Landscaping For Dummies. Lance Walheim

your own calculations

      If you’re fortunate, a staffer will be able to help you with a materials cost estimate using that information. If not, you have more math to do:

      Hardscape materials are expensive, bulky, and heavy — there’s no point in overcalculating and overspending (certainly not past the +10 percent cushion). On the other hand, underbuying is, at least, an annoyance because you’ll have to go back and get more.

      For example, you want to include flagstone for a new patio. To calculate, take the surface area, divided by 100 equals tons needed so 20 feet (6.1 m) × 10 feet (3 m) = 200 ÷100 (6.1 ÷ 3) = 2 tons.

      Use an online calculator

      But you don’t have to estimate the materials you need manually or with a calculator. The Internet can help. You can find an online resource that makes it easy at www.omnicalculator.com/construction#s-104.

      Consider this example of a more complex scenario, paver bricks:

      1 Plug in the surface-area dimensions of the project area.Say, 10 × 20 feet; 3 × 6.1 m

      2 Insert the size of the pavers.Say, 4 × 8 inches; 10.1 cm × 20.3 cm

      3 The calculator tells you how many you need.In this case, you need 900.You can insert the price per brick to get the total cost in U.S. dollars.

       The more you do yourself, the less you’ll have to prevail upon or pay someone else to do for you. Refer to Part 2 for more information and tips about specific hardscape projects.

      Step 4: Make an itemized checklist

      Create an itemized checklist of the costs of each section of the project.

      Use Figure 3-1 for each section of your landscape and then tally up a grand total.

       Don’t neglect to find out delivery charges. You may also get an estimate on installation. Although you may decide starting out that you want to do it all yourself, it’s good to know what the installed price is, in case you run out of steam.

      Step 5: Consider tools you may need to buy

      Every job has its tools, and landscaping is no different. Here are some of the general tools you’ll probably need to buy (or borrow):

       For planting perennials, annuals, and bulbs: Square-nosed shovel, long handle pointed shovel, garden spade, stiff-tined rake, hand trowel, hand pruner, and a hose and spray attachment. Optional equipment includes garden gloves, knee pads, plant labels, soaker hose or other irrigation system, bucket, and a bulb planter.

       For planting trees, shrubs, and vines: Square-nosed shovel or garden spade, hoe, stiff-tined rake, and a garden cart or wheelbarrow.

       For hardscape: Posthole digger, pick, digging bar, hammer, handsaw, square, nail set, chisel, plane, circular saw, power drill, power sander, power screwdriver, caulking gun, sawhorse, and stepladder. Also get a level (traditional carpenter’s level or one of those spiffy, efficient, but more expensive laser levels).

       For planting lawn seed or sod: Sharp knife, roller, broadcast spreader, and soil preparation equipment, including a rotary tiller and heavy rake.

       For maintenance: Lawn mower/riding mower, weed whacker, hedge clippers, hand pruner, loppers, pruning saw, hoe, lawn rake, and stiff-tined rake.

       The advantage to having separate price tags attached to the various sections of your plan is that you then have an idea of how big a bite each new step will take out of your budget. Keep in mind, though, that the estimates you start with may change — go up, that is — by the time you actually begin the next phase.

      Step 6: Take a breath

After creating your spreadsheet, sit with it — that is, don’t rush into action. The spreadsheet represents your best-case scenario: all the things you hope and plan to with to your landscape. Take time to think about it. Talk it over with others (those you live with as well as contractors, other DIY landscapers, and the staff of places where you shop or plan to shop). Inevitably you’ll make adjustments.

      PENNY-PINCHING IDEAS

      You can shave hundreds of dollars off your landscaping price tag with a few cost-cutting tricks:

       Buy from the source. Eliminate the middleman and you’re likely to get a bargain. Look for brickyards, paving makers, stone and slate quarries, gravel yards, and other nearby sources of raw materials. Ask around or find them online. Do some comparison shopping. Make sure you know how much you need — before you ask for a price.

       Find a friend with a pickup truck. Don’t strain the springs of your own or a friend’s truck with stone or other ultra-heavy materials, but do haul your own lumber and anything else that you can safely carry to save on delivery charges. You can also do a short-term truck rental from some stores.

       Combine brick with concrete. Instead of installing costly all-brick walks, combine brick with concrete. Use the brick as decorative strips in the walk.

       Eliminate mortar between pavers or bricks. Set the materials into a frame made of rot-resistant lumber or strips of concrete. Set bricks or pavers into a sand base between the edges of the frame and brush sand into the cracks. The frame prevents the paving from shifting.

       Salvage cool stuff. Visit architectural salvage dealers for real deals on fencing, arbors, ironwork, and attractive decorative touches. It’s a matter of chance what you can find, but we defy you to come away empty-handed. Estate sales and Facebook Marketplace are also good places to trawl.

       Make a faux stone wall out of free concrete. Pieces of broken concrete sidewalk can look a lot like fieldstone when you stack them for a dry wall. Next time you see a sidewalk being ripped up, stop and ask if you can have the broken pieces. Most contractors will gladly dump the stuff in your yard so that they don’t have to haul it to the landfill, where they pay a fee for dumping.

       Seek out free or cheap wood chips and mulch materials. Places to ask include tree services and utility companies or road crews clearing roadside right-of-ways. You can often get a truckload for zero cash. Use the chips for path surfaces and for long-lasting mulch. Also, many municipalities have free mulch pickup areas, but be take a careful look first: these may contain bits of unwanted plants, such as invasive weeds.

The most important thing, though, is to prioritize. Pick a project and plan to get started.

Getting Ready

      Preparing for this work requires … preparation. All advance groundwork smooths the way ahead. Then, you can proceed with as much confidence and efficiency as possible.

      Here we break this down into a logical process. First, we help you examine ways to make even the most ambitious plans manageable. Then we go over things you need to consider and take care of before breaking ground (basically, well-placed phone calls or conversations). Last but not least, we enumerate tasks you can and should attend to before launching into landscaping.

      Cutting your project into bite-sized pieces

      Renovating your entire yard in one fell swoop can overwhelm