Quick landscape tips

[RosieTR]

So the realtor said that the house is OK but the backyard is pretty much bare. I have no idea how the renters got rid of *everything* in the yard since there were several native trees that shouldn't have required supplemental water, but whatever. The question now is, what is the best way to put in quick landscaping for relatively cheap? I may have to do this myself in a weekend but it doesn't have to be fancy or anything-just hopefully not too expensive and not too time consuming.

[SteveinMN]

Rosie, how amenable is the weather to planting anything now?

For all the static that lush green lawns get, it remains that it's the fastest way (aside from Astroturf) to get something growing. Just putting down sod might be your best bet -- fast and not terribly expensive if you have time for it to establish and not die. You could even get some edging or rocks or something and mark off "future" garden areas which you could then leave bare.

[Blackdog Lin]

With not knowing how bare you mean by "bare".....I'm thinking just clean it all up, I mean ALL cleaned up, no debris from previous landscaping, no weeds, all mowed down and.....bare. And then a focal point like a small free-form or circle ringed with native rock, filled in nicely with rock or mulch, with a native tree in the center and a grass and/or shrub and/or perennial flower. In my neck of the woods, this would be a spot ringed with flat sandstones (I could go 2 miles outside of town and gather all the free stones I could ever want), a 4-ft. Redbud tree (they grow wild here, we have 2 in our yard that we dug up and replanted from out in the country), and mulch, a decorative grass and a large daylily from the nursery. A weekend and $100 would do it (though it would be a fair amount of work, I admit. Digging up and replanting baby trees has always, in our experience, been WAY more work than it seems like it should). :)

As a buyer, I'm thinking that all the clean space would stimulate me to impose my own imagination on the landscaping, using the done focal point to give me a starting place.

[Gardenarian]

It's probably to late, but I would just mow the yard (whatever is left of it) rake everything so it looks neat, lay down mulch (if necessary), and get a couple of plants in pots to put on either side of the front door.

I'd actually like a yard that is a blank slate so I could do whatever I liked. Weird about the trees disappearing, though.

[RosieTR]

OK, the realtor sent some pics and actually there are two native shade trees left so that's good. We had planted them near the house in such a way to give shade in the summer, so anyone with part of a brain should be able to appreciate that. There's also a brick-lined path I had made that's still there which looks like it could be an outline of a small lawn, with other stuff outside. For now, the landscape person will just clean up weeds and any junk or dead stuff around and we'll see how it goes. If it seems to be a block for people looking, DH and I, or just I, will go down and do a bit of work with some gravel and perennials. Thanks for the tips, though!

[milli]

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[Tanglefoot]

Are you selling the property or putting it back up for rent? If selling, my plan (very bare backyard here as well) is just to rake it clean and list it with a landscaping allowance (with a note that encourages xeriscaping). I find it very frustrating (and wasteful) when a previous occupant puts a lot of resources into improvements, only to have the improvements removed and changed by the next occupant.