, congrats on the new home!
Being in the south we have Bermuda in most of the places. I haven't see anyone used artificial turf here. Or maybe some nice lawn was turf and I just didn't realize. Have you considered buffalo grass? It's a hot weather grass. Still there is work like weed control though.
Do you need to build a stair or just a walkway?
Here is nice video to build a artistic concrete walkway. You probably have a much smaller scale project but this one show the process and a nice touch with granite aggregate.
http://video.bobvila.com/m/21319575/...-aggregate.htm

[caruser4]

Originally Posted by Pete

Hi there, congrats on the new home!
Being in the south we have Bermuda in most of the places. I haven't see anyone used artificial turf here. Or maybe some nice lawn was turf and I just didn't realize. Have you considered buffalo grass? It's a hot weather grass. Still there is work like weed control though.
Do you need to build a stair or just a walkway?
Here is nice video to build a artistic concrete walkway. You probably have a much smaller scale project but this one show the process and a nice touch with granite aggregate.
http://video.bobvila.com/m/21319575/...-aggregate.htm

That's a pretty interesting video. The walkway in my future-home has a stairway with about two feet of flat walkway. I believe it has three or four stairs at most. It's really not very big but the rock stairs are ugly in my opinion. It it hard to make cement stairs?

[Ren]

Originally Posted by caruser4

That's a pretty interesting video. The walkway in my future-home has a stairway with about two feet of flat walkway. I believe it has three or four stairs at most. It's really not very big but the rock stairs are ugly in my opinion. It it hard to make cement stairs?

A couple of things I can think of:
Concrete stairs, if done wrong, is hard to get rid of. Think about disposing those heavy cement blocks.
So how can it go wrong? Small details. I believe there are codes need to be followed, such as the height of the risers. The code is there for a reason. I remember reading somewhere guy sit outside a building with a stair that has a riser half inch short and he couldn't believe how many people got tripped.
I guess my point is some good planning and measurement has to be done beforehand so there is less chance of headache later.
Good luck!

[wyatt]

Hello,

In my suggestion you have to do lot of planting in your garden from this landscape will reduce and your garden becomes full of plants.

Thanks !

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