CUYAHOGA COUNTY, Ohio —
With the extra time indoors and budgets tight, "Do It Yourself" projects can be a great way to pass time, upgrade your home and distract you from the stress associated with a changed way of life due to COVID-19.
With all this in mind, my family decided to tackle a backyard DIY landscaping project -- and lucky for us, our neighbor, Isaiah Brazytis, is a professional landscaper.
“This is a great time to work on your yard,” Brazytis says. “You're at home anyhow.”
BIGGEST DIY LANDSCAPING MISTAKES
Brazytis is a maintenance supervisor at LeafStone Landscapes out of Walton Hills. He says the biggest DIY lawn mistakes Northeast Ohioans make are planting things that deer like to eat and taking on a project too big to handle.
Here are before-and-after photos of their landscaping project:
PROFESSIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR WIGGINS FAMILY
After looking over our lawn with my husband, Chris, Brazytis recommended we clean up our flower beds, lay down mulch and put in a path from the side of the garage to the driveway. The path would give us a spot for our grill that's not so close to the garage.
Our budget for the project was $400.
My kids and I are not good at landscaping, so Chris did most of the work through hail, snow and rain during this week-long April project.
Even though we did go over budget (spending a little more than $500), the entire family was proud of how the patio, walkway and landscaping turned out.
“Daddy, didn’t do a good job,” said my 9-year-old, Christen. “He did amazing!”
Although we made the mistake of making upgrades that we didn’t budget for, Brazytis told us that if we had hired a professional to complete the same project, our cost would have doubled. Needless to say, we didn’t mind spending the extra $100 to get what we wanted.
LANDSCAPING MATERIALS AND PROCESS
Materials
- Rake
- Shovel
- Edger
- Rocks
- Mulch
- Stone bricks( various sizes)
- Sand
- Paver set
- Weed screening
- Lava rocks
- Pick mattock
- Tamper shovel
- 2x4 wood block (to level the sand )
Flower Bed Process
- Clean flower beds of old mulch and dead leaves
- Pull out rocks that serve to line the flowerbed
- Lay mulch and spread evenly with a rake and hands
- Reset the border of the flower bed with stones after the mulch is evenly spread
Patio and Walkway Process
- Measure out dimensions of the patio, walkway and flower bed.
- Dig the patio and pull up grass,
- Dig about 3 inches deep for the walkway and patio,
- Take off the top layer of grass for the flower bed.
- Level out ground with a tamper and remove any tree roots so the stones for the patio will lay flat,
- Lay down weed barrier in flower bed, patio and walkway to help prevent weeds ,
- Add sand to patio and walkway holes,
- Smooth out and level sand to help stone bricks lay flat,
- Lay bricks for patio and walkway,
- After stones for the walkway are laid, place black Lava rocks in between stones for decoration. Lay mulch in newly formed flower bed along the walkway.
- Place paver set on stone bricks in the patio. Brush paver set in cracks between stones and wet. This help stones stay together and not shift.
- Clean up and enjoy!