Its been a little while since Ive updated here, but I work in the yard pretty much every wknd, little projects mostly, but Ive started a little bit bigger one so I thought Id show my progress so far.

My lawn in front has been getting killed by bunnies, a drought and dog pee, its the front of the house so I needed to do something to fix this area...so here goes, haha...I'll post sequence in installments



The synthetic lawn I plan on putting in...

I took down the soil level about 3 inches or so, I have to refill with self leveling gravel and sand, this will be the base and provide drainage...

But I got to thinkin' (never a good thing)...this is synthetic turf, I dont want it looking *too* fake so...I thought maybe divide the area up, yet open up a little more at the same time so...i already have one dry "river" running thru the yard, maybe Ill make another one and that will give a little island between them of plants. I opened it up a little more so while the lawn area will be divided now, itll also be bigger

Saturday I got the river laid out, did my tiers, and set boulders

Sunday I collected all the rock and set it, opened up the right side a little more so the lawn extends over further, and laced out the juniper by the garage








So thats what I got so far...hopefully I can install the lawn next weekend

That looks like a big project!

Hahaha Jessie, it wasn't supposed to be that big a project! It'll change a little before the grass goes in, I want to remove a couple boulders off the sides and replace with a certain plant I like. When I drove down the street today and pulled in the driveway, the boulders along the sides looked a little too much like a "wall". I also plan on mounding the grass instead of it just laying flat, hard to explain but that's what I envision, anyways

Jimmy, I love it...the river is awesome, and I am so happy you got this thread going again. You do know you missed your calling, haha, you need to be a landscape designer.

Thank you Renee!!! I hardly ever ache, but today I do, lol. All those rocks you see inside the river, I had to carry up from the canyon, so I'd fill a 5 gallon bucket of rocks and carry it up the steep slope and into the front yard. My legs hurt, hahaha. It was a lot of trips back and forth! Most of the big boulders were already out there, I just moved them around but even that was a bit tough, I think some of them weigh more than me! The others I'd move from where they were stored, with my skateboard, LOLOL , hey, it worked

I'd have loved to be a designer! It's not too late, its something I've been thinking about as far as taking classes and stuff. I love yard type work

Something kinda cute...the two pics before the last, where u can see the front screen door, if you zoom in, you can see Mishka is there watching me, lol. She always has to keep me in her sights, lol

Oh, haha, I can see her. Such a daddy's girl. You should rig something up so they can pull the rocks for you, so you don't hurt yourself, lol. I can't wait to see the finished project.

Looking good, Jimmy! All I can say is how do you have so much time on your hands to work on this stuff?!

I desperately want to work on my garden/yard but just never have the time to devote to it. Inevitably every 5 minutes or less the kids are yelling "Mommy!" in tears or want something. I guess I have to live vicariously through others for a little while.

I'm so glad to see you in the yard again. Your projects only make me itch to get going on mine. that front area is going to look great when done.

Oh my gosh! That's a whole lot of manual labor but at least you know you got a good workout and you're going to have the best lawn in the neighborhood I need to hire you to design our yard for us. We have tons of rocks and boulders and it seems you're an expert at moving them.......hehehe But seriously, this looks really beautiful so far and I can't wait to see what this looks like once you complete it. Are you getting any special type of grass that could withstand dog pee (if any exists)?

We had to take down a lot of dead trees last summer and move out the logs to the very outskirts of our yard. I have a bad back so my husband moved all the logs by himself, barehanded. He left one last gigantic log and said he'd do it the next day cause he was too pooped. I told him I'd take care of it for him but he scoffed and said "yeah...sure....with your bad back?" He came home from work the next day and couldn't believe I had moved it all by myself He was wearing the most dumbfounded look until I revealed to him that I used the dolly and didn't have to bend down once to even move the thing.

@Renee...she is a daddy's girl I love her so much!!!

@Val, thank you so much! Besides not having kids (which is huge! so I can totally understand your dilemma) Im someone who cant sit still, LOL...on projects such as this one, Im lucky in that I can just tire my pups out in the morning, and be good for the rest of the day til about 2pm. Only drawback is no hike for them when I have a bigger project going on but its not often so I think im good! For you, Im thinking once the kids are in school, you can garden more

@Jenn...im ALWAYS in the yard, lol, Ive done a lot of little changes here and there I hope when you can get out there, you share what youre up to with us! I love seeing everyones gardening projects Thanks Jenn, I hope the vision thats in my head makes it to reality, haha

@Amanda, Im using a synthetic turf, I know I know, fake stuff sucks but with droughts and bunnies, etc, this just makes more sense. A lot of people around here are using it and I gotta admit, it looks pretty good! This turf is resistant to pees and mold and all that stuff, with dog pee, like if its used in a kennel or something, theres a deodarizing agent you add to the sand mixture that takes care of smells, otherwise a rinse with water here and there keeps this stuff good. Its got a 15 year warranty.
Hahaha, nice! on the dolly! I dont have one so I used my skateboard, which works out great cuz they can make nice tight turns and stuff, wouldnt be good for your back though .

So heres pics to give an idea of what itll look like...a *rough* idea...

Keep in mid itll be raised up higher (kinda like where its sitting on the brick edging, height wise) so itll  make the river not look so blocky/heavy



Look how realistic they make it!


