c/backyard-diy

That $90 'premium' compost tumbler I bought last spring? Total junk after two months.

The plastic cracked on the second turn and now I'm back to just using a pile in the corner, has anyone else had better luck with the metal barrel style ones?

Finally got my raised beds leveled after a week of fighting with the ground

I finally hit 1000 boards cut on my table saw this morning

I was just cleaning up the shop after finishing a raised bed for my neighbor and realized I had filled up the little tally counter I taped to the side. Started it back in 2021 when I first got the saw and just kind of forgot about it for a while. Every time I made a cut I'd click it one more notch, never really thinking about the total. That little plastic thing hitting 1000 made me stop and look back at all the garden boxes, benches, and that wobbly birdhouse I built. Anyone else got a weird little milestone they track without meaning to?

Serious question, how do you deal with tree roots in a raised bed?

I built a 4x8 raised bed last spring and my tomato plants were half the size of my neighbor's who just plants in ground. Dug down 6 inches yesterday and found a thick network of maple roots that had pushed through the bottom. Anyone have luck with a root barrier or do I need to relocate the whole bed?

Picked gravel over pavers for my patio path last weekend

I was set on those nice pavers but after measuring out a 30 foot run to the shed, the cost was just too much. Laid down crushed gravel and some edging instead, saved about 200 bucks and it actually looks fine. Anyone else go with the cheaper material and end up liking it better?

My gate post took 6 hours because of ONE rock

I was digging a hole for a new cedar gate post in Portland last Saturday. Hit a frickin basalt rock the size of a basketball at exactly 3 feet down. Had to chip away at it with a digging bar for almost 4 hours before I could pull it out with a strap. Has anyone else dealt with buried rocks ruining a simple post hole project?

That cheap rain barrel kit I put in last spring is actually holding up better than the expensive one from the hardware store

Figured it would leak or crack after one winter but nope. Grabbed it off Facebook Marketplace for $25 from some guy in Denver. The $80 kit from Lowe's already has a slow drip at the spigot. Guess you can't judge by the price tag anymore. Anybody else find that the budget stuff sometimes works longer than you expect?

Dropped $120 on a cheap pressure washer from Home Depot in Tulsa and it died after 3 uses, stick with something that has replaceable parts you can actually fix.

Anyone else had a budget washer crap out on them or am I just unlucky?

Learned a cheap trick for keeping patio pavers level

I spent like 3 hours last summer trying to get my patio pavers to stop wobbling after every rain. Bought polymeric sand and all that stuff, still had issues. Then my dad told me to just spread a thin layer of regular play sand under each paver before setting it. Idk why it works but after a year they're still rock solid. Has anyone else tried this or got a better method?

Used to just toss chicken wire over my garden beds every spring

I did that for years thinking it kept the rabbits out. Last April after a weekend rain I went out and a fat groundhog had just pushed right under it and ate half my kale starts. Switched to a framed hardware cloth box with a hinged lid anchored to the ground with landscape staples. Now nothing gets in. Anybody else find out the hard way that wire on the ground isn't enough?

Been watching neighbors in my cul-de-sac build raised beds and they keep skipping this one step

Every single one of them just piles dirt straight on top of grass without putting down cardboard or landscape fabric underneath. After 3 years of watching my own beds turn into a weed nightmare, I finally asked and they all said they didn't think it mattered - has anyone else seen this catch up with people down the road?

Built a raised bed with treated lumber and my tomatoes are yellowing

I put together a 4x8 foot raised bed last month using pressure treated pine from Home Depot and now my tomato plants are looking sick. A guy at the local nursery said the copper in the treatment can mess with sensitive plants if the soil touches it directly. I lined the inside with heavy plastic but maybe that wasn't enough. Anyone else had issues with treated lumber and veggies?

Tried pouring boiling water on my patio pavers to kill weeds, worked way better than vinegar

I was sick of pulling weeds between the cracks every two weeks, so I boiled a big pot of water and dumped it on a patch last Saturday. The weeds were brown and shriveled by the next morning, and they haven't come back in that spot yet. Anybody else use heat instead of chemicals for this?

