Backyard with a walk way leading to a hole in the ground
What is first when revamping a yard full weeds
I have a very large backyard that has lots of weeds and several holes that need to be filled with dirt. Do I put weed killer first then till the ground since it is not all even. I would like to plant a couple of fruit trees on the side of the yard then put sidewalk on the back portion so I can put a shed for my tools and lawn mower and then grass in the middle of the yard. I believe I might have to get a gardener to put sprinklers or some type of irrigation system to water all the plants and grass. What tools should I purchase to get me started?
one of the holes in my back yard
part of the side of my backyard with another hole in it.
Wow, what a big project you have ahead of you! It's going to be awesome when you are done though. We also started with a big field of weeds at our last house. We started by coming up with a landscape plan for our yard. Honestly, the best thing we did was rent a BobCat for a weekend and rip everything out to start from scratch. We had tried to manage the weeds and level things ourselves before and it was just so much work. Once we removed everything, we were able to get the ground completely level. At that point, we also installed a sprinkler system as well.
OMG huge job! Agreed to rent equipment for leveling, etc. If you want permanent irrigation, install that next. I'd get the trees in as soon as you've got a landscaping plan on paper so they can get growing. If you want "perfect" grass, put in sod where you know you want lawn and mark off where your garden beds will be.
Hi I'm a Master Gardener and here are a few ideas... First come up with a plan short-term and then long-term. You don't say where you live but since I see cactuses I'm assuming you live in a warm climate. The first thing I would do is not worry about killing the grass as it looks like it may already be dead. Removing the grass is a different thing. Depending on how much of this you can do yourself or if you have help we rented a Turf remover machine. Basically it's kind of like a riding lawn mower but removes the turf. Then you can add either top soil or compost that you can buy by a trailer full and add. If you are going to have fixed locations for your fruit trees, vegetables, flowers or whatever else you're going to plant then putting in a sprinkler system would be a good idea. Depending on what your budget is I would not do that myself. I would use that money for other things. You may also want to consider building a shed in the backyard for storage? If so do that before you plant. If you spray grass killer and till the soil you will effectively till in all of the grass seed and it will grow back. Personally I avoid chemicals since it goes into the ground water and is expensive!. So those are just a few ideas and your local Extension Office should be able to give you some ideas about what things thrive in your climate. Good luck, do a little at a time, and work with your weather. Sometimes if you live in a hot climate the best time to do these projects is in the winter. Raised beds are also an option.