No Maintenance Front Yard. No Mowing, No Fertilizer,
Don’t get me wrong, this was a huge undertaking.
I wanted a maintenance free front yard.
I got estimates ranging from $5,500 to $6,800. That wasn’t happening!
I removed four inches of grass, a lot of work! I bought Lowe’s best weed mat, mat pins and 8 low growing Junipers as they are drought resistant and can tolerate our intense Florida heat, they thrive in full sun. I wanted to be certain the weeds wouldn’t grow thru overlapping mat so I bought Heavy Duty white duct tape.
Once the junipers and mat was in place I ordered 1 & 1/2 tons of 2” river rock dumped on a tarp in the street spilling onto the mat. Now comes the really hard part. Shoveled all the rock in all the crevices - still in the process of finishing the rock wall but here are the before and after photos.
Before, looks like grass but more weeds than grass. Expensive to maintain. Water is expensive in Florida. Landscaper maintenance was overpriced.
Ended up removing that black mat because the best mat has two colors, one side is black, the other side is tan which doesn’t poke thru if the rocks are shy in an area. But I put 3” of river rock over the mat
Started building my rock wall. Still not quite finished yet. I found these gorgeous rock slabs at a demo site where they were ripping down the facade made 4 trips filling up the trunk of my Camry.
Placed edging around the Junipers and duct taped the mat using 2 pkgs of mat pins 150 pins.
Filling in the front one shovel at a time.
More shoveling!
Got creative with the shapes.
Getting there
Finished shoveling then cut the xtra weed mat from the road.
Still doing the wall. It’s like a puzzle and I’m not sure if I want to use masonry glue or mortar. I’d prefer it look natural rather than cement mortar.
Lots to go, but it’s exactly what I wanted and since I did it myself, I know it was done right.
Once the wall is finished that back area will be covered with mat and Cyprus No Float mulch, it prevents the growth of weeds as it contains Eucalyptus and some type of mentholated scent.
The foundation for my wall changed as I ran out of a good base. I used bricks and staggered them creating a base using play sand and pebble
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There was a couple in a very very large designer home and put the artificial turf down and The Villages made them take it all up. They’ll let you do rocks as long as the front is 30% green. I didn’t ask anyone anything I just did it. It took me quite awhile and back breaking effort.
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"Four trips in the trunk of my Camry" -- applause! I love that type of "not going to let that stop me" attitude.
Frequently asked questions
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Did you rent a sod cutter from Lowe's? I don't know about in your area but where I live (SE WI) you can rent them from both Lowe's and Home Depot, and there is also an independent company that rents out lawn equipment and machines for jobs like that and jobs like lugging large stones (for large retaining wall building) around.
Clearly you don’t have Australian shepherds.? I put down river rock and my dogs very quickly moved it off the matting onto my pea gravel pathway and every place else but were it was suppposed to be. So if you have dogs beware with this sort of project. Fencing comes next, to keep dogs out of river rock!