Removing Lawn??

[chasineyes]

Every year I go throught the same quandry...why do I have a rear yard? I live in a newer development and have a back yard that litteraly buts up against 5 other yards where no one did ANY landscaping, just through down grass. I spaded a maple 7 years ago and have planted 2 other trees in hopes of creating a "island". Problme is our lawns are so darn small, there is little you can do in them other than mow, water (repeat) and a swing set. I'm seriously thinking of ripping out most of it and doing some "creative, but decorative" landscaping. Are there landscapers what would "take out sod" if it's in good shape? And would this really hurt me down the road for re-sale? As I get older and wiser I seem to question why people do put down so much grass, especially on the sides where you have a 45degree slope. Thanks for the thoughts!!!

[Powerstroke]

WHy do people put down grass? Because grass is cheap, easy to do and accepted by most. Landscaping brings up all sorts of arguments about plants, borders, ground covers, ornamental features, and of course costs.

It will hurt your resale if the landscaping is not very traditional. If its unique, it might not sell and it costs money to remove or change.

Pulling out sod with a sodcutter and put into rolls can be resold but not too often. It might be good to line up a buying beforehand using the c-list or something.

[LwnmwnMan2]

You won't be able to reuse the sod. It'll be tore into too many small pieces.

You can get someone to do a tear out for you if they can get in there with a skidsteer, but it'll just turn into fill.

Powerstroke hit the nail on the head.

People put down grass because it's cheap, easy to maintain.

Landscaping costs money, lots of it. If you have a 45 degree slope, chances are you would have to build a retaining wall to landscape the area. You wouldn't be able to keep rock or mulch on a hill like that with any amounts of rain.

To do a whole backyard with mulch or rock is quite spendy. Mulch would have to be redone every year or two because the mulch would decay. Plus you have to trim the bushes at least every 2-3 years. Rock would be VERY spendy, plus debris builds up in the rock and every 4-5 years it should be completely cleaned out.

Grass is all over, because it's the "easiest" and "cheapest" option. Much like gasoline / oil.

[deerminator]

Ditto on the above. However, even though the mulch and plantings are more work and money, they're also fun work and an investment. In fact, I would think that done right, the landscaping would increase your property value. We've slowly been overtaking woods and weeds around the house for the past 5 years and replacing them with mulch and plantings versus grass. Less time spent with the lawnmower and more with the wife and kids planting ornamental trees and all sorts of perrenials. It's fun and after you get going, it's just a matter of plant maintenance, weeding and freshening mulch. I buy on average, 70-80 bags of cyprus mulch each year when Menards has them on sale for $2 a bag. Cheaper and easier than the nursery. Granted, this is to establish new areas and freshen existing ones. I imagine that will go down eventually.

If you study up on plants and the right way to plant them, you can save a lot of money by doing everything yourself. I would reccommend buying your ornamental trees and focal point plants like magnolia bushes and the like from a quality nursery and filling in around them with perennials like day lilies, ornamental grasses and sedum, etc., from the big box stores. Good luck!

[Steve Foss]

I'm in deerminator's camp.

What he's been doing is what we've been doing. Of course, we do it all ourselves, since we've been growing things all our lives and spent years in the landscaping/greenhouse business.

Freecycle and other word-of-mouth freebies, as well as trips to the city compost dump, yield all the free perennials and shrubs we need, though we have spent some $ on specific cultivars we couldn't get any other way.

And there are plenty of ways to barter or trade for what is needed.

We do it because we love it. We don't worry whether it'll increase or decrease the value of our home. One day we'll probably sell it, but things will take care of themselves then. Meanwhile, we're immersed in turning our back yard, and the long unclaimed section of woods/brush/scrub on our property into vegetable and perinnial gardens.

Great times!

[deerminator]

And I agree with Steve, if you keep your ears and eyes open, you can get a lot of free and substantially discounted stuff. Several times a year, the big box store have about every kind of perennial available for just over $3. I left one of them this year with nearly thirty plants for just over $100. It filled a large area previously filled with weeds and poison ivy and I'll never have to mow.

Also, watch out for online nurseries. Most are legit but you don't really understand what you're getting until you order plants from them. Buy a dogwood they tout as well-established foot tall seedling and you end up getting a thin twig that takes 5 years just to look like the smallest dogwood at the nursery if it makes it that long. I have had a lot of luck with three things from online nurseries - bulbs, seeds and hosta roots. The latter of which can really pan out. You'll spend just over a buck for one usually and after the second or third season, you can have a really nice hosta that would have cost you five times that at the nursery or big box store. That adds up if you buy 30 or 60 of them at a time as fillers.

Finally, another tip, establish a natural compost/mulch pile and use that as your base layer. I typically lay 2-3 inches of shredded leaves from the previous fall down as the base layer for new planting areas and then cover that with another inch or two of storebought wood chips for appearance. Saves you a lot of money.

Good luck as I said. Landscaping like this can become an addiction.

[LwnmwnMan2]

While I agree that landscaping will take care of the weekly maintenance of grass, it's still alot of work, especially if you don't have a green thumb.

You're not able to "plant it and forget it", and if you live in a cookie cutter sub-division, you MAY have alot of neighbors disgusted by all the "weeds".

Get a feel for your neighbors, realize that it'll take a bit of work to get things rolling, and then take the tips from the above posts.

[deerminator]

Ditto. If you live in a subdivision, though, you may be able to hire some neighbor kids for cheap labor to do the weeding for you. : ) lol