Our yard is around 11,000 square feet. After you subtract out the house, driveway, sidewalk we are left with around 7000 square feet of sandy dirt. (It was new cponstruction in a development.) Our HOA requires that the landscapeing be completed 6 months after move in. They also require a written plan (along with a submission fee) which they have to approve before you can start.
My wife is the one with the vision on how the yard should look. I'm the one doing the work, drawing the plans etc. We want a little over 3000 sq feet of grass, a play area for our son, several planting beds, several trees, a water feature, and a concrete patio.
I've been using google sketchup to draw the plans. It is a great tool! I got caried away doing the 3d modeling. In the end I went back to a simple 2d plot that I use to measure areas for sod, irrigation etc.
We have met with several professional landscapers discussing ideas, plans and costs. Many are willing to work with us letting us DIY some things while they do some other parts. Other landscapers will note allow us to do any of the work. One of the issues is something like irrigatoon. If it is done incorrectly the plants will die and they can't be responsible if they don't do all the work. We will probably end up contracting out some parts of the job, but intend to try and do as much as possible ourselves.
| Dates | Step | My Cost | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5/27/07 | Buy Topsoil | $478 | 15 cubic yards delivered |
| 5/27-28/07 | Till Ground 6-inches deep | $75 | Rental Fee rear-tine 6hp tiller for 24 hours |
| 5/28/07-6/3/07 | Spread Topsoil | (work) | Hard Work! shovels, Rake, Wheelbarrow |
| 5/29/07 | Submit Tree Request | (free) | Our city provides "tree certificates" for new houses. These are good for $150 off certain trees from local nursuries. |
| 6/3/07 | Till In Topsoil | $45 | rental Fee, mid-tine tiller 4 hours |
| 6/6/07 | Call 811 | (free) | The law requires that you have buried utillities marked before you dig. Our dirt yard was flagged and painted within 3 days. (This is only valid for 30 days) |
| 6/9/07 | Submit Drawings for irrigation system | (free) | A local plumbing Company (ABC plumbing) will draw irrigation plans and include a parts list for free. (I believe rain bird also does this) |
| 6/9/07 | 2 4-zone controllers | $4 | Lowes had the old model on sale for $2, they were orriginally $39. Each one controls 4 zones, so I bought 2 and will run them independently giving me a total of 8 zones. |
| 7/13/07 | head parts | SprinklerWarehouse.com | |
| (6x) 100-DVF-MB | $105 | ||
| (8x) 10H | $7.36 | ||
| (2x) 15EST | $1.84 | ||
| (40x) 1804 | $66.00 | ||
| (38x) BS9000 | $96.90 | ||
| (4x) HP2000 | $9.76 | ||
| (1x) HP4000 | $2.78 | ||
| (40x) HSBE-050 | $11.20 | ||
| 7/14/07 | 600' 1" poly line | $100 | Sprinkler World |
| 7/19/07 | Call 811 | (free) | The law requires that you have buried utillities marked before you dig. Our dirt yard was flagged and painted within 3 days. (This is only valid for 30 days) |
| Google Sketchup | Great drawing program (Free) |
| 811 | |
| Jess Stryker Irrigation Tutorial | http://www.irrigationtutorials.com/sprinkler00.htm |
| rin bird | http://rainbird.com/ |
| Waterfall and pond |
| I can
be contacted
at: |
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