We live in NJ in a pretty nice suburb of NYC (where we used to work) on a steeply sloped hill. It's a nice place. Not only do we want to live here for a while more (you could say we're wasting a ton of money on taxes, but hey, public schools are decent, diverse, and a lot cheaper than private… plus there are TONS of opportunities for our kids here).
There was this nasty space behind the house. Imagine a terrace covered in gravel and sand. Next to the house are two AC condensers, two trees and two bushes. All of these were behind a stone fence. I expanded the stone fence significantly, giving all the trees room to grow and allowing me to plant native rhododendrons and mountain laurels to screen out the condensers plus some native plants as ground cover. Yeah, they cost me a little money but my property is an investment and I don't like planting garbage for the sake of it. Since they're native, once they are established they should thrive. Or such at least is the theory.
The previous owner installed downspouts that dumped water right on the foundations. Bad and dumb. I installed drainage pipe and built a rain garden at the open end. No leaks! I don't have any good before shots, but the drainage pipe is roughly where the stone wall originally was.
Removed the gravel and sand and used it as a base for the rain garden. Covered over the compacted area with topsoil. Also moved a stone wall so that the trees would have room to grow. I added mulch made of leaves I shredded with my string trimmer (why pay for cedar?). I had to buy some topsoil, about 12 tons worth, brought it down myself in a wheelbarrow.
It took me 3 weeks of work to do all this. I doubt that any workers could have been more than 10% more efficient that I was. Probably less, since I was willing to work harder, longer hours. No machinery could have sped up this work without tearing up the neighboring lawn.
At the end we spent $211 for sod instead of $35 for seed. Yeah, we were wastrels, but my wife wanted to have a party there in a month for my daughter's 8th grade class, so why not. Given everything we did, I think we saved around $8,000-10,000 on this project (remember this is near NYC where things are pricey). It was a ton of work, but I listened to a lot of good podcasts.
My favorite tool for this was a 16 pound bar. I also bought a Jackson wheelbarrow to make all this happen as my Tru Temper was giving up. Good tools. They will last me a long time.
I'm looking at
http://federaltwist.com for future landscaping ideas for around my house. The key is going to be to figure out how to propagate my own plants to save on the cost of nursery stock.
Our lawn isn't too big. I have a push reel mower. As in no motor, no gas, no electricity. It works well and is easy to maintain.