I placed a begonia on the edge of the river here to give an idea of how Ill have plants/flowers here and there along the edge...grass will go right up to the boulders where I dont put plants

Ooooo very nice! Actually I don't mind the Astro turf because I had joked with my husband that it would actually be beneficial for us to switch over to synthetic. Especially with the dog pee. But alas, cost is too much for us to do the whole yard.

Question for you, not sure if you've addressed this prior so I apologize if I missed it somewhere along the way, do you have an irrigation system in place for the plants? And if so, will that also be "watering" (or washing) the artificial turf when you run it for the sake of the rest of the plants?

@Amanda, i imagine your yard is huge like your neighbors (?) there'd be other issues besides price for something *that* big, like having to do seams and stuff. Main reason for breaking my yard up (with the river) was to eliminate the need for a seam, besides having to be VERY precise, I just think a seam wouldn't hold up well. The high school below my house has this turf on their football field, and it requires quite a bit of maintenance because of the activity these fields experience and having to have seams.

@Val, there is an irrigation system in place, but hardly ever used. Most of the plants are mature and don't require a lot of water, plus in drought restricted times here, irrigation systems can only be run certain days and times, but hand watering can be done anytime. Underneath my Santa barbara daisies are pop ups that would water the yard if I used them, on one head I've already installed a drip line adaptor that I can run a hose from along the river to water any plants/flowers I plant there, it's rolled up underneath the daisies, as well as an outlet I use for when I decorate with lights for Christmas. With this type of turf installation, part of installing it is removing your irrigation system for that area, not sure why because as you said, it would rinse the turf off on a regular basis, but I do see where water savings/cost savings would be nil if irrigation was left in place for something that requires no water.

of course i look at this right before i head out of the office. i have been slammed here the last 3 months.
i like where you are going but will you have anything on the turf other then the mounds? maybe add in a 3 boulder grouping off to the side to break it just just a little more so its not a big area of green? like right where the bricks end on the left side?
i love the added river in the front. oh the trouble we could cause if we ever worked on projects together!!!!

i have been itching to get into my yard, been cleaning up leaves the last 3 weekends. i will be on maintenance this yr, seeing want does and does not come back, and maybe reworking around the pond.

keep up the work

<sighs> I'm not sure yet Jenn, I'm using this week to contemplate, so when the weekend gets here I can just do it. I read this just as I was about to walk out the door with my two for their walk, so I ran out and drew in the dirt a little and took pics for you to kinda show where my head is atm. I'll post them up in just a little while, after I get settled (well, more the dogs get settled, haha)

Ok, so here are my thoughts atm Jenn (and if you or anyone else have ideas,  Id love to hear them!)

Along the river, I'd like plants/flowers, itll break up the "line"  of rocks that form the sides of the river, add color and soften some of the harsh edges, so Im making these little semi circle pods for that, three on one side, two on the other (those lines drawn in the dirt)


so that area of green got pretty small...and with slightly mounding the grass so it "rolls" (idea behind slightly mounding the surface is to inset the river more and from what I've read online, gives the actual turf a more realistic look as opposed to a flat surface) any more things added might just make it too cluttered

Now over here on the right side (it has the two pods) I left a ledge to fill with flowers (Im thinkin impatiens) but I may still cut more area of grass into this side but no matter what Id like a ledge so the flowers are seen on both rivers



I know exactly what you're saying though Jenn, that left side kinda just needs some boulders to polish off the whole thing, I think once the turf is installed, I can roll a boulder out there, see how it'd look, with something there, and make a decision then.

i like the idea of the half circles on each side, it will help.
I would plant some creeper plants on the edge so they go onto the turf as well, a nice over flow look that you don't have to worry about mowing over!

you are a pro at moving boulders so a few more at the end wont be to bad

Nope, we only have about 1 acre and a tiny house to go with it but even so, I can see how expensive that stuff can get.

Yes Jenn! I have a plant in mind, I used it by my fountain project, but I've been to two nurseries already and havnt located them, it has arching fronds that are wispy with tiny apricot colored flowers, I want them to hang into the river as well without being intrusive.

Ahh, Amanda! I could have so much fun designing an acre of land! Lol

Wow I'm in love with what I'm seeing so far! That really does look like a ton of work but your yard will be the prize of the neighborhood when you're done. It's going to be so nice to get up every morning knowing you did all this work yourself.
We actually only have about a 1/2 acre (I'm a terrible judge of land size). We can't do much over our yard because our sewage system is septic so it's always just a tad more damp over thr leach field. That's what happens when we live out on no where's land!

Thank you so much Amanda!

It's a lot of work but I don't really feel it, this kind of work is relaxing to me, I go off in to my own little world, lol. I'm hoping this weekend is productive in that the turf will be in at the very least, and if I can accomplish that, the rest is cake...it might actually all be done this weekend

My father lives on a property that I think uses septic. His yard is fully landscaped but I think there's a certain amount of space around the septic that has to stay clear. I'm not really sure. But that's workable too, you can just make winding pathways to disguise your "limitations" and have several focal points of interest type of gardens within a garden. Open space is always nice too though.

Done!!! Ill add pics later of different plants I used as well as certain things that didnt go as planned, things I added, etc. but for now I wanted to get the finished product up