Outdoor living

[Hebrew Barrister]

Any of you have plans to spruce up their yard for the summer, given that we are staying home more these days? What are your plans? I'm looking for ideas.

I have a large covered area with a concrete floor (roof extends from detached garage to house, creating this large patio area), a smaller deck shaded by a bunch of trees, and then a fairly wide open yard. My issue is that I'm in texas and so there are too many mosquitos. Mosquito netting is ugly.

[akosmowski]

Does your covered space have a fan? I assume it does, but if it doesn't , then you need to get one.

[Loafer28]

Any of you have plans to spruce up their yard for the summer, given that we are staying home more these days? What are your plans? I'm looking for ideas.

I have a large covered area with a concrete floor (roof extends from detached garage to house, creating this large patio area), a smaller deck shaded by a bunch of trees, and then a fairly wide open yard. My issue is that I'm in texas and so there are too many mosquitos. Mosquito netting is ugly.

Spray your yard with Home Depot bug spray every 2-3 weeks. That helps us with our mosquitos in Houston. The spray bottle attaches to a hose. A fan does help with the heat and the bugs.

[Hebrew Barrister]

Does your covered space have a fan? I assume it does, but if it doesn't , then you need to get one.

it doesn't, but this is very much on the list.

[JBarwick]

I have already planted flowers/bushes and mulched for the year. We are also doing some exterior repairs but other than that are set.

One thing I did in prior years and I am stuck on the fence currently is putting down grub/bug/tick killer on the yard. I assume it has helped keep ticks away in the past but am I killing helpful bugs?

[fencedwall]

I was thinking yesterday after that post if there was a thread going for outdoor spaces.

I am in the process of cleaning up the fence and sealing it today between my Zoom office hours. After that my wife will do some plantings (I always kill them).

Last year we bought the Biolite "smokeless" fire pit. It's not completely smokeless, but it cuts it down a lot, which is great for city living.

[thedrake]

We really want to redo our small back yard. Put in pavers, raised bed for veggies, planters for decorative plants. The front of the house is looking pretty ragged too. We're contemplating replacing the small patch of lawn.

[Hebrew Barrister]

We really want to redo our small back yard. Put in pavers, raised bed for veggies, planters for decorative plants. The front of the house is looking pretty ragged too. We're contemplating replacing the small patch of lawn.

we'll have to share pics when it's all done. haven't figured out the full game plan for my back yard yet, but it's so bad right now, i'm too embarrassed to even post before pics.

[CK83]

You know it's getting rough out there when the Dappered crowd turns to landscaping discussions! I actually completely re-did our landscaping here with new pavers/retaining wall and put in rock rather than mulch for a cleaner, less pest friendly environment.

Our back yard has a concrete patio as well. We are planning on staining the concrete so it looks less like the concrete slab that it is, then putting in a pergola. Not for the shade, but just for the reasons others have mentioned, the BEST mosquito repellent is a fan. So we're going to have a couple of fans installed underneath the pergola. They can't seem to fly well with the fans. Which is why you don't seem to have much trouble with mosquitos on a brisk windy days. We're in St. Louis now, but formerly being in Houston, I understand the plight of the mosquitos all too well!

[thedrake]

we'll have to share pics when it's all done. haven't figured out the full game plan for my back yard yet, but it's so bad right now, i'm too embarrassed to even post before pics.

Same. It looks like a dumpster fire back there.

[minty007]

You know it's getting rough out there when the Dappered crowd turns to landscaping discussions! I actually completely re-did our landscaping here with new pavers/retaining wall and put in rock rather than mulch for a cleaner, less pest friendly environment.

Our back yard has a concrete patio as well. We are planning on staining the concrete so it looks less like the concrete slab that it is, then putting in a pergola. Not for the shade, but just for the reasons others have mentioned, the BEST mosquito repellent is a fan. So we're going to have a couple of fans installed underneath the pergola. They can't seem to fly well with the fans. Which is why you don't seem to have much trouble with mosquitos on a brisk windy days. We're in St. Louis now, but formerly being in Houston, I understand the plight of the mosquitos all too well!

For those looking for an easy-up outdoor fan option, I saw this plug-in version at our local Lowe's over the weekend. It was on sale for $107. They had it set up in a gazebo display and it moved a pretty fair volume of air.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/allen-roth-...Blade/50058309

[DocDave]

We have a very small front garden that gets a lot of sunlight during the day. We've planted a series of flowers that are supposed to creep along the ground. The plan is for the garden area to fill in naturally over the summer.

We have also hung to hanging baskets outside of our kitchen window.

Both require daily watering but that's about it. The hanging baskets add some nice colour to our place, as will the flowers once they fill in. I'll try to post a picture in a couple of days.

[mark4]

I'm currently working on our front bank - it's steep and covered in grass but is a pain to mow. Last year I put in a few creeping junipers and some creeping flox on the bank, but not enough. The flox, though native to this region, has not done well...it kind of looks like the deer or something was eating it though I don't think deer generally eat flox. The juniper is doing well so I'm going to get a few more plants of that and some lavender to add some vertical texture. Then I'm going to lay down a bunch of leftover cardboard boxes around all the plants to kill the grass and put a layer of topsoil on the cardboard and then a layer of mulch on top of that. I've read that cardboard is great for killing off whatever is underneath it by depriving it of sunlight and then it biodegrades into soil. The issue with the half done project I started last spring is that I still have to mow the bank but it's even harder because I have to maneuver the mower around the plantings rather than just going straight up and down the bank. So I have to get this finished.

Thankfully I have an electric mower and, frankly, I don't know why we haven't been using those for the last half century. They're super light and easy to push compared to gas mowers and you never have to run out to fill up a jug of gasoline because you ran out. Mine is corded which it's a little bit of a pain to manage the cord, but on the plus side I never face a situation where I want to mow but forgot to charge it.