That moment I realized my compost bin was just a trash can

I finally figured out why my compost pile was always a slimy, smelly mess. For two years I was dumping in grass clippings and kitchen scraps without a single brown layer. My neighbor came over last Saturday and pointed out how wet and greasy it all looked. Turns out you need a 50/50 mix of greens and browns or it just rots instead of breaking down. Has anyone else made this mistake with their first pile or am I the only one?

Overheard a neighbor say he spends $600 a year on mulch and I almost choked on my coffee

I was out back last weekend re-staining my fence when my new neighbor Bob walks over. He was complaining about how much mulch he buys every spring for his flower beds. He said he drops about $600 a year on the bagged stuff from Home Depot. That got me thinking about how my dad used to just shred his own leaves and use that as mulch for free back in the 90s. Sure it broke down faster but it worked fine and saved a ton of money. Has anyone else switched to leaf mulch or wood chips from a tree service to cut costs?

I finally admit that $200 raised garden bed kit was a rip off

Last spring I dropped $200 on one of those modular raised bed kits from a big box store. Figured it would be easier than building my own. After 8 months the boards are already warping and the corners are pulling apart. Meanwhile my neighbor built his own with untreated pine for like $40. He sealed it himself and it's holding up way better than mine. Anyone else have luck with a specific wood sealer or should I just start over next spring?

Rant: That cheap fence stain I bought at Home Depot peeled off in 2 weeks

I spent last Saturday staining my whole backyard fence in Phoenix, 90 degrees out, sweating like crazy. By the next weekend, big chunks of it were flaking off in the sun and I almost threw the can in the trash. Has anyone else had luck with a specific stain brand that actually holds up here?

Tried building a pond from old pallets. Big mistake.

Got this idea from a Pinterest board. Thought I'd make a cheap backyard pond using free pallets. $40 later with liner and nails, I filled it up. Water poured out faster than my hose could keep up. Learned pallet wood warps and splits when wet. Should have just bought a preformed tub. Anyone else try a cheap pond build that failed?

Learned that untreated cedar only lasts 5 years as raised bed sides

I was building new raised beds last month and figured cedar would last forever like everyone says. Did some digging on a forestry extension site from Oregon State and found out untreated Western Red Cedar in ground contact only lasts 5-7 years max. The rot happens mostly at the soil line where moisture sits. That kinda surprised me because I thought I was buying a 15-year solution. Has anyone here tried using black locust or white oak for longer life on their beds?

Went to that big hardware store near Denver last weekend and saw someone return a half-used bag of concrete mix

The guy behind the counter didn't even blink, just took it back and gave him store credit. Has anyone else seen how lazy the return policies are getting?

That sagging gate project that took me 3 weekends instead of 1 day

Hit 100 square feet of paver patio and realized my slope was off

I was so focused on getting the pattern right I ignored the grade. Water pooled right against the house after a storm. 100 square feet is a lot to tear up and redo. Check your slope every 10 feet. Anyone else mess this up on their first big project?

That moment I flooded my whole backyard trying to install a drip system

I was in Fresno last summer setting up drip irrigation for my veggie beds and somehow cross-threaded the main valve adapter. Water shot out like a fire hose for 10 solid minutes before I found the shutoff (which was buried under three bags of mulch). Has anyone found a foolproof way to test connections without turning the water on full blast?

Chose a $40 hand auger over a gas powered one for post holes and boy was that a mistake

After 3 hours of sweating and only getting 2 holes dug 18 inches deep in clay soil I finally gave up and rented a power auger from Home Depot for $65 finishing the other 6 holes in under an hour has anyone else had better luck with hand tools for hard ground?

I finally looked up how much water my rain barrel really holds

I've had this 55 gallon rain barrel under my downspout for about 2 years now. Never really thought about it much until last week when I was trying to figure out why my tomatoes were still drying out during a dry spell. So I grabbed a 5 gallon bucket and started counting how many trips it would take to fill it up from the barrel. Turned out the barrel only had about 30 gallons in it even after a good storm. I did some digging online and found out that a 1 inch rain on a 1,000 square foot roof gives you around 600 gallons of runoff. That blew my mind. My little backyard setup is barely catching a fraction of what's possible. Anyone else ever do the math on their rain collection and realize they're way undersized?